"Romeo and Juliet" - How love and hate is displayed.

Essay by brunette_barbieHigh School, 11th grade November 2003

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'Romeo and Juliet' is billed as one of the greatest love stories of all time. It is filled with romance from start to finish and almost every character has an object of desire at some point during the play. Could this great emotion be connected to the darker feeling of hate? Almost certainly. And is it possible for a character to feel both of these at exactly the same time as we see so many of Romeo and Juliet's acquaintances do? Perhaps. However, can it be said that both these feelings can in fact be felt at the same time, about the same person? It is this, which I intended to find out in my essay by showing related scenes, which involve one or more character seeming to love and hate.

During the Prologue, dramatic irony is the first emotion stirred in the audience because the chorus says, "Doth with their death bury their parents' strife,

The fearful passage of their death marked love."

The Prologue sorts out the main plot to the play and explains where the play is set.

In Act 1 Scene 1, the opening scene, two servants are faced with another two who are being provocative. They say things like, "Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?

I do bite my thumb sir.

Do you bite your thumb at us sir?

They argue momentarily before moving their attention to a short fight in which no-one is hurt, yet a riot begins. The Prince, a very powerful figure in the community, calls for order and tells the townspeople that because the two houses have been guilty on two other occasions of disturbing the peace, the next person found disrupting anyone will pay with their lives. "If you ever disturb out streets again, your...