Love and Hate in William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet

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Love and Hate in William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet

The play 'Romeo and Juliet' is about two people from rival households

who fall in love. It is this feud between the two families that the

two lovers die in an act of love for each other. However, their deaths

buried the families' grudge and begin a neutrals friendship. For it to

come to this there were betrayals, alliances, deceit and a lot more.

Through out this essay I will explore the play to find all aspects of

love and hate.

Love and hate are evident from as early on in the play as the prologue

has a few lines in it which shows that the play is about love and

hate. These lines include from "From ancient grudge breaks to new

mutiny". This quote shows that the Capulets and Montagues feud goes

back many years, enough years to be called the accents grudge. This

quote tells us about the families past, but it also says a bit about

how the recent chain of events started. The "new mutiny" refers to the

fact that both Romeo and Juliet went against the head of their

households (their parents) by secretly plotting to get married.

Another quote that could contribute to the themes of lone and hate is

"from forth the fatal loins of these two goes a pair of star - crossed

lovers take their life" this is the fist part in the prologue that

sets, up a romantic side of the play. The term 'star - crossed lovers'

could mean that Romeo and Juliet's love for each other was written in

the stars, and the fact that it could mean that their love was

special. I think that the prologue is more to do with hate then love

because it focuses on the negative - effects of the families' feud.

Act one gives us an ides of what life is like for both the Capulets

and the Montagues. The first scene of the play is set in the streets

of Verona where a rumble between the two families takes place.

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