Hate In Shakespeare's Romeo And Juliet

In Romeo and Juliet, love and hate seem to have mysterious, obscure origins, and are both powerful forces within the play. Explore the significance of the theme of the similarity of these two powerful passions in the play. Think about the significance of a force that is not under one’s personal control. How might this relate to ethical responsibility?

Love and hate play significant roles in this famous Shakespeare play, without the hatred between the two families there wouldn’t be a problem with Romeo and Juliet’s love. The feud that the Montague’s and the Capulet’s have force Romeo and Juliet to either not be together or risk getting killed to be with each other. Nobody knows why the families hate each other, which is why Friar Lawrence thought that Rome and Juliet’s love would be enough to stop this feud. Although he was wrong it was a good idea and it could have very well worked.
The Montague family and the Capulet family have hated each other for so long that nobody knows why they hate each other, they just do.
Whenever their families kinsmen are in the town center they almost always either get into a fight or say nasty comments to each other. Typically a Montague would never love a Capulet and a Capulet would never love a Montague, and even if they did their parents would certainly not allow them to be together. Although, Friar Lawrence saw this as a way to end the feud, so he married Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet but in the end they both killed themselves instead of the families resolving their issues. This is one of the biggest examples of how Friar Lawrence was the one that caused the horrific tragedy. He gave Juliet Capulet a sleeping potion so her parents would think she is dead, but Romeo sees her lying on the ground and kills himself with poison. When Juliet finally wakes up she sees him dead on the ground she stabs and kills herself with his
dagger. Romeo fell in love with Juliet the day he met her, Romeo forgot all about his past love, Rosaline, just for Juliet. Juliet also fell in love with Romeo when she met him, their names made it so that they could never be together. Romeo and Juliet both believe that Montague and Capulet is just a name and they would be the same person if their name was something else. They both believe that they should be allowed to be together but their parents would not allow that. Juliet’s mom and her nurse both want her to marry another man, Paris. Juliet does not have feelings for Paris in that way, she wants to marry Romeo but they both know they cannot realistically be together. We can see that love and hate almost complement each other, a good love or romance story would have hate in it so that it keeps the two people from loving each other. This is a good example because Romeo had obstacles to get through if he wanted to be with Juliet. The obvious obstacle would be the hatred between their two families that’s makes it so they could not be together. Neither Romeo nor Juliet cared if their families hated each other because their love connection was so strong. Another obstacle that Romeo had to go through was Juliet’s other lover, Paris. Although she did not love him her mother and her nurse always pressured her into marrying him, but she did not want to. If Romeo was not a Montague and was just a regular person in this time period and Juliet loved Paris, Romeo would have had to steal Juliet’s heart from this other man.