Hate In Shakespeare's Romeo And Juliet

Romeo and Juliet is a tragic story of love set in Verona. At the start of the play, the audience see a prologue, which informs them that the story is going to end in tragedy. The play is filled with huge contrasts of emotions. At the start of the play we see a fight between the Montague's and the Capulet's filled with violence and hatred when the play is actually about love. This contrast between love and hate will become apparent as you go further through the play.

The play starts with the serving men and servants setting the tables. This is important as it gives an insight into the lower class point of view (groundlings) who would be standing watching the play. The speech made by cat the start of the play is very important as it sets
the mood for the rest of the party and also the rest of the scene. He starts by welcoming the guests and jokes with them saying that if the ladies did not dance they had an affliction of corns on their feet. This tells us that Capulet is trying to put across an image that he is quite jolly and light hearted. Capulet then says that he is too old to take part in this party and it is important that Shakespeare uses this line as there would probably be a very slight age gap between the actor or Capulet and the rest of the actor's on stage. The mood of the Capulets is much different in this part of the play than the fight at the start of the play when they appear very aggressive. At the moment they are putting themselves across as warm and welcoming people. They are not interested in fighting they just want everyone to enjoy the party and Shakespeare uses this for dramatic effect.

The speech between Romeo and Juliet is very important and Shakespeare makes it dramatically effective in many different ways. It is important to remember hat back in these times, women were not allowed to act on stage so Juliet would have been played by a man, therefore the words that describe Juliet need to portray how beautiful she actually is. Romeo starts with the phrase ‘Oh, she shows the torches how to burn bright', which refers to what Capulet, said in his earlier speech ‘More light' indicating that the servants need to add more light to the building. This indicates that to Romeo, Juliet stood out from the crowd, which adds to the powerful words, which Romeo uses to emphasise the point of how beautiful Juliet is. Romeo then goes on to say ‘Her beauty is too good for this world which refers to religion as Romeo is saying that Juliet is so beautiful she is almost godlike. Romeo then says that Juliet outshines other women like a dove in the middle of a flock of crows which implies that compared to Juliet, Rosalie (the woman he was previously obsessive about is like an ugly crow. This is a very bold statement to make and again this emphasises the fact of how beautiful Juliet is meant to be and also that Romeo may fall too easily for someone and is infatuated by love. Next, Romeo says that he will touch her hand with his rough and ugly one, implying that maybe Juliet is too good for him which will come apparent when they engage in a speech later in the scene.

The speech of Tybalt Is very different from that of Romeo's who's speech is full of flowing and graceful words which puts him across as a kind and gentle person.
Tybalt however, uses cutting aggressive words full of hatred. He says ‘This, by his voice, should be a Montague which could tell us two things. Firstly, the Montague's and the Capulet's may have very different accents or it could also tell us that Tybalt hates the Montague's so much he can tell one just by the sound of their voice. Tybalt then says ‘Fetch me my rapier, boy' which emphasises the fact that Tybalt is a violent man and really despises anyone who is associated with the Capulets. Tybalt thinks that Romeo has come to mock the Capulet party but in in reality he has come for a very different reason. He then says ‘To strike him dead I hold it not a sin'. Shakespeare makes this very dramatic, as the audience do not know if another fight is going to break out between the two families, as they now know just how much of an aggressive person Tybalt is. This aggressiveness will almost certainly make the audience dislike Tybalt and immediately go on to Romeo's side. After this outbreak from Tybalt, Capulet responds calmly saying ‘Content thee, gentle coz. Let him alone. He bears him like a portly gentleman. This speech will calm the audience down as they will be uncertain as to how Capulet will react would react too a Montague being at there party but Capulet recognises Romeo as a dignified gentleman and is quite
content about him being at the party. This tells us that not all of the Capulet family are as aggressive and angry as Tybalt is. Tybalt then continues with his aggressive attitude telling Capulet that killing Romeo would be the right thing do to as he is mocking there party. This time Capulet's attitude changes slightly and he is getting more annoyed at Tybalt's actions to the fact that an enemy has turned up on there doorstep later saying in the scene that Tybalt is an insolent young boy.

The speech between Romeo and Juliet is probably the most important speech of the whole play.
Romeo starts by saying ‘Your hand is like a holy place that my hand is unworthy to visit'. This could suggest that Romeo maybe thinks that Juliet is too good for him but also the fact that he compares Juliet's hand to a holy place. The language used by Shakespeare in this scene brilliantly describes the deep passion that Romeo and Juliet have for one another. Romeo uses religion to persuade Juliet to kiss him after only a few sentences have been exchanged ‘O, then dear saint, let lips do what hands do, they pray, grant thou, less faith turn to despair indicating that if Juliet does not agree to kiss Romeo then she will be going against her duties as a saint. Romeo says that the love between him and Juliet is almost God like and in the olden days this could be viewed as a form of idolatry as Romeo sees Juliet as a person that he should worship and this was looked down upon back in the times when the play was set. When Romeo finally does kiss Juliet says that she has received the sin that Romeo has purged from himself and Romeo wittily replies that hem must take back the sin and kisses Juliet for a second time. In my opinion, I think that Romeo loves too easily as at the start of the day he was obsessed with Rosaline (who the audience never see) but once seeing Juliet compares Juliet to a Beautiful white dove standing amongst a flock of Crows (supposedly a common and ugly bird) and by
this he is obviously comparing to Rosaline so maybe Romeo is actually in love.