Shakespeare has constructed this hate between Romeo and Juliet which are between two families. Love is represented by the relationship between Romeo and Juliet and the hate is represented by feud between the Montagues and the Capulets. Both Love and Hate are extremely powerful in the play. Love is strong between Romeo and Juliet but hatred is still between them as they are from two different families. “My only love sprung from my only hate’ this is what Juliet said after she found out that Romeo was a Montague, this is showing that person she’s meant to hate is the person she’s in love with. Her enemy is not Romeo himself, but his name is if he leaves his name then he will no longer be her enemy.
By the ending of the opening scene, the audience is introduced to Romeo, who almost represents the theme of love in the play. At this moment, Romeo is too busy obsessed over his love for Rosaline to notice the fight and says,
“Alas, that love, whose view is muffled still, Should, without eyes, see pathways to his will.” But this was unrequited love. Romeo falls in and out of love very quickly, he was love sick for Rosaline at the beginning of the play but as soon as he saw Juliet he fell in love with her.
“Here’s much to do with hate, but more with love.”
“Why the, o brawling hate,
O any thing of nothing love, o loving first create!”
These lines almost sum up the play as Romeo is talking about his love that can at the same time make him happy and sad. It is both love and hate; he is connecting his feelings to the bits and pieces of the fight he can see in front of him. From this, he concludes that although their fight was partly because of the hate between the two families, it is more about the love inside each family that caused them to fight against each other.
Meanwhile Lady Capulet has come to talk to Juliet with the nurse in the room, about marriage. The love between Juliet and her mother is more formal than the love between Juliet and the nurse. Juliet finds it much easier to talk to the nurse and is closer to her because she has been grown up with the nurse looking after her, they are like best friends, she is also asking for advice from the nurse. This is showing there isn’t much love between Juliet and her mother than there is with the nurse which is strong love. The character of the nurse in the play shows that the nurse is more of a mother to Juliet whereas Lady Capulet is hardly seen with Juliet in the play. However, a few days before Juliet has to marry Paris, the Nurse almost changes her role and is no longer there to support Juliet with her relationship with Romeo, but agrees with Capulet that she should marry Paris. Juliet is outraged and asks the nurse to leave. The fact that Juliet has gone from looking up to the nurse to never trusting her. In one scene it shows the nature of love and hate in the same way that Romeo felt he was in love with Rosaline, until he met Juliet. The one person Juliet felt she could always rely on is no longer there to help her and she is devastated.
In Act three, scene five, Capulet tells Juliet that she is to marry Paris in a few days, however, Juliet refuses to marry him, mainly because she is already married to Romeo. After a long and angry speech, Capulet says:
Thursday is near, lay hand on heart, advice.
And you be mine, I’ll give you to my friend;
And you be not, hang, beg, starve, die in the streets,
For by my soul, I’ll ne’er acknowledge thee…”
Capulet is threatening and advising Juliet as he is saying that if she marries Paris then everything will turn out well and he will still acknowledge her as his daughter. However, if she does not, then he will throw her out in the streets and he will not care what happens to her for she will no longer be thought of as his daughter. He says this partly out of love as he thinks it will make Juliet happy, but his words are harsh and painful for Juliet to hear from her father. He is angry that Juliet is disobeying him and does not know how to handle it as he is surprised. Therefore, I think this scene is about both love and hate.
Romeo has a strong relationship with Friar Lawrence. He acts as a father throughout the play. Right from the beginning, this love is shown as he advises Romeo about his feelings for Juliet and tells him to “love moderately.” He is more like a father to Romeo. When Romeo kills Tybalt, he hides in Friar Laurence’s cell and the Friar tells him that he has been banished. Romeo becomes hysterical and thinks that banishment is worse than death. The Friar tries to talk some sense into Romeo but soon his sympathy turns to impatience and tells Romeo to spend the night with Juliet and leave in the morning. Also Friar is constantly taking care of not only Romeo’s problems, but Juliet’s as well, by giving her the sleeping potion. Although the Friar’s help turns out to cause more problems than solve them, his aim was good and he can be seen as a caring and loving character. This is showing strong love, because Romeo and Juliet see Friar Lawrence like a caring, loving father.
Capulet and Montague make peace with each other after seeing that their children were so in love with each other that they sacrificed their lives for one another. The last line means that Romeo and Juliet’s deaths were because of the hate between the two families, but it is love that brings them together. Therefore, after analyzing the love and hate sides of Romeo and Juliet, I have come to the conclusion that it is more about love than hate. Apart from the family feud the rest of the hate is caused by Romeo and Juliet falling in love with each other, but this is fate. I think this because throughout the play, love overcomes hate except for a few scenes. Overall by the end of play, Romeo and Juliet are in love with each other so much that they kill themselves, and so the parents forget the hate that they have for each other. This is basically saying that love over powered the hate of two families.
