Love

What is love?

There are two different classifications when it comes to what love really is; Infatuation and Romantic Love.

Infatuation is an intense absorption, very passionate, not quite love. Romantic Love is idealized, something that cannot be real, a deeper attachment that is more long-term than infatuation.

Were Romeo and Juliet really in Love?

Some believe that this play is the most romantic love story of all time, that these two star-crossed lovers were romantically in love and gave their lives for their love. But could these two young teens really have known what love is because of their age? Does age have anything to do with the feelings they possessed? Some believe that because of how old they were they could never possibly know what love is, they were perhaps in love as far as they knew. But too truly be in love takes experience to have the time to create the capacity for Romantic Love. So in my opinion these two young teens, Romeo and Juliet, were infatuated with one another. They possessed an intense absorption with each other and very passionate.

According to Sterbergs Triangular Model of Love:

I would interpret Romeo and Juliet as being in Fatuous Love, also known as Foolish love. Fatuous Love is having passion and commitment but no intimacy, these two were not together long enough to experience intimacy, not long enough to develop Consumate Love which is a combination of passion, intimacy and commitment.