The Relationship Between Romeo And Juliet

Romeo and Juliet, a play written by Shakespeare, is about a young couple that instantly fall in love with one another. However, due to the feud between Romeo and Juliet’s households, they were forced to keep their love hidden. Their inability to tell anyone about the relationship impacted the plot in several ways. It, also, contributed to the meaning of the entire text.
Romeo is a Montague; Juliet is a Capulet. The story never explicitly states why, but their two families are in a dispute. Romeo and Juliet didn’t let this stop them, however. They simply snuck around to see each other. Although it seems insignificant, it severely impacts the characters, as well as the plot. The secrecy was extremely necessary because their households would have prohibited them from being together. It was stated and implied several times throughout the text that the Capulets and Montagues would not have approved. Within minutes of meeting Romeo, Juliet heard from the
Nurse, “His name is Romeo, and a Montague/ The only son of your great enemy.” (i.v.150-151) Juliet then says: My only love sprung from my only hate! Too early seen unknown and known too late! Prodigious birth of love it is to me That I must love a loathed enemy. (i.v.152.155)
At this point, she knew she had to keep her relationship secret. Further along in the text, the repercussions of the prohibited love became evident.
Shortly after Juliet was clandestinely married to Romeo, her father demanded that she married County Paris. She refused because Romeo was her living husband; she could not commit the sin of having another. Her father, Capulet, and mother, Lady Capulet, were obviously not aware of her status with Romeo and continued to push the new marriage. After the argument with her parents, Juliet states to the Nurse, “If all else fail, myself have power to die.” (iii.v.255) Juliet had reached the point that her love for Romeo completely controlled her. The only people informed of Romeo and Juliet’s secret love were the Nurse and Friar Lawrence. Therefore, she went to Friar Lawrence, as well, to tell him about her frustration. He has a solution to her troubles, a vial full of a liquor that will put her make her appear dead for forty-two hours. Within this time, he’d send word to Romeo to come back and when she was awake, they’d go to Mantua
together. Friar Lawrence’s plan failed, unfortunately. It, along with their secrecy, led to their deaths, a major part of the plot. Balthasar, Romeo’s man, went to tell him of Juliet’s death before Friar John could. As a result, Romeo obtained poison to take his own life while lying next to Juliet. When she woke from her sleep, she saw Romeo dying next to her. She, then, took her own life to be with her love. Juliet and Romeo would have never been in that predicament if they weren’t forced to stay hidden from the world. Love drives the entire story. Secrecy contributes to the themes of the forcefulness of love and fate. Romeo and Juliet don’t allow the obstacles to stop them from loving one another. The strength of their love drove them to keep trying to make it work. They thought that hiding their love would solve their problems. However, silence about their relationship doesn’t help them to escape their fate. In the end, their secret, forbidden love played a significant role in their deaths. All in all, secrecy contributed to the overall meaning of the story and it affected the plot.