GENDER AND SEXUALITY IN SHAKESPEARES ROMEO AND JULIET

Griefs of mine own lie heavy in my breast

Which thou wilt propagate to have it prese 'd

With more of time

This love that thou hast shown Doth add more

grief to too much of mine own

Love is a smoke made with the fume of sighs

Being purg 'd a fire sparkling in lovers ' eyes

Being vex 'd a sea nourish 'd with loving tears

What is it else ? a madness most discreet

A choking gall and a preserving sweet (1 .1 .189-97

Romeo 's character is someone

who desires for desire . He believes that what would make him complete is a woman . His insistent on fixing on the identity of the person he lacks , in this case , Rosalind . He becomes also affixed with himself as someone who is incomplete . As soon as he meets Juliet , Romeo 's desire finds and fixes on another object in an entirely different effect . Although Romeo has held himself aloof from the kind of masculine aggression that most of the characters in Act I have been enticed into , he is one who is encountering a strategy of masculine performance . For him , the strategy to become complete , is in relation to the female not as the object of thrusting but as the one that he lacks and in who he finds a fixed reflection of what he lacks (Appelbaum 265

Another characteristic of the tragic hero is that he experiences thoughts and feelings which are hidden from the other characters and even to themselves (Bamber 7-8 . The revelation of these feelings is done so through the presence of soliloquies . Romeo 's soliloquy before attending the ball held by the Capulets is a perfect example of this

Romeo . I fear too early , for my mind misgives

Some consequence yet hanging in the stars

Shall...