In Romeo and Juliet Shakespeare includes the theme of revenge to give the play action and tragedy. Romeo blames himself for the death of Mercutio, and is resentful of Tybalts insults; he fears that his love for Juliet has weakened his courage. After witnessing Mercutio’s death, Romeo vows to slay Tybalt. “And red-eyed fury may be my conduct now!’ Romeo says here how he is filled with anger and wants revenge, and he may behave with his anger now. “Red-eyed”, shows he is filled with anger and rage and that he is ruling with his heart and not his logic. “Either thou, or I, or both must go with him.” Romeo angrily says here that they will fight and one of them or both of them will die and join Mercutio. Romeo thinks this should happen as he has lost a friend and will fight, no matter what the outcomes is, to avenge Mercutio. Both outcomes of the fight will create a tragedy because Romeo will either die or be banished. Romeo’s revenge leads to a violent and tragic end to Tybalts life. Violence is introduced through Romeo’s hunt for revenge. Another example of revenge is when Tybalt spots Romeo at Juliet’s marriage party. He wants revenge and goes in search of Romeo to fight him. “Boy shall not excuse his injuries that thou hast done me, therefore turn and draw.” Tybalt wants to cause Romeo pain for intruding at Juliet’s party and will fight others to get to Romeo. This is shown when Tybalt ten kills Mercutio, which leads onto the next scene of revenge. This is also an example of the theme of inevitable tragedy.
Shakespeare weaves inevitable tragedy into many acts in Romeo and Juliet. Shakespeare shows this immediately in the prologue as well as saying that the theme of inevitable tragedy will continue as the play goes on. ‘A pair of star crossed lovers’, (the phrase puts forward the fact that the two lovers are doomed from the start. The phrase means love is blind. This shows how the two lovers are in love, and this makes them do things that they would normally suggest other people to do otherwise.) This theme is conveyed further when Friar Lawrence arranges for Romeo and Juliet to be together. Friar Lawrence arranges for Juliet to have a fake death and for Romeo to go along with it, so that they can leave Verona and be together. However Shakespeare adds a twist that produces an inevitable tragedy. Romeo does not find out about the set up and therefore visits Juliet’s body and thinks she is dead. He kills himself with poison and falls into Juliet’s tomb. Juliet then awakes to see her once beloved Romeo and Paris lying beside her. She to kills herself with Romeo’s dagger. The Act in which the two lovers die displays a lot of dramatic irony. The dramatic irony is created when seconds after Romeo’s suicide, Juliet awakens, which is very ironic and unfortunate. This gives the audience the feeling of regret for both families. The families now see reason to stop their feud.
Family feuds are another theme in ‘Romeo and Juliet’ that is the cause of all the tragedies and anger. The feud that persists between the Montagues and the Capulets has been passed down through each generation, “Profaners of this neighbour stained steel – will they not hear?”. This quote from the princes speech is very subjective to the ancient quarrel, and when price says will they not here he is referring to the constant attempts on each generation to end the quarrel. “neighbour stained steel” shows the families are in quarrel as it means their swords are stained with the blood of their neighbours. The word “stained” shows signs of ancient quarrel because stains cannot be removed and this was possibly caused by a petty incident. ‘From ancient grudge break to new mutiny.’ This quote from the prologue conveys that the families have a grudge against one another and will go to extreme lengths to destroy each other, even if it means breaking the law. The word ‘mutiny’ refers to the families refusing to obey orders from the prince, the person in charge. The feud that goes on between the two families is not the only family feuds. There are also internal family feuds. The relationship between Romeo and Juliet creates a feud in the Capulet Mansion. ‘But and you will not wed, I’ll pardon you: Graze where you will, you shall not house with me.’ Capulet shouts at Juliet announcing that if she does not marry Paris then she will have to live somewhere else. The word refers to by Capulet “Graze” shows what he thinks of Juliet. He thinks she is feeding off him; grazing and that is all she has ever done. However, Capulet has had no input in bringing Juliet up, Nurse has brought her up. This relates to historical content, fathers had the power of the family and were in charge during the 1500’s. This is shown by Capulet’s violent behavior when Juliet disobeys him. Capulet had forbidden Juliet’s free will when it comes to marriage, and this is how the theme of forbidden love is introduced.
The theme of forbidden love shows that the families will never accept Romeo and Juliet’s love and this is what leads to the two lovers violent end. Juliet announces her forbidden love to the stars when she stands on her balcony. Romeo overhears whilst hiding below and announces his love for her. Their love however is forced to stop when Romeo is exiled. When Romeo returns to find his love dead, he kills himself. Juliet awakes to find Romeo dead and uses Romeo’s dagger to kill herself. “Thus with a kiss I die. [Dies]”, “[stabs herself].” The quotes here feature, dramatic stage directions. The directions shows that the two lovers have caused self-harm and committed suicide so they can be with each other. This scene is the final build p of violence and conflict in the play as the two lovers have to cause pain an suffering upon themselves to get the feud to end. This emphasizes the theme of forbidden love because they are now not forbidden to be together. Capulet forbid Juliet to marry anyone else apart from Paris days after Romeo married her. ‘Get thee to a church a’ Thursday, or never look me in the face’. Capulet uses threats and insults here to make Juliet to marry Paris. He says it in an angry tone and does not let her reply, and dramatic punctuation is used here to show Caplulets feelings. The sentences are short and have exclamation marks. The church is a dramatic setting throughout the play because it is where Romeo and Juliet get married and have their lives violently ended.
The play Romeo and Juliet is a fast paced play taking only 5 days for the play to end. This adds more drama because all the events happen one after the other in a short time period. The themes in the play happen as a chain reaction and they all contain conflict and violence. The structure of the play, I believe is set out starting with the theme of family feuds. The name instantly suggests violence. The next is forbidden love, and then revenge. The violence in these themes comes from and is included in the final theme of inevitable tragedy. The actions made in association with each theme result in an inevitable tragedy, being the death of the star-crossed lovers; Romeo and Juliet. Violence is produced in each theme due to the decisions each person makes. There is always someone to disagree with that decision, for example when Romeo chooses not to fight, Mercutio disagrees and violence starts and results in death. Shakespeare might have written this drama to caution all youngsters prone to fall in love at the flicker of a smile that sometimes the lovers may have to pay for their love with their lives. It is also possible that Shakespeare settled for a gory ending to his play presumably because he preferred untimely death of lovers to death of love over time. Another plausible reason could be his unhappy marriage with Anne Hathaway, who was senior to him in age. The main message Shakespeare tries to put across is about pride. The families let pride get the better of them and this results in a never-ending grudge, unless they swallow their pride. The futility of prejudices is shown when Tybalt refuses to end the feud with Romeo in Act 3 Scene 1, “and so, good Capulet, which name I tender”. Romeo tries to end the feud by apologizing and referring to the Capulets as “good”. Tybalt’s pride gets the better of him. They do not get anything good out of their pride and this is the message Shakespeare tries to put across.
