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在线翻译:
szdaily -> Budding Writers -> 
Love in truth: Romeo and Juliet (II)
    2016-07-13  08:53    Shenzhen Daily

    Zheng Tiancheng 郑天呈 Xiamen No.1 High School, Xiamen, Fujian, China Oaks Christian School, Westlake Village, California, US

    When Juliet expresses her frustration at being in love with a Montague, Romeo makes his confession, “Call me but love, and I’ll be new baptized. / Henceforth I never will be Romeo.” (2.2. 54-5)

    Biblically speaking, being “baptized” indicates one’s old self being buried, and his new self being resurrected to a new master, Christ. Romeo is willing to be baptized by Juliet’s love, which implies that he will sacrifice his original name together with what that name may richly endow him with: his family property or right to family heritage.

    This shows that earthly title and family legacy mean nothing to Romeo compared to his love for Juliet, revealing the truth in his love. Not only is he willing to give up external status and wealth, Romeo is even willing to sacrifice his life in exchange for Juliet’s love. When in this romantic night Juliet warns Romeo that he will be killed if her family finds him. Romeo, however, replies, “Alack, there lies more peril in thine eye / Than twenty of their swords” (2.2.76-7) and “My life were better ended by their hate / Than death prorogued, wanting of thy love.” (2.2.82-3) If the Capulets find Romeo, he is physically dead, but if Juliet does not return Romeo’s love, he is inwardly dead. Comparing these two, Romeo chooses Juliet’s love over his own life, showing his true devotion in his love for Juliet, which the audience hasn’t seen in Romeo’s love for Rosaline.

    However, amidst all this truthful love expressions, there are also elements that are “in word” and “in tongue” such as the oath of love that he swears which Juliet frankly says she dislikes: “Well, do not swear. Although I joy in thee, / I have no joy of this contract tonight. / It is too rash, too unadvised, too sudden, / Too like the lightning, which doth cease to be / Ere one can say ‘It lightens.’ Sweet, good night. / This bud of love, by summer’s ripening breath, / May prove a beauteous flower when next we meet.” (2.2.123-9) Romeo eagerly tries to prove his love to Juliet by swearing, but true love is not to be shown in too swaggering words.

    The repetition of the word “too” shows that Juliet understands that this love is way too rash and far from mature, so she asks Romeo to preserve “this bud of love” and rejects him like Rosaline has done. However, unlike his obsession with Rosaline, Romeo takes to the true deed of love by convincing Juliet to get married right away, which shows that this love is truer than his previous one.

    But still, the whole matter is too hasty to allow their love to grow in the soil of truth — to evaluate their true feelings toward each other and to form a more truthful understanding of their surroundings so that they would know how to enable their love to survive.

    It takes time for the truth of the lovers to be revealed to each other and for true love to be tested, develop and ripen. As it only takes one night and one day for Romeo and Juliet to complete the whole journey from falling in love to getting married, though blessed by the kind friar, it is possible that their most intense and soaring love would eventually and unfortunately fulfill Friar Laurence’s oracle: “These violent delights have violent ends.” (2.6.9)

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