Analyse how Shakespeare represents the love between Romeo and

Juliet as ideal, ending the feud

Romeo and Juliet is a play written by William Shakespeare in the Elizabethan period.
It follows the story of two ‘star-cross’d lovers’. It is set in Italy in a city called Verona
which has been corrupted by a feud between two families that both have equal status
in society. Verona has been turned into a violent society because everybody has
become caught up in the feud between the Montagues and the Capulets; there has
been a breakdown of divine order which creates a chaotic and corrupt society. The
Elizabethans believed in a divine order of people.
The play’s main characters are two young people who fall in love with each other;
unfortunately their love is unattainable according to their society, as they belong to
the rival families. The play shows us all the different kinds of love which may be
possible and how they fail in healing the rift between the two families.
According to Shakespeare, only the love that exists between Romeo and Juliet is pure
enough to heal the rift between the two families. We could say that only Romeo and
Juliet were still pure of any rivalry resulting from the feud and them falling in love
also symbolises religious love as only clean hearts and souls can heal according to
religion, as was widely believed in the Elizabethan period.

The prologue of Romeo and Juliet is a sonnet. It gives us a brief overview of what
happens in the play so we are not surprised when the lovers take their lives.
Shakespeare keeps us in the loop about what happens. Through the use of dramatic
irony, tension is built. Because of the sheer hatred that exists between the two houses,
the love that exists between Romeo and Juliet will not be allowed to blossom.

‘Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean…a pair of star-cross’d lovers take their
life’

The quotation above tells us that there has been a civil war in Verona for years now; it
has embroiled all the inhabitants of the city. There are no surprises because from the
quotation Shakespeare has told us that both Romeo and Juliet end up dying for love.
The prologue also tells us that both the Montagues and Capulets have the same social
standing in Verona and nothing so far has succeeded in healing the rift between them;
till the deaths of their children. Shakespeare exposes the inadequacy of the other types
of love to overcome the long-standing feud.

‘From ancient grudge break new mutiny’

Although the feud has been going on for a long time, the violence has subsided. It was
unfortunately brought up again in Act 1 scene 1; it is during this surge of new
violence that Romeo and Juliet take their lives.

In Act 1 we are immediately thrust into an argument between the Capulets and the
Montagues. Two servants from the house of Montague, Sampson and Gregory
instigate the argument by inflaming Abram who is from the house of Capulet.
Sampson and Gregory use extremely explicit language to describe what they would
do to any Capulet woman who may stray into their territory.

Their conversation centres around sex and Shakespeare uses crude puns to show how
much hate exists between both houses. The play starts with sexual violence and lust;
this according to society is the lowest form of love that exists. They also speak in
prose to express their views on love. Sampson and Gregory also use stichomythia to
communicate in scene 1.

The first reference to the feud was through Sampson, “a dog of the house of the
Montague moves me”. This is a very degrading sentence and it is full of sexual
innuendo. Sampson is saying that one of the cursed Montagues has sexually aroused
him, probably a maid as he clarifies in his later sentences. Before the Montagues
arrive, the conversation between Sampson and Gregory is centred exclusively around
sex and what they plan on doing to any Montague women that happen to cross their
paths unescorted. This also shows that the feud has permeated to the lowest levels of
society.

We meet Romeo who is suffering from false, courtly love. He is posing as a love sic
young man and his affection is centred on Juliet’s cousin Rosalind. It has become his
morning routine to wander around in the dark and shuts himself in his room when day
breaks.

“With tears augmenting the fresh morning’s dew adding to clouds more clouds with
his deep sighs”

The hyperbole above indicates Romeo’s unhappiness may be exaggerated as he tries

to fit into the lovesick role he’s supposed to be playing.

Romeo’s parents seem to genuinely care about him unlike Juliet’s parents who seem
to just pay her a passing glance. Both of them have had different examples of love and
even though their views on love differ they both connect perfectly when they meet
each other In Act 1 scene 5.
In scene 3 of the play, we are introduced to Juliet and we learn that her relationship to
her parents is not as easy-flowing as Romeo’s to his parents. She plays the part of a
typical daughter who only exists to please her parents, she strives to be the perfect
child. A good example of this is her reply when her mother asks her if she can love
Paris, below.

“I’ll look to like, if looking liking move; but no more deep will I endart mine eye than
your consent gives strength to make it fly”

Juliet is saying that she will not love Paris anymore than her parents tell her to love
him. This sentence shows us that she strives to please her parents in all ways.
An arranged marriage between Juliet and Paris was set up by Juliet’s parents and she
does not seem to care.

“No more deep will I endart mine eye”

The Elizabethans believed that love entered through the eye and Juliet’s statement
says that she will not look too deeply into his eyes. When Romeo and Juliet met for
the first time they looked into each other’s eyes and fell in love. In the Baz Lhurman
version of the film, their eyes meet while looking into a fish tank. The fish tank is a
representative of tranquillity in the midst of the chaos they call life, the fish tank was
also used as a safe haven for both Romeo and Juliet. It was through the fish tank that
they fell in love. Lhurman’s camera technique is also very effective on the audience,
in the scene before they met the camera technique had been violent and chaotic,
which could also be a representative of the Feud and how it has affected everything to
do with both families; the moment the fish tank comes into focus the camera
technique immediately becomes gentle and soft.

Love is also represented as a kind of madness in Mercutio’s long speech, referred to

as the Queen Mab speech. Queen Mab is portrayed as sexually provocative and
Mercutio’s extreme manifestation of cynical love is maniac and it shows how he
holds love in contempt. Mercutio’s love for Romeo can also be described as
homoerotic.

“Some consequence yet hanging in the stars shall bitterly begin his fearful date”

This is Romeo’s remark as he approaches the Capulet party. He has a premonition

about fate/destiny about to come into play. He feels that something major that will
change them individually is about to happen and he is proven right in the end of the
play.

Romeo and Juliet’s meeting is set apart from all the madness of the feud and Verona’s
society in a calm oasis, away from all the polluting forms of love so far seen. The love
between them is a combination of two kinds of love, both physical and spiritual; the
ideal kind of love. The sonnet they both share is binding; they complete each other’s
sentences and are perfectly attuned to each other. Their unity is self evident from the
first line of the sonnet, compared to the other types of love already shown in the play.
The saying of the sonnet also verbally seals the relationship between them. The
language of their sonnet is a representative of the spiritual love existing between them
as it is infused with religion.

“For saints have hands that pilgrims’ hands do touch, and palm to palm is holy
palmers’ kiss”
It is a religious sentence and it has harmonious lines. As we read further into the
sonnet we realise that the sonnet is not just religious but contains language describing
physical love and interaction, in the Elizabethan period sonnets were the poetry of
love. They were the highest form of poetry in Shakespeare’s time. Romeo and Juliet
communicate in sonnets showing how complex their relationship is and how total
their love for each other is.

After they meet the world infringes again on their personal oasis, they are wrenched
violently apart showing how unacceptable their love for each other is. Above all the
discriminations and over all the obstacles in their paths their love survives. Due to the
failure of society and all the other types of love only Romeo and Juliet’s love seems to
be able to triumph over the feud, this is eventually what heals the rift between the two
families. Their love illuminates everything around and in the end of the film version
their tomb is lit with candles, symbolising peace, love, forgiveness and hope. Their
love is the ideal love and though it heals the feud it does not bring back the dead ‘star-
crossed lovers’.