Romeo and juliet

Violence and conflict are central to ‘Romeo and Juliet’. Discuss this theme with reference to at least three scenes in the play.

INTRODUCTION

“Romeo and Juliet” is a tragic play, which is about two feuding families who have two star crossed lovers who meet in a party, fall in love, marry each other and end up dying. Although it is a play about love, there are many scenes that contain violence and conflict which keep the audience captivated and enthralled. The play opens with a violent clash and ends with death and tragedy. The violence in the play happens because of an ancient feud between the two families, which leads to the tragic deaths of Romeo and Juliet. In this essay I will discuss the different types of violence and conflicts that take part in the play. Conflict is important in Romeo and Juliet because it causes problems which keep the audience enthralled. There are three main types of conflicts in the play which are physical violence which is the violent clash between the two families; the second type of conflict is the psychological conflict which is the slandering and verbal abuse of people and the last type of conflict is the suicidal conflicts which occur towards the end of the play. In this essay I will discuss all the violence and conflicts that are central to “Romeo and Juliet” in act one scene one, act three scene one and act three scene five.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

“Romeo and Juliet” was written by William Shakespeare and was first performed in London Globe Theatre. It is set in the sixteenth century in the ancient city of Verona. When William Shakespeare wrote the play Elizabeth 1st ruled England, she loved the theatre. People in the sixteenth century were fond of any sort of entertainment. They enjoyed watching plays because it was the major sort of entertainment at the time. It was important for Shakespeare to make his plays as exciting as possible so he could attract and entice audiences in this way. An audience in the sixteenth century would have liked “Romeo and Juliet” because they would have seen certain parts in the play which would have occurred in their daily lives, for example in act one scene one the rowdy servants, were a common sight on the streets of London whom started a brawl. These brawls were common in the streets of London.

The intense male friendship that occurred in the play was also common in the sixteenth century. Feuding and having grudges in the upper class was also common in the sixteenth century and this is shown in the play between the Montague and Capulet families.

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In Shakespeare’s time husbands and fathers controlled their wives and daughters. The father never let the daughters have a say in the marriage and never let their wives have a free will and Shakespeare reflects the inferior position of women in his play.

In Elizabethan times children were expected to be obedient to their fathers and this has been shown in the play when Juliet’s father expects her to marry Paris.

The prologue is the beginning part of the play which gives the audience an overview of the play. In the prologue ...

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In Elizabethan times children were expected to be obedient to their fathers and this has been shown in the play when Juliet’s father expects her to marry Paris.

The prologue is the beginning part of the play which gives the audience an overview of the play. In the prologue the conflicts are mentioned. The language in the prologue that Shakespeare has used indicates both internal and external conflicts e.g. civil bloods make civil hands unclean; “parent’s rage”

The prologue tells us that we should not attain grudges because it could lead to death.

The effect that the prologue has on the audience is that it makes them want to know what is going to happen next .Shakespeare purposely done this to attract more people and to make the play good.

ACT ONE SCENE ONE

In act one scene one the servants from both the Montague and Capulet families get into a brawl with each other .This is started off by Sampson abusing Abraham and Abraham says to Sampson, “Do you bite your thumb at us sir?” Sampson is with Gregory who is also a servant of the Capulet and Abraham is with Balthasar who is a servant of the Montague. Benvolio comes to the scene and the argument between the servants develops into a fight. Benvolio being the peaceful one tries to stop the fight but in a matter of time Tybalt also arrives Tybalt, who wants to start a fight tries to pick on Benvolio who is stopping it. The fight starts to get worser with swords violently being swung around everywhere. Lord Capulet enters and says to lady Capulet, ‘what noise is this? Give my long sword, ho!’ He says this because he wants to fight against his enemies, the Montagues. Then Lord Montague enters and realizes what has happened and says, ‘Thou villain Capulet! - Hold me not. Let me go.’ After saying this he tries to fight with Lord Capulet but his wife stops him from taking any further action. Shortly after, the prince arrives with an army and the brawl comes to an end. The prince says ‘If ever you disturb our streets again, your lives shall pay the forfeit of the peace.’ In other words the prince was saying that if there is any more violence or conflict occurring in the streets again then they shall be executed.

After the violent start the audience is taken to Romeo. Romeo is seen depressed over his latest love interest. He explains himself to Benvolio and tells him that the lady whom he loves is not ready to love him. At this point Benvolio tells Romeo to ‘Examine other beauties”.

This scene is important because it introduces all the main characters into the scene, it tells us about an ancient grudge between the Montague and Capulets; it tells us that the prince has given a warning of death penalty to the public and this scene also tells us that Romeo is deeply in love but is depressed because the girl whom he loves shows no interest in him.

When Benvolio is instructed by Lord Capulet to go to Romeo to find out the reason for his depression, he finds out that Romeo is blindly in love with a girl called Rosaline.

Romeo uses a wide range of oxymorons and paradoxes to express his feelings to Benvolio. In this scene Romeo is scene as a confused person, he uses an oxymoron to show how confused he is. Romeo is seen as being, “whiter than snow on a ravens back”. The snow represents his innocence of young love. The raven suggests the darkness of the night, fear, uncertainty or depression caused by an ancient grudge. An example of a paradox used by Romeo is, ‘feather of lead’. This shows the confusion of Romeo. Everything around him seems contradictory and in opposition. Fire seems cold to him as he says ‘cold fire’. The use of paradoxes is very important in this scene because it is trying to show Romeos confusion and struggle.

The use of oxymorons suggests the conflict in the play i.e. just as the words are paired up against each other so are the families in opposition of each other.

ACT THREE SCENE ONE

Benvolio and Mercutio are in the streets of Verona and Benvolio says, “I pray thee, good Mercutio, let’s retire. The day is hot, the Capels are abroad.” He says this because he knows that Mercutio is in a frivolous mood, it is hot and the Capulets will be looking for trouble but Benvolio wants to avoid getting into a brawl. Mercutio won’t leave because of his mood and starts to tease Benvolio. Tybalt enters and says to them, “a word with one of you”. Mercutio being as ‘hot as a jack’ says, “Make it a word and a blow”. Mercutio tries to provoke the whole scene but Tybalt tells him that he is in search of Romeo. But still Mercutio is provoking Tybalt. Meanwhile Romeo arrives and Tybalt calls Romeo, a villain and challenges him to a fight but Romeo turns down the challenge. Mercutio being Romeos close friend could not take this and starts to slander and abuse Tybalt which leads to an out roar between Tybalt and Mercutio. Romeo tries to stop the fight but Tybalt slyly stabs Mercutio and runs away. In a short while Romeo finds that Tybalt stabbed Mercutio and that he is dead and he forgets his relation with Tybalt and goes in search of Tybalt. On finding Tybalt he challenges him and a brawl is started. Romeo kills Tybalt and is then told by Benvolio “Away be gone”, because if he stays then he will be executed as the prince has said.

Prince Escalus arrives and questions Benvolio about the brawl. Benvolio tells the Prince what happened. Lady Capulet says, “Romeo slew Tybalt, Romeo mustn’t live”. The prince had said that he would execute anyone who caused a fight in the streets of Verona, the prince is in confusion about whether he should Kill Tybalt or not. Lord Montague says to the Prince that the law would have killed Tybalt anyhow and Romeo has done what the law would have done. On hearing this, the prince concludes that Romeo should be exiled and if he is seen in the streets of Verona again then he will be executed.

This scene shows us that Benvolio is a peace maker and he does not want to fight. Mercutio is in a frivolous mood and looks at the Capulets with disgust and hatred. The exile is terrible for Romeo because this means that he can not see Juliet and he has just really married her. This scene is important because we witness physical conflicts and we witness the power of male friendship that occurs in the play. Shakespeare purposely uses this violence and conflict to enthrall the audience. This scene is same as Act one Scene one because there is another fight in here and the prince has had to come again to stop the violence. This scene is different to Act one Scene one because in this scene there are deaths whereas in Act one Scene one there wasn’t no deaths.

ACT THREE SCENE FIVE

The type of violence that occurs in Act 3 Scene 5 is mainly psychological torture that lord Capulet inflicts on his daughter. Lord Capulet pressurises his daughter to marry someone she does not want to marry. This scene is different to act 1 scene 1 and Act 3 Scene 1 because in both of these scenes there were physical brawls, violence and death whereas in this scene there is mostly psychological torture and verbal abuse.

When Juliet was talking to her mother she used a wide range of sentences containing double meaning. Juliet says to her mother, “I will not marry yet, and when I do, I swear it shall be Romeo, whom you know I hate”. This is an example of double meaning because she is saying that she would rather marry her enemy than to marry Paris. The other meaning is that she would rather marry Romeo and she is married to him which makes her slyly tell her mother that she is married to Romeo.
Lady Capulet goes to Juliet with good news about her marriage which is going to happen next Thursday, but Juliet responds in refusal to this choice. By saying this Juliet had made a grave mistake because daughters in that time were expected to behave by accepting their parent’s choice, but she refused.
Lord Capulet says to Juliet, “Hang thee, young baggage”. This term said by Lord Capulet is really degrading his daughter because he is saying that she is a baggage which means that she is a possession and she has to do what she is made to do. He says this because of his anger. Lord Capulets tone of anger gradually builds up because first he is just angry but then he starts to taunt his daughter as he calls her a “disobedient wretch!”. Lord Capulet says that his fingers are twitching indicating that he will hit her if she carries on behaving like this.

Shakespeare does this to get the audience enticed and to make them eager to see the next step. Juliet has a lack of opportunity to speak which is unfair and the nurse tries to tell lord Capulet to let her speak but then he starts to accuse the nurse.

Juliet’s views are extremely important because she is the one that is getting married and not her father.
Lady Capulet reacts by telling lord Capulet by stop abusing his daughter Juliet. This is different to her husband because he is slandering her whereas Lady Capulet is trying to stop the slandering.

An audience in Shakespeare’s time would have viewed this conflict tragic because this type of conflict was rare at the time. This conflict for a modern audience would be norm because many people in this day and age fall in love even if they have to go through this torture.

CONCLUSION

I think that the theme of conflict is important to the play because if there was merely love in the play then the audience would get bored. In Romeo and Juliet conflict and love are both expressed together which keeps the audience enticed and captivated.

Hatred gets Tybalt and Mercutio killed, love gets Romeo and Juliet killed. I think love is stronger because towards the end of the play the ancient feud is silenced by the death of the two lover’s families and hatred is gone whereas their love still remains in their hearts. This is why they committed suicide.

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