Is Romeo Static or Dynamic?

In Romeo and Juliet, Romeo is a static character, because he does not change throughout the story. His static characteristics are shown in many different ways. First, his habit of judging people by their looks appears twice in the novel: first, when he describes Rosalines's beauty in the beginning of the story, and when he completely forgets her when he sees Juliet at a party. In lines 51 to 60 from Act 1 Scene 5, he totally forgets his long days of pain thinking about Rosaline, and describes Juliet's superior beauty in great detail. Romeo's dramatic personality also shows up several times in the play. In the beginning of the story, when he is in love with Rosaline, he describes his love for her in long, excessively passionate phrases which show that he is too dramatic. For example, after he got banished for murdering Tybalt, he exclaimed to Friar Lawrence in line 45 of Act 3 Scene 3 that "sayest thou yet that exile is not death?" because he considers the trauma of being seperated from Juliet is like dying. His dramatic attitude shows during his periods of loving Rosaline and Juliet. For both of them, he implied that he will kill himself if they didn't love him or if they leave him. Romeo's devotion to the people he loves is a constant characteristic as well. The two main groups of people he is devoted to in the play are his friends and his lover, Juliet. First, he kills Tybalt after his good friend Mercrutio was slain by him, and he later kills himself, thinking that Juliet was dead. Since Romeo keeps this trait throughout the whole story without changing, he is a static character.

Based on what you have read thus far, what is Shakespeare is addressing in terms of Romeo and Juliet being individuals and their relationship with the community they live in?

Romeo and Juliet each have their own individual problems, triggered by different events in their lives and their communities. Romeo’s problem is that he falls in love too easily based on looks, and as Friar Lawrence mentioned in Act 2 Scene 3, “Young men’s love, then, lies not truly in their heart, but in their eyes.” Juliet has problems as well. Although cautious about Romeo’s nature, she still is too rash about loving Romeo, as she too judges him by looks. Before when her mother asked her about her thoughts on marriage, Juliet replied that it was “an honor [she] dreams not of.” The biggest problem lies not in Romeo or Juliet’s individual personalities, however. Their families are bitter enemies, willing to kill each other to gain glory. Throughout the story, the “fiery” Tybalt from the Capulet household finds any chance to provoke the Montagues, especially at Romeo and his friends. With bitter oppression behind each of their families, neither Romeo nor Juliet can have an easy time with the other. Even Escalus, the prince of Verona, can barely hold order in the city with two such volatile families arguing back and forth. The community portrayed in the book is mostly limited to only these two noble families, and the “citizens” are a riotous crowd barely mentioned, breaking out into fights whenever the Montagues and Capulets do. Romeo and Juliet’s relationships with their “communities” are mostly fine within their own families, and terrible with the others.