Shakespeare explains the idea of men in love with a fatal tragedy or sometimes a comic resolved endings. In Romeo and Juliet love is seen as a tragic sin that causes people to turn back on their family's belief and faith but also turn back on their religion that has so much importance to them both as Capulets and Montagues. Romeo was characterized to be seen as Petrarchan lover at the beginning of the play whilst later on as an archetypal courtly lover which results in a fatal tragic death. Whilst on the other hand, in Much Ado about Nothing love is portrayed in two different ways as of the fact of how each gender was seen and the status of males and females. Benedick at the beginning of the story was portrayed as an egocentric bombastic military man who can never be in love as he objectifies women and is very misogynistic which is the starting ground for all the conflict between Benedick and Beatrice. However as they are both very witty, sharp and perceptive they start their relationship with a hate-love relation and as it evolves Shakespeare ends the play by resolving it. Also, Shakespeare displays that both the men in love, Romeo and Benedick, are very dangerous and reveal that love is potentially divisive.
False love is the first evident important theme across Romeo and Juliet. Romeo, before he meets Juliet, thinks that he loves Rosaline, believing that she is the girl of his dreams, praising her beauty, and complaining about her not returning his love. Romeo forgets his love to Rosaline at the first moment he sees Juliet. Romeo is initially presented as a Petrarchan lover, a man whose feelings of love aren't reciprocated by the lady he admits he is in love with, Rosaline, and who uses the poetic language of sonnets to express his emotions about his situation. Romeo's exaggerated language in his early speeches characterizes him as a young and inexperienced lover who is more in love with the concept of being in love than with the woman herself which he pities himself for as he feels unlovable and rejected.