Romeo and Juliet

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 “Romeo and Juliet”; How are violence and conflict central to the play?

“Romeo and Juliet” is a tragic play, which is set in the city of Verona and it’s about two lovers who can’t be together because their families are enemies. The play is mainly about love; however there are many scenes in which violence is represented. The play starts with a fight between members of the two families, and ends up with the death of a member of the Montague family, finally both families are punished by the ruler of Verona, the Prince. The violence in the play occurs because of an ancient grudge between two families, which leads to the tragic deaths of Romeo and Juliet.

Shakespeare ingeniously created this play for Elizabeth the 1st, Queen of England, because she adored the theatre. The Citizens of England in the 16th century would jump at the thought of entertainment, whether this be cockerel fighting to a good old’ romantic play. Although pleasing them was a different matter. This meant that Shakespeare had to be on top form when writing all of his plays. Therefore, a 16th century audience would love one of Shakespeare’s plays because they include all the things for the recipe of perfection. If they wanted love, drama, passion and action, they certainly got it with Shakespeare.

One of the reasons we know that violence and conflict are central to Romeo and Juliet is because at the beginning of the play in act 1, scene 1 the atmosphere is full of aggressiveness, it all begins in a public market in Verona. The servants of the Capulet and Montague households’ started picking on each other and start a quarrel; one of them said: “I will bite my thumb at them which is a disgrace to them if they bear it”. This shows that even the lowest cast of the families is acclimatised to violence; it also expresses how Sampson wants to provoke the Montagues

The servants use bawdy language “Draw thy tool”, they are speaking in prose which manifests their unfavourable thoughts, and makes the audience see that as the characters are surrounded by a belligerent attitude a combat will take place. By being introduced to the servants the public gets an image of the conflict within families.

Later in the scene, Benvolio arrives and says “Part, fools! Put up your swords; you know not what you do”, with the first phrase spoken by Benvolio, Shakespeare gives the audience an impression of Benvolio being a peacemaker. He is Romeo’s best friend and always wants to avoid conflicts with the Capulets. All at once Tybalt (Juliet’s cousin and member of the Capulets) enters the scene and declares “talk of peace? I hate the word. As I hate hell, all Montagues and thee” The ferociousness of his speaking reflects his barbaric personality, as he compares peace to hell, this makes us see that hatred is one of the key themes all along the play.

Then, the prince `Escalus´ enters the scene, he’s supposed to restore order because of his neutrality. This is a typical case in the play when the scenes have numerous ferocious climaxes which are interrupted by pauses of calmness. On the other hand in his speeches, anger and threats predominate; Escalus gives visual views of death and torture, promoting more violence as a tactic for maintaining peace, this is shown when he says: “If you ever disturb our streets again, your lives will pay…” By using strong adjectives, he displays a self image which makes him seem very sadistic. “You beasts that quench the fire of your pernicious rage with purple fountains issuing from your veins”, here he proclaims a very sanguine phrase, which shows that violence outweighs the play.

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Previously in the scene, Romeo’s views towards love and affection show the complexity of emotion within the characters of the play, this is shown when he uses oxymoron, “Oh brawling love, Oh loving hate” this shows how Romeo’s views are centred in a confrontation which only allows him to see negative aspects about affections which leads his thoughts to the image of death, we expect Romeo to associate love vs. conflict right from the beginning of the play. In this part of the scene it can be see how even Romeo is

Beginning to centre violence to his own ...

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