Theme Of Love And Hate In Romeo And Juliet

Love And Hate in Romeo & Juliet

William Shakespeare has written numerous poems and plays, but one of his most popular works is Romeo & Juliet. With several different themes and motifs, love and hate is a prominent aspect of the play. In Romeo & Juliet, the twin forces of love and hate both destroy and create, as evident in the family feud, friendship and the love story. Shakespeare often presents these ideas very clearly and obviously, and sometimes he makes them hard to find and identify.

The play begins with a fourteen line prologue describing what the audience can expect throughout. The two major families, the Capulets and the Montagues, have a long-standing feud as evident in the prologue:

“From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,

Where

civil blood makes civil hands unclean.

From forth the fatal loins of these two foes

A pair of star-cross’d lovers take their life;

Whose misadventur’d piteous overthrows

Doth with their death bury their parents’ strife”(Prologue.3-8).

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These lines show how the love between Romeo and Juliet, and the hate between their families causes the two young lovers to take their own lives.

This piece from the prologue also shows how Romeo and Juliet’s deaths stop the family's long standing feud. Further along near the end of the play, after the deaths of Romeo and Juliet, Montague says “For I will raise her [Juliet] statue in pure gold”(5.3.298). This shows how sorry even the opposing families are of Romeo and Juliet’s fate. These passages demonstrate how love can be destructive and how tragedy can end hate.

There are different friendships being made and broken during the course of this play. One of which is between Romeo and Tybalt. Romeo has always despised Tybalt (a Capulet) but as he says “Tybalt, [the reason that] I have to love thee Doth much excuse the appertaining rage to such a greeting”(3.1.62-63) Romeo shows that he is so in love with Juliet that he will love anyone connected to her. Tybalt is Juliet’s cousin so Romeo tries to love him despite their conflict. After a short squabble between Tybalt, Romeo and Mercutio, Tybalt and Mercutio draw

their swords and fight. Mercutio dies and Romeo says “Away to heaven, respective lenity,

And

fire-ey’d fury be my conduct now!”(3.1.123-124). In these lines, Romeo has let go of the kind, loving person he was when he first entered, and he has turned into a vengeful one. Tybalt is slain by this unforgiving Romeo. These two excerpts display how quickly a person can go from joyful to spiteful with just one event.

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Romeo and Juliet’s love starts at the Capulet’s party near the beginning of the play. Romeo spies Juliet dancing and later Juliet notices him as well. It is love at first sight, but when Juliet finds out Romeo is a Montague she says “My only love, sprung from my only hate!”(1.5.137). Juliet is devastated that Romeo is from the opposing house, and she knows there is no way their love will thrive. And it does not, the play continues with hardships and almost at the end of the play, Juliet wakes from her two day, death-like slumber. As she does she sees Romeo’s body on the floor, dead from the poison. Juliet is overwhelmed with sadness and goes closer to see him. When she does she hears guards and says “Yea, noise? Then I’ll be brief. O happy dagger! This is thy sheath; there rust, and let me die”(5.3.168-169). Juliet is distraught so she quickly finds a method of suicide, since she does not want to live unless Romeo is by her side. These sad lines show Romeo and Juliet’s deep love (or infatuation, or both) for each other.

In Romeo & Juliet, the twin forces of love and hate both destroy and create as evident in the family feud, friendship and the love story. The families ongoing grudge make it impossible for Romeo and Juliet to love each other, so either out of love or infatuation they decide to kill themselves. These deaths ende the family feud and make the families realize that their enmity

is a terrible thing. The Capulets and the Montagues make peace after realizing their hate is part of the reason for the death of Romeo and Juliet.

Works Cited
Shakespeare, William. Romeo and Juliet. Ed. Roma Gill. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998.