From the outset of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet the audience knows that hatred is one the themes of the play. In the Prologue, Shakespeare calls the rivalry between the Montagues and Capulets an "ancient grudge" and refers to "mutiny," "rage" and "strife."
Hatred rules the day in Act I, Scene 1 as the Capulet servants announce they will rape the Montague women and incite violence by using insulting gestures. Tybalt, Lord Capulet's cousin, is characterized...
From the outset of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet the audience knows that hatred is one the themes of the play. In the Prologue, Shakespeare calls the rivalry between the Montagues and Capulets an "ancient grudge" and refers to "mutiny," "rage" and "strife."
Hatred rules the day in Act I, Scene 1 as the Capulet servants announce they will rape the Montague women and incite violence by using insulting gestures. Tybalt, Lord Capulet's cousin, is characterized as full of bitterness toward the Montagues. When he first appears he threatens the peacemaking Benvolio:
What, drawn and talk of peace? I hate the word
As I hate hell, all Montagues, and thee.
Have at thee, coward!
Tybalt again shows his antagonism in Act I, Scene 5 when he overhears Romeo at Capulet's party. He calls for his sword and is ready to fight in the midst of the festivities. He is dissuaded by Capulet, who doesn't want the party spoiled, but this only works to enflame Tybalt's rage and he vows revenge:
Patience perforce with willful choler meeting
Makes my flesh tremble in their different greeting.
I will withdraw, but this intrusion shall,
Now seeming sweet, convert to bitt’rest gall.
Friar Lawrence is inspired to bring the hatred to an end when he agrees with Romeo's request to marry Juliet, despite his misgivings over the speed of the proceedings. He believes the marriage will bring the feud to an end and unite the families. In Act II, Scene 3 he says,
But come, young waverer, come, go with me.
In one respect I’ll thy assistant be,
For this alliance may so happy prove
To turn your households’ rancor to pure love.
Mercutio too, incites hatred in Act III, Scene 1. He ignores Benvolio's warnings to get off the street and avoid the Capulets. On cue, Tybalt shows up looking for Romeo, labeling him a villain. When Romeo backs down to Tybalt, because he has just secretly married Juliet, Tybalt's cousin, Mercutio is incensed by Romeo's cowardice and challenges Tybalt himself. After being fatally wounded he curses both families for his demise:
A plague o’ both your houses!
They have made worms’ meat of me.
I have it, and soundly, too. Your houses!
Lady Capulet joins in the acrimony by classifying Benvolio a liar and calling for Romeo's death after the death of Tybalt:
He is a kinsman to the Montague.
Affection makes him false; he speaks not true.
Some twenty of them fought in this black strife,
And all those twenty could but kill one life.
I beg for justice, which thou, prince, must give.
Romeo slew Tybalt; Romeo must not live.
The hatred ultimately leads to the tragic suicides of the title characters. The Prince sums up the bitter feud and its consequences in Act V, Scene 3. He also laments his own losses since both Mercutio and Paris were related to him:
Where be these enemies?—Capulet, Montague,
See what a scourge is laid upon your hate,
That heaven finds means to kill your joys with love,
And I, for winking at your discords too,
Have lost a brace of kinsmen. All are punished.
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