Platonic Love In Romeo And Juliet

Love can be an amazing experience filled with joy and delight, but in this story, it shockingly leads two “stars-crossed lovers” to take their life. In the classic play Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, love is shown to be detrimental to many characters’ lives. Romeo’s filial love for Tybalt and Lord Capulet’s filial love for Juliet both result in the deaths of major characters. If it were not for Romeo’s strong platonic love that he shared with Mercutio and Friar Lawrence, many tragedies would have been prevented altogether. Additionally, the profound romantic love between Romeo and Juliet themselves leads them to take their lives and those of others. In William Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet, the filial, platonic, and romantic

If filial love was not as confusion, anger, and deaths would have been prevented.

Platonic love is also responsible for many catastrophes in the story. For instance, when Tybalt kills Mercutio, Romeo begins to get defensive and wants to avenge him because he and Romeo were very close friends who felt true platonic love for each other. Romeo says, “Alive in triumph, and Mercutio slain! / Away to heaven, respective lenity, / And fire-eyed fury be my conduct now.” (3.1.127-129). He proceeds to kill Tybalt in retaliation for killing Mercutio, and is banished to Mantua. This separates Romeo and

Juliet, making both of them more desperate to see each other and they soon become suicidal. Another example of how platonic love between two characters caused a disaster began with the close friendship between Friar Lawrence and Romeo. Though hesitant,

Friar Lawrence agrees to marry Romeo to Juliet when he asks. He answers, “In one respect I’ll thy assistant be, / For this alliance may so happy prove / To turn your households’ rancor to pure love.” (2.3.97-99) While the fact that he believes

As a result of the platonic love Romeo shared with Mercutio and Friar Lawrence throughout the play, a variety of tragedies occurred.

The profound romantic love that Romeo and Juliet surrounded each other with was not beneficial to either of them and ironically was what most directly lead to their deaths and also that of another. Firstly, when Romeo comes back to Verona from Mantua after hearing news from Balthasar that Juliet had died - he visits her corpse and encounters Paris who also is coming to grieve for Juliet’s death. When this happens,

Romeo gets angered and defensive because he believes that Paris has come to her grave to mock her, and orders him to leave. He says, “Put not another sin upon my head / By urging me to fury. O, begone!” (5.3.62-63). When Paris refuses to leave, he fights him and kills him in Juliet’s defense because of his true romantic love and care for her. Finally, following this scene, Romeo, who believes Juliet is dead, prepares to drink the poison he obtained from the apothecary in Mantua to take his life. His last words are, “Here’s to