The Tension Between Love and Hate in Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare

Shakespeare has created a quintessential tragedy in which deepens the audience’s understanding of the universal themes of love, hate, conflict and death. The recurring focus on the tension between love and hate makes us reflect on how these themes govern upon human behavior. In the play Romeo and Juliet, the main characters for which Romeo and Juliet the denial of love and dominance of hate creates extreme loss, in this case, death. In progress, audiences have recognized that the death of two young people is entirely imprudent, creating a need for acceptance.

Shakespeare relinquishes us a valuable insight into the power of hatred and reinforcing it with dramatic and literary techniques such as foreshadowing, embittering tone and comparison to elucidate that hate is contagious and destructive. Shakespeare introduces us to a world filled with hate through the use of a setting defined by constant antagonism. The bitterness is first inaugurated in a family feud between the two families of Montague and Capulet. In Tybalt’s aggressive comment “What drawn, and talk of peace! I hate the word, as I hate hell, all Montague’s and thee.” The use of comparison between the Montague and hell shows us how hatred between Montague is intense. This helps us to understand the idea that hate was part of the social fabric. Shakespeare uses an embittered tone to show us that the Capulet despises the Montague family back;” A dog of the Montague moves me”. The derogatory language extends into the phrase “Down with the Montague’s” and “Down with the Capulet’s”. The recurrence of the word “Down” used with the name of the houses shows the disapproval of both houses amongst the civilians of Verona. Prince Escalus’ condemnation “If you ever cause disturbance ...

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... he is convinced Juliet has perished. This also builds suspense in the audience. Metaphorical imagery is highlighted in “ O happy dagger, there rust and let me die” when Juliet awakes and finds Romeo dead demonstrates Juliet wants to end her life now that Romeo has died. The final scene creates sympathy for the two lovers which encourages audience to understand that hate is destructive as it is problematic in society of all times.

In conclusion, Shakespeare has created a tragedy, which deepens our understanding of the universal themes of love, hate, conflict and death. The hate destroying love makes us think about how hate is a problem of audiences of all times as it is proven, with the theme of death, to have capabilities of completely annihilating a basic human need which makes the audience recognize and accept love through the tragic death of two young lovers.