As the play goes on, Juliet is starting to show her maturity and self-control she has. She ordered the nurse to leave her be on the night before the wedding, also the night where she was going to drink sleeping potion to fool others. “I pray thee leave me to myself tonight” and “let me now be let alone”.
Before Juliet drank her potion, she had a long speech (soliloquy) about her feelings. It was shown that she was scared about what would happen if the potion from Friar Lawrence didn’t work. “I have a faint cold fear thrills through my veins”, “what if this mixture do not work at all?”, shall I not then be stifled in the vault, to those foul mouth no healthsome air breaths in, and there die strangled ere my Romeo comes”. And this is where she shows her deep affection of love for Romeo.
The next scene is where the Nurse finds her dead in her bedroom and she was shocked. “My lady’s dead! O well a-day that ever I was born!”
Then of course, Lord and Lady Capulet followed in. Lord Capulet was never a good father by forcing Juliet to marry Count Paris, but because of her sudden death, he seemed to have shown a slight affection for his daughter, “death lies on her like an untimely frost, upon the sweetest flower of all field”, here Juliet is being referred to the sweetest flower in the field.
When Friar Lawrence found out the potion had worked and saw the family was grieving, he tried to make them see the good side of it. He tried to persuade the family into believing Juliet has gone to heaven, a place where they should be happy to see her in, a better place for her. “Heaven and yourself had part in this fair maid: now heaven hath all, and all the better is it for the maid”, during this speech of his, he kept repeating the word ‘heaven’ to comfort the family.
Romeo found out Juliet’s ‘death’ from his servant Balthasar, not knowing the truth because the letter from Friar Lawrence was delivered unsuccessfully. He bribed the apothecary into selling him poison and prepared to die with his loved Juliet. “Well, Juliet, I will lie with thee tonight”. Romeo shows how important Juliet is to him by “there is thy gold – worse poison to men’s soul”.
In this play, there are lots of different points of view of love. Mercutio, Romeo’s best friend and Juliet’s Nurse have the same opinion on love, they reckon it’s all to do with physical attractions and sex. They do not seem to understand how love is a deep affection at the heart.
The parents of both families don’t seem to show any love for their children. Lord Capulet is always trying to control every step Juliet takes, and this was proven when he forced her to marry Paris. And Romeo’s father doesn’t seem to care for him too, as he wasn’t in the play very often.
Love isn’t the only focus in the play, there is hate too, especially between the two families, and how their conflicts affect the whole town Verona. The Prince had to speak to them a couple of times for starting fights. Even the two families’ servants are against each other too. “My naked weapon is out. Quarrel! I will back thee.”
There was blood and anger during the fight of Tybalt and Mercutio. They used violence to take out their anger, using swords was much more dangerous and the result was someone end up dying. Romeo was so effected by the death of his best friend, he slaughtered Tybalt for revenge.
Even though Lord Capulet showed affection for Juliet when she was ‘dead’, he never treated her right or as his own daughter. He forced Juliet to marry Paris without consulting her first, but that doesn’t matter because he would never care about her opinion on the matter. “The County Paris … shall happily make thee there a joyful bride” Lady Capulet gave Juliet the message about the wedding to cheer her up from her grieving of Tybalt. But when Juliet objected to the idea, her father wasn’t so keen. “He shall not make me there a joyful bride!” “Out, you green-sickness carrion! Out, you baggage! You tallow face!”
To be honest, I think there is a lot more love than hate because if it wasn’t for the love of Romeo and Juliet, the family would never come together even if it means sacrificing two people’s lives. Also near the beginning of the play, we saw something was troubling Romeo and that was Rosaline. If there wasn’t love, there wouldn’t be hate.