Before the Civil war, Africans were shipped like cargo in the bottom of the boat, chained and bound together and to the ground, across the Atlantic to America. They then worked as slaves on plantations with their only form of compensation being food, water, and what is hardly shelter. The slaves began to resent the whites, and they taught their children to hate the whites as well. The generational taught hate led to the Civil War. Throughout the war, roughly 620,000 soldiers died; this number is nearly equivalent to as many casualties as the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, the Mexican War, the Spanish American War, World War I, World War 2, and the Korean War combined. Relatively, hatred is vital in the play, Romeo and Juliet, produced …show more content…
Similarly to the slaves, the families taught their children to hate the opposing family. Their age-old rivalry leads to countless deaths such as Mercutio’s and Tybalt’s. This play truly shows the negative cause-and-effect relationship of hatred and death. To begin, hatred puts disagreements and violence at the forefront of relationships. In the very first scene of the play Sampson and Gregory, Capulet servants, brawl with 2 Montague servants and a few others. This begins with Sampson and Gregory roaming the streets of Verona and speaking of the heinous acts they would commit on the Montague men and women. Sampson states that he wants trouble and is ready to draw his sword; he despises the Montague family just as his master does. His eagerness to …show more content…
Tybalt, a Capulet professional duelist, is known throughout the entire book as having extreme bloodlust and hatred for Montagues. This nearly leads to Romeo’s death at the Capulet party had it not been for Capulet temporarily calming Tybalt’s thirst for blood. Tybalt angrily states, “Fetch me my rapier, boy” (1.5.53). Capulet counters, “Calm yourself, dear boy; leave him alone. He’s behaving like a civilized gentleman” (1.5.63). He is always on the lookout for trouble. Tybalt later kills Mercutio in the street simply because of an ugly gesture; Romeo then slays Tybalt in retaliation. Woefully, Tybalt’s death by Romeo’s sword puts a divide between Romeo and Juliet, spoiling their new marriage. Romeo is banished from Verona and can see Juliet no more. This causes Juliet to attempt to see Romeo by faking her death. She goes to the Friar and requests a potion to make her seem lifeless as she sleeps. Friar Lawrence delivers, and she drinks the concoction before she drifts off to sleep. The Nurse and Lady Capulet find Juliet presumed dead the following morning and arrange a funeral. This causes Romeo to come back into Verona for her funeral. He presumes Juliet is dead as well and kills himself with a knife to the chest as he feels he cannot live alone without her presence. Juliet shortly awakes and finds Romeo truly dead. She feels the same as Romeo and takes her own life. The villainous