Does Shakespeare Show The Destructive Nature Of Violence In Romeo And Juliet

Although Shakespeare established the role of fate in human lives, he also clearly presents the destructive nature of violence. One example that Shakespeare strongly highlighted is when Tybalt and Mercutio fought each other in the street fight. Tybalt challenges Romeo to a fight first. Romeo respectfully refuses because of his marriage with Juliet. Mercutio eventually steps into Romeo’s place when Tybalt ends up killing Mercutio under Romeo’s hand. Romeo takes revenge and kills Tybalt. Romeo showed what violence can do to a person, saying, "That late thou gavest me, For Mercutio’s soul/ Is but a little way above our heads,/ Staying for thine to keep him company./ Either thou or I, or both, must go with him." (III.i.119-122). This fight shows the

Instead, he took matters into his own hands and killed Tybalt in revenge. This didn’t help him at all because it led to more dilemmas down the road. This shows the destructive nature of violence, because violence only made matters worse. In addition to this, Romeo then learns of Juliet’s death, he goes to the apothecary and buys poison because he thinks he can no longer live without her. Romeo states, "There is thy gold-worse poison to men’s souls,/ Doing more murders in this loathsome world,/ Than these poor compounds that thou mayst not sell.” (V.i.80-82). This quote proves the thesis by showing how Romeo sees violence and revenge as poison that affects the brain. Romeo still could’ve had a good, long life, but instead took his own because of Juliet's "death". As the reader ironically knows, Juliet isn’t dead. This was just a part of her plan to get back to Romeo. It ends up that Romeo killing himself was all for nothing because Juliet was just sticking to her plan. To make matters worse, when Juliet wakes up to see her beloved Romeo dead, she ends up killing herself. The scene vividly shows how violence in this situation just made everything