Passion Is Destruction

Love can exist in many different ways, especially in William Shakespeare’s play, Romeo and Juliet. The types of love in the play include love between or for family members, love for friends, love for self, love of an idea or cause, and, of course, romantic love. There are many different perspectives of what type of love Shakespeare is trying to focus on during his play, or, better yet, what he is trying to tell them about it. In his personal life, Shakespeare did not seem to be a big fan of love. He was forced to marry a woman named Anne Hathaway due to impregnating her prior to marriage, but after a while moved away and never saw her again. In his will, he only left her his bedclothes. This inspired people to come up with different theories, one of which is that he simply fell out of love, and could never look at Anne again. For that reason, Shakespeare aims to show the reader that when taken too far, passionate love leads to destruction. This becomes evident through the actions and words of three important characters. The first is friar Lawrence, the priest in the play, who warns Romeo about his dangerous love. In addition, there is Juliet, the young girl in the relationship, who takes her own life as a consequence of love after marrying impulsively. Lastly, there is Mercutio, Romeo's best friend, who shows his opinions about love and women in general. The play circulates around the idea of obsessive love and its disastrous outcomes.

When an individual loves a person too much, they tend to push their friends, family, and everything else in their life, aside. Juliet displays this behavior after falling in love with Romeo, when she starts disobeying her family and Nurse. During the famous balcony scene, when Romeo goes to Juliet’s...

... middle of paper ...

...f love and moved away, never looking at her again. Maybe he loved her too much, and that is why it ruined his life. He uses many characters throughout the play to prove his idea, like for example Juliet, who ended up a victim of love, dead at only fourteen years old after meeting Romeo. In addition, Friar Lawrence, who gave many hints that love should only happen moderately, and those who go too fast will fall. Furthermore, there is Mercutio, who is completely sure that love should not be taken seriously. In his opinion, women are not as good as men and can be replaced easily; therefore true love does not exist, nor does anything to do with love’s fate. Because Romeo and Juliet were impulsive and did not think everything through, six people ended up dead. Like Shakespeare wrote, “For never was a story of more woe / Than this of Juliet and her Romeo” (V.iii.320-321).