romeo and juliet essay about love and hate

Love and Hate in Romeo and Juliet

By Chris Nayak Globe Education Learning Consultant

I love you! I hate you!

Have you ever said those words? Did you mean them? Have you had them said to you? How did that make you feel?

In Romeo and Juliet, the emotions of love and hate are the lifeblood of the play. Everything that happens seems to be caused by one, or both, of these two forces.  Shakespeare frequently puts them side by side: ‘Here’s much to do with love but more with hate’ , ‘my only love sprung from my only hate’ . Such juxtaposition of conflicting ideas is called antithesis, and Shakespeare loves using it. In every one of his plays, this clash of opposing ideas is what provides the dramatic spark to make the play come to life.

But in Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare makes frequent use of a particular type of antithesis: the oxymoron. This is when two conflicting ideas are contained within a single phrase, maybe in just two words.  We use oxymorons in everyday speech:

‘Act naturally’, ‘organised chaos…’

Romeo uses many of them:

‘Cold fire, sick health…’

Later, Juliet joins in:

‘Beautiful tyrant, fiend angelical…’

But this play has many more oxymorons that any other Shakespeare play. Why does he choose this literary technique for Ro meo and Juliet ?

For me, it’s the perfect way of capturing how you feel when you’re young. The extremes of new and worrying feelings and the fact that you can flip from one emotion to the opposite in a heartbeat.

How can you in one moment having  carefree and happing conversation with your parents, brother or sister or friend and then because of a look or a comment, you are filled with anger and hatred for people you know that you love/ Although it was a long time ago, this is exactly how I remember being as a teenager. And an oxymoron is just that – two extremes expressed in a second. Adults tend to qualify, quantify, and have more shades of grey. Perhaps they grow out of having feelings like this. But for some young people, this is how life is experienced.

Romeo shares this last viewpoint. When the Friar tells Romeo to see the positives in his banishment, Romeo attacks him, saying ‘thou canst not speak of that thou dost not feel’ . And why doesn’t the Friar feel this way? Because he’s old, says Romeo. ‘wert thou as young as I…then mightst thou speak’ .

The type of love and hate that Shakespeare is depicting in this play belongs to young people, and oxymorons are the way to show it. Of course, some of the older characters feel their version of these emotions (Lord Capulet and Lord Montague join the brawl in the first scene), but Shakespeare’s focus is on the younger generation.

But are love and hate really opposites?

Even though Shakespeare sometimes places them in opposition, maybe they are not as different as we might think. In the play, there seem to be a lot of similarities between people when they are full of love, and when they are full of hate.

Romeo’s describes the hate he feels when Tybalt kills his friend Mercutio as a fire raging inside him. ‘Fire-eyed fury be my conduct now’ he says. The Prince is similar, ordering the families to ‘quench the fire of your pernicious rage’ .

But Romeo uses similar imagery when burning with passion for Juliet. ‘She doth teach the torches to burn bright’ , he says. ‘Juliet is the sun’ , a ‘bright angel’ . Juliet also expresses her love in the same way: Romeo is her ‘day in night’ .

The author Elie Wiesel once said that ‘the opposite of love is not hate, but indifference’ . Despite all the opposites and contrasts in this play, maybe Shakespeare thinks the same.

What do you think?

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Romeo and Juliet

William shakespeare, ask litcharts ai: the answer to your questions.

“These violent delights have violent ends,” says Friar Laurence in an attempt to warn Romeo , early on in the play, of the dangers of falling in love too hard or too fast. In the world of Romeo and Juliet , love is not pretty or idealized—it is chaotic and dangerous. Throughout the play, love is connected through word and action with violence, and Romeo and Juliet ’s deepest mutual expression of love occurs when the “star-crossed lovers take their life.” By connecting love with pain and ultimately with suicide, Shakespeare suggests that there is an inherent sense of violence in many of the physical and emotional facets of expressing love—a chaotic and complex emotion very different from the serene, idealized sweetness it’s so often portrayed as being.

There are countless instances throughout Romeo and Juliet in which love and violence are connected. After their marriage, Juliet imagines in detail the passion she and Romeo will share on their wedding night, and invokes the Elizabethan characterization of orgasm as a small death or “petite mort”—she looks forward to the moment she will “die” and see Romeo’s face reflected in the stars above her. When Romeo overhears Juliet say that she wishes he were not a Montague so that they could be together, he declares that his name is “hateful” and offers to write it down on a piece of paper just so he can rip it up and obliterate it—and, along with it, his very identity, and sense of self as part of the Montague family. When Juliet finds out that her parents, ignorant of her secret marriage to Romeo, have arranged for her to marry Paris , she goes to Friar Laurence’s chambers with a knife, threatening to kill herself if he is unable to come up with a plan that will allow her to escape her second marriage. All of these examples represent just a fraction of the instances in which language and action conspire to render love as a “violent delight” whose “violent ends” result in danger, injury, and even death. Feeling oneself in the throes of love, Shakespeare suggests, is tumultuous and destabilizing enough—but the real violence of love, he argues, emerges in the many ways of expressing love.

Emotional and verbal expressions of love are the ones most frequently deployed throughout the play. Romeo and Juliet wax poetic about their great love for each other—and the misery they feel as a result of that love—over and over again, and at great lengths. Often, one of their friends or servants must cut them off mid-speech—otherwise, Shakespeare seems to suggest, Romeo and Juliet would spend hours trying to wrestle their feelings into words. Though Romeo and Juliet say lovely things about one another, to be sure, their speeches about each other, or about love more broadly, are almost always tinged with violence, which illustrates their chaotic passion for each other and their desire to mow down anything that stands in its way. When Romeo, for instance, spots Juliet at her window in the famous “balcony scene” in Act 2, Scene 2, he wills her to come closer by whispering, “Arise, fair sun ”—a beautiful metaphor of his love and desire for Juliet—and quickly follows his entreaty with the dangerous language “and kill the envious moon, Who is already sick and pale with grief.” Juliet’s “sun”-like radiance makes Romeo want her to “kill” the moon (or Rosaline ,) his former love and her rival in beauty and glory, so that Juliet can reign supreme over his heart. Later on in the play, when the arrival of dawn brings an end to Romeo and Juliet’s first night together as man and wife, Juliet invokes the symbol of a lark’s song—traditionally a symbol of love and sweetness—as a violent, ill-meaning presence which seeks to pull Romeo and Juliet apart, “arm from arm,” and “hunt” Romeo out of Juliet’s chambers. Romeo calls love a “rough” thing which “pricks” him like a thorn; Juliet says that if she could love and possess Romeo in the way she wants to, as if he were her pet bird, she would “kill [him] with much cherishing.” The way the two young lovers at the heart of the play speak about love shows an enormously violent undercurrent to their emotions—as they attempt to name their feelings and express themselves, they resort to violence-tinged speech to convey the enormity of their emotions.

Physical expressions of love throughout the play also carry violent connotations. From Romeo and Juliet’s first kiss, described by each of them as a “sin” and a “trespass,” to their last, in which Juliet seeks to kill herself by sucking remnants of poison from the dead Romeo’s lips, the way Romeo and Juliet conceive of the physical and sexual aspects of love are inextricable from how they conceive of violence. Juliet looks forward to “dying” in Romeo’s arms—again, one Elizabethan meaning of the phrase “to die” is to orgasm—while Romeo, just after drinking a vial of poison so lethal a few drops could kill 20 men, chooses to kiss Juliet as his dying act. The violence associated with these acts of sensuality and physical touch furthers Shakespeare’s argument that attempts to adequately express the chaotic, overwhelming, and confusing feelings of intense passion often lead to a commingling with violence.

Violent expressions of love are at the heart of Romeo and Juliet . In presenting and interrogating them, Shakespeare shows his audiences—in the Elizabethan area, the present day, and the centuries in-between—that love is not pleasant, reserved, cordial, or sweet. Rather, it is a violent and all-consuming force. As lovers especially those facing obstacles and uncertainties like the ones Romeo and Juliet encounter, struggle to express their love, there may be eruptions of violence both between the lovers themselves and within the communities of which they’re a part.

Love and Violence ThemeTracker

Love and Violence Quotes in Romeo and Juliet

Two households, both alike in dignity, In fair Verona, where we lay our scene, 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 misadventured piteous overthrows, Doth with their death bury their parents' strife. The fearful passage of their death-mark'd love, And the continuance of their parents' rage, Which, but their children's end, nought could remove, Is now the two hours' traffic of our stage; The which if you with patient ears attend, What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.

Why then, O brawling love! O loving hate! O any thing, of nothing first created; O heavy lightness! serious vanity! Mis-shapen chaos of well-seeming forms!

Oh, she doth teach the torches to burn bright! It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night Like a rich jewel in an Ethiope's ear, Beauty too rich for use, for earth too dear. So shows a snowy dove trooping with crows As yonder lady o'er her fellows shows. The measure done, I'll watch her place of stand, And, touching hers, make blessèd my rude hand. Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight! For I ne'er saw true beauty till this night.

You kiss by th’ book.

My only love sprung from my only hate! Too early seen unknown, and known too late!

But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Juliet is the sun!

O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo? Deny thy father and refuse thy name; Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love, And I'll no longer be a Capulet.

'Tis but thy name that is my enemy; — Thou art thyself though, not a Montague. What's Montague? It is nor hand, nor foot, Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part Belonging to a man. O, be some other name! What's in a name? That which we call a rose, By any other word would smell as sweet; So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call'd, Retain that dear perfection which he owes Without that title: — Romeo, doff thy name; And for thy name, which is no part of thee, Take all myself.

I take thee at thy word: Call me but love, and I'll be new baptis'd; Henceforth I never will be Romeo.

O, swear not by the moon, the inconstant moon, That monthly changes in her circled orb, Lest that thy love prove likewise variable.

Good-night, good-night! Parting is such sweet sorrow That I shall say good-night till it be morrow.

Romeo, the hate I bear thee can afford No better term than this: thou art a villain.

Romeo: Courage, man; the hurt cannot be much. Mercutio: No, 'tis not so deep as a well, nor so wide as a church-door; but 'tis enough, 'twill serve: ask for me to-morrow, and you shall find me a grave man.

O, I am fortune's fool!

Come, gentle night, — come, loving black brow'd night, Give me my Romeo; and when he shall die, Take him and cut him out in little stars, And he will make the face of Heaven so fine That all the world will be in love with night, And pay no worship to the garish sun.

Wilt thou be gone? it is not yet near day. It was the nightingale, and not the lark, That pierc'd the fearful hollow of thine ear; Nightly she sings on yond pomegranate tree. Believe me love, it was the nightingale.

Is there no pity sitting in the clouds That sees into the bottom of my grief? O sweet my mother, cast me not away! Delay this marriage for a month, a week, Or if you do not, make the bridal bed In that dim monument where Tybalt lies.

Or bid me go into a new-made grave, And hide me with a dead man in his shroud - Things that, to hear them told, have made me tremble - And I will do it without fear or doubt, To live an unstain'd wife to my sweet love.

Then I defy you, stars!

O true apothecary! Thy drugs are quick. — Thus with a kiss I die.

Yea, noise, then I'll be brief; O, happy dagger! This is thy sheath; there rest, and let me die.

For never was a story of more woe Than this of Juliet and her Romeo.

Love and Hate in Romeo and Juliet Essay Example

Is love or hate more powerful? As stated by Martin Luther King Jr. “Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that."(1963). Meaning that my stance on this is that love is more powerful. Love is more powerful than hate because Romeo and Juliet’s love caused their parents’ feud to end, Romeo and Juliet’s love for each other caused them to die for each other, and Lord Capulet’s love for his daughter only caused her more pain. We love people so much to the point where it becomes obsessive and it turns evil and eventually leads to our ruin. In hate you don’t see that. Yes, hate can be violent. However, your hate for someone only goes to a certain point. You don’t constantly think about the person you hate. You don’t risk your life for the person you hate. No, they are insignificant to you. Love on the other hand is deadly. You spend all day constantly replaying thoughts of them in your head. You spend all day wishing you were with them. You would risk your life to ensure their safety. You love them so much that it pains you to be separated from them. Therefore, love is more powerful than hate.

First and foremost, Romeo and Juliet’s love caused their parent’s lifelong feud to be no more. Meaning that it was Romeo and Juliet’s love for each other that showed that the Montagues’ and the Capulets’ feuds were pointless and that it only brought both of their houses a plague as Mercutio would say it. Nothing is more powerful than seeing two young lovers dead next to each other because of the fact that they could not be together. As stated in scene 5 “This letter doth make good Friar’s words: Their course of love, the tiding of her death, And here he writes that he did buy a poison Of a poor pothecary, and therewithal Came to this vault to die and lie with Juliet. Where be these enemies? Capulet, Montague, See what a scourge is laid upon your hate, That heaven finds means to kill your joys with love; And I, for winking at your discords too, Have lost a brace of kinsmen. All are punished. O brother Montague, give me thy hand. This is my daughter’s jointure, for no more Can I demand. But I can give thee more, For I will raise her statue in pure gold, That whiles Verona by that name is known, There shall no figure at such rate be set As that of true and faithful Juliet.”(Shakespeare 256). In this quote it shows how it is brought to Lords Capulet and Montague that it was their hate that had caused this. However, it was not their hate that killed Romeo and Juliet. That was caused by Romeo and Juliet’s love for each other. But, it was the houses’ hate for each other that kept them apart and it was realized that their hate had driven these two lovers into madness and had caused them not to be together. Thus resulting in their death. It was Romeo and Juliet’s love that brought the two houses together. Twas not the hate of the houses but the love between the two heirs. Therefore love is more powerful than hate.

Furthermore, love was what caused Romeo and Juliet’s ruin. Romeo and Juliet loved each other so much that they believed that they could not live without the other. As Romeo stood over his lover he weeps and he begged to see her just once more. I find that to be absolutely heart wrenching and a tearjerker. To watch someone you love just lie there without an ounce of life left in them is absolutely horrible. Now imagine you were Romeo. You just married the woman you love so dearly and now you are looking over her at her grave. This is what drove him to die. This is what drove him to leave everything behind just for the chance to see her just once more. “Will I set up my everlasting rest And shake the yoke of inauspicious stars From this world-wearied flesh. Eyes, look your last! Arms, take your last embrace! and, lips, O you The doors of breath, seal with a righteous kiss A dateless bargain to engrossing death! Come, bitter conduct; come, unsavory guide! Thou desperate pilot, now at once run on The dashing rocks thy seasick weary bark! Here’s to my love! [drinks] O true apothecary! Thy drugs are quick. Thus with a kiss I die. [falls].”(Shakespeare collections). Now imagine you were Juliet. You just woke up from a two day nap and you are now in death central. You just faked your death to get out of a wedding to stay loyal to Romeo and he is supposed to be there so that the two of you can run away together. You look down and find him lying there, dead. Same as Romeo you just married this man that you love so dearly and now you are looking at him without a breath in his body. “Go, get thee hence, for I will not away. [Exit Friar Laurence.] What’s here? A cup, closed in my true love’s hand? Poison, I see, hath been his timeless end. O churl! drunk all, and left no friendly drop To help me after? I will kiss thy lips. Haply some poison yet doth hang on them To make me die with a restorative. [kisses him] Thy lips are warm! Chief Watchman  [within]. Lead, boy. Which way? Juliet. Yea, noise? Then I’ll be brief. O happy dagger! [snatches Romeo’s dagger] This is thy sheath; there rust, and let me die. [She stabs herself and falls.]”(Shakespeare collections). Both of these quotes show the effects of loving someone so much that it ends up killing you. Romeo poisoned himself and Juliet stabbed and killed herself. Therefore love is more powerful.

Moreover, Lord Capulet’s love for his daughter only caused him to lose his daughter. When Lord Capulet found out that his daughter, his only child left, had spent the entire day crying about the loss of her cousin (that is what he thinks is what happened). Of course his first question is: How do I make my daughter happy? His first go to was Paris, the count that wants to marry Juliet. He believed that once Juliet got married to this rich man and had nothing to worry about that she would be happy. However, this was not the case in fact it only made the situation worse. Especially when he did not give Juliet the decision to marry Paris he actually just made her marry this man. As written in scene three “Hang thee, young baggage! disobedient wretch! I tell thee what—get thee to church a Thursday Or never after look me in the face. Speak not, reply not, do not answer me! My fingers itch. Wife, we scarce thought us blest That God had lent us but this only child; But now I see this one is one too much, And that we have a curse in having her. Out on her, hilding!”(Shakespeare collections). In this quote Lord Capulet becomes so angry that his daughter is not accepting his love that he becomes so angry that he threatens her instead of comforting her. This leads to Juliet having to go to Friar Lawrence to fake her death. In summary, Lord Capulet loves his daughter so much that when he sees that she is upset he wants to make her happy so he tries to get her to marry Paris. He had good intentions but he did not realize the true story and ended up having not just a sad child but a deceased one. Therefore, love is more powerful than hate.

Fine, love is more powerful than hate. The reasons behind this are that love caused the Capulet’s and the Montague’s houses to end their feud, it caused Romeo and Juliet’s deaths, and it caused Lord Capulet to lose his only child Juliet. Love is the reason behind all of these misfortunes. Therefore when asked the question: “Is love or hate more powerful?” You should answer with love because of the fact that love is what drives people insane and it causes misfortune and ruin.

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Love and hate in 'Romeo and Juliet' essay

Love and hate in 'romeo and juliet' essay, introduction for romeo and juliet essay.

'Romeo and Juliet' was written in 1595 by William Shakespeare. Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy and love story about two children from rival families, who fall in love. Their misunderstandings lead to them both dying. Shakespeare uses an oxymoron in the play, love and hate. Shakespeare presents love and hate is many different ways, through language, context and some characters. In the times when Shakespeare was alive and his productions were first being shown, Juliet had to be played by a boy/man, this was because women weren't allowed on stage in those days. In this essay I will be talking about the ways Shakespeare presents love and hate.

Love vs hate Romeo and Juliet

In 'Romeo and Juliet' there are two rival families, the Capulets and the Montagues. Juliet is a part of the Capulet family while Romeo is a part of the Montague family. Both families live in Verona, Italy and both families hate each other. Shakespeare has presented hate in this way to show a major division between the two families who lives on separate sides of Verona. He shows hate in this way because he wants to show how Romeo and Juliet cannot be happily married like a normal couple as they both have to hide their marriage from their families. Shakespeare shows that love cannot heal hate. The play opens with a fight between the two families including Gregory and Sampson, the Capulet servants, and Abram and Benvolio, members of the Montagues. Benvolio is being the peacemaker between the two families. “Part, fools! Put up your swords, you know not what you do.” This shows that Benvolio tries to stop the fighting but everyone ignores him and fights anyway. Later on in the play, a fight occurs between Mercutio and Tybalt which turns very violent and Mercutio is stabbed by Tybalt, but Romeo steps in and kills Tybalt. This fight is representing hate between Capulets, a Montague and a member of royalty. Shakespeare uses a fight to show hate because it shows the conflict between two main families and someone who had nothing to do with the argument between Benvolio and Tybalt. Tybalt uses negative words by using alliteration which are snake sounds. “A villain that is hither come in spite, to scorn at our solemnity this night.” This scene is at the Capulet party in which Romeo and Juliet first meet and fall in love as the Montagues turn up at the party unexpected. Tybalt sees the Montague at their party and tells his uncle Lord Capulet and names Romeo as a villain. Later on the play, Romeo says that life must hate him because he has fallen in love with someone he is meant to hate. “Is she a Capulet? O dear account! my life is my foe's debt.” This shows that Romeo is surprised when he finds out Juliet is actually a Capulet.

Shakespeare shows love in many different ways in this play but the most important way of showing it is Romeo and Juliet's love. Shakespeare even starts the play off with a way of showing love by using a Sonnet. At the start of the play, Romeo is said to have been in love with Rosaline but she did not love him back, this is an example of unrequited love. Romeo is not happy about his love for Rosaline, instead he acts grumpy and sad but Benvolio gives him advice to forget about her and look for some more women to fall in love with. “Be ruled by me, forget to think of her. By giving liberty unto thine eyes, Examine other beauties.” This shows that Benvolio is tired of Romeo being sad about being in love so he gives him advice to forget about her and move on. This is showing love because while Romeo and Benvolio are looking for other women, Romeo meets and also falls in love with Juliet. Another example of requited love is between Paris and Juliet, this is shown later on in the play. As Lord and Lady Capulet are arranging their daughter's wedding, Friar Lawrence and Juliet are thinking of a way for her to get out of the wedding she does not want to take part in as she is already married to Romeo. Paris tells Lord Capulet that he wants to speed up the wedding but looks silly as Lord Capulet wants Juliet to be ready. Paris thinks there is no reason for Juliet to not marry him. “And in his wisdom hastes our marriage, To stop the inundation of her tears.” This shows that Paris thinks Juliet is still upset about Tybalt's death when in fact she is upset about Romeo being banished. “I will confess to you that I love him” This quote shows that Juliet tells Paris that she is in love with 'him', here she is referring to Romeo but Paris thinks she is talking about him, throughout this scene Paris and Juliet's exchanges have a double meaning. Juliet does not want to give away that she is already married to Romeo. Benvolio appears as the peacemaker in the play as he represents love. He does not want to fight with the Capulet's. “I do but keep the peace” This shows Benvolio does always keep the peace between the two families. Romeo and Juliet's love is the main part of the play and is shown in a lot of ways. Juliet has fallen in love with someone she is supposed to hate and she also says that Romeo's name does not matter as she still loves him. “'Tis by thy name that is my enemy; Thou art myself, though not a Montague” Juliet wonders why their names make a difference to who they are and if Romeo's name was different he would still be the same person. She also says that their names are keeping them apart. Mercutio is a person who makes jokes, most of them are about sex, which entertain the audience. He enjoys winding Romeo and Juliet up about their love. “O Romeo, that she were, O that she were An open-arse, thou a pop'rin pear!” Mercutio is energetic and full of life and makes a lot of puns. Shakespeare makes him like this to add some comedy to the play. Mercutio talks about sex and lust between Romeo and Juliet which highlights their love for each other.

Fated love is very important in the play because in the Sonnet at the start of the play, it sets out the scene and talks about fated love. “A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life; Whose misadventured piteous overthrows” This part of the Prologue says that Romeo and Juliet's fate was written in the stars and their misunderstandings lead to them both dying. Shakespeare shows in the play that fate brings Romeo and Juliet together, as they have both fallen for someone they are supposed to hate. Juliet can imagine what is going to happen to her and Romeo, while Romeo has a dream. In Romeo's dream, he talks about the stars and death. “Some consequence yet hanging in the stars. Shall bitterly begin his fearful date. By some vile forfeit of untimely death.” Romeo looks into the future and has a premonition of death. He believes that dreams come true and must mean something and have a purpose behind them while Mercutio thinks the total opposite. Mercutio believes that dreams are false and do not mean anything.

Juliet's “death” has a high impact on most characters in the play, especially Romeo and Paris. They are both grieving for her and are both in love with her. While Paris shows up to Juliet's tomb with flowers and mourns for her, Romeo shows up with poison and is planning on killing himself. Romeo is genuinely devastated of Juliet's death and cannot stop thinking of how he is going to carry out his death. Paris on the other hand, does not show much emotion, he stays calm and says he will cry every night even though he didn't know Juliet that well, but he feels sadness and pain for losing her. “Sweet flower, with flowers thy bridal bed I strew- Nightly shall be to strew thy grave and weep.” This shows Paris is mourning for Juliet unlike Romeo who just wants to know how Juliet died and wants to see her body so he can say goodbye. As Romeo tries to enter the tomb, Paris challenges Romeo to a fight, as Paris thinks Romeo killed Juliet because of Tybalt. “This is that banished haughty Montague, That murdered my love's cousin, with which grief.” This shows that Paris is trying to stop Romeo getting into the tomb. After Paris challenges Romeo to a fight, he is killed by Romeo. He tells Romeo he wants to be buried next to his love, Juliet, and as he did not mean to kill Paris, Romeo agrees and lays him next to Juliet's body and does not feel jealous. “Open the tomb lay me with Juliet.” Paris challenged Romeo because he wants to protect the Capulets and is getting involved with the family feud between the Montagues and Capulets. While Romeo is laying Paris next to Juliet's body, he finds Tybalt's body and asks him for forgiveness as he feels sorry for killing him. “Tybalt, liest thou there in thy bloody sheet? O, what more favour can I do to thee.” This shows Romeo wants to apologise to Tybalt before he dies. Romeo is also shocked that Juliet was due to marry Paris and he has killed for love. Romeo is more aggressive than sad towards Juliet's death as he does not mourn for her very much. Romeo thought his marriage was going to end the family feud. As Romeo takes one last look at Juliet's body, he still talks about her beauty. “Hath had no power yet upon thy beauty: Thou art not conquered, beauty's ensign yet. Is crimson in thy lips and in thy cheeks, And Death's pale flag is not advancèd there.” Romeo says here that Juliet looks as if she is still alive, he can tell this by the colour of her cheeks. Romeo then declares his love for her and drinks the poison unaware of Juliet soon to be awakening. “Here's to my love! [Drinks] O true apothecary! Thy drugs are quick. Thus with a kiss I die. [Dies]” This is the point in the play where Romeo dies as Juliet awakes from her “death”. Juliet's fake death also has an effect on the Nurse and Lord and Lady Capulet. The Nurse arrives in Juliet's room excited for her and her wedding to Paris, this then changes as she begins to realise something is wrong. “Alas, alas! Help, help! my lady's dead! My lord! My lady!” This shows the Nurse trying to wake Juliet for her wedding and finds that she is dressed and will not wake up. Lady Capulet then enters and grieves for her daughter but also seems upset that there will not be a marriage. “O me, O me, my child, my only life!” This shows that the Nurse's grief seems much more real and extreme. Lord Capulet then enters and cannot believe the death of his daughter either. “O child, O child! my soul and not my child!” This shows that Lord Capulet does not believe that it is his child that has died. Altogether this shows that the Nurse reacted worse to the death of Juliet, while Lady Capulet did not seem too upset.

In Shakespeare's time, young girls were to be married at a very young age such as 13 years old. This is how old Juliet was when she met Romeo and the age when her mother starts talking to her about marriage. Juliet's father, Lord Capulet, believes Juliet is too young to be married but would like her to get married if Juliet agrees to it. But then later on in the play after he meets Paris, Lord Capulet decides he wants Juliet to be married as soon as possible, even though he does not know she is already married to Romeo. Lord Capulet believes Paris would be the perfect husband for Juliet because he is royalty and related to the Prince. “She shall be married to this noble earl.” This shows Lord Capulet wants Juliet to be married to Paris straight away rather than let her get to know or fall in love with Paris. Lord Capulet then organises the wedding himself without consoling Juliet because she cannot accept she has to be married. Juliet's parents think that her getting married will cheer her up after the death of Tybalt. “But for the sunset of my brother's son It rains downright. How now, a conduit, girl? What, still in tears?” This shows Lord Capulet thinks that Juliet is still grieving for Tybalt when she is actually upset that Romeo has been banished.

Shakespeare shows that Juliet and the Nurse have a strong bond, almost like a mother and daughter bond. The Nurse is more like a mother to Juliet than Lady Capulet because Juliet and her mother have a distant relationship as she has been bought up by the Nurse. She knows more about Juliet than Lady Capulet does for example, her age and her opinion on marriage. The Nurse treats Juliet like a daughter because she had a daughter, Susan who is mentioned in the play, but died. “Susan and she- God rest all Christian souls!- Were of an age. Well, Susan is with God” This shows that the Nurse is telling Juliet and Lady Capulet about the death of her daughter. This is the reason why the Nurse has stayed around looking after Juliet for so long, because she misses her own daughter. Lady Capulet is so distant from her daughter, she needs the Nurse in the room when she speaks to Juliet. “Nurse, give leave a while, We must talk in secret. Nurse, come back again, I have remembered me,” This shows that Lady Capulet cannot be left alone with her daughter as she barely knows her that well and needs the Nurse's company. The Nurse is relaxed, informal and feels comfortable and speaks freely around Juliet and her mother. Juliet is a lot closer to the Nurse than her own mother but she respects her mother a lot, although they are very distant, she can be a bit afraid of her mother. Juliet is not bothered about being married as she is not interested. “Tell me, daughter Juliet, How stands your dispositions to be married?” “It is an honour that I dream not of.” This is showing Lady Capulet starting to speak about marriage to her daughter and she tries to convince Juliet to get married and starts to speak of her own experience of getting married at a young age.

Shakespeare also shows that Romeo and Friar Lawrence have a close relationship. After Romeo returns from Capulet mansion, the Friar fears that Romeo has spent the night with Rosaline, but then he learns Romeo has fallen in love with someone else and is asked if he could marry him and Juliet. Friar Lawrence agrees to carry out the ceremony because he thinks their marriage will end the feuding of the Montagues and Capulets. “For this alliance may so happy prove To turn your households' rancour to pure love.” This quotation shows that Friar Lawrence will do anything to stop the families feuding, and he is taking a big risk by marrying a member of the Montague family and a member of the Capulet family. If a family member of either Romeo or Juliet found out Friar Lawrence married them, the Friar could be banished. Shakespeare also shows that Juliet and the Friar have a close relationship. This may be because the Friar helps Juliet think of a plan to get out of the marriage to Paris. He acts like a father to Juliet as she is not close to her father either. “Hold, daughter, I do spy a kind of hope, Which craves as desperate an execution.” This shows that Friar Lawrence call Juliet 'daughter' which shows that they obviously have a close relationship. Shakespeare shows Romeo and Juliet close to the Nurse and Friar Lawrence because they are both distant from their parents. They are also very close to them because the Nurse and Friar Lawrence are the only people that know about Romeo and Juliet's relationship and that they got married.

The end of the play is very important because it shows where the Montagues and Capulets finally forget about their feud and make peace with each other. The Prince starts to talk about Romeo and Juliet's relationship and how it strengthens love, but still talks about the hate that they have caused for their children to die. The Prince advises them to end the feud for they have both lost children. Their hate for each other has caused some deaths and loosing family members from each family. “Where be these enemies? Capulet, Montague? See what a scourge is laid upon your hate, That heaven finds means to kill your joys with love!” This shows that the Prince is showing the Montagues and Capulets what their argument has caused. The two families then agree to settle their differences as they realise what damage they have done to their family and themselves. “O brother Montague, give me thy hand. This is my daughter's jointure, for no more Can I demand.” This shows Lord Capulet making an effort. The families also promise to make a golden statue of Romeo and Juliet. “But I can give thee more, For I will raise her statue in pure gold, That whiles Verona by that name is known, There shall no figure at such rate be set As that of true and faithful Juliet.” This shows Lord Montague then making an effort by saying he will let everyone know in Verona about Juliet. “As rich shall Romeo's by his lady's lie, Poor sacrifices of our enmity!” This then shows Capulet saying he will also put up a statue of Romeo and tell everyone in Verona about him too. The Prince then ends the play with a speech, saying some will receive punishment and some will be pardoned. “Some shall be pardoned, and some punished: For never was a story of more woe Than this of Juliet and her Romeo.” This quote shows the play ending with a Sonnet which sums up what happens at the end of the play. At the beginning of the play, which starts with a Sonnet, Shakespeare warns us that the only way the feud would end is if their children die, which is exactly what happens.

In conclusion, Shakespeare has shown love and hate in many ways. He has shown love through Romeo and Juliet and Romeo and Rosaline. He shows true love through Romeo and Juliet, who are willing to die for each other, and unrequited love through him and Rosaline. Shakespeare shows in the balcony scene that Romeo and Juliet have fallen in love with each other even though they have only just met. This play shows the couple taking a lot of risks in being together despite of their feuding families. Shakespeare also shows hate through Benvolio and Tybalt and the Montague family and the Capulet family. He also shows what hate can do by showing the death of Mercutio, Tybalt, Paris, Romeo and Juliet. Romeo and Juliet are supposed to hate each other but they accidentally fall in love. Shakespeare also shows hate with a lot of fights between members of the families. Overall, Shakespeare shows love and hate in lots of different ways which are shown throughout the play. They are shown in this way because Shakespeare wants to show the division between the two families and the love for Romeo and Juliet.

Home — Essay Samples — Literature — Romeo and Juliet — Themes of Love, Hatred and Conflict in ‘Romeo and Juliet’

Themes of Love, Hatred and Conflict in 'Romeo and Juliet'

• Categories: Romeo and Juliet Tragedy William Shakespeare

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Published: Feb 8, 2022

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