Romeo & Juliet

Romeo & Juliet Essay

Conflict, Suicide, and Love

In amongst all of the love in Romeo & Juliet, there are a lot of themes relating Conflict & Suicide. I will be discussing the conflict between the Montagues and Capulets, how Romeo and Juliet committed suicide, their reasoning for it, and the forbidden love between Romeo and Juliet.

The Montagues and Capulets are feuding, and everyone one in the family, and their servants are involved in this feud. Even whilst they are in the streets of Verona they keep up this fight. In Act 1, Scene 1, two of the Capulet's servants are in the streets of Verona, and two of the Montague servants come along. Sampson, a Capulet Servant, bites his thumb at Abram, a Montague Servant. When they bit their thumb in the Shakespearian time, it was considered a rude gesture. This incident sparked a fight, in which another from each side joined, and fought. Between the two families, there was a lot of hostility, in which most of the people involved really didn't have to be.

The Capulets later on held a party, in which everyone but Montagues were invited. Romeo & his friends went as gatecrashers to the party, and there he saw Juliet, she is what I like to call, his "forbidden love". Their parents want all of the children, relatives, and servants to display hatred towards the other families. This must be very hard for Romeo and Juliet, especially since they are in love with each other. In Act 1, Scene 5, Juliet says the following about Romeo;

"My only love sprung from my only hate!

Too early seen unknown, and known too late!

Prodigious birth of love it is to me,

That I must love a loathed enemy."

Juliet is describing how her love, is from her family's only hate, the Montagues, and how her love for Romeo was an unusual love to her.

This love also led Romeo and Juliet to get married. But this marriage was not normal; it was a secret marriage, where only four people knew about it. These four people were Romeo, Juliet, Juliet's Nurse, and Friar Lawrence. This made it even harder for the both of them, as they loved each other so much,