The Play Romeo And Juliet’ Is A Play Of Contrasts In It Is As Much About Hatred As It Is About Love. Discuss

Romeo and Juliet is a play about contrasts as much as it is love and hate. It’s a tragic play which love and hate are embodied in many different ways. The Montagues and Capulets hate each other after a long feud long forgotten, but Romeo and Juliet meet each other and fall in love instantly “star crossed lovers” showing that hate can be born in love, an oxymoron.

The prologue establishes the themes of love and hate from the beginning and links the two. The sonnet at the start of the play gives us an insight into the play the love and hate of the family is from long ago that they have an ancient grudge and everyone is becoming involved in this feud without consent. “Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean” suggests that people who otherwise would be innocent civilians are being made to fight and have death on their hands. The prologue explains Romeo and Juliet’s love as being born from the hatred and grudges of the two families. However from the prologue it is telling us their love is destined to end “star crossed lovers” which suggest that destiny has fated them to death. Also their “death-marked love” is referring back to Elizabethan belief that there is a greater force then that of humans such as God. Shakespeare reveals the information that the love of Romeo and Juliet’s is that they will die because the audience is not interested to know whether they will die, they want to now know how, why and in what circumstances they died. By doing this Shakespeare has increased the dramatic tension when saying Romeo and Juliet will die in the play.

In act 1 scene 1 the themes of hatred and love are introduced very early into this play. The scene starts with a violent scene which shows the disorder from the conflict of the two families. The scene opens with two servants from the Capulet house; Shakespeare shows they are ready to fight in many different ways “A dog of that house shall move me to stand. I will take the wall of any man or maid of Montague’s” which means that Sampson is ready to fight if he sees a Montague. It shows the needless aggression of Sampson and violence, just to an old feud of which they are unlikely to know about. By Shakespeare doing this it has a profound effect on the audience; it highlights the hatred between the two families. Gregory another servant of the Capulet household when seeing servants of the house of Montague says “Draw thy tool- here comes two of the house of Montague’s” meaning he is threatening the two servants by wielding a weapon. Benvolio attempts to stop the fighting by drawing his sword and telling them to part, “Part foolsвЂ¦Ð²Ð‚¦..You know not what you do”. Benvolio is trying to make peace by doing this, trying to stop the hatred between them, if this attempt had been successful perhaps the family would have been able to put aside the hatred and have love in its place. However he is unsuccessful due to Tybalt thwarting his attempt by starting a fight with Benvolio. Tybalt does this as he hates all Montagues and all regards of peace as he says “What, drawn and talk of peace? I hate the word As I hate hell, all Montagues and thee” This links back to the contrasts of love and hate, as Benvolio could be used as a symbol for love and of the fiery Tybalt of hate, due to their roles in the fight. Later in this Scene Prince Escalus later issues a decree, This is because society is in chaos due to these three civil brawls and as a result of this he wants to regain control by enforcing a decree that fighting will mean death for the two families, “Have thrice disturbed the quiet of our streets” This hatred has left the people of the town having to fight when it should be a loving community which highlights the contrasts of love and hate.

This play is about love and seems to differ in many kinds, for example we see in Act 1 Scene 1 Romeo’s love for Rosaline is not returned (petrarchan love). This means that he does not actually love her he’s only lusting after her. Romeo’s love for Rosaline is also tinged with sadness “Griefs of mine own lie heavy in my breast” which suggests that his love is depressing. Romeo also seems to only be in love with her beauty he does not know her very well “Show me a mistress that is passing fair” Romeo is only looking at the surface not inside. However this differs from Romeo and Juliet’s love. As soon as Romeo see’s Juliet he is immediately amazed and so enthusiastic about their love, “O, she doth teach the torches to burn Bright!” Suggesting she teaches light how to be light the audience can also hear that Romeo is completely besotted with Juliet. This use of language also shows that Romeo thinks the world of Juliet and would give anything to be with her. “So shows a snowy dove trooping with crows” this is showing the purity of their love, and how Juliet’s light is shining through the darkness of everyone else how Romeo perceives the world, it’s also another of many contrasts in this play, light and dark, love and hate. When Romeo and Juliet are talking they use religious imagery, “This holy shrine, the gentle sin is this:” This is talking about how holy and beautiful her hands are, like worshipping god; the effect on the audience is that Romeo is comparing Juliet to a god, and since God is perfect Juliet must be perfect. Juliet then goes on to say “Then have my lips the sin that they took” She is referring to sinning which she is not meant to by Gods word. (Also referring to religion)

In this tragic play we see that Romeo and Juliet’s love is threatened from the very beginning and overshadowed by the two families’ hatred of each other. “My only love sprung from my only hate” Juliet is explaining that her love is born from hate, which has a confused effect on the audience, like an oxymoron would. It also explains how their parent’s hate has thrown off what should be pure love. Thou art thyself, though not a Montague” Juliet is saying she is herself but does not want to be a Montague otherwise she will have almost betrayed her whole family, which is unfair and stopping their love going forward.

As the play develops in Act 3 Scene 1 we finally get to see the tragic consequences coming from the extremes of love and hate for the Capulets and Montagues. Tybalt seeks revenge because when Romeo turned up to the Capulet ball, he heard Romeo, a Montague at