The Destruction Respective to Love in Romeo and Juliet
Love is typically associated with a positive connotation, bringing people together; this is seen in William Shakespeare’s, Romeo and Juliet which is a world wide famous love story. But, ironically, love within Romeo and Juliet usually leads to destruction: ending lives; ruining friendship and families; and making “civil hand unclean” (prologue.4) tough city brawls. Shakespeare uses love in Romeo and Juliet to display relationship, but love leads becomes a destructive force in many of these relationships. Shakespeare presents love between: Romeo and Juliet; friends and family, and people for the name of respective houses, but their love turns to destruction.
The love Romeo and Juliet possesses for each other is very strong, but their love becomes destructive towards their decisions and, therefore, effects their families. Juliet decides to fake her own death, upon hearing news of Romeo’s banishment, as she hopes that Romeo will come back to Verona and save her from the vault of the dead Capulets; this decision of Juliet affects the Capulet family and places them in a state of shock and mourning. Lady and Lord Capulet, exclaims their emotions of their daughters death by saying, “Revive, look up, or I will die with thee!— … Dead art thou. Alack, my child is dead, / And with my child my joys are buried.” (IV.v.20, 63-64). Juliet’s desperation, which was drived by her love towards Romeo, caused her to make an irrational, and selfish decision causes stress, and melancholy emotions upon the Capulet family, who believe she is truly dead. Furthermore, Romeo buys poison from an apothecary in Mantua, with the intention to kill himself, after hearing that Juliet is dead. Romeo explains his emotions of desperation by saying, “Well, Juliet, I will lie with thee tonight…let me have / A dram of poison, such soon-speeding gear / As will disperse itself through all the veins, / That the life-weary taker may fall dead” (V.i.34, 60 – 62). Romeo is in love with Juliet to a point where he decides that he cannot live without her; this love is destructive toward his livelihood.. This love makes Romeo so selfish that he doesn’t take a second to think about the affect his death would have on his family. Moreover, when Juliet see Romeo’s dead body in the vault of the Capulet, she decides to kill herself. Juliet exclaims that she will kill herself because of Romeo’s death, “O churl, drunk all, and left no friendly drop To help me after? I will kiss thy lips, Haply some poison yet doth hang on them, To make me die with a restorative … Yea, noise? Then i’ll be brief. O happy dagger, This is thy sheath; there rust, and let me die.” (V.iii.160 – 171). Juliet’s love for Romeo is vast. When Juliet finds Romeo dead on the ground, she believes that there is nothing for her to do, but end her life. This love starts as fate bringing two young lover together to a force destroying their lives.
Romeo and Juliet’s love for each other is not the only scenario of love seen in the play, but love between friends and family is quite prominent, yet destructive towards certain individuals. Lord Capulet wants Juliet to marry the County Paris, as he believes the happiness of the event will rid Juliet of her sadness towards the death of her cousin Tybalt, but Juliet responds with, “I am not proud of what you have found for me. But I am thankful that you have found it. I can never be proud of what I hate. But I can be thankful for something I hate, if it was meant with love.” (III.v.146 – 148). Lord Capulet exclaims his anger to Juliet’s by saying, “How how, how how, chopt-logic? / What is this?…Thursday next, / To go with Paris to Saint Peter’s Church, / Or I will drag thee on a hurdle thither / Out, you green-sickness carrion! out, you baggage!” (III.v.149 – 156). It is quite clear that Juliet doesn’t want to marry County Paris as she is married to Romeo, but Lord Capulet does not know this. He assumes that Juliet is acting out and no longer being an obedient child, which angers him. In this situation, Lord Capulet’s love and caring for Juliet weakens their relationship. Another example is when the nurse tells Juliet that she should get married to Paris, causing Juliet to hate the nurse as she feels betrayed. The Nurse expresses her feeling towards that situation, and Juliet expresses her feeling towards the betrayal in the following dialogue:
Nurse:
Faith, here it is:
Romeo is banish’d, and all the world to nothing
That he dares ne’er come back to challenge you;
Or, if he do, it needs must be by stealth.
Then, since the case so stands as now it doth,
I think it best you married with the County.
(III.v.213 – 217)
Juliet:
Ancient damnation! O most wicked fiend!
Is it more sin to wish me thus forsworn,
Or to dispraise my lord with that same tongue
Which she hath praised him with above compare
So many thousand times? Go, counselor.
Thou and my bosom henceforth shall be twain.
(III.v.235 – 240)
The Nurse had acted as a surrogate mother to Juliet when she was young. She has supported her when she wanted to get married to Romeo, a man of the vile Montague house. Juliet had expected her to conjure a solution to get her out of marrying Paris. The Nurse believes that marrying Paris would get Juliet out of this predicament, but Juliet feels betrayed that the Nurse wanted her to break her vows to Romeo; which leads to Juliet not talking to the Nurse. The Nurse’s love for Juliet, which is the reason why she tries to come up with a good plan to help Juliet, becomes destructive, ruins their relationship. Finally, Romeo’s destructive love for Mercutio is shown when he slays Tybalt in avengence of Mercutio. Romeo states his anger towards Tybalt killing Mercutio by saying, “Alive in triumph—and Mercutio slain! Away to heaven, respective lenity, And fire-eyed fury be my conduct now. Now, Tybalt, take the “villain” back again That late thou gavest me, for Mercutio’s soul Is but a little way above our heads, Staying for thine to keep him company. Either thou or I, or both, must go with him..” (III.i.118-125). Romeo is enraged that Tybalt has killed Mercutio, a beloved friend. He is enraged that Tybalt carried himself with pride after the event; therefore, Romeo decides to slay Tybalt in avengence. The punishment for murder is death, and after the event, Romeo says, “O, I am fortune’s fool.” (III.i.132), which is ironic. Romeo believes that this event was caused by the goddess Fortuna’s fickleness towards him, yet this is untrue as it was his choice to kill