Lack Of Communication In Romeo And Juliet Essay

In the play Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare develops the idea that families’ ignorance from a lack of communication can be the cause of confusion as shown through the characters Romeo and Juliet.

Shakespeare demonstrates the idea that a loss of communication within a family can cause confusion through Romeo’s relationship with Lord Capulet. While the Montagues and Benvolio are looking for Romeo’s whereabouts Lord Capulet mentions, “Both by myself and many other friends. / But he, his own affections’ counselor, / Is to himself—I will not say how true,” (Shakespeare 1.1.149-151). Romeo creates the gap in his family because he is the one who chooses not to talk to his father. Lord Montague explains that “myself and other friends” have

tried to help him but he just distances himself and is “his own affections’ counselor”. He doesn’t go to his father for advice or help, but instead likes to solve his problems on his own.

This leaves Lord Montague with no knowledge about Romeo, not even enough to know “how true” Romeo is to himself. The absence of information that Lord Montague has on Romeo demonstrates how that occurred through a shortage of communication between the two family members, creating confusion. Furthermore, after Tybalt insults Romeo during their encounter in Verona’s streets, Romeo responds with “But love thee better than thou canst devise / Till thou shalt know the reason of my love.” (3.1.70-71). When Romeo tells Tybalt that he “love[s] the better than thou canst devise” it causes complete confusion because they come from feuding families and should not hold love for each other. However, Romeo’s love makes sense to the audience and himself because of dramatic irony. Romeo is obligated to love Tybalt due to his his marriage with Juliet, but because of the secrecy, Tybalt is unaware. As part of the family, Tybalt should know, but Romeo and Juliet chose not to tell him, which causes confusion and conflict to arise. Romeo is aware of how strange he sounds by adding “Till thou shalt know the reason of my love”, however that only contributes to the confusion because

Tybalt does not understand the reason for Romeo’s love. Not informing Tybalt from a lack of socialization between Romeo and him helps support Shakespeare’s belief that little communication can cause confusion.
Shakespeare uses Juliet to establish the idea that confusion can arise when family members do not converse often with one another.

When Juliet finds out through the nurse about Romeo’s murder of Tybalt she says “Despisèd substance of divinest show! / Just opposite to what thou justly seem’st, / A damnèd saint, an honorable villain” (3.4.83-85). Due to the fact that Juliet and Romeo haven’t had time to talk with each other, Juliet created an idea of Romeo in her imagination. She becomes shocked after finding out Romeo’s actions because they were “just opposite to what thou seem’st”. She is stuck between whether or not he is a “saint” or a “villain”. By using oxymorons she expresses this more deeply and clearly and helps prove Shakespeare’s point on how little communication within a family can cause confusion. Additionally, after Juliet reveals she does not want to marry Paris, Lord Capulet answers with “How, will she none? Doth she not give us thanks? / Is she not proud? Doth she not count her blessed” (3.5.142-143). Lord Capulet shows confusion to Juliet’s decision because he assumed she would “give us thanks”, “be proud” and “count her blessed”. His wrong assumption about what Juliet would want evolved from Juliet never speaking to him about her marriage to Romeo. If he had known, he would not have been so confused as to why she “not give us thanks”, “ is not proud” and “not count her blessed”. This misunderstanding erupted because Romeo did not communicate enough with

Lord Capulet.The events that occured in Juliet’s life prove Shakespeare’s belief that an absence of communication in a family causes chaos.