Examples Of Blindness In Romeo And Juliet

In the play, Romeo and Juliet, a major theme that occurs is the blindness between the Capulets and the Montagues that was due to the stubbornness of their rivalry, causing their inability to see what is happening with Romeo and Juliet, in a literal and figurative sense. The rivalry between the two families relates to an article by Cristina Hartmann who slowly became blind and wrote about what it is like to have to stop driving: “I was entirely too stubborn and willful to stop before the bitter end, before paying a potentially high price,” (Hartmann, Vox). This relates to Romeo and Juliet because the Capulets and the Montagues were too blinded by their own stubbornness with the rivalry to focus on the fights that were continuing to get worse,

Romeo uses the literal idea of blindness in relation to the dark as a way for him to hide from Juliet’s family. Romeo and Juliet can hide their relationship in the dark because of the literal trait of blindness that the night gives, which makes people incapable of seeing. It is nighttime and Juliet begins talking to herself on her balcony when she sees Romeo and tells him that if any of her family members see him, he will be killed. Romeo then replies, “I have night’s cloak to hide me from their eyes,” (Shakespeare 2.2.75). Romeo’s use of personification compares the “night’s cloak,” to the darkness of the night and how Romeo uses it to hide from the Capulets. This shows that the darkness is what hides Romeo and Juliet’s relationship from their families and the outside world. In this case, the idea of blindness is literal because one is indisputably unable to see in the dark, this being the reasoning as to why Romeo and Juliet can express their love during the night. The figurative idea being the Capulets and Montagues not choosing to see what is really occurring because of their stubbornness with the rivalry. The literal and figurative meaning of blindness relates to the darkness in contrast with choosing not to

It is Tuesday morning and Romeo is talking to Juliet about how he must leave before he is seen by any of the Capulets but Juliet is trying to convince him there is still time before he has to leave, then Romeo says, “More light and light, more dark and dark our woes!” (3.5.36). Romeo is saying that the lighter it gets, the darker their misfortune. Romeo uses the word, “woes,” to describe his and Juliet’s misfortune with their love, since they cannot express their love with one another when it is light out, in fear of their families finding out. The Capulets and the Montagues forced this misfortune to happen, due to their rivalry. The two families not only caused this misfortune, but they had also caused events that lead to the death of their children: “Doth with their death bury their parents’ strife. The fearful passage of their death-mark’d love, and the continuance of their parents’ rage, which but their children’s end nought could remove,” (Prologue, 8-11). After Romeo and Juliet had died, the two families could see that the reasoning behind all of the deaths that occurred, especially Romeo and Juliet’s, was due to their stubbornness to not end the rivalry. Blindness is a factor many experience when one