Hamish’s Romeo and Juliet essay

How Conflict Affects A Relationship

William Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet is about two teenagers from rival families named Romeo and Juliet. They fall in love and high jinks ensue culminating in the two star crossed lovers killing themselves to escape the chaos of their families. Romeo and Juliet’s relationship was rushed because the feud between their two families pressured them to get married fast, to be secretive, to not seek counsel and to kill them self. Some important events that take place during the play include the rushed marriage between Romeo and Juliet, the fight between Tybalt, Murcutio and romeo and the duel suicide.

Romeo and Juliet’s relationship was rushed because they weren’t allowed the time to plan ahead. Their parents’ feud made it impossible for them to openly pursue a relationship, this meant that they had only a short amount of time to get to know each other. After only knowing each other for one evening they decide to marry each other.Romeo says “Th’ exchange of thy love’s faithful vow for mine”i think this is him asking if Juliet will marry him. I believe they got married because it gave them a false sense of security during their families feud. I think it is crazy that Romeo and Juliet would marry after knowing almost nothing about each other. I think they shouldn’t have married so soon because they didn’t know anything about her.

The secrecy between Romeo and Juliet causes a bundle of tragic events throughout the play. Because Romeo and Juliet kept their relationship a secret from their families they failed to seek counsel and acted very irresponsibly. The secrecy of the relationship also caused others to act without proper context. Murcutio cannot understand Romeo’s behavior and gets into a fight with Tybalt. This is shown when he says O calm, dishonorable, vile submission.” Romeo, instead of waiting for the authorities, kills Tybalt in the middle of a busy street. This causes Romeo to get banished and creates distance in Romeo and Juliet’s relationship. I believe if Romeo told his friends that he had just married Juliet then Murcutio wouldn’t have fought Tybalt and nobody would have died.

Romeo met Juliet at a time when he was very desperate for someone that could relate to him, meeting Juliet at that time made him treasure the small amount of time they spent together. When he thinks that Juliet is dead at the end of the play he thinks that there will be no one else that he can relate to in the same way so he kills himself. Juliet treasures their relationship for a different reason, she uses the time that they spend together as an escape from her responsibilities from her family. This is why when Romeo is banished Juliet is quickly overwhelmed by the responsibilities to her family and she is willing to kill herself before friar Laurence devises a plan that should make all her responsibilities go away. Until it fails, she kills herself and successfully escapes her responsibilities. I believe Juliets suicide is very similar to Riggan Thomsons suicide in the movie Birdman exept Riggan is trying to escape the chaos of the world and Juliet is trying to escape her responsibilities.

In summary the conflict between the families of Romeo and Juliet caused them to rush into marriage, keep their relationship a secret and make them try to escape the pressure of their families. It’s a timeless play with themes that are still present today and a story that combines romance, fun and conflict . So it is easy to see why this play is still very popular after hundreds of years. I wonder if their families weren’t feuding in the story would the two main characters still die.