Thesis- Even though love empowered some characters, in all it is destructive because it led to ignorance, resulted in rushed decision making and relationships, and is responsible for numerous deaths.
Body 1- First, the love in the play is destructive because it led to ignorance. Romeo's love for Juliet prevented him from seeing the truth when he thinks she is dead despite his colored description of her appearance post-mortem: "Hath had no power yet upon beauty. Thou art not conquer'd. Beauty's ensign yet is crimson in thy lips and in the cheeks, and death's pale flag has not advanced there."(page 227) Romeo's concupiscence to be with Juliet weakens his judgment and lead him to ignore obvious signs of life while weeping over her body without
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Romeo believes that he needs to kill himself to be with his true love: "I set up my everlasting rest, And shake the yoke of inauspicious stars From this world-wearied flesh...Here’s to my love! [Drinks] O, true apothecary!Thy drugs are quick. Thus with a kiss, I die" (page ). Romeo needs to be with Juliet because of his deep love for her, his desire to be with her leads him to kill himself. Romeo’s decision to end his life has a disastrous impact on his family and Juliet's, this destruction directly leads to two more deaths. After Romeo has ended his life Juliet awakens and sees Romeo’s dead body. This causes the young teenager to take on a course of action similar to her love's believing that it is the only way to be with him, " O happy dagger![Snatching ROMEO’s dagger]This is thy sheath; [Stabs herself] there rust, and let me die. [Falls on ROMEO’s body, and dies]" Juliet is eager to end her life and considers it to be the best and only option to maintain her love. Although she considers death the best option it leads to a disastrous impact on her family (once again) and Friar Lawrence the one who helps her to stage her fake
...se he believes Juliet to dead, drinks poison to take his own life as a last resort. What Romeo is unaware of is that Juliet is very much alive, so it is very ironic when he says, “Death, that has sucked the honey of thy breath,/ 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 advanced there” (V iii 101-105). This is fate in the works in the play. When Juliet sees that her love has not rescued her and rather is dead, she kills herself with a dagger found in the proximity. “O happy dagger/ This is thy sheath; there rust and let me die” (V iii 182-183).
Juliet strategizes her disastrous plan and worries, “How if, when I am laid into the tomb, I wake before the time that Romeo come to redeem me?” (Lines 30-32 of Act Four, Scene Three). Juliet is desperate to see Romeo, ergo she plans to fake her death. Her thoughts of Romeo finding her lifeless foreshadows their future. Romeo is deprived of the news of Juliet’s real state of health, therefore he says, “Well, Juliet, I will lie with thee tonight. O mischief, thou art swift to enter the thoughts of desperate men!” (Lines 34-36 of Act Five, Scene One). Once again, Romeo’s perception is only focused on Juliet. His mental instability leads him to think Paris is in the way obtaining true happiness, thus he slays him. Romeo acquires poison, stands beside Juliet, and states, “Here’s to my love! (Drinks.) O true apothecary! Thy drugs are quick. Thus with a kiss I die.” (Lines 119-120 of Act Five, Scene Three). Romeo observes Juliet’s body and determines that he should die beside her. Juliet wakes to his lifeless body, and determines she should commit suicide, as well. Romeo’s foolish decisions lead to the death of himself and
Human ignorance plays a huge role in a tragedy. Without ignorance everyone would know what is happening and the problem would never occur. This is especially relevant to Shakespeare's play "Romeo and Juliet". There are many cases within the play that show that the characters are ignorant of what is happening somewhere else. The characters either do not know that something is occurring or the character does not.
However, there was an intense moment of despair when Romeo was caught in a brawl and banished away. This was an emotional time, for the two had just gotten married. Romeo went away that night and Juliet sobbed for days. Everyone tried to comfort her, but only Juliet’s secret lover could heal her throbbing heart. This emotion is displayed yet again when Romeo finds that Juliet is “dead”. He is so torn apart that he decides to join his love with a bottle of baneful toxin. She then wakes up from a deathly slumber to find her lover dead. Out of anguish, Juliet pierces herself with his dagger.
Romeo, as a young adolescence, your brain is not fully developed, which may lead to regretful decisions. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, teens have a “tendency to act on impulse -without regard for risk.” Therefore, you may not see how irrational this idea is; although, you will when it is too late. Also, Friar Lawrence has devised a plan that reunites you and your Juliet. His plan is to fake Juliet’s death, steal her away in the night, and hide the two of you from your families so that you may live happily ever after. When you die in a matter of hours, Friar explains to both houses how the plan went wrong starting with how he gave Juliet a sleeping potion and he claims he, “intended for it wrought on her the form of death.” He continues to say, “Meantime I writ to Romeo that he should hither come as this dire night to help to take her from her borrowed grave.” Finally he pleas that, “Friar John was stayed by accident, and yesternight returned my letter back.” In my ghostly form, I witnessed him explain the unfolding of these events. Take it from me that making this impulsive decision is unwise and will only ruin Friar’s plan. In addition, poor Juliet is unfortunate enough to awaken to your
In Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare shows that there are two people who fall in love and die. Shakespeare demonstrates that people do dumb things in our society like falling for looks and that emotions cause a person to go crazy and it takes over their mind because society loves to play mind tricks on someone’s feelings.
Romeo is surprised at what he did because Juliet awakes as he dies. To see him dead causes Juliet to stab herself with his dagger, straight through the heart. It's a bittersweet ending to such a famous and timeless love story. The fact that they both died for each other is romantic. The fact that they could have been together makes it all seem a greater tragedy.
Romeo drank a vile of poison because he heard the news that Juliet had died, but in reality she was asleep awaiting for his rescue. Juliet awakes to the horrifying sight of Romeo’s lifeless corpse where she commits suicide in the fashion of stabbing herself with Romeo’s dragger. Though both Romeo and Juliet seem to progress through the Five Stages of Grief in an instant. In the case of Romeo, he initially denies the news of Juliet’s “death” and then retorts to searching for a means he should use to kill himself. Romeo experienced the first stage of denial and skips all the stages until acceptance where he acknowledged the terms of the situation and believed that suicide is the best method in order to be with Juliet forever. “Romeo felt cold, even in that terrible heat … ‘It can’t be!’ said Romeo at last … Romeo had made up his mind. He would sleep with Juliet that night. The only question was what means should he use to kill himself? He felt nothing- his only though was to get Juliet and be with her forever” (Shakespeare 94). On the other hand, based on the inferences from the text, Juliet doesn’t seem to experience the Five Stages of Grief at all and appears as if she has given up hope and decide to die to live by
Upon receiving news from Balthasar about the death of Juliet, Romeo was devastated and immediately reacted in an impulsive way to the situation before even taking the time to confirm with people such as the friar to make sure that the information he was given was, in fact, accurate. Instead, Romeo rushed off to purchase poison so that he could kill himself and be with Juliet after declaring “Well, Juliet, I will lie with thee tonight” (5.1.37). Had Romeo taken the time to contact the friar rather than acting so hastily and impulsively, he would have known that Juliet was still alive, and that her death-like sleep was nothing more than a part of a deception developed by the friar. Unfortunately for Romeo, because of his haste, he killed himself only minutes before Juliet awoke, and had he waited a few minutes to revise and analyze his decision, he would have lived to see Juliet’s awakening and the two lovers could have been reunited. Romeo’s own death was not all the consequence that resulted from his hasty decision. When Juliet awakened, all that was left of Romeo was his dead body as pointed out by the friar when to Juliet he sated “Thy husband in thy bosom there lies dead” (5.1.160). The sight of Romeo’s dead body had horrified Juliet, which led her to stab herself with Romeo’s dagger, committing suicide. Therefore Romeo’s
Love can be very righteous and beneficial if done moderately and adequately. When ones love life takes over his or her life in reality it can prove to be highly dangerous and injurious both mentally and physically. In the play Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare advises the importance of moderate love. Unfortunately though this tragic play ends in two devastating and dreadful deaths of both young lovers. However they are not totally to blame, the ones to blame for the death of these two lovers are Friar Lawrence, the nurse, and the Capulets themselves.
Romeo tells Juliet that he will stay with her, but Juliet is dead. So by that Romeo he means that he will try to kill himself. Currently Romeo is going through the grief response and he is on the stage where he is suicidal (Just if you wanted to know what’s going on in his brain). Romeo then drinks the vial of poison and dies. Similarly Juliet does more risky things for love.
William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is a tragic story about two lovers who are from two disputing families, and their eventual suicides. Shakespeare uses dramatic irony throughout the play to create tension for the audience and foreshadow the ending. Dramatic irony is when the words or actions of characters in a story have a different meaning to the reader than to the characters. This is because the reader knows something that the characters do not. Romeo and Juliet’s death could have been prevented if the characters in the story weren’t so ignorant of their situations, and often times the reader recognizes this.
Juliet goes through physical pain, stabbing herself so she can be with Romeo after his death. Juliet looks at death as a positive thing because it allows her to be with Romeo again. Before she kills herself she says, “O, happy dagger, this is thy sheath. There rust, and let me die” (Shakespeare V.iii.174-175). In most romantic tales, violence is the last thing you would think of when it comes to love, but it would be different in this play.
...t life. Suicide is the most extreme manifestation of this fear of life. A more moderate manifestation of this fear is depression. Early in the play, Romeo is described as having depression like symptoms. As the love affair progresses, it becomes increasingly clear that Romeo can not handle life without Juliet. By the end of the play, he kills himself because he can no longer have Juliet. Romeo’s final act of suicide is not completely based on the death of Juliet. The depression he exhibits at the onset of the play is already exhibiting his desire to escape life.
In Romeo and Juliet, love serves as the tragedy. According to critic Denton J. Snider, "love, the emotion of the Family, in its excess destroys the Family; though it be the origin and bond of the domestic institution, it now assails and annihilates that institution." The love of Romeo and Juliet for one another, not only destroys their families, but ultimately destroys them as well. Their love and devotion for one another causes them to rebel against the institution of family. All in all, "love, which is the emotional ground of the Family, is here destroying the Family itself" (Snider).