The Destructive Power of Love in the Legendary Love Story Romeo and Juliet - Research Paper Example

Romeo and Juliet is the most legendary love story in the English literary tradition, because it focuses on intense passion that blossoms at first sight between Romeo and Juliet, evokes a divine poetic eloquence and possesses utter tragic elements. It is a heartbreaking love affair fuelled by passionate love and bitter hate. However, it is evident that the dichotomy of love and hate is not the only contrasting image that Shakespeare provides the readers with, his collision of opposites goes much deeper, and touches upon the contrasting of life and death, youth and age, night and day, light and dark. The all consuming love Romeo and Juliet feel for each other is harshly contrasted against the utter pettiness of the hatred their two families have for one another. On having fallen madly inlove with Romeo, Juliet exclaims “my only love, sprung from my only hate!” (I.v.138). Furthermore, Romeo claims “why then, O brawling love, O brawling hate” (I.i.175). Both experience an almost adulterous passion, but are well aware of the fact that they are fated to hate each other, as expressed in the rage of their parents and the childish drama of their petty wars against family names. Ultimately, this hatred propels the lovers towards their tragic deaths. It is ironic that love as passionate as the one between Romeo and Juliet can only be born out of hatred, and is made more intense exactly because of this family feud. But, in the end, love triumphs over hate, even though the price is too high. Another very powerful conflicting idea that stems from the story of the ill fated lovers is that of life and death closely intertwined with love and hate. The world’s most renowned psychoanalyst, Sigmund Freud, argued that human love was propelled by two opposing human drives: Eros, the desire for love and Thanatos, the desire for death. Exactly because the families have been feuding for such a long time, the lovers believe their forbidden relationship puts them in constant danger. As this is the case with most things, the seeming threat of danger, and one might even say death, adds a spark of excitement to their secret meetings. Generally, the notions of life and love are associated with one another. Love makes one’s life complete. Furthermore, death is usually associated with hate, because of the violence that often surrounds death. Interestingly enough, Shakespeare creates his own, rather unconventional connections, by uniting hate with life and love with death, and from a certain point of view portrays suicide as an erotic act which both consummates the lovers’ burning passion and unites them in death. Romeo says “Well, Juliet, I will lie with thee tonight” where he aches to physically unite with his beloved Juliet in death, since he is not allowed to unite himself with her in life. Juliet is equally eager to follow Romeo “O happy dagger! This is thy sheath; there rust and let me die” (V.iii.2). Without Romeo, there exists no love, there is no life. She is but an empty shell forced into existence. Poison is medicine to her, possessing restorative power to reunite her with Romeo. But, having no more poison, she uses her beloved’s sword. They do not believe that death is final. Quite the contrary, they believe that their love will assume a free and infinite form of existence once they cross the borders into the world beyond. In the play, one can also witness a stark contrast of youth versus age. One of life’s lessons is that youth is associated with impulsiveness, lack of reasonable thought and giving in to passion easily, while on the other hand, those of age are inclined towards wisdom, experience and deeper knowledge of the world. The youthful passions of the star struck lovers conflict harshly with the values of their feuding parents and their mature advisors. Romeo directly accuses Friar Laurence of being too old to understand his passionate situation “Thou canst not speak of that thou dost not feel; Wert thou as young as I, Juliet thy love, An hour but married, Tybalt murdered, Doting like me and like me banished, Then mightst thou speak, then mightst thou tear thy hair, And fall upon the ground, as I do now, Taking the measure of an unmade grave” (III.iii.9). The youthful impulsiveness is quick to believe that its troubles are of the worst kind, that no one else undergoes such a worrisome existence. Blinded by their fiery love, they feel the whole adult world has conspired against them and that the only way out is death. This is where two opposing questions arise. The first one being, is Romeo and Juliet’s tragedy the result of the inability of the older generation to understand the passion and commitment of the younger? And the second one, are Romeo and Juliet doomed by their own youthful impulsiveness, which their wiser mentors are not able to restrain? It all depends on how one perceives the whole situation. Some people interpret the play as a cautionary tale of dangers of young love. Others on the other hand, argue that the love of Romeo and Juliet begins as mere flirtation, only to develop into something deeper and more meaningful, portraying the path from infatuation to real love. The dichotomy of night and day is exemplified in one of the most important scenes of the play, where Romeo and Juliet spend the night together, and Shakespeare intentionally blurs the dividing lines of night and day. As Romeo is getting ready to leave, Juliet asks “Wilt thou be gone? It is not yet near day, It was the nightingale, and not the lark, That pierced the fearful hollow of thine ear” (III.v.1-3). This symbolizes the existence of their love somewhere in between night and day, in between light and darkness, not belonging to either. They must remain hidden in the darkness of the night, as this is the only time when their love can take place. Romeo, forced to leave for exile in the morning, and Juliet reluctant to let him go, both desperately try to pretend that it is still night and that the light is actually darkness “More light and light, more dark and dark our woes” (III.v.36). This contrast of light and dark, often in terms of night and day imagery, is not given a particular metaphoric meaning – light is not always good, dark is not always evil. On the contrary, light and dark are used to hint at opposed alternatives. For Romeo and Juliet, night is light and the rising sun brings forth death. From one point of view, their double suicide could symbolize their attempt at finding a place of their own where they will be undisturbed, where they will be alone to serve as each other’s light. In the end, it becomes clear that choosing death over life is the only choice the two of them have, ostensibly because of who they are. Juliet does not possess the strength to openly confess her love for Romeo for fear of defying her family, while Romeo cannot put aside his pride, anger and resentment towards her family. The destructive power of love takes hold from the very beginning and death becomes the only way these two can preserve their love. References: Shakespeare, William. The Complete Works of William Shakespeare. Hertfordshire: Wordsworth Editions Ltd, 1996. Read More