Examples Of Selfishness In Romeo And Juliet

Xenos Malott

Ms. Melissa Newkirk

Advanced English 1 - Period 2

22 February 2023

Losses Suffered Through the Pitfalls of Selfishness Selfishness is a trait that humans possess as a means to prioritize self-care, however, peoples’ selfishness may be taken too far and act as a downfall instead. Romeo and Juliet portrays selfishness where it is peoples’ greatest flaw and is capable of ruining lives. People may not realize that they are acting selfishly nor realize that they are inadvertently hurting others or themselves. Romeo and Juliet’s tragic love story concedes that continuously acting selfishly can lead up to a dangerous climax in which one may lose what they previously gained and their personal desires. The tragedy, “Romeo and Juliet,”

Friar Lawrence admits all his knowledge of Romeo and Juliet’s deaths and their reasons for their actions to Prince Escalus, Capulet, and Montague, “And she, too desperate, would not go with me / But as it seems, did violence on herself” (5.3.263-264). The highlight is the result of unidentified selfishness that has now caused Juliet and Romeo to commit suicide, this circumstance hurts Capulet as Juliet had not only attempted to run away from her fate but also prove to him that his selfish thinking had indirectly caused her pain and death; others’ pain may not directly lead back to who or what caused such pain, but the damage may cycle back to the one who enacted such mindless acts. Following Friar Lawrence’s retelling of the events leading up to Romeo and Juliet’s tragic ends, rage escalates within Prince Escalus as he chastises Capulet and Montague for allowing their petty and avoidable feuding to cause them all to lose what they loved and would selfishly act for and towards, “Where be these enemies? - Capulet! Montague / See what a scourge is laid upon your hate / That heaven finds means to kill your joys with love” (5.3.291-293). The troublesome strife between the Capulets and Montagues had to lead up to a climax in which their selfish conflict finally backfired and negatively

The Capulets’ household all displayed selfish reactions to Juliet’s fake death, especially Lady Capulet and Lord Capulet, “O me! This sight of death is as a bell / That mourns my old age to a sepulcher / O thou untaught! What manners is in this / To press before thy father to a grave” (5.3.206-207, 214-215). Juliet’s parents are upset that she has suddenly passed, but Juliet’s mother focuses on the fact that she may die soon and Juliet’s father finds it to be an inconvenience that she would present herself dead in front of him; the genuine importance of a person is undermined by others’ thoughts of them and whether they find the situation to be bothersome. All the Capulets who were inconsiderately unsettled by Juliet’s death were fairly scolded by Friar Lawrence as he explains that Juliet is now in a better place yet they only cared for what she could provide for them and not Juliet herself, “The most you sought was her promotion / For ‘twas your heaven she should be advanced / And weep ye now, seeing she is advanced / Above the clouds, as high as heaven itself / Oh, in this love, you love your child so ill / That you run mad, seeing that she is well” (4.5.71-76). Friar Lawrence recognizes and discloses their self-serving behavior to the Capulet