How Does Shakespeare Present Conflict In Romeo And Juliet

Playwrights use tragedies presenting conflicts to explore character behaviour, further allowing an audience to reflect upon complexities of their human nature. Written by renowned playwright William Shakespeare and first performed in 1596, renaissance drama ‘The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet’ follows fatally star crossed lovers' navigating extreme situations and conflicts, to be together. In this, Shakespeare’s mentality after losing his son, Christian ideologies of human will and patriarchal family structures of Elizabethan era London, are reflected. Throughout The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare represents complex facets of human nature including how our emotional fragility causes intense grief in response to loss, moral fragility

Lady Capulet speaks in verse adding deep intensity behind her words, emotively professing her deep and complex grief in losing a loved one.

Here, repetition of “She’s dead, she’s dead, she’s dead!” emphasises her extreme lament over death, highlighting the immense pain of grief she feels, enforcing how humans’ emotional fragility causes grief from loss to the audience.

Furthermore, personification of “But one thing to rejoice and solace in/And cruel death hath catched it from my sight!”, characterises death as cruel when stealing a life, explaining her deep anguish from the sudden loss, further displaying to the audience grief as an impact of loss due to humans’ emotional fragility.

Through tragedy displaying Lady Capulet’s reaction to unresponsive Juliet, Shakespeare expresses how emotional fragility causes grief in loss, a complexity of human nature.

Our natural attraction to vices due to moral fragility is a fatal flaw and complexity of human

These themes are apparent in Act 2 scene 2 where stichomythia between Romeo and Juliet creates fast-paced banter as they meet in a party hosted by Capulets, reflecting their tension in craving the vice of forbidden love.

Here, Romeo’s weak morality gives him into vices revealed to the audience through the metaphor “This holy shrine, the gentle sin is this”, comparing Juliet’s innocence to holiness and Romeo’s craving to sin, illustrating his lust as a vice he gives into despite knowing its fault.

Moreover, an oxymoron “trespass sweetly urged!” expresses how kissing feels wrong like an illegal act - such as trespassing, however he has strong desire which ‘urges’ it; conveying Romeo’s complex feelings in knowing his desires are wrong to emphasise the strength of a vice’s lure against moral fragility, catering to the intended Elizabethan audience’s widely Christian beliefs.

Weak morality leads to vices, exhibiting a complexity of human nature in Shakespeare’s tragedy.

Another complexity of human nature is when our pursuit of individuality conflicts against conforming to family