Romeo And Juliet Essay

Romeo and Juliet Essay Everyone in the world can teach us something, even characters in literature. The leaders of the Montague and Capulet households in William Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet, teach important lessons through their hatred. Their families have been heated rivals for a long time, feuding over something no one is even sure what it is. Servants, kinsmen, and family members go to war with each other and blood is shed often. The plot of the story is set in motion when their only children fall in love secretly. Because of the strong hatred between the two sides, and their children's love, the audience learns two very important lessons: Families can divide us, and never hold a grudge. Families do a lot for us, as we can learn from them and be divided because of them. Romeo and Juliet, cannot publicly be together because of their rival families, so in order to be together they must see each other in secrecy. They are kept away from each other because of their families' hatred. In the infamous balcony scene, Juliet wonders why they had to have their last names, and would want to deny their families and no longer be Capulet and Montague. "O Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou Romeo? Deny thy father and refuse thy name; Or if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love, And I'll no longer be a Capulet" (Act II, sc. ii, lines 34-37). While families should do what is best for their other relatives, they should never deny them of their true love. Our families, as much as they love us, they can also divide us from what we truly want. Holding grudges for a long time can have consequences just similar or worse compared to what the grudge was about. Montague and Capulet households held a longtime grudge than spanned generations. It lasted so long that the people of Verona actually took sides and at some point forgot what the feud was about. Eventually it ends because of the deaths of Romeo and Juliet at the end of the play. "From ancient grudge break to new mutiny, Where