10) Romeo is in love at the beginning of the play and at the end. How, though, does our perception of Romeo in love change between the beginning and the end?

	'Romeo and Juliet' is a play containing many facets of love. Correspondingly, the main character, Romeo, is shown displaying at least two different types of love--A childish infatuation for Rosaline in the beginning of the play, and a deep, true, love, for Juliet, which develops as the play moves along.

	In the beginning of the play, Romeo is shown pining away. He 'private in his chamber pens himself', and 'locks fair daylight out', distressing his parents, who do not know the cause of his ill humour. It is not until Benvolio seeks him out does he reveal the cause of his behaviour--Romeo is in love. 
	 
	Love, in the beginning, appears to be a sort of burden to Romeo, as he says, 'this love feel I, that feel no love in this'.  He displays all the typical traits of a Petrarchan lover, with his melancholy behaviour and exaggerated speech which utilizes many oxymorons, like 'heavy lightness', 'serious vanity', and 'bright smoke'. 

	We find out that the object of his affections is a girl, Rosaline, who has sworn herself to chastity--again reinforcing the image of Romeo as a Petrarchan lover, pining after an unattainable lady. He continues to speak with many cliches and exaggerations when describing her to Benvolio. "She is too fair, too wise; wisely too fair, to merit bliss by making me despair." It displays a self-centeredness even in his desire for Rosaline--she does not even know who he is, and they have not met, as she does not even appear in person in the play, yet he speaks as though her vow to chastity was but to deal a blow to him--"She hath forsworn to love, and in that vow, do I live dead that live to tell it now". 

	Romeo's love for Rosaline is obviously nothing more than an infatuation. He is posing, and artificial in manner and speech, sighing, moaning and generally feeling sorry for himself, in direct contrast of what we would expect love to bring a person, and also in direct contrast to the way he acts after he meets and falls in love with Juliet. Romeo at the beginning of the play is not in love with Rosaline, he is in love with love.

	Romeo's behaviour changes drastically after he meets Juliet. He forgets Rosaline quickly, upon seeing her. The first exchange that they make is in the form of a Shakespearean sonnet, romantic and sincere. He speaks differently, in a much less self-centered manner, asking Juliet if he may 'profane with his unworthiest hand this holy shrine'. He does not use those cliched and exaggerated phrases that he was using when talking about Rosaline. Rather than going into flowery description, the sonnet is mostly straightforward, and rather than being gloomy, it is flirtatious.

	Juliet is a Capulet, and one of the 'enemy', so to speak. Thus, she should be as equally unattainable as Rosaline, who is, herself, sworn to chastity. However, instead of giving up and sighing over his bad fortune, as he does with Rosaline, he persists, even risking death by climbing up the orchard walls to reach Juliet.  He also shows a willingness to give up a great deal for Juliet, even to the extent of foreswearing his own name. "Call me but ‘love’, and I’ll be new baptized. Henceforth I shall never be Romeo." Even though he has only known Juliet for a very short while, what he feels is definitely much deeper than what he felt for Rosaline.

	Romeo is truly a happier man when he is in love with Juliet, and even Mercutio tells him, "Why, is not this better now than groaning for love? Now art thou sociable, now art thou Romeo." This is very different from how he behaves at the beginning of the play, where he feels that love brings him agony.

	The extent of Romeo's love and its maturity compared to his love for Rosaline can also be seen when, after they have been married, Romeo refuses to reply to Tybalt's insult to him, because Tybalt is Juliet's cousin and therefore his name is "tendered as deeply as [Romeo's] own". This is showing a respect to Juliet's family because he is in love with Juliet, and it is possible he does not wish to upset Juliet by getting into a fight with Tybalt. Contrast this with Act 1, where Romeo is perfectly happy to gatecrash a Capulet party in order to catch a glimpse of Rosaline, with only a little encouragement from Benvolio, even though he knows perfectly well that their families are enemies. 

	While Romeo's 'love' for Rosaline dissipates quickly after he meets Juliet, his love for Juliet persists much, much longer. He does not give up once he finds out her family name, but continues to love her deeply. In fact, even in death his love for her persists--he shows a willingness to follow her past the grave, buying poison and travelling to her grave once he hears of her death. His love for Juliet is prompts him to take action--he actively seeks her out rather than sighing at her over a distance, climbing over the orchard wall in order to meet with her again. While that, and some of the other things that he does, like the marriage arrangements, might be deemed impulsive, it is infinitely preferable to the sort of angsty stasis that his love for Rosaline makes him partake in. 

	Romeo in 'love' in the beginning of the play comes of as a shallow young man playing at a role and a game, the role of the Petrarchan lover in a game of courtly love. However, at the end of the play, we see that Romeo /truly/ in love is a passionate and dedicated man who is unafraid of hardship and even death to be with the one he truly loves, and has certainly grown up to be a much more mature person throughout the course of the five acts.