Family conflict is presented strongly through Lady Capulet’s line, “I would the fool were married to her grave”. Women of this era would marry suitable bachelors, highlighting the strict rule for them at this time to do as they were instructed by their fathers. Paris would have fit this criteria, as he was a nobleman of Verona, who was also kin to Mercutio and the Prince. The carefully chosen adjective “grave” encapsulates the seriousness of the situation for Juliet, the young Capulet woman, who refused to marry the nobleman chosen by her parents and foreshadows the doom to come. Lady Capulet is extremely distressed by Juliet’s refusal to marry Paris that she essentially calls her daughter a “fool” and wishes she were dead for disobeying their decision. The fact that Juliet has abandoned all natural patriarchal societal rules, maintains the audience’s connection to the rebellious lovers and their aspirations for them to succeed in their love.
Lord Capulet also heightened the family’s conflict ridiculing Juliet with the insults, “Out, you green sickness, carrion! /Out, you baggage! /You tallow face!”. The use of these harsh insults in the form of simple sentences exemplifies and represents the severe attitude and anger Juliet’s father feels for her, and the extent of the conflict between the two families; through the use of expletives which are reinforced with the use of exclamations. Furthermore, the metaphor “baggage” connotes to her being a burden or an object rather than an individual or daughter. Elizabethan England was a patriarchal society therefore, Juliet’s refusal of the marriage proposal was seen as an issue and conflict in her father’s business transaction. As mentioned before, exclamations were used to exemplify the seriousness and tension in this situation. Juliet’s voice is not heard in this conflicting argument, stressing the patriarchal power structure and the moral, emotional and societal conflict she is confronted with, which would have been the case for many young wealthy girls in her position, in the Elizabethan era.
Juliet’s emotional inner struggle is presented in a soliloquy in Act 4 Scene 3. Through the use of two effective metaphors, “I have a faint cold fear thrills through my veins/That almost freezes up the heat of life. /I’ll call them back again to comfort me”, her inner conflict is highlighted through the juxtaposed ideas of “freezes” and “heat”. The use of consonance through the repeated ‘f’ and ‘c’ sounds in these lines which display the harsh reality of Juliet’s situation. These lines also represent the fears and doubts Juliet feels as her mind races with an array of negative possibilities. She doubts the mixture given to her by Friar Lawrence, believing it may indeed be poison, rather than a sleeping potion; so once taken she may not awake to begin her life with her new husband, Romeo. Despite her fear, the word “thrills” indicates Juliet’s excitement and anticipation of her new life with Romeo, hoping to put all the battles and conflict their love has caused far behind her, thus exciting the audience with the risk of ingesting this potion.
Foreshadowing is used effectively in Juliet’s soliloquy, through the classic Shakespearean images and motifs of, lightness and darkness as well as love and death; as the audience is aware of Juliet’s dark fate which she has unwittingly expressed in the line, “That almost freezes up the heat of life,” this encapsulates the life freezing her veins. The audience can see and empathise with how frightened Juliet is of what is to come. Therefore, the depth of her love for Romeo is visible in her willingness to drink the potion despite her fear and internal conflict. Fate plays a huge role here as the audience would sympathise with Juliet as she is destined to follow the path that fate had laid out for her, which would automatically connect the Elizabethan audience’s beliefs regarding stars aligning and mapping out people’s lives.
Romeo’s soliloquy in Act 5 Scene 3 is a total representation of misheard information and misinformed actions, therefore leading to his final and most dramatic conflict outcome; his own suicide. Upon hearing the news of Juliet’s death from his servant Balthasar, in Scene 1 of Act 5, Romeo exclaims, “then I defy you, stars!” reinforcing the concept that the love between Romeo and Juliet is in opposition to and conflicts with the decrees of destiny and fate which ironically fulfils the lovers’ tragic destiny.
Romeo’s deep sorrow for the loss of the love of his life, Juliet leads to his personal conflict regarding whether life is worth living without her. His distress is amplified in the personification of death in the lines, “That unsubstantial Death is amorous/And that the lean abhorred monster keeps/Thee here in dark to be his paramour?” In this quote Romeo associates Juliet as the mistress of death, as death has now consumed her body and soul and taken her away from Romeo. The noun “paramour” suggests that Romeo feels an overwhelming sense of loss and conflict, thereby leaving him only one option, to kill himself in order to be reunited with his one true love. The dramatic irony of this scene lays in Romeo killing himself after the natural assumption that Juliet has died, heightening tension for the audience, as they are in the privileged position of being fully aware of the twisted situation and Romeo’s unfortunate lack of knowledge.
Towards the end of the play in Act 5 Scene 3, Juliet exclaims, “Oh happy dagger this is thy sheath. There rust, and let me die”, following her discovery that her beloved Romeo is dead, so Juliet attempts to kill herself in the same manner by kissing his lips. Ordinarily a kiss would be an act of love, but here the purpose was in order to ingest some of the poison Romeo has taken, thus becoming an act of violence. When this fails Juliet sees an alternative solution, Romeo’s dagger, which she beckons and stabs herself in the chest with, in order to be together with Romeo. “Happy dagger” is used as an oxymoron to stress contrast in this tragic situation as the adjective “happy” is not an association commonly made with daggers or weapons of any kind. Shakespeare uses this linguistic device in order to emphasis Juliet’s desperation and simultaneous relief in finding an escape plan from the harsh reality of discovering Romeo’s death and welcoming her own death in order to reunite her with him. The dagger refers to a natural choice of weapon in the Elizabethan era as they would have been held in leather sheaths; thus if they were left inside them for too long unused they would rust, which is what Juliet asks of the dagger. The double suicide in the play represents the fulfilment of love and the conflict which caused this, which results in conflict and violence being the final deed of profound love.
Conflict is a central part of Romeo and Juliet and is embedded in every act of every scene. Many different aspects of conflict are portrayed throughout the play, for example; physical, family, social, inner, emotional and misinformed conflict. These representations of conflict build together to form a dramatically intensified play, where the audience is fully informed of the outcome of the story but has to wait to watch and see how the drama will be unveiled, revealed and unfolded. Friar Lawrence foreshadows the conflict and death of Romeo and Juliet in Act 2 Scene 5, “These violent delights have violent ends/ And in their triumph die.” The opening of the play uses the chorus to divulge the entire storyline of the play, thus ensuring the captivation and engagement of the audience from the very beginning, “From forth the fatal loins of these two foes/ A pair of star-cross’d lovers take their life;”. The audience is aware that the conflict in the play will result in inevitable tragic death of the two main characters, due to the conflict of their warring families, which is ironically fated by the stars.