Seeing that Mercutio has been murdered, Romeo’s recklessness again flares up and he heads for a fight with Tybalt. Tybalt is still in a very triumphant mood; we think he does not know he killed Mercutio yet; he just believes him to be superficially wounded. Romeo approaches Tybalt, telling him ‘either thou or I, or both, must go with him.’ The tables have turned and now Romeo wants a fight with Tybalt. Of course, Tybalt is only too happy to oblige. Romeo is not a very good duellist, and Tybalt is wonderful, so it could be suggested Romeo only wins because of luck. These incidents all show how the play deals with conflict.
Another example of conflict within the play is when Romeo kills Paris, in Act V Scene iii. Romeo has no need to slay him, after all he is just a poor man in love with someone who has just killed herself. When Paris tries to arrest Romeo, he is slaughtered, which shows that love can cause powerful emotions inside someone. This could mean love is a sort of conflict in itself.
Juliet also experiences her own sort of conflict, when she finds out her husband has just taken the life of her cousin, in Act III Scene ii. We know she has disagreeing emotions, due to the fact she uses a series of oxymorons to express how she is feeling. The most haunting one is ‘fiend angelical’ – here she is talking about Romeo. She loves him because he is her husband, but she hates him as he destroyed her cousin. She also does not like him at this stage, since he has been banished for murdering Tybalt. Where she is so impetuous as well, because she is a teenager, she sees the months stretching out ahead of her, without her new husband. ‘Honourable villain’ is another oxymoron, which shows what she thinks of Romeo. At this stage, she is not sure where here loyalties lie – are they with her love or her family? She finally realises that she is on Romeo’s side, when the Nurse starts putting him down. ‘Shame come to Romeo!’ indicates what the Nurse thinks of Juliet’s love. She says men are all liars and cheats that should not be trusted. This could mean the Nurse has had her own sorts of clashes with the opposite sex. Love and hate is a key theme in the play, this scene is just an instance of it.
There are a lot of other contrasting themes in Romeo and Juliet, which bring more conflict to the play. A major theme in the romantic tragedy is fate versus free will; so many of the situations could have been different if characters had listened to their own minds instead of letting things occur without intervention. One could say if Peter had never been given the invitation to Capulet’s party, Romeo and Juliet would never have met. Then if Juliet had not been on her balcony when Romeo was in the garden, or if he had called at a different window, the story would have been alarmingly altered. Of course, the most important set of events is the one where the messenger does not get to Romeo in time, with the letter telling him that Juliet only looks as if she is dead, she is not really. Unfortunately, Balthasar gets to Mantua before the messenger; Romeo never hears the proper news, but thinks his love has committed suicide. All of these coincidences show that fate has a strong part to play in Romeo and Juliet.
Another chief subject is the divergence between youth and age. Young people move so fast and are so much hastier than their elders, who are more cautious, thinking of all aspects of a situation before making an informed decision. We can examine the differences between the two age groups by looking at the relationship Juliet has with her parents towards the end of the play, when they are forcing her to wed Paris. Instead of marrying a man she does not love, she goes to Friar Lawrence for help, telling him she would rather kill herself than get married to Paris – ‘I long to die, If what thou speak’st speak not of remedy.’ – Act IV Scene i.
Friar Lawrence has the same sort of relationship with Romeo that Juliet has with the Nurse, but Friar Lawrence is an old man who shows the conflicts of youth and maturity. He often tells Romeo off for his immature behaviour, and it could be said that Friar Lawrence believes wisdom accompanies age. It seems as though everyone in Verona assumes Friar Lawrence is the cleverest person, but in truth even he experiences inconsistent emotions. He has a conflict within himself, as he is unsure whether to marry the lovers so soon after they have met. He does not think they can be so fond of each other so quickly – ‘love moderately, long love doth so’ he urges them. Nevertheless, despite the way the he feels, he agrees to marry them, believing it might go a lot of the way to ending the feud between the two main Verona families. However, we later discover, it is not their wedding that unites the families, but their deaths, when Montague says ‘I will raise her a statue in pure gold’. He is speaking about Juliet, and Capulet agrees, saying he will make one of Romeo, meaning the lovers will be together forever. Unfortunately, a gold statue is no replacement for a child.
It is surprising to see Friar Lawrence does not have a very strong moral code when it comes to Juliet’s deathlike state. Considering he is the local priest, he does not go to Capulet and confess everything, explaining why Juliet cannot marry Paris, but instead immediately decides to take the role of God again. We notice throughout the play that Friar Lawrence likes feeling powerful and in charge, and the lovers make him feel this way all the time they want him to help them. All Juliet has to say to Friar Lawrence is that she will commit suicide rather than wed Paris, and Friar Lawrence gives her poison. He is a very egotistical, sly man and he should have more concern over the young wards than he does. From his attitude, it could be said he has strong feelings against the adolescents, or that he does not care what happens to them, so long as he feels influential.
Romeo does not fit the typical culture of the society, like the other characters. Take Tybalt, Mercutio and Capulet, they are all skilled swordsmen and duellists. It is surprising Romeo is not better at fighting than he is, since he comes from a main family of the city. We know Tybalt and Mercutio take the form of the typical fighter, since they are rather similar and both have an aggressive attitude. Capulet has been a duellist, we realise, because the first time we are introduced to him he is madly saying ‘My sword!’ All of the men apart from Romeo enjoy conflicts, and Romeo does not understand what they gain from it. Romeo is a dreamer, and is always thinking about love, or imagining himself to be in love. This is a very feminine quality to possess, which could be why he does not participate in the battles usually. He is an extremely spontaneous youth, using his emotions liberally too. It is this impulsiveness and his wild temper that finally leads to his death. Being too spontaneous is his fatal flaw, and is one of the reasons why he dies.
We could say love is a sort of conflict itself, since it can lead to the most destructive of arguments. It is such a powerful emotion that Romeo and Juliet die for it, and take plenty of other people along the way. We might say Capulet’s love for his daughter is what kills her – she would rather pretend to kill herself than marry the man he has chosen to be her spouse. Whichever way it is looked at, conflict in the end takes the life of the two youths. The long argument between the Capulets and Montagues means the young lovers have to be married in secret, since their families would never permit them to wed. If the two families had got along, Romeo and Juliet would have been a much happier play. It could be said the arguments between the two main Verona families caused their children’s deaths. The Prince says as much in Act V Scene iii, after he has read the letter from Romeo, explaining where he acquired his poison. ‘Capulet, Montague? See what a scourge is laid upon your hate, That heaven finds means to kill your joys with love!’
Overall, we can say that without conflict this play would be nothing more than a weak love story. It would have been so much different if the two children had not come from feuding families, but then Romeo and Juliet would not have been anywhere near as good as it is. In some ways, it seems these adolescents felt more passionately about each other after they found out their love was forbidden. Possibly, without the distance between the Capulets and Montagues, they would never have noticed each other. Some people might say Romeo and Juliet is a play about love, but the conflict in it is used to emphasise this. Conflict is the key theme to this play, and brings so much to the storyline.
