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Romeo and Juliet as a Play About Love
'Romeo and Juliet' is a story about love, hate and death. It is a
romantic play but also contains sexual and slightly comedic aspects.
From all these themes there are two of them that carry more importance
than any other, love and hate.
Romeo and Juliet initiated as a play by Arthur Brooke, which was
intended to tell children not to disobey your parents. Shakespeare
took the book and changed it so it had more sympathy towards young
people and made it more complex. Shakespeare also made the families in
the plays to carry more hatred for the other family.
Love
----
There are many types of love between many different people in this
play. The first love to be perceived is brotherly love between Ben
olio, mercuric and Romeo, all these three seem to live each other a
lot and they get on well with each other.
Mercutio, Benvolio and Romeo are all good friends, but when Romeo and
Juliet get married privately tybalt became Romeos brother in law,
tybalt himself never knew, and when act3 scene1 is approached and
tybalt offers to fight with Romeo, Romeo states his love for juliet in
act 3 scene 1 line 61:
"Tybalt, the reason I have to love thee doth much cause the
appertaining rage, to such a greeting… therefore farewell I see though
knowest me not …"
Tybalt became ignorant and asks Romeo to dram (his sword).
Romeo replies with Act3 scene1 line 67:
" I do protest I never injured thee, but love thee better than thou
canst desire…"
The audience knows that Romeo has just married Juliet. Because Juliet
is Tybalt's cousin, Romeo will not fight someone who is now a member
of his own family. Tybalt does not know any of this of course and so
he can't understand why Romeo will not be provoked into a fight.
Mercutio is at this point disgusted at Romeo and thinks that he is
submitting to Tybalt's insults in a shameful way.
... middle of paper ... ... In act three, scene one, Romeo sacrifices his romance with Juliet by ending her cousin, Tybalt’s life after Tybalt did the same to Romeo’s close friend, Mercutio, in a fight. Love is not something that one should decide to risk for revenge on their love’s cousin.
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.”
Tybalt’s loyalty towards the family dispute intoxicates him with a quarrelsome nature. After recognizing Romeo at the Capulet Ball, Tybalt persistently rejects his uncle’s remonstrance to stay serene. Even after being restrained by his Uncle Capulet, he vows vengeance on Romeo in the future as he says, “Patience perforce with willful choler meeting Makes my flesh tremble in their different greeting. I will withdraw; but this intrusion shall Now seeming sweet, convert to bitt’rest gall” (1.5.88-90). Tybalt tends to take each and every “insult” towards his family and himself to heart, without even contemplating their true meaning. Furthermore, Tybalt’s aggravating behavior develops into a clear factor leading to his downfall. When Mercutio is found dead as a result of Tybalt, Romeo confronts him directly with a duel to the death. Rather than trying to discuss and come to a harmonious solution, Tybalt further inflamed the already belligerent environment. He does this by saying, “Thou, wretched boy, that didst consort him here, Shalt with him hence” (3.1.128-129). Tybalt’s relentless threatening behavior never fails to make an already hostile environment even worse. His cruel character is perpetual no matter what the
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 begun, so Mercutio expected 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!
issue “And yet, I warrant, it had upon it brow a bump as big as a
In Romeo and Juliet, the tragic love story, emotion is also surrounded with both the protagonists and brought themselves a tragic ending. Early in the story, Romeo and Juliet made an unacceptable forbidden decision which created a path towards their graves. After knowing themselves as the enemy of their household, the two teenagers yet fall in love with each other. Their idiotic actions of love have brought themselves a road to death at the end. Is unworthy to cost your life by your foolish decision. Furthermore, Romeo made another decision out of momentary anger and caused himself a disastrous problem. After Mercutio's death, out of anger Romeo duel with Tybalt and demands to slay him. After his revenge, he brought a death sentence on himself if he is ever found within the city again.
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
Evidently, Tybalt respects Lord Capulet and the family name. When he goes to inform the Montague’s intrusion, Lord Capulet dismisses the enemy’s presence, ordering Tybalt to “be patient, take no note of him” (I.v.71). Despite Lord Capulet’s calm approach towards the appearance of Romeo, Tybalts mind is clouded with hatred and only views Romeo as a threat. Tybalt’s angered reaction at the sight of Romeo, as well as his impulsive decision to warn Lord Capulet in hopes of getting rid of the enemy, is due to the ongoing feud between the Montague’s and Capulet’s and not because of any harm directly caused by Romeo. Lastly, at his initial reaction to deny the announcement of Juliets death, Romeo dismisses Balthasar and seeks an apothecary who he hopes will supply him the poison that will grant his wish to be with Juliet forever.
As already shown, both Romeo and Juliet are horrified to discover that they were family enemies. Despite of this, they both choose to devote their love for eachother. Given this point, it is unrequited love that brings Romeo and Juliet together. But this also means that they would have to get over the fact that their families hate each other. This eventually leads them to forgiving the rival family for all the hateful acts that have occurred against one another. This is not the only forgiveness that is experienced in this play. Tybalt is a Montague with a fiery attitude. 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 leads to the death of Mercutio. Romeo is angry and in need of revenge, which creates an intense fight between Tybalt and Romeo. Romeo wins this battle, killing Tybalt. He leaves in a hurry, only to discover that he would be banished from Verona. The death of Tybalt is absolutely devastating to Juliet. Her cousin was murdered by her husband. But she did not hesitate to forgive Romeo, she did so right away. She knew that Romeo had a reason for this incident and decides to
the play is not solely about love but also a lot of hatred is involved
Although love is interpreted as a wonderful thing it can also ruin someone's life, “Love is a trap. When is appears, we see only its light, not its shadows.” (Paulo Coelho) Love doesn’t fix people it breaks them asunder. It waits and waits for its next target to make a mistake and ruin everything they worked for. As seen in various works including; “The Raven” , Romeo and Juliet, and “The Gift of the Magi”. Romantic love is a force that inflicts pain upon those who believe in it or those who have been through it.
In Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, the views of love held by the character Romeo contrast sharply with the views of Mercutio. Romeo's character seems to suffer from a type of manic depression. He is in love with his sadness, quickly enraptured and easily crushed again on a passionate roller coaster of emotion. Mercutio, by contrast is much more practical and level headed. His perceptions are clear and quick, characterized by precise thought and careful evaluation. Romeo, true to his character begins his appearance in the play by wallowing in his depression over Rosaline who does not return his love:
Throughout the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, by William Shakespeare, various types of love are portrayed. According to some of the students of Shakespeare, Shakespeare himself had accumulated wisdom beyond his years in matters pertaining to love (Bloom 89). Undoubtedly, he draws upon this wealth of experience in allowing the audience to see various types of love personified. Shakespeare argues that there are several different types of love, the interchangeable love, the painful love and the love based on appearances, but only true love is worth having. The first type of love the audience is introduced to is the interchangeable love of Benvolio.
Romeo and Juliet is a romantic love story about a young lad named Romeo who has fallen in love with Lady Juliet, but is unable to marry her because of a long-lasting family feud. The play ends in the death of both these characters and the reunion of the friendship between the families. Romeo is in love with Juliet, and this is a true, passionate love (unlike the love Paris has for her or the love Romeo had for Rosaline) that nothing can overcome, not even the hatred between their two families that is the reason for the death of their two children. Throughout the play, Shakespeare thoroughly explores the themes of both true love and false love and hatred. Without either of these themes, the play would loose its romantic touch and probably would not be as famous as it is today.
After the wedding, Romeo runs into Juliet’s cousin Tybalt, who hates him. They engage in a duel, and Romeo kills Tybalt. He fled the scene of the crime. Later, he discovers from Friar Lawrence that rather than executing him for murder, the Prince of Verona has declared that he be banished forever. Instead of being relieved and grateful, Romeo laments his fate and claims that he would rather be dead than be separated from his dear Juliet.