The next example I found of love being a negative emotion is in Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet”, the whole theme of love in Romeo and Juliet whether it be love for a partner or love for your family is a disaster from start to finish. The first of many examples comes in Act 1 Scene 1 when only a few minutes into the play a brawl between the Montague’s and the Capulet’s break out. Luckily for the Montague’s and the Capulet’s no one is killed fighting for the love of their family, already though love has been the catalyst of two families at war with each other.
The next type of love will soon further fuel the fire of hate between the two families even more when Romeo and Juliet fall in love, this causes even more tension between the families because this was totally unexpected and happened because in Act 1 Scene 5 Romeo and Juliet fall in love with each other at a Capulet’s party which Romeo Montague has turned up uninvited. Tybalt Capulet saw Romeo at the party and wanted revenge for the cheek and audacity of a Montague turning up at a Capulet party.
As you may have noticed a pattern is beginning to form when love is introduced, I have noticed that as the love raises so do the negative emotions. Love for the families means even more hatred when they fight and when two of the family members fall in love the tension rises because Romeo and Juliet need to keep their love a secret.
Overall love is a negative emotion in these contexts because as love is meant to be an enjoyable nice emotion, with it seems to arrive hate and sadness that in the end over shadows the love.
Next I will show examples of different kinds of hatred shown in the texts I have looked at. I have noticed that hate can be expressed in different ways but overall they all have the same outcome… someone gets hurt in one way or another.
The first example of hate I found is in Act 1 Scene 1 of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, this hatred comes in the form of physical hatred. The hatred comes around from provocative terms and gestures from the Capulet household things like “I do not bite my thumb at you sir, but I do bite my thumb”. In the time when Romeo and Juliet is set biting your thumb was seen as swearing the equivalent of sticking your fingers up at a person in today’s society. The use of the word “Sir” is used lightly as it is meant to mean that they respect Old Montague but in fact the Capulet’s say the word “Sir” sarcastically as if to say they are saying “Sir” but they don’t really mean it. These gestures were a private joke between the Capulet family but were taken as insults from the Montague’s, the outcome of this was that a public brawl broke out. This was a chance for both of the household’s members to display just how much they hated the other house through the use of force. As you can imagine as with most fights someone did get hurt and that is exactly what happened in this instance.
The next example of hatred is in Sassoon’s poem “The Hero” is an example of indirect behind someone’s back hatred which causes awkward situations. The insulting imagery used by Sassoon is when he describes Jack as being a “Useless Swine” I believe this to mean that Sassoon did not like Jack because while Sassoon was fighting bravely, Jack tried to get injured so he could come home. Instead Jack was killed and sent home in a coffin. Sassoon believes that the brother officer should tell Jack’s mother how he really died but instead they tell her “Gallant Lies” so her son seems to be a hero. The fact that Jack is seen to be some sort of hero when he really shouldn’t is the reason that Sassoon hates Jack and portrays him to be a coward because that’s what he was a coward. Again in this instance of hatred Jack’s mother is hurt because her son has died but the awkward part is everyone knows her son was coward apart from her.
The last hatred example I found was again in Romeo and Juliet but this time it was in Act 3 Scene 5 when Juliet has a huge argument with her father Lord Capulet. Lord Capulet combines insulting imagery with just down right hateful things to say to somebody which in the end results in an endless volley of mental abuse and hatred. He says things like “you green sickness carrion” and “Hang, beg, starve, die in the streets” surely this is going to have a negative effect on anyone especially your daughter. The reason why I think Lord Capulet gets so angry is because he is being disobeyed by a woman, although this may seem normal now back when Romeo and Juliet was set this was unheard of, Lord Capulet cannot be seen to be being disrespected by his daughter because he may lose all respect from men whom he has a reputation with. This is another example of mental hatred and love being a negative emotion and displays love between father and daughter even in Romeo and Juliet cannot be enjoyed.
Overall hatred can be shown in a number of ways but always end up with the same outcome, somebody getting hurt and getting hurt for a long especially in the case of Jack’s mom in “The Hero” because her son is dead and also people may treat her differently if they find out her son was a coward.
The last example of negative emotions I found was lies, I found that lies can be used in a good and a bad way. However lies that are good to start with may not be good at all.
The lie I saw first was in “The Hero”, the lie comes from the brother officer who is about to tell Jack’s mother the news that her son is dead. He tells Jack’s mother that her son was a hero but in fact he was a coward. Sassoon describes this as “Gallant lies”; this is a juxtaposition because how can lies be gallant? I don’t think Sassoon is referring to lying in general being “gallant” but the actual lie told in this context is “gallant” because it tells a story of Jack being a war hero but he was actually just a coward. The lie told by the officer is good to begin with because Jack’s mother knows he is a hero and also it boosts morale of the people on the home front because they know there soldiers are doing everything they can from stopping the enemy invading. However in the years after the war I think that officer will start to feel guilty because he knows that he told Jack’s mother and probably other mothers as well that there sons were heroes. He may feel guilty because surely a mother deserves to know how her son really died “blown to bits” and not be told some lie that he was a hero. This burden of what should have been said but never was will eat away at the officer until the day he dies. Although there is no evidence to say the officer will feel guilty Sassoon does describe him as “quietly” going to tell Jack’s mother the news, “Quietly” to me suggests that this man is quite shy and probably thinks to himself a lot, and if the man thinks a lot he will no doubt think about the lies he told to Jack’s mother.
There are also examples of lies in Romeo and Juliet, at the start of Act 3 Scene 5 the morning after Romeo and Juliet’s last night together Juliet does not want Romeo to leave even though he has been banished. Romeo hears a bird and Juliet says “It was the nightingale” but Romeo replies “It was the lark, the herald of the morn”. This means that it is morning and Romeo must leave right away. Already Juliet has tried lying so she can have Romeo for a little while longer, it’s a good job Romeo wasn’t so easily fooled else they certainly would have been caught when the nurse rushes in and says “Your lady mother is coming to the chamber”. Lying has almost got them caught once so surely if Juliet continues to lie her luck will run out sooner or later. After Romeo has left Juliet’s mother does enter her room, and thinks that Juliet is weeping for the loss of her cousin Tybalt but actually she is weeping for the loss of Romeo. Juliet’s mother then goes on to say “We will have vengeance, then thou will be satisfied” Juliet replies “Indeed, I shall never be satisfied with Romeo till I behold him… dead”. This is an example of Juliet lying and dramatic irony, “till I behold him… dead” means she wants to hold him dead but the pause between him and dead suggest she actually just wants to behold him or in other words hug him. Shakespeare wants the audience to recognise this pause so they know she wants to hug him however Juliet’s mother is oblivious to the pause and thinks Juliet wants Romeo dead. Further into the seen Juliet’s mother announces that Juliet will be married to Paris, Juliet asks the marriage to be delayed and says she wants to marry Romeo. This does not go down well with either Juliet’s mother or her father Lord Capulet who has entered with the nurse. I am not sure what gets Juliet’s parents angrier the fact that she has already lied to her mother and says she hates Romeo but now she says she loves him or that she is disrespecting her father, a man of authority.
Lying in both texts has been a bad thing to do and caused negative emotions, in the first instance it has given a mother false readings on what her son was actually like, it has caused guilt in an army officer and in Romeo and Juliet it has ripped a family apart. I believe these things all count as causing negativity and have a negative outcome on relationships thanks to lies.
To conclude I believe that Romeo and Juliet is a story of Love, lies and hatred as well as The Hero and The Soldier. I believe I have proved these emotions to be negative in all three texts and that I have shown the way that some people react to situations may be down to the time period, their culture and also their status.
