What was Romeo’s dream about Rosaline? In the play Romeo and Juliet, by William Shakespeare, we learn that Romeo had a dream about Rosaline in the first scene of Act I. In this scene, Benvolio asks Romeo what he is laughing at; Romeo replies that he must have been talking in his sleep because he was thinking of Rosaline and her beautiful face.
The play is a tragic one; however, the tragic events do not occur in the first scene. The first scene of the play introduces Romeo and his friend Balthasar. This scene establishes that Romeo is a romantic who falls in love with a girl at first sight. He sees Rosaline while he is in Capulet’s garden on his way to find Mercutio. He immediately starts dreaming about her beauty, spends all day thinking about her, and describes her as a beautiful lady dressed in light blue clothes with shining eyes and dark hair. Although he never talks to Rosaline, he feels that she loves him too because of their love conversations through their eyes and hand gestures.
In William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, why does Romeo dream about Rosaline? Read on for a summary of the relevant points, and you’ll learn about the hero’s thoughts about the object of his affection.
Romeo falls in love with Rosaline at first sight, but she does not return his affection. He can only hope that she will eventually feel something for him. He dreams of her and his love, which illustrates that he is indeed lovesick.
What Was Romeo’s Dream About Rosaline
Romeo’s dream is an important transition point in the play. It sets up the entire conflict between him and Tybalt and also presents an internal conflict that he must contend with throughout the story.
Romeo’s dream about Rosaline was a cruel and realistic vision of how things were going to be for him. However, as in so many dreams, it was more than what would happen at some point in the future. It was also a good moment for him to connect with his love for Rosaline at that point in time. Although Romeo had probably been thinking about her during the day and evening visits, this dream allowed him to enjoy those thoughts even more and think about how happy he was then.
Rosaline was Romeo’s first love, and a woman he fell for years before he met Juliet. The prologue is the first introduction we get to Rosaline, and in it, Romeo calls her his “star of love” and informs us that their love is “new.” He talks about how he thought she would be his wife some day, but the situation ended up being hard for Rosaline.
What Was Romeo’s Dream About Rosaline And Juliet
In one of the early scenes of the play (currently in production at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, with Emily Ota as Juliet and William Thomas Hodgson as Romeo), a moment of witty banter suddenly turns into a long, weirdly unsettling monologue about the nature of dreaming. It is, I believe, the most extensive treatment of dreams in all of Shakespeare’s works, and it encapsulates in a single surreal passage the inspiring-yet-terrifying energies of human dream experience.
At the start of Act I, scene iv, Romeo meets with his friends Mercutio and Benvolio on a street outside the family house of the Capulets, sworn enemies of Romeo’s family, the Montagues. The Capulets are hosting a feast and masquerade ball, and Mercutio, Benvolio, and Romeo have decided to wear masks and sneak into the party. Just before entering the house, however, Romeo abruptly stops and questions the wisdom of their plan. Even though the woman he desperately loves, Rosaline, will be attending the festivities, he worries that something bad will happen if they go forth. Mercutio demands that Romeo explain his sudden misgivings, and the following exchange ensues:
Romeo: I dreamt a dream tonight.
Mercutio: And so did I.
Romeo: Well, what was yours?
Mercutio: That dreamers often lie.
Romeo: In bed asleep, while they do dream things true.
(1.4.51-56)
Romeo believes his dream is warning him of danger in the future. Mercutio is more interested in the party, however, and he tries to deflect Romeo’s gloomy prognostication with a sharp-edged jest: he lures Romeo into asking him if he really had a dream and then calls into question the veracity of anyone who claims to have a dream to tell. But Romeo has a strong feeling about the potential significance of his dream, and he tries to persuade Mercutio to take it seriously.
Romeo gets more than he bargained for. Mercutio launches into an elaborate and fanciful speech that covers more than forty lines of text, starting with this:
Mercutio: O, then I see Queen Mab hath been with you. She is the fairies’ midwife, and she comes in shape no bigger than an agate stone…