Countless humans have a duty to honor their families and loved ones around them. However, obligations to others become problematic when strong emotions are involved. Through a raw, endearing romance, William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet illustrates the concept of duty through the perspectives of love and hatred. The classic tale or, better, the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, observes star-crossed love between two characters separated by an age-old feud. In the play, the protagonists and their loved ones face the enduring moral decision between family and themselves, often ending up in life-and-death situations. Romeo and Juliet first depicts the notion of duty through Romeo and Juliet’s inability to marry each other due to the Montague-Capulet feud. In Act 1, Juliet exclaims, “My only love …show more content…
/ Too early seen unknown, and known too late! / Prodigious birth of love it is to me / That I must love a loathed enemy” (1.5.152-155). In this quote, Juliet expresses her woe at the fact that the person she loves is a Montague whose affection is forbidden. Her saying this shows the idea of duty in that she is conflicted with herself over her duty to her family and herself. Juliet is caught between abiding by her family’s ancient loathing for the Montagues and going against the Capulets in the name of love. These curiosities also question the importance of love and hate in Juliet’s mind. She has to choose between enduring her parent's expectations of her and her personal feelings for Romeo, knowing the latter will upset both parties. If they reveal their relationship to their families, Juliet risks immense punishment and, as we find out later, be disowned by her father. The secrets that cloud her love for Romeo are a testimony to