In the rest of the play love is seen as destructive such as the argument between Lord Capulet and Juliet where Capulet tells her to marry Paris but Juliet says no and then Capulet replies that if she doesn’t marry Paris she will be disowned and Lady Capulet agrees with her husband but the nurse tells Capulet to be easier on Juliet and he just mocks her. Death is also caused by the love between Romeo and Juliet because when Romeo sees Juliet on her death bed he poisons himself and when Juliet awakens because she didn’t die she took some potion given to her by Friar Lawrence she takes Romeo’s dagger and put it through her heart and dies. Friar Lawrence gave Juliet the potion so that after they put her in the tomb she could get up and marry Romeo but the letter sent by Friar Lawrence to Romeo never arrived to him so he didn’t know about the plan and when he saw what he thought was Juliet dead he killed himself. Friar Lawrence hoped that if Romeo and Juliet could be wed possibly it could bring the Montague’s and the Capulet’s closer which was a love shown by him to the rest of the land and both of the families. However, we are reminded of how powerful the opposite emotions are – love does not win until the very end of the story.
The second theme I am going to explore is hate, when Romeo is in the Capulet mansion for Capulet’s party, Tybalt realises that he is there and he is a Montague and he absolutely refuses to have him in the house and refers to Romeo as a ‘Villain’ and doesn’t even state or know why he hates Romeo other than the families have always hated each other. This is referred in the prologue as ‘new mutiny’ which means there is no reason given for their fighting and ‘ancient grudge’ makes the whole hatred between the families seems quite pathetic and ridiculous. Romeo and Juliet both realise that the family hatred may cause their downfall Juliet says, “My only love sprung from my only hate, too early seen unknown and known too late! Prodigious birth of love it is to me, that I must love a loathed enemy.” She is saying she saw Romeo and fell in love with him before she knew who he was. Now she does know who he is, it is too late for her to change her feelings. But she is aware of the potential for disaster that this love causes.
In the rest of the play hate is also explored, such as in Act 3 scene 1 where both Mercutio and Tybalt are killed, Tybalt kills Mercutio and Romeo goes after Tybalt who flees after the murder and kills him, these deaths are caused by hatred. Act 5 Scene 3 explores hate in extreme depth, so many deaths result from hatred in the scene with Paris, Romeo and Juliet dying. On the other side the hatred that caused the deaths ended in peace which is positive however people had to die for that peace and statues are raised in gold of Romeo and Juliet at the end in the hope of peace, but are also a reminder and testament to the power of hatred.
The third theme I am going to explore is conflict, in Act 1 Scene 5 no one seems to escape arguments, even the servants argue with each other, this makes us realise how persuasive conflict is. When Tybalt realises that Romeo is at the Capulet party he wants him out and tells Capulet but Capulet says that he should leave him alone because he is quite a respectable character. However Tybalt still seems to persist that Romeo should not be in the Capulet mansion. Capulet starts to get quite angry with Tybalt and you can see between the two. Even though they are both members of the Capulet Dynasty, Capulet argues with Tybalt and tells him to “endure” Romeo. Shakespeare makes the audience realise that conflict is all suffusing and that it happens in all relationships whether you like/respect the person or not. The love between Romeo and Juliet immediately causes conflict because when Juliet finds out that Romeo is a Montague she automatically unearthed the conflict between the two families because she says that you can’t just turn your love on and off. Perhaps her youthfulness shows she is willing to risk things.
In the rest of the play conflict is also explored, such as in Act 3 Scene 1 where Tybalt once again calls Romeo a “villain” than Mercutio says to Tybalt that he should he should fence against him then Romeo gets in the way of the fight between Mercutio and Tybalt and Mercutio gets stabbed and dies then Tybalt flees and Romeo goes after him and kills him. There is such conflict between the families that it led to 2 deaths in Act 3 Scene 1 and 5 deaths in the whole play.
I conclude that Shakespeare explores each of the three themes of love, hate and conflict in extreme depth. All of the themes lead to deaths and pure hatred yet they all come together at the end of the play and lead to peace. Shakespeare uses the prologue and certain parts of the play to foreshadow what is going to come in the rest of the play. He uses each of the themes incredibly well and just by reading this one play and even scene you are able to see why Shakespeare is the name he is today.
