As the feud between two families, Capulet and Montague, continue, their children, Juliet
Capulet and Romeo Montague, face a bigger problem; forbidden love. Taking place in Verona, an ignorant Romeo first meets a childish Juliet at the Capulet’s party. Romeo and his kinsman, Benvolio, attend the party masked, searching for his first love, Rosaline. Coincidentally, Romeo meets Juliet, a new beauty, and falls in love with her not knowing the fact that she is a Capulet. The feud continues, leading one mistake after another, until both families realize their selfishness at the last minute. The unfortunate tragedy of two “star-crossed lovers” is ironically caused by the impetuosity of Romeo and Juliet themselves (Shakespeare 7).
Impetuosity is the main flaw that leads to the early death of Romeo and Juliet.
Impetuosity in their sense of honor, love, and their sense of idealism contributed to Romeo and Juliet to an early death. They both had a sense of honor and were full of love and idealism. These virtues, honor, love and idealism, that seek to sustain life, end up destroying them. Romeo and Juliet become victims of their own fate because they carry everything to the highest standards and are too inexperienced to decide the fate of the love between them. Romeo had honor as his virtue, which caused him to fight Tybalt for killing Mercutio:
Romeo. …My very friend, hath got this mortal hurt / In my behalf – my
reputation stained / With Tybalt’s slander – Tybalt, that an hour… / And in my
temper softened valor steel! (3.1.116-122)
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
Romeo and Juliet, written by William Shakespeare, is a story of two young lovers. These two hearts, Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet belong to feuding families. The family feud causes them to keep their love a secret and therefore only Romeo, Juliet, Benvolio, the Nurse and Friar Lawrence know of their love. Romeo and Juliet are able to look past the feud and let themselves fall in mad love with the other. They let themselves do almost anything for the other and at times it seems like too much to do, even for the one they love. Although fate and character traits play a key role in the play, ultimately Rome and Juliet’s personal choices lead to their downfall.Fate originates all of the conflicts in Romeo and Juliet, from when they met until they die.
Romeo senses tensions are high with Tybalt, so he states, “I do protest I never injured thee but love thee better than thou canst devise.” (Lines 65-66 Act Three, Scene One). Romeo is trying to diffuse the situation because he realizes that Tybalt is his love's cousin. Mercutio is surprised by Romeo’s behavior, so he decides to fight Tybalt himself. Mercutio’s decision to fight Tybalt leads to his own death. Romeo is angered by the death of Mercutio and states, “Now, Tybalt, take the “villain" back again/ That late thou gavest me; for Mercutio’s soul.” (Lines 123-124 of Act Three, Scene One). Romeo is indicating that Tybalt is the villain now, because he slayed Mercutio. Romeo forgets about his attempt to befriend the Capulets and slays Tybalt. Romeo, murderer of Tybalt, solely focuses on Juliet and states “Ha, banishment? Be merciful, say “death"/For exile hath more terror in his look.” (Lines 12-13 of Act Three, Scene Three). Romeo does not care about Tybalt’s life, but only cares for the way it affects his relationship with Juliet. Romeo’s mother dies out of grief because of his banishment. Romeo’s recklessness in loving Juliet has led to the death of three
Juliet, a Capulet, is a beautiful young lady tired of being controlled by her father, Lord Capulet. The two families are in a never-ending feud that comes between Romeo and Juliet’s love. In the course of four and a half days, Romeo and Juliet plan their marriage with the help of Priest Friar Laurence and Juliet’s Nurse. After the couple is married, Romeo is banished from the city of Verona, causing an issue for their ideal fate together. Lord Capulet forced Juliet to marry Count Paris after she married Romeo, leaving Friar to structure a plan to avoid a second marriage for Juliet.
Playwright, William Shakespeare, conveys the different forms of love between characters in his drama, Romeo and Juliet. In the small town of Verona the different types of love are highlighted, through character actions and speech. Unrequited love is seen in Romeo and Juliet through Romeo 's 'love ' for Rosaline in Act one, while the forbidden love at first sight, also known as romantic love is seen between Romeo and Juliet. Furthermore, the motherly love/ familial love, Juliet and the Nurse share is also explored.
“But soft, what light through yonder window breaks?/ It is the east, and Juliet is the sun/ Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon/ Who is already sick and pale with grief/ That thou her maid art far more fair than she/ Be not her maid since she is envious/ Her vestal livery is but sick and green/ And none but fools do wear it. Cast it off!/ It is my lady. Oh, it is my love/ Oh, that she knew she were!” (Shakespeare II ii 2-11).
While Tybalt is to be held accountable, Romeo’s and Juliet’s tragic flaw, impulsivity, contributes greatly to their death. It was understood among everyone that their relationship was moving too hastily. Within seconds of meeting, the two had already
Romeo fights and kills Tybalt just because Tybalt slays Mercutio, despite knowing the consequence of fighting -death- he still takes it upon himself as a way to seek repentance for Mercutio’s death. He is able to restrain himself before the death of Mercutio but after his death Romeo falls to his impulsiveness and fights Tybalt. After killing Tybalt and getting banishment instead of a death sentence, Romeo refuses to look on the bright side and goes to Friar Lawrence where he says “Ha, banishment! Be merciful, say ‘death’.” (Act 3, Scene 3 line 12), this shows that he deems life without Juliet life not worth living. He then continues weep then decides to take his own life, the Friar stopped him but had Romeo stopped being so quick to make decisions he would have realised banishment is much better than death and would be rejoicing instead of weeping. Romeo hears about Juliet's “death” from his servant Balthasar he instantly decides to kill himself, he doesn't mourn his loss or even cry, he simply buys poison, rides to Verona and kills himself. Had he spoken to anyone and taken any advice he would realize that suicide is not the answer but he had his mind made in a minute, he wanted to be dead with his wife. Romeo impulsiveness to make decisions is a very important characteristic for him to have and for the rest of the
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 led to the death of Mercutio.
Techniques and Devices Shakespeare Uses to Show the Power and Beauty of the Love Between Romeo and Juliet
Teenagers are notorious for their impulsive actions, a trait that stems from a lock of maturity, which can have devastating consequences. In the play Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, one of the main characters, Romeo, was no exception to this rule, as he acted impulsively and ultimately paid the price for his actions. Romeo’s decision to attend the Capulet’s party led to him being recognized by Tybalt, who in turn became infuriated and vowed revenge. This ultimately led to the fight in which Mercutio was slain by Tybalt, who was killed by Romeo after he once again acted impulsively by letting his emotions control him, an action that led to his banishment from within Verona walls. Romeo exhibited his impulsive nature once more when
Gladly shunned who gladly flew from me" Benvolio is saying Romeo is avoiding him. This is because Romeo says he is in love with me. In sadness, I love a woman" Romeo says he is in love, but is he really? Romeo uses dull and depressing language and a series of oxymorons. "cold fire, heavy lightness, sick health" Romeo is depressed because his love for Rosaline has not returned.
Ultimately, Romeo and Juliet become embodiments of impulsiveness. Through their rash words and actions in the tragedy “Romeo and Juliet”, Shakespeare sets forth that both are too hasty in their decisions, leading them into unfortunate events. As the plot unfolds, Romeo and Juliet’s futile love is torn apart by their family’s hate and animosity towards each other. Despite their constant struggle to let their love survive, it is doomed from the beginning of the tragedy. It is plain that lack of foresight and wisdom leads to disaster all around.
The average person doesn’t meet someone, profess their love for them, and ask her hand in marriage all in one night… but Romeo does. In Shakespeare’s calamity of Romeo and Juliet, Romeo is the idiot that does all of this. I blame Romeo for the death of these star-crossed lovers, along with the other four characters. If it wasn’t for his impetuous nature, none of this would have happened. Romeo’s relationship with Juliet could be more thought out and more planned. Although the play ended with his death included, without him Juliet and others would have kept their lives.
Romeo and Juliet, the tragic play by William Shakespeare, centers around the love story between Romeo, the young heir of the Montagues, and Juliet, the daughter of the house of Capulet. This story starts off with two opposing families of royalty, the Montagues and the Capulets. These families have a deep seeded hatred for one another that traces way back into their family’s history. Shakespeare takes his audience though a heart churning tale of two star crossed lovers. From the start Romeo and Juliet’s love seemed to be an uphill battle that they would never win even with help. The relationship of Romeo and Juliet is a tragic love story of two star crossed lovers trying to find a way to love each other.
In the story of Romeo and Juliet, Romeo was the tragic hero. His flaw was relying more on passion and love than common sense. He did not think before he made actions. Much like Othello, a death happened because of misleading and no understanding of what was really happening.