Romeo and Juliet is one of Shakespeare’s classic and most famous plays. By using eloquent speeches, poetic imagery and emotional drama, Shakespeare tells the story of a tragic love affair fuelled by passionate love and bitter hate. As the play progresses, one can see that the dichotomy of love and hate is not the only conflicting ideas that Shakespeare focuses on. In fact, much of his play is based on contrasting ideas and poetic imagery used by the lovers.
Life Versus Death
The most obvious and powerful conflicting idea that stems from Romeo and Juliet is that of life and death connected with love and hate. Romeo and Juliet share an extreme passion and love for one another, so intense that it burns. Their love is the ultimate passion and completely overwhelms them.
Their love for one another, even though it is clearly wrong, is too powerful to be stopped, or contradicted. Romeo and Juliet would choose to die rather than to not love one another.
In most cases life and love are often associated with one another. It is love that completes one’s life. Furthermore, death is often associated with hate due to the violence that often surrounds death.
However, Shakespeare completely stirs this up by connecting love to death. This double suicide is the most passionate expression of love ever seen in a play. It connects the deep desire for love and death by one same emotion: passion. Juliet believes her love is infinite. But this is contrasted with the abruptness of death. While love is free and infinite, death is final. Shakespeare finds a way to connect these four complete opposites with the idea of ultimate passion.
Love and Hate
The concept of love and hate is also brought forth when comparing the love of Romeo and Juliet with the hate fuelled by their families. Juliet recalls “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 are faced with this love for one another but know they are meant to hate each other, as expressed in the rage of their parents.
Love and hate is also brought forth when Juliet announces she will not marry Paris. She states, “when I do, I swear It shall be Romeo, whom you know I hate, Rather than Paris” (III.v.116-117). It is almost as if hate and love are interchangeable in this quote.
Furthermore, this sincere and all-consuming love of Romeo and Juliet is contrasted against the utter pettiness of the hatred by their families. Even though Romeo and Juliet are young, they seem to understand the ways of love a lot more than their parents. While Romeo and Juliet experience such adulterous passion, their families are more concerned with childish drama such as the petty war against family names.
Youth Versus Age
This contrasting idea brings in the notion of youth versus age. Most of the time, youth is associated with silliness while those with age are supposed to be wise and experienced. Although Juliet is young and obviously thinking with her heart, not her head, it is her aging parents that are acting childish and immature.
Through love and hate, Shakespeare also plays on the fine line between the contrasting ideas of age and youth. It is because of Shakespeare’s contrasting images and ideas that Romeo and Juliet gains its passion, its drama and its intensity that has made the play a timeless classic.
Further Reading:
Romeo and Juliet, by William Shakespeare.
Light and Dark, Day and Night in Romeo and Juliet
