Superficiality In Romeo And Juliet Act 1 Essay

English 9 Gabriel. 26 April 2024.

How do the conflicts in Act 1 Scene 1 of Romeo and Juliet establish key themes?

Throughout the first scene of Romeo and Juliet, emptiness and superficiality are both broader themes that are demonstrated throughout the many conflicts that take place within the scene. At length, every conflict in this chapter originates or revolves around an ultimately simplistic and futile world view or origin. This overarching theme of emptiness and superficialness is seen all the way from Sampson’s dialogue ranting and imagining what he would do to the Montagues, to Tybalt’s immediate thirst for battle when confronting Benvolio, and to Romeo’s lament about a woman who he believes to be essentially perfect not loving him

Similarly to how Tybalt views Benvolio’s attempt at stopping a fight to be futile solely due to his simplistic views on violence, and to how he has a deep hate against all Montagues solely rooted in his loyalty to the Capulets, the variety of conflicts depicted in the scene also revolve around correspondingly superficial origins. Shakespeare constructs this conflict between Benvolio and Tybalt to play upon the larger themes of superficiality and emptiness present throughout the scene. The themes of superficiality and emptiness are evident throughout Romeo’s dialogue with Benvolio regarding the woman he loves. Romeo, in conflict because this woman does not love him back, states, “She will not stay the siege of loving terms, Nor bide th’ encounter of assailing eyes, Nor open her lap to saint-seducing gold” (1.1.220-223). Shakespeare’s use of figurative language to liken Romeo’s attempts at winning over this woman to a battle emphasizes to the audience Romeo’s surface-level view of what love is. Romeo stating that she will not, “stay the siege of loving terms” nor “bide th’ encounter of assailing eyes” not only depicts the

Furthermore, Romeo also evokes more material images such as, “saint-seducing gold” which add on to Romeo’s more empty take on love by emphasizing his belief in material goods and love going hand in hand. In the same manner as how Shakespeare portrays Romeo as having a more superficial and empty perspective on love, every conflict within the act can be characterized by having a root cause with a superficial and empty origin. Shakespeare describes Romeo as having this more surface-level perspective towards love to play on the broader themes of superficialness present throughout the entire scene. In the first scene of the play, Shakespeare uses the conflicts within to set up these larger themes of emptiness that present themselves throughout the scene. Shakespeare reminds the audience that many of the conflicts within the scene have origins that stem from ultimately simplistic and superficial takes on concepts or ideas such as loyalty and love. By doing this, Shakespeare challenges the audience, as individuals, to examine their perspectives on conflicts that are relevant to them. Ultimately, Shakespeare instills a more critical mindset into the audience by giving them examples of conflicts