Violence In Romeo And Juliet Essay, Research Paper

Violence in Romeo and Juliet

Romeo and Juliet, by Shakespeare, is a play which shows how prejudice leads to escalating violence. Prejudice leads to violence shown in the play when the feuding families, the Montagues and Capulets, fight. In each case, disruption, fighting, injuries and death occur. Also, the prejudice between the two families never was resolved, because they were enemies.

The feuding started in Act 1 Scene 1, when the Capulets and Montague servants confronted each other. The Capulets servants insult the Montagues and this leads to a street brawl of the two families. Furthermore, in Act 3 Scene 1, the hatred between the families gets worse. When Tybalt wanted revenge against the Montagues, he then confronted Romeo and Mercutio and started a duel. In addition, the feud between the families got even worse, when Tybalt killed Mercutio. Also, in Act 5 Scene 3, Tybalt challenges Romeo to fight and Romeo kills him.

The street in Verona, a public place, is where the feuding starts between the two families. In Act 1 Scene 1, Sampson and Gregory, servants for the Capulets, insulted the Montagues servants, Balthasar and Abraham. This leads to a fight, which involves the Lords of both families and the Prince. No death occurred, but the families attitudes against each other were worse than before. This created hate between the families, which lead to violence. In like manner, another duel between the two feuding families starts up, again, in the street of Verona in Act 3 Scene 1. When Mercutio and Benvolio, friends of Romeo, are confronted by Tybalt, who still hates the Montagues. Tybalt thinks that they crashed the Capulets ball and he wants revenge. Mercutio and Tybalt fight each other. Now, Romeo arrives trying to stop the argument. Tybalt draws his sword and challenges Romeo. Romeo refuses to fight and Mercutio steps in to meet Tybalt s challenges. Romeo again, tries to stop the fighting, but Tybalt stabs Mercutio under Romeo s arm. Mercutio dies from his injury and this caused more disruption between the families. Instead of a Capulet killing a Montague, in Act 5 Scene 3, a Montague kills a Capulet as hatred leads to violence once more. In the Capulets tomb at night, Paris, a young nobleman, has come to pay his respect to his “lost” Juliet. When he hears the footsteps of his enemies Romeo and Balthasar, Paris thinks Romeo has come to desecrate Juliet s grave in an act of retaliation. However, young Romeo was only trying to see his dead love. But Paris didn t know, so he challenges Romeo to a fight and Romeo kills Paris. This loss of life was caused by irrational prejudice, which led to violence including injuries, death and disruption. By reading Romeo and Juliet, one learns that the play shows how prejudice leads to escalating violence – the opening brawl started by the servants, the duels between Mercutio and Tybalt and Romeo and Paris, and finally the deaths of Romeo and Juliet.