Violence and Conflict in William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet

Violence and Conflict in William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet

Romeo and Juliet, a story set in Verona Italy, tells the story of “two

star crossed lovers” from two feuding families, the Capulets and

Montagues. There is much violence and conflict in the play and this in

the main, stems from the feud. The plays themes are punishment,

revenge, supernatural fate, lies, deceit, and conflict. After a while,

Romeo and Juliet secretly marry behind their parents backs, perhaps

hoping that their true love would end the feud. But it only gets

worse.

There is a lot more violence, including the deaths of Mercutio, the

‘joker’, and Tybalt, Juliet’s cousin. Then finally in the last scenes,

the deaths of Paris, then Romeo and Juliet themselves.

The first reference to the violence and conflict is in the opening

scene, Act 1 scene 1. An argument between a few low rank family

members occurs. Soon other family members get involved and the once

petty squabble, that started when a Montague servant bites his thumb;

“Do you bite your thumb at us sir?”

“I do bite my thumb sir”

spirals out of control and the two families fill the streets and start

to sword fight. More and more family members join in, until the law of

the town, represented by the Prince, rides in to break everything up.

The Prince then threatens the penalty of death on anyone who disturbs

the streets again.

“By thee old Capulet and Montague have thrice disturbed the quiet of

our streets” … “once more, on pain of death.”

This first scene is important because it introduces us to the

families, but more importantly, the feud.

I think that the biggest violence and conf...

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..., and erect a solid gold statue of the in memory of the

lovers.

Even though Shakespeare wrote this play in the 1500s, the play closely

relates to modern society. It relates to different races, different

religious groups and different countries that are continuously feuding

and fighting. For example, like the current affairs in Iraq. Two

different countries with different beliefs (America and Iraq) cannot

agree and continue to fight, and have been doing for years.

I think that the play is very interesting and uplifting. It reflects

on real life problems and emphasises how the violence and conflict

results in the destruction of people’s lives and unnecessary deaths of

innocent people. I think Shakespeare was trying to compare it to his

society, and has successfully impacted his beliefs in a tale of love

and hate.