Emotions In Romeo And Juliet

Bruce Lee, a Hong Kong and American actor, director, martial artist, martial arts instructor and philosopher, once stated, “Emotion can be the enemy, if you give into your emotion, you lose yourself. You must be at one with your emotion, because the body always follows the mind.” A topic of debate has been that emotions can take over our actions in just a blink of an eye. The texts in this collection mainly focus on emotions and the actions following them. William Shapespeare’s play, The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, discusses the result of emotions and how they cause any irrational decisions. Emotions such as sadness, love, and anger, can prevent people from thinking rationally and take over their decisions. Characters Romeo, Juilet,

One emotion that motivates human behavior is sadness, because it leads to loss of rational thought or isolation. Romeo is in a state of depression after he is unable to love Rosaline. He decides to lock himself in his room and create his own artificial night. Romeo says: “Out of her favor, where I am in love” (I.i.158). Romeo is discouraged by sadness, because Rosaline doesn't love Romeo back, and decides to go to the Capulet party where he first meets Juliet. The first time Romeo and Juliet meet shows Romeo’s sadness and old love for Rosaline is immediately replaced with Juliet’s new love, foreshadowing their marriage in the future. After they see each other multiple times, they arrange a secret wedding which includes Friar Lawrence to make their marriage official. This wedding is an action that caused their deaths. Another example shows Romeo hearing the news about Juliet’s “death” and he chooses to buy poison off the

When Juliet first meets Romeo, she is instantly in love and would rather die than get married to anyone else but Romeo, which is another example of foreshadowing their downfall. As Romeo leaves the Capulet party, Juliet uses the nurse to try and figure out the name of the boy she just fell in love for. Juliet asks the nurse: “Go ask his name.--If he be married. My grave is like to be my wedding bed” (I.v.134-135). Juliet is shocked due to the fact that Romeo is a Montague, her family’s mortal enemy. She is hesitant and doesn’t know whether or not to still love Romeo, even if he is a Montague. But, she chooses to have the same love for Romeo, knowing the possible consequences of loving her own enemy. This is the beginning of their love which they decide to keep a secret from both of their families, with the only person knowing about this is Friar Lawrence. Their love sets up their ideas for a wedding which ends up leading to their deaths. Pursuing this further, the balcony scene shows more of Juliet’s emotion towards Romeo. Romeo and Juliet are talking to each other during the balcony scene and Juliet expresses multiple emotions to Romeo, one main emotion being love. Juliet tells Romeo: “I gave thee mine before thou didst request it, and yet I would it were to give again” (II.ii.128-129). Juliet tells Romeo how she already accepted his love, even before