In the work of Shakespeare, ‘Romeo and Juliet‘ establishes a challenge or test to see whether the combination of languages (as oppositions), the combinations that run from violence to a gentleness of expression (as oppositions), and those between duty and pleasure can emerge as one whole. The author provides an unexpected answer: it can emerge as an intimate tragedy, as a small universe of vengeance and love that is both a mirror and a window.
At the base of this world, then, lie two firmaments: an “ancient evil” and an “ancient thirst”; these are the colliding elements that drive this narrative. Through the Prologue, Shakespeare provides both within the same lines, i.e., by calling the lovers “star-crossed” and promising that the reader will witness “the two hours’ traffic of our stage”, establishing the pulse and flow of the entire play from the first words within it.
The brilliance of Shakespeare comes from his style and structure. Through poetic devices, he holds back time: oxymoronic and paradoxical phrases punctuate the speeches of Romeo (“Oh brawling love! Oh loving hate”), while the prologue is not only a plot map but also a sonnet. The language used by Shakespeare does more than decorate; it creates character, motive and destiny. For example, when Romeo compares Juliet to the sun (“It is the east, and Juliet is the sun”) during the balcony scene, he is not only flattering her; he is also elevating the importance of the private nighttime meetings to the level of the universe, thereby changing the concept of a simple conversational exchange at night in the moonlight to something of both earthly and heavenly magnitude.
While there are many love poems in the world, Romeo and Juliet is unlike any other because its central theme of ecstatic intimacy, juxtaposed against an environment of brutality and violence related to civic and family tensions (e.g., brawls, duels, and honour), leads to tragic consequences throughout the entirety of the story. Shakespeare skilfully links each event from the street fight to Romeo’s exile and thereby causes a misunderstanding for the final catastrophic event of the play. Although the lovers are often thought to be alone, the world in which they live is filled with noise from other members of society – especially the Nurse, the other servants, and members of the city – which adds to the realism of the story. Mercutio’s comical behaviour and Tybalt’s fierce need for revenge both add to the tragic ending’s inevitability.
Explosive details of the story allow Romeo and Juliet to become even more intense. The fact that Juliet is so very young (“hath not seen a fourteen-year-old change”) tells us that the play is set in an environment where there are children just entering into their adulthood, hence the high moral and emotional values of the play.
With these scenes—which are as breathtaking as they are staged for maximum effect—this concludes with letters wrongly understood, a friar who was not able to arrive in time, and with the reconciliation of all the wrongs only after complete and irrevocable loss. These closing scenes evoke a sense of judgement about beauty and the harshness of the experiences depicted in the tomb scenes.
Why revisit this play? This play serves as a laboratory for exploring our emotions towards each other during moments of romantic love. This play posits questions regarding what percentage of our love is our choice and what percentage of our love is based on narrative and on how our identity by name, role and history defines our passionate love for one another. Read the play for Shakespeare’s extraordinary use of metaphor, for the sheer theatrical ability to be tragic in its compression but also expand in its scope, and for the moral pain of the play, which concludes in a very bleak, human way as a reminder of how much inherited hatred can cost.
The quintessential example of Gothic literature, this story not only showcases the idea that a community can turn a tragedy into an opportunity to enrich their moral and spiritual lives, but it also suggests that we must find meaning in the darkness. The final gift that Romeo and Juliet give us is that their love shines a light on our lives, and we must seek the legacy and lessons they’ve left for us.
