Romeo and Juliet's love for one another is more than infatuation; yet, although they do love one another, theirs is a love that is essentially erotic, rather than being a higher, more spiritual love.
- In what he terms as an enquiry into the nature of love, The Art of Loving, renowned psychoanalyst Erich Fromm defines erotic love as
...the craving for complete fusion, for union with one other person....Erotic love is exclusive, but it loves in the other person all of mankind, all that is alive.
After speaking to Juliet, under her balcony, Romeo emotionally exclaims,
How silver-sweet sound lovers' tongues by night,
Like softest music to attending ears! (2.2.168-169)
Further, Romeo includes "all that is alive" as he tells Juliet that he wishes that he "...were thy bird" (2.2.185) because she could have him in her chambers all night and day. Earlier, Romeo remains in the orchard as the Nurse calls Juliet in, exclaiming, "Oh, blessed, blessed night!" (2.2.139), expressing his joy in the natural world, as well.
That Romeo loves as Fromm describes, "in the other person all of mankind," is exemplified in Romeo's actions and words to Tybalt in Act III when he demonstrates his new love as he tries to avert a dangerous sword fight between Mercutio and the fiery Capulet, Tybalt.
Tybalt, the reason that I have to love thee
Doth much excuse the appertaining rage...I do protest I never injured thee,
But love thee better than thou canst devise,
Till thou shalt know the reason of my love. (3.1.33-41)
Unfortunately, Mercutio angrily interprets Romeo's words as "vile submission," and Tybalt, too, becomes enraged, striking out at Mercutio.
- Fromm writes further that erotic love has but one premise:
That I love from the essence of my being--and experience the other person in the essence of his or her being.
In the final act of Shakespeare's tragedy, it is evident in the scene of the two lovers' deaths in Act V that Romeo and Juliet's erotic love demonstrates this love from the essence of their beings. For, they both wish to remain eternally with the other, "And never leave from this place of dim night...." (5.3.116).
Their desperate acts--Juliet's drinking of the potion to feign death and avoid marrying Paris, as well as her suicide, and Romeo's purchase of poison and his act of suicide--are evidence of their all-consuming erotic love for each other that leaves no other experience of value but that of the other person.
Tragically, however, this erotic love of Romeo and Juliet is meteoric as in its passion it ignites their entire beings and tragically burns out. That is, as Friar Lawrence expresses earlier in the play, "These violent delights have violent ends" (2.6.9-10).
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