Till Death Do Us Part... in a few days Before the 19th century, love and marriage were often considered separate concepts. Marriage was strictly a business management, while love was a pursuit outside of marriage. In the Renaissance, “ideal” love was a purifying and noble experience. There were two results necessary for love to be considered ideal: there could only be a union of hearts, minds, and soul, not of bodies; and the unrequited desire was to lead to the ennoblement of the lover. William Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet can be read as a satire of courtly love as opposed to a tragic love story that celebrates it. This is because Shakespeare mocks "ideal" beauty conventions, suggests that courtly love is not actually love, and uses irony to exaggerate its effects. In Act 1 Scene 5, sixteen-year-old Romeo Montague is at the Capulet house when he lies for the first time. eyes on thirteen-year-old Juliet Capulet. He asks: “Has my heart loved until now? Renounce this, sight, for I have never seen true beauty until this sight” (1.5.50-51). Romeo has completely forgotten about his former crush Rosaline and has fallen in love with Juliet. This scene can be seen as Petrarchan because, as in Petcharc's sonnets to his beloved Laura, Romeo idealizes Juliet through metaphors and similes. Romeo describes Juliet as "a snowy dove that gathers with the crows / As the young lady shows among her companions" (1.5.45-6), meaning she surpasses the other women like a white dove amidst a flock of crows. In Sonnet 130, another of Shakespeare's works, he ridicules these Petrarchan clichés that idealize women beyond compare. In his sonnet he declares, “I think my love is rare/As any other belied with false comparisons” (13-14). He's basically saying that... middle of paper... conclusion, Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet has proven to be a satire of the conventions of courtly love as opposed to a romantic tragedy celebrating courtly love. It is not surprising that Shakespeare's mockery of courtly love in sonnet 130 was also present in this work. Romeo's Petrarchan words that idealize Juliet ultimately make Juliet realize how irrational Romeo is. Following the book (following the conventions of courtly love), Romeo points out that courtly love is simply love for the idea of ​​being in love rather than actual love. Courtly love in this play is never seen as a cleansing and noble experience because, ironically, this adolescent adventure resulted in more deaths than the number of days Romeo and Juliet spent together. Bibliography Shakespeare, William. Romeo and Juliet. 57-119.Shakespeare, William. Sonnet 130. 11.