A Comparison Of Love And Violence In Shakespeare's Romeo And Juliet

1011 Words3 Pages

“Love is the most powerful force on Earth.” This statement by Nelson Rockefeller, a previous vice president and businessman, proves to be an accurate notion for the protagonists in the play Romeo and Juliet, as well as Ophelia in Hamlet. The suicides committed by these characters in their respective plays portray the powerful nature of love and loyalty and the overwhelming passion and violence they can trigger. Examining how love operates as a contributing factor to the double suicide of Romeo and Juliet compared to the way in which love triggers the suicide of Ophelia reveals a powerful correlation between love, or the lack of love, and violence.
In Shakespeare’s most famous play, Romeo and Juliet, love is a violent, overpowering force that defies all other value and loyalties. The young couple refuses to be captives to their names and respective social circles. Juliet wishes for Romeo to reject his given identity;
Hence “banished” is banished from the world,” and death mistermed. Calling death “banished,” thou cutt’st my head off with a golden ax and smilest upon the stroke that murders me” (3.3.140). Romeo’s words
The tragic resolution is a demonstration of the destruction caused by love. If his love of Rosaline had not prompted Romeo to attend a Capulet party uninvited in Act 1, scene 1, he would never had encountered Juliet or become involved in a violent conflict with Tybalt. If Romeo did not view the death of his lover as the most cruel fate and the end of his world, he would not have been driven to commit suicide. If Romeo and Juliet did not prize their immature, sexually-based love so highly, they would never have betrayed their families in the first place to satisfy their own desires which would end up causing the death of themselves as well as others. Love is, in fact, the great

Open Document