More handpicked essays just for you.
Romeo and juliet romeo character critical analysis
Shakespeare's plot and characterization
Romeo and juliet character analysis essay
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Unlawful Power
The law has always served as an important way to set limitations and boundaries on people, from governing authorities to commoners of every city or territory. Due to the significance of the law, one who has the power to determine the law and carry it out often becomes unfair or corrupt. History has displayed the importance of not granting that capability to a single authority, or else people will often be treated unfairly. In the play Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare displays the problems with a single enforcer in charge of the law. Shakespeare asserts that law based on a singular authority is often biased and reliant on personal opinions and preferences.
Shakespeare portrays that a solitary power with extreme emotions often
…show more content…
administers improper punishments. During the fighting scene at the beginning of the play between the Capulets and the Montagues, the Prince breaks up the brawl and is outraged. Because this has been the third fight, the Prince orders the group to stop fighting and emphasizes his extreme anger by calling himself, “your moved prince,” (1.1.96). The Prince has stated his extreme enmity for these brawls because of the disturbance of the peace. Even if these crimes have already been repeated many times, he had failed to understand the fighting or realize the reasoning behind it. After his furious dialogue, he starts punishing the fighters. He talks about the punishment, stating, “If you ever disturb our streets again/ Your lives shall pay the forfeit of the peace” (1.1.104-105). Anybody who would participate in another altercation would be killed as a punishment. Due to his extreme outrage, he unfairly threatens the troublemakers with their lives, if they ever start more trouble. Holding all of the power, the Prince unfairly punishes a group of people with their lives, without further examination behind the fighting. Shakespeare displays the unjustifiable consequences given by a single ruling power, especially because of the emotional stress. Shakespeare expresses that when crimes become personal, the lone authority will become unable to distribute proper retribution fairly.
When Tybalt, who had a disagreement with Romeo, sends out a letter to fight Romeo, Romeo refuses the offer. To defend to honor, Mercutio, who is Romeo’s close friend, steps up to fight Tybalt. Tybalt then slays Mercutio, but Romeo blames himself, saying, “This gentleman, the Prince’s near ally, / My very friend, hath got hurt in this moral hurt / In my behalf,” (3.1.116-118). Romeo realizes that because he didn’t accept the offer, his friend had died for him and because of him. Not only was Mercutio Romeo’s friend, but Mercutio was also the Prince’s close friend, so this murder now had resulted in a personal loss for the Prince. To avenge Mercutio, Romeo then attempts to kill Tybalt and succeeded, but the Prince was arriving after hearing about the duel. However, when punishing Romeo, the Prince mercifully states, “Immediately do we exile him hence,” (3.1.204). Even though the Prince had promised to kill all who would partake in a brawl, he realizes that Mercutio was Romeo’s friend and had no intentions to fight. The punishments were discriminatory against Tybalt and his family, as Tybalt’s death was not balanced out with Romeo’s death and was not justified by the Prince’s previous promises. Personal affairs often influence the enforcer’s mindset when serving as the authority in charge of the law and enforcing
it. A set of official laws is an extremely significant aspect of dominance and control over a city’s residents. With this in mind, Shakespeare realizes the hazardous results from handing this controlling capability to a single person. He suggests that while acting as the law enforcer, emotions seem to cloud the subject’s ability to rule justly. In addition, when crimes offer personal gain or loss, the subject is also very capable of adjusting the repercussion unfairly. Thankfully, America places that power into many people, including to all residents of America.
Romeo senses tensions are high with Tybalt, so he states, “I do protest I never injured thee but love thee better than thou canst devise.” (Lines 65-66 Act Three, Scene One). Romeo is trying to diffuse the situation because he realizes that Tybalt is his love's cousin. Mercutio is surprised by Romeo’s behavior, so he decides to fight Tybalt himself. Mercutio’s decision to fight Tybalt leads to his own death. Romeo is angered by the death of Mercutio and states, “Now, Tybalt, take the “villain" back again/ That late thou gavest me; for Mercutio’s soul.” (Lines 123-124 of Act Three, Scene One). Romeo is indicating that Tybalt is the villain now, because he slayed Mercutio. Romeo forgets about his attempt to befriend the Capulets and slays Tybalt. Romeo, murderer of Tybalt, solely focuses on Juliet and states “Ha, banishment? Be merciful, say “death"/For exile hath more terror in his look.” (Lines 12-13 of Act Three, Scene Three). Romeo does not care about Tybalt’s life, but only cares for the way it affects his relationship with Juliet. Romeo’s mother dies out of grief because of his banishment. Romeo’s recklessness in loving Juliet has led to the death of three
Mercutio can be blamed for Romeo and Juliet’s peril because he initiated the fight with Tybalt and forced Romeo to go to the Capulet’s party. At the beginning of the play, Romeo gets invited to the Capulet’s party by a servant, unless he was a Montague. At first, Romeo did not want to go, but Mercutio eventually convinced him under the pretext that Rosaline, Romeo’s love, was going to be there. The next day, Tybalt, a Capulet, went looking for Romeo because he knew that Romeo was at the Capulet party. Instead, he stumbled upon Mercutio and Benvolio and asked them where he could find Romeo. However, Mercutio did not want to tell him and insisted on having a duel. Tybalt killed Mercutio during the fight, and Romeo kills Tybalt because he has the need to avenge his friend. Unfortunately, Prince Escalus punished Romeo by banishing him from Verona. This made Romeo and Juliet’s love
When asked by Benvolio to make peace in the streets, Tybalt bluntly responds,” talk of peace, I hate the word. As I hate hell all Montagues.” This is the attitude of Tybalt throughout the play. He believes he is doing all for the best and uses violence as his tool. He gets angry at the ball with Romeo being there, “villain as a guest,” and believes it best to defend his family’s honor by later taking revenge. When Tybalt finds Romeo, he thinks it best to fight him and when he ends up killing Mercutio he believes he has done his duty by causing Romeo the same hurt he has brought Tybalt, “the injuries that thou hast done me.”
Romeo was very loyal to his friends and family, and it is possible that Mercutio thought that Romeo would help him fight off Tybalt (since he was unaware of Romeo and Juliet’s secret marriage that somewhat united Romeo and Tybalt). However, this argument is easily deemed invalid. Romeo was not in the town square when the fight had first began, so Mercutio expecting his help in the fight would be a far-fetched idea. A person who is not present cannot help or hinder the situation at hand. In addition, Romeo tried to break up the fight when he said, “Gentlemen, for shame forbear this outrage! Tybalt! Mercutio! The Prince expressly hath forbid this bandying in Verona streets. Hold, Tybalt! Good Mercutio!” (Shakespeare 121). Romeo tried to stop the fight and therefore gave Mercutio more time before death, albeit minimal. The blame cannot be placed on Romeo since he did all that he could to stop the fight from
One of the most common character tropes is the moody, teenage sibling who’s always in trouble and fighting with the parents. Teenagers are often stereotyped as reckless and emotional. They take too many chances and act like everything is the end of the world. Young adults are constantly experimenting and taking risks, but what is the force behind their actions? During adolescence, the areas in the brain controlling reward processing and control begin to change. According to neuroscientist Laurence Steinburg, the shift creates an imbalance between emotion and restraint (Sukel, 46). The play, The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, focuses on the teenager, Romeo, during a dramatic period of his life. He faces many difficult situations involving love
Of all the things that occur in Romeo and Juliet, the death of Tybalt is one of the most climatic parts of the story. Yet, this all started from another killing of a different person, Mercutio. Mercutio, a relative of the Prince and friend of Romeo, and Tybalt, nephew to Lady Capulet and Mercutio’s arch enemy, were in a heated conversion when Romeo walked in after getting married to Juliet and saw what was going on. Tybalt and Mercutio began to fight and Romeo tried to come in between them to stop the whole thing. Unfortunately, as Tybalt was under Romeo’s arms, he stabbed Mercutio and he died soon after. In all the rage, Romeo was furious that his friend was dead and starts to fight with Tybalt. Eventually, Romeo slays Tybalt and he falls to the floor and dies. Romeo runs away in agony before the Prince soon arrives at the scene of the fight with all the other citizens that were awakened by this fray to see what happened. Although Romeo is guilty of homicide, he is charged for manslaughter as he unlawfully killed a person in the heat of passion while defending Mercutio’s honor.
Firstly, using the Elizabethan era as a model for his theme, Shakespeare created the characters in such a way that their actions were all wholly based on their moral beliefs. Secondly, the regulations within the society induced that you were ordered to marry a specific person to uphold social standards, as oppose for love. Furthermore, the loyalty displayed to ones own family overrules personal emotions.
After catching Romeo at a party he was not supposed to be at, Tybalt had it out for Romeo. Just after Romeo and Juliet’s wedding, Tybalt comes looking for him wanting to fight. Romeo does not want to fight because he now loves Tybalt since he is family to him, but neither Tybalt or anyone else knows this reason. Quickly, Mercutio steps in and tells Tybalt that he will fight him in honour of Romeo. Sadly, this led to the death of Mercutio.
Should people be allowed to break the set laws of society for their own desires? In the famous play “Romeo and Juliet” these laws have affected the main character Juliet in many ways. In this play these laws not only prevent her from having true happiness with Romeo, but they also force Juliet into a marriage that she does not even want. They even force her to have a fake her own death to be with her one true love; however, Juliet breaks these set laws though to have true happiness with the one she loves. Although Juliet goes against society, she does it in order to be happy with Romeo, avoid being wed to Paris, and not having to listen to her family.
The Role of Authority in William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. This play was written by William Shakespeare in the late 16th century. It was intended to be performed to a live audience in the Elizabethan period. Then the sand was sunk.
Romeo denies the fate of Mercutio who fought against Tybalt and lost, so he challenges Tybalt to fight in defense of his honor. His sense of honor would not allow himself to ignore the death of Mercutio. It mandated his absurd behavior to take Tybalt’s life which even further separated the Montague and Capulet family. Moreover, Romeo still decides to marry Juliet after he takes Tybalt’s life. His sense of honor leads him to find Father Lawrence who will marry both Juliet
In this world, they always say that power will give you more respect from people. However, none of of that is completely true in this story of Romeo and Juliet. Instead of giving respect, power makes you lose love and respect from not just your peers, but from your family too. In Romeo and Juliet, power negatively affects the relationships which conflicts in what is expected and demonstrated loss and respect.
Arthur F. Kinney has very good points in his Authority in Romeo and Juliet and the points that have been stated have been explained and proven why. The article talks about how Friar Laurence has taken the spot of the Chorus and how the Chorus told us about the play in the beginning, yet there are still many reasons to read it. Shakespeare was very deceiving about how he called the play a tragedy, because the deaths were made by rash decisions. In the article, the facts are supported by examples in the text and explaining the text. Authority in Romeo and Juliet, written by Arthur F. Kinney, is a factual text talking about how the Chorus spoils it, yet gives us reasons to continue reading and that Romeo and Juliet are rash.
Tybalt was a adversary of Romeo and had the drift to kill him. His spleen of the situation is Romeo trying to love his coz Juliet. He approached Romeo and Mercutio looking for a fight. Tybalt and Mercutio ended up fighting and Tybalt killed Mercutio, because Tybalt did this, he deserved the death penalty for his transgression. Romeo then took revenge and killed him (3.1.70). This is a legal issue because Tybalt was going to be treated to the death penalty anyway so Romeo killing him was just like giving him the death penalty. This death is a lot different than the others because his was a legal issue and he deserved to die, the other deaths in the play like Romeo, Juliet and Mercutio decided to die for a family member that they love.
In Shakespeare's famous tragedy Romeo and Juliet it is clear that many social pressures affect the characters such as, death, patriarchal authority, child and sexual maturity and even religion. These pressures were prevalent in the Elizabethan era, and were seminal to Shakespeare's writing. For Juliet, the audience can see that patriarchal authority is a recurring theme in her life, although some may argue that it is actually sexual maturity.