Contrast Between Love and Violence in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet

William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon in the time of Elizabeth I. Romeo & Juliet is one of his most famous plays and has always been extremely popular in mainstream and in contemporary media, mainly because the ideals and issues brought up in the play are still very valid in modern times. The play revolves around the, aptly named, Romeo & Juliet and their forbidden love and their struggle to love one another with each others families, Capulets and Montagues, feuding with each other, underneath the romanticism it is a story of a plan going wrong. I am going to analyse and interpret how two very contrasting things; love and violence relate to each other in the play, the effect they have on the characters and the events that unfold.

In scene 1 act 1 William Shakespeare establishes the feud between the Capulets (Juliet's family) and Montagues (Romeo's family), this is the very first proper scene in the play, excluding the play's prologue, and it opens with violence. This scene establishes the fact that this is a feud and not a little disagreement straight away as Sampson and Gregory are having a discussion of how to deal with the Montagues should they start trouble, stating things like: "On my word, we will not carry coals." Saying they won't take any insults lying down, also in the first scene Sampson states: "In choler, we'll draw." Meaning, if angry, they will draw their swords, another notable thing said during this conversation is when Gregory says: "Thou art not moved quickly to strike." Taking what Sampson says and spinning it to make it seem like he is not quick enough to act against the Montagues, perhaps trying to fire him up in case there is a fight.

Other things that make this seem like an ongoing war a...

... middle of paper ...

...lict breeds nothing but conflict and that it is their fault that two lovers have died, they realise that they have indirectly led to the death of one of their own family and that makes them see that, their feud is going to solve nothing, violence has led to tragedy and death but it has also led to resolve and the preservation of life, the death of Romeo and Juliet, a tragedy, but the resolution of the feud and the preservation of the Montagues and Capulets.

The contrast between love and violence has affected the characters deeply in that they have realised that love can lead to violence and that their violence led to the death of love, when Romeo fought, he fought out of love, not out of anger or a need for violence. Maybe what Shakespeare was trying to say is that, although love and violence are two very different things, they sometimes make nothing but trouble.