Evaristo 1 Leila Cristina Evaristo Professor Jos Roberto OShea LLE 7481 Estudos em Shakespeare Texto e Performance 6 October

r 2011 Ancient grudge and youth delights with violent ends in Shakespeares Romeo and Juliet.

Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulets dead bodies lying in a tomb: this is the outcome of a feud between two families that has nurtured hate for each other over the years. This feud triggered a sequence of rash actions that started when the two teenagers after falling in love found out they belonged to rival families. This way, they were forced to conceal their affection for love would be an unwanted element in a long-established record of hostility. In such an unfavorable environment, the impetuous lovers are unable to carry their relationship through since passion and loathing are likewise irrational and act according to their own discretionary ways. Impetuosity is one of the themes that stands out in the play. The characters are imprinted with features that enhance the dramatic effect of the story. They seem to be driven by their emotions rather than by reason, and many of their decisions are made in the heat of the moment. The protagonists are the ones who appear to stretch this to the extreme. Romeo is young and much in love. His first lines in the play concern his feelings towards a girl he claims to be in love with. However, this love is unrequited and that is the reason he is enduring an emotional crisis. He is advised to examine other beauties (I.i.227) and only one glance at Juliet was enough to make his feelings for Rosaline simply vanish into thin air. With all this impulsiveness, Romeo represents much of what to be a teenager is. In contrast with the heads of the two houses, who seem too old

Evaristo 2 and rusty to actually engage in battle (I.i.74-80), Romeo has what it takes to fight for his emotions: the boldness and vigor of youth. A bit younger than Romeo, Juliet is a thirteen-year-old girl who apparently behaves accordingly until her mother suggests that she should marry valiant Paris (I.iii.74). The girl expresses her unwillingness to become a wife of someone she does not even know. But it is when Juliet is struck by Romeos looks that she is really spurred to behave against her familys will. She knows that her parents would never accept a Montague as her husband, so she would have to marry Romeo in secrecy. Her obstinate ideas of getting married, her courage to drink the sleeping potion, and finally, her ultimate action of stabbing herself in the chest with a dagger indicate that she is overall acting by the impulse of the burning flame of passion. One scene that illustrates the implications of strong emotions and impulsive actions is Friar Lawrences speech in Act II: These violent delights have violent ends And in their triumph die, like fire and powder, Which as they kiss consume. The sweetest honey Is loathsome in his own deliciousness, And in the taste confounds the appetite. Therefore love moderately: long love doth so; Too swift arrives as tardy as too slow. (II.vi.9-15) These words are addressed to Romeo just before Juliet arrives for the wedding. The friars words are related to the harmful potential of fleeting emotions. But the couple is so resolute that even in

Evaristo 3 moments of possible hesitations, like the one when Juliet is about to drink the potion and considers the possibility of something go wrong, she overcomes the fear and drinks the content in the vial; nothing can stop them, because they are somehow compelled to fulfill their destiny. Another element that is present in the story is fate. The lovers are dealing with something that is much bigger than their own choices or actions; they dealing with a pre-determined future. Right in the Prologue the lovers are characterized as being thwarted by the stars, so their actions lead them to only one end: death. Apart from the death of the protagonists, there are more three deaths of youngsters Tybalt, Mercutio and Paris are also victims of irrational violence. The characters lives seem to be tied to one another and the story develops in a kind of chain reaction that may lead the reader to consider some what-ifs throughout the story. The tragedy of Romeo and Juliet was written more than 400 years ago and deals with universal themes such as impetuosity, fate, passion, opposites (love and hate, new and old) and maybe that is why it is still so pertinent and has powerful pathos. Even today, when the audience is so used to misfortunate and unexpected endings, the feeling of unfairness is strong mainly because the young ones pay the price for their antecessors mistakes. In the play, most characters do not perform according to reason; instead they are compelled to act by their emotions, therefore making hasty decisions. Some are guided by love, some by hate. Love and hate are shown as opposites, but not quite far apart from each other since both feelings may have devastating consequences. Number of words: 811

Work Cited Evans, G. B., ed. The Riverside Shakespeare. 2th ed. Boston: Houghton, 1997. Print.