Love/Hate Motif

Hateful love, Loving hate Both love and hatred are capable of driving humans to extremes, it brings out the best and the worse in humans, and will continue to do so for it is the nature of mankind to feel these emotions. A story that changed the course of the world, a play that has been studied ceaselessly since It was written and people are no closer to discerning all of its secrets. A play that revolves around Romeo and Juliet, but more importantly the feelings they feel for each other, Love and Hate, two feelings closer together in meaning than one might think. The blind, crushing, gut wrenching love that the 2 main characters feel along with the disgust and hate they were bred to feel for each other’s family is what truly makes the audience sit as attentive as possible and make them really delve into the story as if it were them in the place of Romeo or Juliet. "Alas, that love, so gentle in his view, / Should be so tyrannous and rough in proof!" (1.1.169-170). Love and hate, both are emotions we feel, and some of us feel them very strongly, these feeling blind us and lead us to acting foolishly, they bring out a savage and feral side to even the most contained man or woman, they make us foolish in some slightly different ways. Love makes us have a single purpose in mind, that person/thing, we will do anything to be with them, and make them happy, and have them at our side, step on anyone in order to rise and reach for the ever-fickle love. Hatred, much like love brings out the inner demon in all of us, it makes us irrational and it is as if the brain has been shut down, a hateful person is driven by emotions and no different than any animal, for the biggest difference from animals and us humans is the capability of rational thinking. The biggest strength love has, is its ability to serve as incentive to people so that they are at their very best, this same ability is the worse enemy and man could have. Being in love drives a man or woman to their extremes, it drives them to commit atrocities unthinkable to a rational man, at the same time it can make a someone do the most beautiful of feats as a display of love. In this fabulous play we follow two young people that are deep in love, two people that are romantic to the very core of their souls, and this love drives them to insanity. Brave Juliet was bred for simple purposes, to continue the family line and to hate the Montagues, however life does not come with instructions and it is much like a path that one walks barefoot stepping on burning glass and coals, it is painful but the moments of pleasure and happiness makes up for the burning feet. The Capulets have a rather sudden awakening call that their plans won’t work with this lovely daughter, she wants greater things than taking orders her entire life. Romeo Montague was made to find a lovely wife, take care of the family business and, of course, hate the Capulets. In a cruel twist of fate both young heirs of their respective families fall in a desperate, prohibited love that will lead to an early grave for both of them. Along the story we see the development of the characters, and how their rational thinking seems clouded, they act based on feelings and those feelings will cost them the lives of people they love and themselves. The love each of the characters have for each other is in constant battle against the hate they were made to feel for the others family, it puts to the test the individual morals of both Romeo and Juliet, Romeo forsakes his lord father and takes Juliet as a wife, and Juliet forsakes her father as well in refusing to take the man he chose as a husband.
Love and hate have been the cause of various of humanities worst moments, as well as its best, mankind would not be the same without these emotions, they make people strive to better themselves and brings hope to even the most cynical man. Love is able to revive a man that has lost all hope in mankind and sees only evil, it will show him that there is still color in a world he deemed black, white and cold, the color of his lovers hair, the scent of fresh cinnamon he senses when hugging her, the peace of mind, the flutter of his heart, and the smile that seems glued to his face when a man sees his lover. Hate however will take the man to the predicament he found himself in before love, or sometimes after it. The world will seem a cold place, where only those bred from misery and greed will survive, those who will never shy away from unnecessary bloodshed and cruelty. Men consumed by hatred see no hope in the world, therefore it is easier for them to commit heinous crimes and barely miss any sleep over it. The same might happen to men consumed by love, it can drive them insane, the need to fulfill the loved ones every fantasy, the constant need of reassurance from the loved one will take a man to commit mayhems as bad as the man that was consumed by hatred. Both men think they are right, for both love and hate are a fickle thing, bringing out the feral and savagery in all of us, as well all that is beautiful in man kind.