Love is eternal. Too often, it's depicted as a fleeting emotion, an ephemeral feeling of affection. Love isn't continually blissful, and it definitely isn't easy. But is love to be associated with melancholy? Could Shakespeare's Romeo depict melancholy to be his tragic flaw, as stated by Aristotle?
             In Romeo and Juliet, Romeo is a young man, barely sixteen, who learns to fight for what should rightfully be his. There are many scenes in which he is wistful, yearning, or even blatantly weeping. Through melancholy, he personifies a serious, yet passionate nature, as well as perhaps a slight thirst for love-the Elizabethan era was not always kind to it's young men. Melancholy is not Romeo's downfall, however, despite the fact that he illustrates several examples of it, and quite well at that.
             When he believed himself in love with Rosaline, Romeo was downcast and depressed. His love caused him more agony than joy, and he was somewhat confused by that: "Is love a tender thing? It is too rough, Too rude, too boisterous, and it pricks like a thorn." (Act 1, Sc.4,/25). His glumness was so evident that even insensitive Mercutio noticed, and tried to tease him out of it: "You are a lover, borrow Cupid's wings And soar with them above a common bound." (Act 1, Sc.4,/17).
             When Romeo learns of his banishment from Verona, he becomes irrational, unreasonable and even hysterical. He'd rather take his own life than live without Juliet and does not see how lucky he is that the Prince's sentence was not death. "There is no world without Verona walls, But purgatory, torture, hell itself." (Act 3, Sc.3,/17) "'Tis torture and not mercy; heaven is here, Where Juliet lives..."(Act 3, Sc.3,/29).
             The third and final example of Romeo's melancholy is that seen in death. His despair at finding Juliet 'dead' is overpowering. It brings abo...