‘,what light through yonder windows breaks?’
Romeo has seen Juliet at an upper window, act 2 scene 2, and as she appears so bright he compares her to the sun, he goes on to say,
‘Arise fair sun and kill the envious moon’
Romeo says that the moon is envious of Juliet’s beauty, and encourages her to stop being the moons servant and become his lover. The sun and the moon are also used as a contrast between love and hate.
Another image used to present love and hate is bird imagery.
‘so shows a snowy dove drooping with crows’
Romeo is comparing Juliet with the rest of the room; he is saying that she is the most beautiful thing in the room. The colours can be related to love and hate, white is a pure, innocent and loving colour, whereas black is dark and hateful. This contrast is used to show Romeos hate for the room, because they are Capulets, compared to his instant love for Juliet. This theme continues into act 2 scene 2,
‘Like a poor prisoner in its twisted gives,
And with a silken thread plucks it back again’
Juliet does not want Romeo to leave; she compares him to a wild untameable bird that she has to pull back every time it strays, but she says she has a way to tame Romeo. This is saying that love its self is wild and untameable.
In act 1 scene 5, Tybalt’s and Capulet’s ‘hate’ conversation stands out because it is surrounded with Romeo and Juliet’s love language. This shows how closely love and hate really are.
‘Fetch me my rapier, boy’
Tybalt tells his page to fetch his sword he plans to kill Romeo. He says he must protect his family and his ancestors honour and believes that killing Romeo is not a sin. Although this is not the first time we see hate in the play, Tybalt is the first character to use violent language, this is in act 1 scene 1.
‘I hate the word,
As I hate hell, all Montague, and thee.
Have at the coward’
Here we see that Tybalt is the violent character, also we find out just how strong the hate is between the families. However, it is not only Tybalt that uses violent language, Romeo and Juliet use it too.
‘ I will tear thee joint by joint
and strew this hungry churchyard with thy limbs’
This is in act 5 scene 3 and Romeo believes that Juliet is dead; his violent language is used to show just how much he loves her, and there for again just how close love and hate lie.
Shakespeare also uses characters to show love and hate. There are different types of love shown in the play, motherly love between Juliet and the nurse, friendly love between Romeo and Mercutio, and, the most obvious, romantic love between Juliet and Romeo.
‘And she was weaned – I never shall forget it- ‘
The nurse loves Juliet as if she were her mother, and here, in act 1 scene 3, she says that she will never forget the day Juliet stopped breastfeeding. The nurse would have breastfed Juliet as it was common practice in those days. Romeo and Mercutio show friendly love within the play,
‘And fire-eyed fury be my conduct now.
Now Tybalt take the ‘villain’ back again’
This is in act 3 scenes 1, and Mercutio has been killed by Tybalt, Romeo is furious with anger, and says his eyes are blazing. This shows how much Romeo feels for Mercutio by killing Tybalt he is risking his life and his love, Juliet, but he still believe that Tybalt should be killed as revenge. This shows that love, friendly romantic or motherly, is the strongest bond anyone can have. The Romantic love is the most consistent and obvious in the play, shown by Romeo and Juliet.
‘Thy purpose marriage, send me word tomorrow’
Even though they have known each other for only a few hours they are planning to get married,
‘love goes toward love as schoolboys from their
books,
But love from love, toward school with heavy looks.’
Here Romeo is saying to himself that loves finds you and come together quickly but leaves you slowly and painfully, just like school boys run away from school at the end of the day, but drag their feet and walk slowly on the way to school in the morning.
Another theme Shakespeare uses is religion,
‘This holy shrine, the gentle sin is this,
My lips two blushing pilgrims ready stand’
Romeo says that Juliet’s hand is a shrine to which pilgrims travel to worship. Religion is used in the play to cover up and hide the lovers true feeling, when writing the play it is obvious Shakespeare thought a lot about religion as Romeo means ‘A pilgrim to Rome’ in Italian.
In act 2 scene 2 flowers are used to show love,
‘That which we call a rose
By any other word would smell as sweet’
This is when Romeo and Juliet are talking about there names and families, Juliet says that without his name Romeo would still be the same and she would still love him but the conflict between the families wouldn’t be there and they would be free to love each other. The flowers represent un-dying love. This shows that love is unrestricted and cannot be held back by anything or anyone, it cannot be affected by earthly things only fate and the stars. Through out the play we are reminded that the stars map out the characters fate for them, this is first shown in the prologue,
‘A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life’
By telling a basic outline of the story at the beginning of the play, the audience is involved because they know the lovers fate, so it is as they are acting as the stars because they know what will happen.
‘And shake the yoke of inauspicious stars’
In act 5 scene 3 Romeo says he wants to get rid of the burden that always hangs over him that was imposed by fate and the stars.
‘o brother Montague, give me thy hand’
At the end of the play when Romeo and Juliet both commit suicide and can be happily together at last the also join the families together and end the years of fighting.
‘Doth with their death bury their parents’ strife’
This shows that even though hate and death is strong, love is stronger and when, eventually, love and hate join love will be victorious and hate will be over ridden.
I think the most affective way of portraying love and hate has to be the bird imagery because love, like a bird, is untamable just as Juliet says. Fate is also effective especially to the audience of the time, as they believed very much in fate and horoscopes. So at the end of the play Shakespeare gets across, what I believe to be his strongest message, that love is so strong that you should never let anything, including hate stop it!
