Motifs In Romeo And Juliet

There are many motifs in the Tragedy Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare, but at the beginning of my reading what stood out to me most was how much sex and death were a big part of the story. I saw them together in physical lines and, in plot. By the end of my reading I wondered what Shakespeare wanted to say by including this correlation and I came to a conclusion. In Romeo and Juliet, sex and death are depicted in close proximity in language and in plot because Shakespeare is trying to say that sexual desire leads to death. This belief means that people are inherently self-destructive because people are inherently sexual.

When I began the book I noticed that sex and death are brought together physically in lines and sentences. Shakespeare establishes

Sex and death are brought together in the very first scene. When Gregory and Sampson are talking in the square they say. “'Tis all one, I will show myself a tyrant: when I have fought with the men, I will be cruel with the maids, and cut off their heads.” / “My naked weapon is out: quarrel, I will back thee.” Act I, scene I.. Gregory is saying that he will kill the men and rape the women. He also refers to his sword as his naked weapon. This passage is the first time a weapon is seen as a phallic object but is not the last. Sex and death are brought together in the same sentence. Gregory is possibly saying that they are almost the same and one will lead to another. That after killing the men the logical next step is to rape the women. At the start of Act II the chorus says “Now old desire doth in his death-bed lie, And young affection gapes to be his heir; That fair for which love groan'd for and would

This passage really helps strengthen the bond between sex and death because now we see that sexual desire is a personified idea that is able to die. Sexual desire is male in the passage and this personification is significant because it is men in Romeo and Juliet who are killers and dangerous. So by making love a man Shakespeare is saying that it is deadly.

By the end of the book I realized that Shakespeare had put sex and death together in plot as well. Shakespeare took the sex and death correlation a step further by making key plot moments of death the result of sexual desire. During the balcony scene Juliet says, “Three words, dear Romeo, and good night indeed. - If that thy bent of love be honorable, - Thy purpose marriage, send me word to-morrow,” Act II, scene IV. Juliet is so eager to get married because of their sexual desire that she wants to get married as soon as possible. She does not think rationally and review the consequences of what getting married could bring. Their and their friends demise is ultimately brought up because of their rashness to get married. The scene right after this is the scene where mercutio dies and the reason he dies is because Tybalt believes Romeo is making fun of