Harrylall Ramdonee
Class :10B
Romeo and Juliet inner struggles
1050 words
Influenced the inner struggles of In the tragedy 'Romeo and Juliet', Shakespeare presents the inner struggles of Romeo and Juliet, the two protagonists as one of the main themes. This is clearly shown at the end of Act 3 Scene 2 when Juliet receives the news that Romeo has been banished and Tybalt has been killed. Juliet is distraught at the conflict of her loyalties. Should she express love for her family or should she express love for Romeo? By using many different language features, such as oxymorons, paradox, antithesis and dramatic irony, Shakespeare effectively displays Juliet's conflicting emotions. Later in the play, Shakespeare uses the betrayal by adults to again show the inner struggles of Romeo and Juliet.
In this passage from Act 3 Scene 2, Juliet waits for Romeo to come to her on their wedding night. She urges Romeo to “gallop apace” so that that night would come and bring him to her. Here, dramatic irony is used by Shakespeare to imply that although Juliet is still waiting for Romeo's arrival, the reader knows that Romeo has killed Tybalt and has been banished from Verona. After this, Juliet receives the news from the Nurse about Tybalt's death and Romeo's banishment. Shakespeare uses animal imagery and oxymorons to show Juliet's constant juggling between the two sides of her beloved, the side of her husband of 3 hours and the side of a cousin that she has known for her whole life. The passage shows that though Juliet is distraught at the conflict of her loyalties, Juliet turns on the nurse when she tries to comfort her by criticising Romeo. Juliet's doting nurse questions her intentions after Juliet uses an extended metaphor “For 'tis a throne where honour may be crown'd / Sole monarch of the universal earth” to signify the importance of Romeo to her. “But” a sudden alteration of opinions is shown by Juliet “wherefore, villain, didst thou kill my cousin? / That villain cousin would have kill'd my husband” (3:2). This reflects the internal conflict of Juliet.
Love, in 'Romeo and Juliet' has its own importance in the theme of inner struggle between the two protagonists, Romeo and Juliet. Juliet is torn between staying loyal to her family and therefore obeying her parents to marry Paris or staying married to an enemy, Romeo, “My husband lives, that Tybalt has slain; / And Tybalt's dad, that would have slain my husband: / All this is comfort; wherefore weep I then?” (3:2). On the other hand, Romeo has his struggles too. He juggles between the idea of banishment from Verona and not being able to see his beloved Juliet again and that of death, “Ha, banishment? Be merciful, say 'death'.” (3:3). The secret marriage between Romeo and Juliet is also one of the outcomes due to love. It is because of love that Juliet risked her parents' disapproval to not marry Paris and Romeo risked the danger of being killed by Capulet's kinsmen to go to see her. Yet again, this shows the inner struggle of Romeo and Juliet.
Adult betrayal of Romeo and Juliet is one of the key factors that lead to the inner struggles of the two protagonists. When Capulet and Lady Capulet marries Juliet off to Paris without discussing the matter with Juliet, Juliet refuses to do so causing Capulet to threaten to disown her if she does not give her consent, “I tell thee what, get thee to church a Thursday, / Or never after look me in the face.” Dramatic irony is used by Shakespeare to reflect Juliet's conflicting emotions. Once again, Juliet is left with two difficult choices, should she marry Paris and forget her lover Romeo or should she be remain married to Romeo and disobey her parents? Juliet turns to her doting Nurse for help, only to be unsupported by her with her decision to remain married to Romeo. Before Tybalt is killed and Romeo is banished, the nurse's attitude towards Juliet decision of marrying Romeo was very supportive “He is not the flower of courtesy, but I'll warrant him, as gentle as a lamb. Go thy ways wench, serve God.” .
However, after these events occurred, the nurse's attitude dramatically changed to unsupportive, “ No faith, no honesty in men; all perjured; All forsworn, all naught, all dissemblers. Shame come to Romeo!” . Now, Juliet has reached another intersect, should she still trust the nurse or not? As there are no family members to help her, Juliet turns to Friar Lawrence for help. Meanwhile, Romeo turns to the Friar as well since he is banished from Verona and is unsure of what the future has for him or Juliet. Should he come back from Mantua to Verona risking the danger of being killed to see Juliet or should he forget Juliet forever? Though the Friar brought comfort to Romeo and Juliet, his plans which are often thought up on the spot do not foresee any troubles that may occur. With no trustworthy adults to speak to, Romeo and Juliet's internal conflicts deepen.
Many language techniques are used by Shakespeare to show the theme of inner struggle of Romeo and Juliet. In the given passage, Shakespeare cleverly used the reference to “book” by Juliet to show her doubts about Romeo, demonstrating her inner struggles. Shakespeare used an antithesis to reflect Romeo is a book that could be beautiful on the outside but may contain evil contents. The word “book” is also mentioned in Act 1 Scene 3 by Lady Capulet referring to Paris which showed how she thought Paris would be very suitable for her. Here, Shakespeare used an antithesis, this time, to reflect Paris is the great contents of a book that is only lacking a cover which may be Juliet. “Dove – feather'd raven! Wolvish – ravening lamb!” (3:2) is a animal imagery with oxymoron.
This, moreover shows the conflicting feeling of Juliet.Throughout the play “Romeo and Juliet”, the theme of inner struggles of Romeo and Juliet are explored cleverly by Shakespeare with many language features such as oxymorons, dramatic irony, hyperbole, antithesis and paradox. Other themes like love and adult misunderstanding of Romeo and Juliet are also the key factors that Romeo and Juliet.
