How might you expand on the following statements about Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet?1. Romeo and Juliet is a cautionary tale about the...

1. For this topic you’re being asked to consider how human emotions cause the central tragedy of Romeo and Juliet. Throughout the play, characters react quickly and violently to emotions, without considering whether or not these are lasting feelings or rational decisions.

• In Act III, Scene i, Mercutio fights Tybalt in a moment of rage. Disgusted at Romeo’s reluctance to fight Tybalt, Mercutio says “O calm, dishonouable, vile submission!” immediately before picking a fight with Tybalt himself. Mercutio equates “calm” with dishonorable and vile, and therefore, by his warped notion of rage-based honor, picks a fight with Tybalt which results in his death. Now, angry at Mercutio’s murder, Romeo, who has just vowed to not hurt Tybalt for Juliet’s sake, says that “fier-ey’d fury be my conduct now.” With only rage and no reason to guide his actions, Romeo fights and kills Tybalt, causing the Prince to banish him from the city, separating him from Juliet.


• Romeo quickly resolves to kill himself upon hearing of Juliet’s death from Balthasar in Act V, Scene i. Notably, this is not the first time we see Romeo making such a plan. After killing Tybalt, the stage directions for Act III, Scene ii note that Romeo draws his sword, meaning to harm himself. Friar Lawrence scolds Romeo for a pattern of behavior that Romeo evidences throughout the play:

“Thy wild acts denote

The unreasonable fury of a beast.”

Friar Lawrence notes that Romeo very quickly jumps to a conclusion of death in his despair and barely listens to what Lawrence has to say. Every time the Friar attempts to talk to Romeo reasonably about his banishment within the scene, Romeo bursts into a long speech bemoaning his fate. According to Lawrence, Romeo is wild, desperate, a madman, and a beast in his behavior. Romeo is so emotional he cannot stop to listen or think logically. So in Act V, Scene iii, Romeo notices that Juliet does not appear to be dead, observing,

“Beauty’s ensign yet

Is crimson in thy lips and in thy cheeks.”

He even asks “Why art thou yet so fair?” Romeo kills himself minutes after stating that Juliet doesn’t really seem dead, unable to reason with his strong feelings.

• Of course, this pattern also affects the overall plot of the play. The play’s Prologue explains Romeo and Juliet cannot be together in the first place because of an “ancient grudge,” a “continuance of their parents’ rage.” Although no real logic is given for why the two families must fight, characters like Tybalt, Romeo, and Mercutio act and react quickly on a rage that isn’t even their own. The strong emotions of the two families ultimately lead to the end of each family’s line, with the youngest Capulets and the Montagues slain as the result of a long held hatred.

2. This topic states that although the lovers are described as “star crossed,” much of the play’s tragedy hinges on the actions of one person. As the prompt doesn’t name which person’s actions you ought to consider, I’ll give you an argument for Friar Lawrence.

• As Juliet is only 13 years old, Nurse is silly and unreliable,  and Romeo, as discussed in the last section, is not really capable of rational thought, Friar Lawrence is the only adult involved in their relationship and the plan to fake Juliet’s death. Lawrence actually pushes the romance in Act II, Scene iii, believing

“this alliance may so happy prove,

To turn your households’ rancor to pure love.”

However well-intentioned, Friar Lawrence decides to support the relationship just after he chides Romeo for being being in love with Juliet so quickly after being in love with Rosaline. He notes that

“young men’s love, then, lies

Not truly in their hearts but in their eyes.”

Friar Lawrence knows that Romeo is emotional and fickle, but decides that possible peace between the households warrants his assistance in this relationship.

• Friar Lawrence then chooses to withhold all that he knows from both Romeo and Juliet’s parents. As we see in Act I, Scene v, Capulet doesn’t mind that Romeo is in his house, telling Tybalt he’s heard that Romeo’s “a virtuous and well-govern’d youth.” It’s possible that the Capulets and Montagues might have been able to move past the “ancient grudge” mentioned in the prologue for their children’s sakes, but Friar Lawrence doesn’t tell anyone what’s occurred until after Romeo and Juliet are already dead. He seems to realize this was a mistake as he says in Act V, Scene iii, his explanation works

“both to impeach and purge

Myself condemned and myself excused.”

What he means is that, although he hasn’t outright killed Romeo and Juliet, he’s been very involved in the circumstances that lead to their deaths.

• Friar Lawrence doesn’t adequately assess how emotional and prone to self-harm Romeo and Juliet are. Friar Lawrence knows that Juliet and Romeo have both expressed suicidal tendencies when they are presented with problems (Romeo in Act III, Scene ii, and Juliet in Act IV, Scene i), yet he entrusts Friar John with his letter to Romeo, explaining the plan. Friar John does not understand the significance of the letter, and the choice seems doubly strange when Romeo makes it evident in Act V, Scene i that he expected the Friar to send any correspondence through Balthasar, asking “Hast thou no letters to me from the friar?” When Balthasar responds in the negative, Romeo proceeds with his plan to go to Juliet and kill himself. Then in Act V, Scene iii, Romeo is dead, Paris is dead, and the Friar arrives and attempts to urge Juliet to come away with him to a nunnery. Juliet is still confused, asking where Romeo is. By this point, the Friar ought to know better than to answer as he does. Instead of insisting that Juliet come to him before explaining, the Friar tells Juliet the worst news first, saying

“Thy husband in thy bosom there lies dead;

And Paris too.”

Juliet, who has already threatened to kill herself over Romeo, quickly takes her own life. Friar Lawrence’s lack of knowledge when it comes to the emotions of those involved in his plans ends up costing many lives, and his actions are what allow the events of the play to take place. He alone can reveal all at the end of the play, finally telling the Capulets and the Montagues the information that could have allowed them to avoid so much bloodshed.

3. Romeo and Juliet explores lust, fascination, and love through “love” as experienced by two young people. Romeo and Juliet’s discourse on love, both separately and together in the balcony scene, reveals the play’s ongoing preoccupation with what love means and how it is truly experienced.

• As discussed in the first topic, Romeo is fickle and emotional. The play begins with Romeo claiming to be madly in love with Rosaline in Act I, Scene i. The problem, however, is as easily resolved as Benvolio suggests:

“By giving liberty to unto thine eyes;

Examine other beauties.”

Romeo is absorbed and fascinated in his love for Rosaline, able to think of little else. However when Romeo sees Juliet, Rosaline is forgotten, an inconsistency that Friar Lawrence calls him out on in Act II, Scene iii. Romeo’s fickleness in love raises the issue of love vs. lust or fascination. Is Romeo really in love with Juliet, a girl he barely knows? His soliloquy in the garden in Act II, Scene ii focuses on her body:

“See how she leans her cheek upon her hand!

O, that I were a glove upon that hand,

That I might touch that cheek!”

Romeo’s focus on the tactile and physical in his love for Juliet suggests that his “love” might be more lustful and shallow.

• Juliet, on the other hand, is more philosophical. While Romeo soliloquizes about Juliet’s physicality, Juliet wants to consider the core of Romeo’s being, rejecting physicality and easy categorization in the process:

“Thou art thyself though, not a Montague.

What’s a Montague? It is neither hand, nor foot,

Nor arm, nor face.”

Juliet’s love, therefore, is not lustful, and is possibly more mature and more like what we would consider “real” love, as opposed to lust or fascination.

• When Romeo and Juliet talk on the balcony in Act II, Scene ii, their conversation reveals love’s multifaceted nature. Juliet first considers their love in archetypal terms, or as role play, saying she knows what “thou wilt say” but recognizing that lovers prove false, and that she herself may be called upon to deceive:

“I’ll frown, be perverse, and say thee nay,

So thou wilt woo.”

However, as she has already admitted to loving Romeo, she realizes she’s already messed up the pattern of pursuit and rejection. By making Juliet and Romeo unable to participate in standard lovers role play, Shakespeare could be indicating that their love is more genuine than love that adheres to convention. Romeo quickly adopts highly romantic speech, swearing by the moon that he loves her, but this is not satisfactory for Juliet. Juliet points out the bad logic of his choice; the moon is “inconstant” and “changes.” Again, Juliet approaches love philosophically and as a result of her consideration can see their love is “too rash, too unadvis’d.” Through this scene, Shakespeare indicates that the audience must truly consider Romeo and Juliet’s relationship beyond flowery speech, preset roles, and lust. Instead of being satisfied with telling a love story, Shakespeare asks audiences to define love as they watch two teenagers act on an emotional impulse that closely resembles it.