Throughout the text Escalus, the Prince of Verona, is a representative of law and order. He is very important and respected, containing the actions that are made through the on-going feud. We can observe this as when he departs the scenes the mood changes from one of violence and confusion too peace and order. Examples of this are first of all seen in the first scene of act 1 from line 80-101 when he makes a very powerful speech, which ends the fighting at once, and disperses the crowds. “On pain of torture, from those bloody handles, Throw your mistemper‘d weapons to the ground”. The mood also changes when Lady Montague asks of her son Romeo, through worry. Act 1 scene 1 line 114 “O where is Romeo? Saw you him to-day?” Here we can see how Shakespeare makes a huge leap from violence to love which is effective as it keeps the peace in the scene but also interests the audience again. As the story unfolds, we see how unhappy Romeo is, which made me forget about all, the troubles of before and I began to feel sorry for Romeo. We can see he is unhappy by what his father tells Benvolio (Act 1 scene 1 line 130) “With tears augmenting (adding to) the fresh morning’s dew.” I also feel this emotion expressed by Lady Capulet, solely as a mother and not a fictional character, helped to get the real characterisation across to the audience.
Friar Laurence also plays a key role in the theme of hatred because he intends to use the love between Romeo and Juliet to conquer the hate of both families, which has been around for so long. I think he has been motivated by the best intentions in the world trying to make peace-even in just two families. I feel he is always there when explanations are needed, in answers to questions which Romeo and Juliet both have about the next step to take. Act 3 scene 3 “Let me dispute with thee of thy estate”. Friar Laurence tries to console Romeo and to solve the dreadful problems, which have arisen. Also in Act 4 Scene 1 he plans to solve her problem of marrying the County Paris “And, if thou dar‘st, I‘ll give thee remedy”. He is important because he is the person who is talked to by Romeo and Juliet because they can not speak to their families due to the hatred of the other family. Most of all he is important for his good intentions, which in fact precipitate the tragedy.
The hatred between the two families also urges on the events of this tragedy for they always rush into everything. Juliet proposes marriage on the first evening which she meets Romeo-Act 2 scene 2 line 144 “Thy propose marriage, send me word tomorrow.” This is mainly because they are both quite headstrong and impulsive. Romeo sword fights with both Tybalt “This shall determine that.” and then Paris “Wilt thou provoke me? Then have it at thee, boy!” on impulse and then kills them both. Juliet speaks of this at the very end of act 1, line 137 “my only love sprung from my only hate!” Romeo and Juliet's headstrong behaviour and both their families feuds force them to marry in secret. This causes great difficulties from the start. Juliet tries to obey her family’s wishes, but her feelings for Romeo are strong so she can not marry the County Paris because she is already married and the secret marriage was performed only because of their parents feud, the hatred leads to Juliet pretending she is dead which in turns lead to Romeo killing himself over Juliet’s supposed death which then leads Juliet to stab herself and the tragedy to be unfolded by Friar Laurence. At the end of the play we do see that some good has come out of this unexpected tragedy- Montague and Capulet both agree to end their feud but it is a shame that it had to result in the deaths of their only children before they came to this agreement. Shakespeare also manages to create an atmosphere of catharsis at the end of the play. This works very well with the tragedies of Romeo and Juliet's death, which brings together the emotions of the audience, purging them by the events of this tragedy and ending on a contradictive, peaceful note.