die, / With tender Juliet matched, is now not fair.” ( Prolougue Act II, 1-4 ). Thus, Rosaline is swiftly replaced. Mightn’t Juliet be replaced that quickly?In an elaborate monologue Romeo worshipfully compares his lady to brilliant, heavenly bodies and beings, such as “bright angel” (II. ii. 28) with eyes as “the fairest stars in all the heaven” (II. ii. 15). Romeo’s departure from the darkness in which he has been hiding and his venture to the light of Juliet, his “fair sun” (II. ii. 4), symbolizes the dawning of a new age in his life, after the dark night of Rosaline’s rejection. Romeo appears guilty of desperation; his ecstasy in finding a beautiful girl sharing his attractions blinds common sense.Juliet’s impulsive behavior proves similar to Romeo’s. They see each other, exchange a few romantic words, and she allows him to kiss her. Then alone on the balcony she pines for him, swearing to renounce her own family and “no longer be a Capulet ” (II. ii. 38), pledging herself to a boy she has just hardly met. She ignores the impulse to fear this sudden and intense attraction, “ . . . too rash, to unadvised, too sudden, / Too like the lightning which doth cease to be / ere one can say ‘It lightens.’ ” (II. ii. 129-130). Juliet does not realize the wisdom in and significance of her own words, the foreshadowing of her own fate.These theoretical mortal enemies, oblivious of the danger and obstacles that impede their future, transform in a single night to mortal lovers who cannot live without each other. They exchange vows on the moonlit balcony, beneath the heavens, vibrant and volatile, symbolizing the explosive nature of the situation.The situation does swiftly explode in Act III, Scene I, the point at which the play rapidly spirals downward. Mercutio, Romeo’s comical (and often obnoxious) friend, and Tybalt, Juli...
