Obssesion and Desperation in Romeo Juliet by William Shakespeare

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“From forth the fatal loins of these two foes a pair of star crossed lovers take their life” (I prologue 5-6). Romeo and Juliet is known by many as a love story, but what if it’s not a love story but a story of obsession and desperation. Romeo is from the Montague family, and Juliet is from the Capulet family. The two families have been feuding for many, many years. In this story, Romeo and Juliet become obsessed with the feeling of being in love. They will go to extremes to be together, such extremes as death. Romeo is obsessed with a pledged nun named Rosaline, whom he cries about many times at the beginning of the play. He tells his cousin (Benvolio), “She is too fair, too wise, wisely too fair to merit bliss by making me despair/ Do I live dead that live to tell it now” (I i 217-220). In this he is saying that she will always be a virgin and this gives him little will to live, pushing nearer the thoughts of suicide. This is an example of obsession because Romeo states that he is deeply hurt that he cannot be with Rosaline and ponders on suicide when in reality he doesn’t know h...

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