Agony In Romeo And Juliet Essay

Agony is a nightmare full of misery, tragedy, and undoubtedly painful. The idea is seen through many of Shakespeare’s works to capture audiences to read and attend productions of plays. Nonetheless, agony forces characters to feel pain they have never felt and make decisions that may cause extreme consequences. Due to the feeling of grief, characters do impulsive actions which is why agony is difficult to explain. It is vital to note that in this type of grief and suffering, one person can only take so much until they break. While agony conducts extreme horror or torment, some characters, and people learn lessons that pave the way for better decisions. In Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, love is so significant that it leads to excessive agony

In the story of Romeo and Juliet, passion takes over and causes the two lovers to not want to ever be apart which provides agony. When Romeo and Juliet are alone in the Capulet’s tomb, they die for one another. Romeo takes poison thinking Juliet is dead. In the story, it says, “ Here’s to my love. Drinking. O true apothecary/Thy drugs are quick. Thus with a kiss I die” (Shakespeare 5.3.119-120). Romeo is faced with so much passion and desire to be with Juliet, he is willing to die for her. He is facing agony because he thinks his one true love is dead, after being married for a very short amount of time. To continue, Shakespeare writes, “ O, happy dagger/This is thy sheath:There rust, and let me die” ( Shakespeare 5.3.169-170). Again, the agony of seeing their lover die takes over and gives both Juliet and Romeo to make a decision. They both, however, decide to die than live in misery. Juliet stabs herself and Romeo poisons himself, both proving how strong their love and affection are. Overall, the agony of being apart and separated gave Romeo and Juliet so much pain as did Romeo’s

A critical moment in the story is Romeo’s exile after he killed Tybalt. When Juliet found out, not only did she weep and weep, but she was grieving alone. Her husband, newly wedded was already ripped away from her, causing a heartache of pain. In Romeo and Juliet it explains, “But wherefore, villain, didst thou kill my cousin/That villain cousin would have killed my husband”(Shakespeare 3.2 100-101). So to speak, Juliet is in agony over Romeo being gone and she does not know what to do in this situation. The only thing she thought she could do to relieve her pain was kill herself. Lord Montague explains, “Alas, my liege, my wife is dead tonight/Grief of my son’s exile hath stopped her breath/What further woe conspires against mine age” (Shakespeare 5.3.210-212). Lady Montague takes her own life because of the extensive grief and agony over her son being gone. Without her son, she felt lost, alone, and misguided so she decided to relieve her grief. With Romeo and Lady Montague dead, Lord Montague is by himself, with no family to lean to. Losing people creates grief, suffering, torture, and torment that can lead to impulsive acts, as demonstrated by Lady Montague. Romeo’s exile not only caused more problems for all the characters, but it made a domino effect of grief unravel in a very short amount of