Romeo And Juliet Essay, Research Paper
I consider myself a hopeless romantic. I have hopes and dreams of finding my true love.
Although I would like for my true love to say he would die for me and would never want
to live without me, and me the same for him, I know realistically that this would never be.
There is no better example of this love than in William Shakespeare?s Romeo and Juliet.
In this tale , their love was true and they did give up their lives tragically, so as not to be
without each other. In this play there are also forms of love between friends, and ?love?
for enemies, and I will explore all three.
Two households both alike in dignity
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
From froth the fatal loins of these two foes
A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life,
Whose misadventur?d piteous overthrows
Doth with their death bury their parent?s strife.
The fearful passage of their death-mark?d love
And the continuance of their parents? rage,
Which, but their children?s end, nought could remove,
The which, if you with patient ears attend,
What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.
First, love for friends was, and is a necessity for the characters. Romeo was in love with
Rosaline, a girl who didn?t feel love the same way he did. Consequently, Romeo was
distraught over his love and felt that no woman could be as fair as Rosaline. ? For beauty
starv?d with her severity cuts beauty off from all posterity. She is too fair, too wise, wisely
too fair, to merit bliss by making me despair. She hath forsworn to love, and in that vow
do I live dead, that live to tell it now.? (I, I, 217-222).Romeo?s friend, Benvolio,
encouraged him to go to the Capulet?s feast and predicted that he would find other girls
more attractive than the fair Rosaline.? At this same ancient feast of Capulet?s sups the fair
Rosealine, whom thou so loves, with all the admired beauties of Verona. Go thither and
with unattained eye compare her face with some that I shall show and I will make thee
think the swan a crow.? (I, II, 84-89). Later, when violence was prevalent, Benvolio
watched out for his friends and family by encouraging peace. ?I pray thee good Mercutio,
let?s retire; the day is hot, the Caples are abroad, and if we meet we shall not ?scape a
brawl,? (III, I, 1-3).
The nurse is Juliet?s best friend, or more appropriately as Juliet?s foster mother. Unlike
Juliet?s own mother, Lady Capulet, the nurse cares for Juliet, knows when she was born,
and holds fond memories of her childhood. The nurse aided Romeo and Juliet with their
plans for marriage by acting as a messenger between them. After the slaying of Tybalt, the
nurse gives Romeo the ring of he and Juliet?s marriage, signifying Juliet?s love for him.
The love of friends was imperative for these two lovers.
The next is the love for enemies. The hatred between the house of the Capulet?s and the
house of the Montague?s is the driving force between Romeo and Juliet. The two families
would never have approved of the relationship for these two young lovers. In act I, scene
V, the fact that Romeo and his friends were uninvited, but still attended the Capulet?s
feast, added to Tybalt?s anger.? ?Tis he, that villain Romeo…..It fits when such a villain is
a guest: I?ll not endure him.? (I,V,63, 74-75). This constant anger and hatred between the
two families lead to the destined , however accidental, killing of Mercutio by Tybalt.
Mercutio, in his last minutes, realizes the errors of their families fudes, ?A plague O? both
your houses, they have made worms of me. I have it, and you soundly too. Your houses!?
( III, I, 108-110). In a fit of hatred and rage, Romeo took revenge on Tybalt. This revenge
caused Romeo to be banished from Verona and separated from his only true love, Juliet.
Lastly, however, most importantly, is the love between lovers. Romeo and Juliet were
victims of cupid?s arrow. Through assailing eyes their love was bound, and then sealed
with a kiss. ? Thus from my lips, by thine, my sin is purg?d….Sin from lips? O trespass
sweetly urg?d. Give me my sin again.? ( I, V, 106,108-109) Ironically, at the feast of the
Capulets, where Juliet was to meet her intended husband, Paris, she meets her future
husband, Romeo. Their unfortunate fate is that they have fallen in love with the enemy.
Knowing this fate of loving the enemy would cause much sorrow between their families,
being without each other was more pain than they could take. ?My only love sprung from
my only hate. Too early seen unknown, and known too late. Prodigious birth of love to
me that I must love a loathed enemy.? (I,V,137 – 140) In an act of impulse and love,
Romeo and Juliet were secretly married by Friar Laurence. This marriage is quickly
discolored by the killing of Tybalt, and Romeo is soon banished from Verona. In their last
night together, Romeo and Juliet make love for the first and only time. Their final moment
together is ended with the sun, morning, and fear of loosing each other. ?Yond light is not
daylight, I know it, I. It is some meteor that the sun exhales to be to thee this night a
torchbearer and light thee on thy way to Mantua. Therefore stay yet: thou need?st not to
be gone? They both knew that staying would mean death. Their is irony spoken in their
last words to one another, they both have seen each other?s death.. ? O God, I have an
ill-divining soul! Methinks I see thee, now thou art so low, as one dead in the bottom of
the tomb. Either my eyesight fails, or thou look?st pale. ….And trust me, love, in my eye
so do you. Dry sorrow drinks our blood. Adieu, adieu.? (III, V, 54 – 59) In the mids of
her pain for loosing Romeo, her mother comes to tell her the news that her father has set
the marriage for her to marry Paris on Thursday. In desperation she calls to Friar Laurence
to help her in this desperate situation. He devises the plan for her to drink a potion that
will make her appear dead, but will awaken later in the arms of her true love Romeo.
Romeo never received the letter from Friar Laurence, telling him of their plan for them to
be together, so when he hears of Juliet?s death, he returns to Verona to find her. There she
lay in her tomb, cold and dead to Romeo. In his pain and sorrow for loosing his love, he
drinks a poison that will reunite him and his lover forever. Juliet awakens, looking for her
true love only to find him lying dead at her bosom. Juliet stabs herself, ? O happy dagger.
This is thy sheath. There rust, and let me die.? ( V, III, 167 – 168). Suicide was the only
way Romeo and Juliet could be together eternally.
A glomming peace this morning with it brings:
The sun for sorrow will not show his head.
Go hence to have more talk of these sad things.
Some shall be pardon?d, and some punished,
For never was a story of more woe
Than this of Juliet and her Romeo.