Romeo And Juliet Sacrifice Analysis

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Literature throughout history and all around the world frequently manifests sacrifices as the highlights of love. In the French novel Manon Lescaut, Abbé Prévost 's Des Grieux, the protagonist, becomes a thief and murderer for Manon--a girl who values luxury over love. Des Grieux sacrifices moral principles, innocence, and pursuits of becoming a theologian for his love. However, he does not regret making these sacrifices; in his eyes, being with Manon is worth losing everything. In many stories like this one, one idea is constant: love takes great sacrifice, which may lead to dire tragedies. This idea is explored in depth in William Shakespeare’s tragic play Romeo and Juliet, where the title characters are doomed ¨star-crossed lovers¨ from …show more content…

Through this tragic play, Shakespeare illustrates that love requires people to sacrifice many precious things, which can include family, friends, even life. Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet depicts the nuances of human experience of love. Romeo and Juliet’s story is the greatest declaration of romantic love.
Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet’s love for each other causes them to sacrifice their family, although their families have always had great gravity over the lovers. After the party where the lovers first meet, Juliet stands on her balcony and promises herself to Romeo: “be but sworn my love, and I’ll no longer be a Capulet” [2.2.37-39]. In this case, “sworn my love” can be rearranged to mean “my sworn love,” which refers to Romeo as the one that she will always love. For Juliet to become a Montague-- her family’s rivals-- would mean that she would give up many things she and her family value. In their fight over her refusal to marry Paris, Juliet’s parents threaten to not “acknowledge [her]” as their daughter, even if “[she]...hang, beg, starve, die in the streets” [4.1.192-193]. “Hanging,” “begging,” “starving,” “dying” are all very extreme ramifications that Juliet’s parents will give to her if she does not …show more content…

Romeo’s best friend is Mercutio, while Juliet’s best friend is the Nurse, who is also the closest thing she has to a mother. When Tybalt challenges Romeo to a duel, Romeo refuses to fight because of his marriage to Juliet. This results in his friend Mercutio fighting Tybalt on Romeo’s behalf, becoming wounded, and dying. Romeo is distraught at Mercutio’s death and proclaims, “My very friend, hath got this mortal hurt/ In my behalf… O sweet Juliet, Thy beauty hath made me effeminate/ And in my temper softened valor’s steel” [3.1.114-120]. The phrases “thy beauty hath made me effeminate” and “softened valor’s steel” imply that Romeo blames himself for not protecting Mercutio because of his relationship with Juliet. He puts Mercutio and a man’s bravery second to Juliet because of love. Similarly, the Nurse is Juliet’s mother figure and her confidant. When the Nurse urges Juliet to forget Romeo, Juliet decides to become independent from her for the first time and states, “Thou [Nurse] and my bosom henceforth be twain” [3.5.240]. By using the word “twain”, Juliet cuts off all ties she has with the Nurse. This proves that Juliet’s love for Romeo is so strong that it forces her to stay true to him above all else. Their love and devotion to each other have found no equal and transcend

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