Love In Romeo And Juliet

Introduction

Regarded as one of the most famous and heart-breaking love story in the history of literature, Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet (1597) holds more than the depiction of an impossible and tragic love. The true driver of the story is the deeply-rooted hatred between the Houses of Capulet and Montague, who are stuck in a feud lasting decades. Shakespeare’s play invites the reader and the audience to reflect upon the rightful relationship between religion and the political community with its laws, between divine love and earthly love. Romeo and Juliet are forced to express their love secretly because of the political and social context of the relationship of their respective families, eventually leading them to their needless suicides.

Love, especially, can be very powerful. In Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, love is even more important and stronger than family ties and blood relations. When it comes to authority, love can be a crucial tool. Machiavelli, for instance, links the concept of love to the concept of power. In Il Principe, he compares the power of love to another powerful feeling – fear. As a Prince, would you rely more on love or on fear to rule over your subjects? Certainly, love would be the most common answer, but it turns out love can be unreliable: as it comes, it may suddenly fade away. Machiavelli suggests that fear is more reliable, more powerful. In Shakespeare, love can be analyzed under two different perspective: it can been seen as adventurous (as in the comedies) or as very tragic (as in his tragedies, i.e. Romeo and Juliet). In Romeo and Juliet, love is a miraculous force which changes everything. Both Romeo and Juliet are very young and they both change completely throughout the play. At the beginning, Romeo is very predictable, he falls in love continuously, he is a very erotic character. When he meets Juliet, Romeo gets stronger out of his love for her, he even acquires physical strength and virility. However, the most outstanding change appears in Juliet. She becomes a very strong and wise young woman, she even overpasses Romeo in terms of maturity. She chooses her enemy, Romeo, out of

If love is the driving force which changes the world, friendship is about stability, about keeping things as smooth as they are. Love is the force that changes, friendship is the force that resists to the change.

Capulets and Montagues: Mayhem in the City of Verona

Romeo and Juliet is a very political love play. The city of Verona is tainted by a political drama, is split in hatred and knows no peace. The prince of Verona, Escalus, forbids all duels inside the city walls to overcome the upsurge of hatred, therefore introducing the rule of law. When he banishes Romeo after Mercutio and Tybalt get killed, he takes a hard decision because he knows Romeo did all that he could to avoid the duel and killed Tybalt only to avenge Mercutio’s death. The cost of peace is very high. The Prince himself, ruler of this bickering city, loses two of his kinsmen before reaching peace. Under this point of view, Romeo and Juliet is a very modern drama of split loyalties. As argued before, Shakespeare is closer to Machiavelli than what he may think, showing us the very Machiavellian dilemma between public and private spheres, leaving the reader to wonder if it is possible to be both a good citizen and a happy