Romeo And Juliet Research Paper

The Slaves of Love

Love is often seen as a savior; bringing hope and happiness for all. However, Shakespeare depicts love as a tyrant- bringing death and misery to those who encounter it. In Shakespeare's work all types of love, weather it be compassion, greed, or pride, result in misfortune. At the beginning of the Romeo and Juliet, Mercutio recognizes a change in Romeo and depicts how love has transformed his friend, causing him to seem more like a ghost than a man. Shakespeare uses Mercutio's criticism of Romeo's behavior to foreshadow that his love for Juliet will soon bring him death. Mercutio's criticism about the changes in Romeo's behavior prove that love causes people to negatively change by sacrificing their values, risking their

Mercutio explains that people become controlled by their love when he says he could “conjure” Romeo by “Rosaline’s bright eyes” and then he would appear from the dead (2.1.67). When Romeo offers money to the apothecary, desire controls his decisions causing him to let go of important values. The apothecary sacrifices his morals in turn for his love of money letting someone die. The apothecary's does not dare to sell the poison because of its harmful effect, but his greed and starvation make him “afford no law” and value his life over others (5.1.215). The apothecary rapidly changes his mind despite the fact that it will kill Romeo, saying: “my poverty, but not my will, consents” because his greed becomes greater than his values (5.1.215). Even Romeo recognises that the apothecary has broken some of his ethics saying that gold is “worse poison to men’s souls” and that he gave the apothecary poison rather than receive it (5.1.217). Romeo tells Shakespeare’s belief that greed and gold is “doing more murder in this loathsome world” than poisons (5.1.217). The apothecary's want for gold outweighed his personal beliefs causing him to give up some of the things he held most dear leading to another's

However, Shakespeare depicts love as a force that causes men to act more dishonorably and negatively changes their personality. Friar Lawrence recognises the change in Romeo’s attitude and starts to notice his resemblance to Mercutio’s conjured spirit. Mercutio referred to Romeo as several different people, unable to decide if he was a “madman”, “lover”, or “humors” after falling in love (2.1.67). Romeo’s undistinguished personality was caused by his passion changing his character. Later the Friar believes that Romeo is now only a shell of a man and that his “tears are womanish” and he has the “unreasonable fury of a beast” (3.3.149). The Friars continues on to explain that Romeo's best traits were modified by love. Friar Lawrence describes Romeo’s once noble characteristics as “a form of wax” something unmolded and confused, unable to reach its full potential (3.3.149). The Friar also thinks that acting as a “misbehaved and sullen wench” was doing him no good only causing him more pain (3.3.151). Juliet also suffered a change of personality losing her rationality and patience causing her to make irresponsible and rash decisions. Juliet who thinks through every situation and is obedient to her father suddenly lashes out. Juliet once said that she could “like of paris's love” if it pleased her parents but soon after meeting Romeo says that she would absolutely not be a “joyful bride” (1.4.41, 3.5.165).