After the party, Juliet decides to go out and sit on the balcony before she goes to bed. Whilst admiring the nights sky from the balcony, she sighs as she reflects on the series of events that night. Not knowing that Romeo has sneaked into the garden beneath her balcony she begins to speak her mind openly out loud. Without knowing, she reveals all to Romeo, hanging on to her every word he contemplates making his presence known but decides to listen on. Shakepeares dramatic convention brings anticipation and suspense to the scene through using dramatic irony. Other dramatic convention Shakespeare uses is ‘aside’ lines. This is where Romeo says something to himself, usually a brief stage whisper and the audience can hear but other actors present on stage cant.
When Juliet becomes aware to the fact that Romeo is present and has listened to every word she said, she is embarrassed that Romeo might have mistaken her ignorance of his presence for forwardness; “I should have been more strange, I must confess.” From Juliet’s speech on the balcony we can sense the sincerity of her love, however that lingering bit of doubt about Romeo’s feeling is still there. Juliet very significantly expresses fear that the love could be destructive, this again is dramatic irony, we know from the prologue and simply because the play is notorious for the ending, that the love will eventually destroy them but Juliet does not know the events about to unravel.
Shakespeare ventures into the crude, sexual view of love in order to highlight to us the purity of Romeo and Juliet’s love. Romeo’s best friend, Mercutio, often speaks about women in a crude fashion; “By her fine foot, straight leg and quivering thigh/ And the demesnes that there adjacent lie/ That in thy likeness thou appear to us.”
Shakespeare more than once, associates love with physical and emotional pain and suffering. A frustrated Romeo describes love like so, “Is love a tender thing? It is too rough/ Too rude, too boisterous and it pricks like a thorn.” But is Romeo describing love, or is he describing what he thinks is love at the time? Romeo cannot describe true love as he has not experienced it, he thinks he has true love for Rosaline, but true love does not inflict that emotional pain and true love is reciprocated as the two are meant to be.
Despite Romeo and Juliet being surrounded by so much hatred and evil, their loves stands out as superior. There is a huge contrast between this inferior love surrounding them and their superior love in a climate of hatred.
The strength of Romeo and Juliet’s love is continuously displayed by the outrageous risks they are so willing to take for each other. Inevitably the best example of this is the plan devised by Friar Lawrence, because when the plan fails and everything goes wrong they are willing to face even death in order to be with each other. Only after a brief encounter with each other, meeting for the first time, both are willing to give up their family names for each other; “Call me but love, and I’ll be new baptised/ Henceforth I never will be Romeo” Their maturity shows here as they realise that a name does not matter. Act 3, scene 5, Juliet takes this a step further claiming she is willing to give up her family never mind just the name. In this scene the lack of respect and verbal abuse drives her to breaking all three significant bonds with her mother, her father and the nurse.
After discovering it was Romeo who slayed her beloved cousin Tybalt, Juliet is overwhelmed with emotions. She manages to keep on top of them, controlling her grief and overcoming hatred. Here Shakespeare shows how faithful her love is. Juliet is admirable for her selfless attitude when she declares her desire to live an ‘unstained life’ for her husband, meaning completely faithful and unadulterated. This selflessness is impressive.
Shakespeare does show a strong physical attraction between Romeo and Juliet, however it is set apart from the crude, sexual love, based only upon physical attraction. Shakespeare uses religious imagery to help achieve this. Luhrmann also uses a lot of visual, religious imagery in the scenery for his movie. He displays a huge contrast at the party between Juliet in her pure, white, angel outfit in comparison to the scantily clad women around her. Also Romeo is wearing a knights costume, giving that view of a knight being gallant, honourable and the one to rescue the lady. I think the physical aspect of their love is often overlooked, but it is in fact highly significant, after all it was the physical attraction, which initially drew the couple together. In the love sonnet Romeo describes love like praying; “O then dear/ Let lips do what hands do. They pray; grant thou/ Turn lest faith turn to despair.” Their love is presented as holy. We are shown the image of praying identifying kissing; theirs is a healthy attraction.
For me the love sonnet is confirmation enough that it is destiny that has drawn these two lovers together, and that their encounter at the party did not happen by chance. Shakespeare presents the purity of the love using religious imagery etc, to describe the physical attraction. There is a strong physical desire but the attraction is not solely based on this. We see how their conversation flows in the form of a sonnet, nothing is forced, its natural. Shakespeare presents their first encounter in the form of a love sonnet and by doing this shows the connection and unity between the two. Both the forms of the text and the rhyme scheme give a flow to it and a sense of perfection. To us, the imagery used in their conversation seems quite obscure, but we notice how Romeo and Juliet always recognise each other’s meaning and immediately understand each other. This shows a connection in the sense that they are on the same level of thinking. Their love is clearly not superficial; they have a deeper understanding. Luhrmann also presents these issues well.
The thing which makes their love stand out the most is the climate in which it is based. It is a climate full of hatred and evil. Corruption and lies, lust and adultery surrounds them, but it is this which makes their love so special and so unique, the fact that it is strong and comes from deep within, that it is capable of overcoming all this hate, . . . or is it? That is the question I myself struggle to answer and one which I hope to pose in conclusion to the essay; Does their love overcome hate to conquer the family feud or does hatred overcome love to destroy two lovers who deserved to live on in harmony? Is ‘Fair Verona’ better or worse off after the tragedy? This is a significant issue as it is the source of the strongest contrast in the play, love and hate.
Shakespeare uses the family feud between the Capulets and the Montagues to create an atmosphere of hate and yet another barrier (possibly the most difficult to overcome) between Romeo and Juliet. In the opening scene of the play we see the hatred between the two families, and how the grudge boils down to pride and stubborn attitudes. We see different levels of maturity among the families in how they respond to each situation. For example, Benvolio tries to keep peace and keep his family out of trouble. The two power heads, and most influential family figures and probably the cause of this feud, prove to be too immature to handle or settle it. In the opening scene, when the fight breaks out, Luhrmann sets this at the petrol station, he uses explosion and fire to depict the ferocity and burning hatred between the sides.
To say that Romeo has no involvement whatsoever with the feud would wrong. However Shakespeare does put Romeo on a higher level than the rest. Romeo at the beginning has detached himself from the group of his cousins and Mercutio because he is depressed and wants to be alone. When Benvolio seeks him out and gets some chat from him, he listens to Romeo’s feelings. What hurts Romeo so much is that he gives so much of his love to Rosaline and gets nothing back; its not reciprocated. This is where he speaks a significant line of the play, through which Shakespeare can introduce the theme of love and hate; “Here’s much to do with hate/But more with love.” His concern for love being greater than his concern for hate, this predicts the theme of the play and the attitude of Romeo.
In act 3, scene 5, once again Shakespeare presents the admirable young Juliet with her shallow, cold-hearted parents. In this scene we see the temporary hatred of Juliet by her parents. There is a point, where we can understand to a certain extent, the frustration and anger of Capulet. After all he has brought her up lavishing her with only the best. But he goes way beyond justice and reason when he becomes aggressive and angry; Luhrmann even displays him as being violent. Juliet is given no opportunity to have her say, her opinion is not even considered in the arrangements for her own wedding. We admire Juliet for her refusal to marry Paris. Her parents treat her with a complete lack of respect. I think that despite the temporary hatred of Juliet, this scene is not about hate. I think this scene is about love, and the lack of it shown by her parents. Capulet is frustrated because everything he has poured into raising Juliet has been thrown back at him, but he has got it wrong. While he tried to treat her with material goods and the privileges of having their wealth, she was missing out on the fatherly love she needed; this is what it all boils down to. In the long run Juliet will be grateful for genuine love, not materials. So my point is, he has not given her anything to be thankful for. Juliet has been deprived.
Throughout the play I think we see Juliet as quite easily swayed and a bit of a pushover, letting people make her decisions for her. However in this scene Juliet asserts herself and takes control of her own decisions. She decides that the nurse anymore will not guide her, and that her love for Romeo is greater than that for her parents. Juliet breaks all three significant links, her mother, her father and the nurse.
In act 5 we desperately watch the tragic events unfold, painfully knowing that each step is a step toward the tragic ending. Refusing to accept the fact that we already know the ending, Shakespeare painstakingly gives us false hope that somehow the lovers will live on peacefully. In the video the dramatic irony is powerful as we see Romeo’s fingers wiggle as Juliet decides to take her own life not realising Romeo is alive. The conclusion to this play is generally described as ‘the triumph of love over hate’ but I cannot bring myself to write about how love triumphed over hate when I disagree. Firstly, besides my opinion, I think triumph, is a poor, insensitive choice of word. I think that the hatred within the society smothers their love so much so, that it results in the destruction of Romeo and Juliet. Does not hate eventually overcome love; maybe you could argue that it has seen the end of the family feud. But for me that doesn’t change the situation; in an ideal situation with justice, Romeo and Juliet would live on with each other in harmony, and be free to love one another, not be punished, and the rest of Verona rather than undeservedly gaining peace in their society, would be left to wallow in the mess they created, suffering the consequences of their sins and hatred. The story of Romeo and Juliet is not another love story with a cosy happy ending; it is a story about love, real love where sometimes people have to suffer. It teaches us what love really means. What love really is.
