Benvolio: “O Romeo, Romeo, brave Mercutio is dead.
That galliant spirit hath aspired the clouds,
Which too untimely here did scorn the earth.”
Romeo: “This day’s black fate on moe days doth depend,
This but begins the woe others must end.”
Romeo is saying here that because of Mercutio’s curse, and his inevitable death, Romeo and Juliet’s fate is sealed.
These themes are consolidated at the end of the play when the death of the two lovers is necessary for the two families to unite:
“O brother Montague, give me thy hand.
This is my daughter’s jointure, for no more
Can I demand.”
Capulet is asking for forgiveness and Montague replies:
“But I can give the more,
For I will raise her statue in pure gold,
That whiles Verona by the name is known,
There shall no figure as such a rate be set
As that of true and faithful Juliet.”
Montague and Capulet have decided to make up. Montague is almost thanking Capulet for Juliet, and congratulating him on such a fantastically raised daughter.
Now, I will consider the various forms of love, beginning with lust. Lust is a very powerful emotion, especially in Romeo and Juliet, but it is portrayed as a crude and filthy. Mainly, Mercutio is the source of the play’s lust, who directs several sexually offensive insults first towards Romeo and then towards the nurse after she turns up in act two scene four:
“’Tis no less, I tell ye, for the bawdy hand of the dial is now
Upon the prick of noon.”
Mercutio cleverly plays on his words here, using “prick” as both the slang for penis and meaning a very small point (i.e. “the prick of noon” = It’s exactly noon). He later accuses the nurse of being a “bawd” which is someone who makes a profit from prostitution, after she ask for “young Romeo”. This is also insulting to Romeo; Mercutio is suggesting that Romeo is being ‘sold’ as a rent boy by the nurse. This type of lust is mainly used for comic value.
Also used in the play is Romantic love. This is almost the opposite of lust, but is still a very dominant emotion. Unlike lust, romantic love is depicted in a good light. However, it can also be blasphemous. For instance when Juliet refers to Romeo as a “God of [her] idolatry”, at the time this play is set this could have been offensive to some people because a majority of people were very strong Catholics in Medieval Italy.
Romance is very frequently used in Romeo and Juliet because that’s what the story is about.
Family love can be quite violent, as the men in the family use aggression to keep the women in line – this was morally and legally accepted and even common (only by todays standards is it considered inappropriate). This is quite clearly shown in act 3 scene 5when Capulet looses his temper over Juliet’s refusal to marry Paris:
“How will she none? Doth she not give us thanks?
Is she not proud?…
…How how, how how chopt-logic? What is this?
‘Proud’, and ‘I thank you’, and ‘I thank you not,”
Capulet starts off shocked at Lady Capulet’s explanation that Juliet doesn’t want to marry, but then he gets angry when Juliet informs him that she is not “proud” but “thankful”. I think it is possible that he is confused slightly by this, and that his confusion enrages him further.
There is also a paternal-like relationship between Romeo and Friar Lawrence. This is demonstrated at several points throughout the play, such as when Romeo seeks someone to marry himself and Juliet, and after he kills Tybalt. This bond is possibly stronger than that between Romeo and his real father, and shows just how weak a father-son bond could be in medieval Italy.
I will now explore the language Shakespeare uses to present the themes discussed in this essay. The physical layout and pronunciations of words in Shakespeare’s work is the most obvious difference between Shakespeare’s work and more modern pieces. The word “you” frequently gets replaced with “thee” or “thy”. Pronunciation changes on the “-ed” suffix sometimes to “-èd” e.g. banished changes to banishèd. Sentence structure was looser than it is now. This was partially used for poetic flow, but would have been an acceptable form in which to speak.
On a deeper level, the language used by Romeo to describe Juliet and by Juliet to describe Romeo is based largely upon objects of beauty such as the stars, heaven and God:
“Two of the fairest stars in all the heaven,
Having some business, do entreat her eyes
To twinkle in their spheres till they return.”
“…swear by thy gracious self,
Which is the God of my idolatry…”
In the first quote, Romeo compares the twinkle in Juliet’s eyes to stars, and says that her eyes are so twinkly and bright that they could easily stand replacement for two of them. The second comment is Juliet comparing Romeo to a God. In Catholicism, idolatry isn’t permitted because they believe that an idol would draw attention away from loving and praising God. So for Juliet to call Romeo both a God and an idol is extremely sacrilegious.
In conclusion, Shakespeare uses a well-balanced mixture of good and bad forms of love, but tips the scales emotionally by always mixing love and death. This association between love and death ultimately turns the play from a romantic drama into a tragedy.