Love And Love In Shakespeare's Romeo And Juliet

Romeo and Juliet are renowned for their romantic tale. However, seldom do we remember that the play is entitled The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, and their story is not a happy one. Shakespeare uses fire to show the two sides of passion, love and hatred, in order to remind the audience that the story of Romeo and Juliet is, after all, a tragedy by hinting that their relationship was doomed from the start. He does so by demonstrating that Romeo’s love for Juliet is not as intense as we would think, indicating the existence of two passions represented by fire, associating fire with love and hatred and linking the two, and ultimately showing that Romeo and Juliet’s passionate love could not be separated from their families’ passionate hatred for

Despite praising Juliet’s beauty, Romeo’s initial perception of her is reminiscent of his view of Rosaline when he is hopelessly in love with her at the beginning of the play. Romeo associates fire with both of the girls, speaking of the “cold fire” (Act I, Scene I, Line 137) brought on by his love for Rosaline, while he later states that Juliet “doth teach the torches to burn bright” (Act I, Scene V, Line 44). The association of fire with his love for both of the girls suggests not only that love is connected to fire in the play, but that Romeo perceives Rosaline and Juliet in the same manner. Thus, Juliet is no one special when he first meets her, despite how it may seem from his unceasing poetry praising

At the beginning of the play, the Prince breaks up a fight between members of the Capulet family and members of the Montague family, stating they use violence against one another in attempts to “quench the fire of [their] pernicious rage” (Act I, Scene I, Line 84). This statement links fire with a passionate hatred felt by both sides towards one another from the very start. In addition, Romeo himself speaks of his “fire-ey’d fury” (Act III, Scene I, Line 124) resulting from Tybalt’s slaying of Mercutio. Romeo has at this point associate fire with passion in both love and hatred. To emphasize this, Romeo speaks of both emotions when purchasing his poison; he asks for one that would kill him “as violently as hasty powder fired / Doth hurry from the fatal cannon’s womb” (Act V, Scene I, Line 64-5). Firstly, in this instance, he is acquiring something deadly and violent in order to die for love. Secondly, the implement of the simile with the cannon ties in fire, as fire is necessary in order to shoot a cannon. Finally, he refers to the inside of a cannon as its womb, more obviously linking violence with sex, which can be in turn associated with love as he had sex with the woman he loves just a few scenes prior. These moments show that fire is in fact linked not only with love, but with violence and hatred as well, thus creating a link between the two