Romeo and Juliet essay

I wrote this essay as an assignment for my English class last semester. The topic was "Sex and Violence in Romeo and Juliet." I received an A/A- for it with my professor's comment "Your essay is a hair short of spectacular, but too fresh and original for a pedestrian A-". I think that now I could revise it and receive a solid A, but I was pleased nonetheless.

Passion

Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" arguably centers around the age-old theme of love. It is the great force that transcends differences in blood, nationality, gender, and class. This interpretation, though valid, barely scratches the surface in its naivete'. Sex (and marriage) is often viewed as the ultimate expression of love, while violence (and murder) is likewise seen as the ultimate expression of hatred. As Romeo and Juliet come together in matrimony, sex and violence also melt together into a dizzying portrait whose subject can lift men to the heavens in triumph or bring them to their knees in despair: passion.
This concept of sex and violence intertwining is, not surprisingly, brought up in very first scene. The play starts out on a humorous note with bawdy jokes and clever wordplay between two Capulets. Upon seeing Montagues, Sampson's "tool" is compared to a weapon. (Act 1, scene 1: lines 33-35) This tickles the funny bone of those who catch it, and humor continues with the thumb-biting routine. Their encounter quickly turns sour as an all-out street brawl begins. The play thusfar seems to be more of a comedy than a tragedy, yet a closer analysis detects a more sinister underlying tone. Shakespeare loosely suggests the image of a a sword plunged into an enemy's heart as a comparison to sex, where a man's genitalia (his weapon) penetrate the woman. Could this be social commentary on a patriarchal society, or is it yet another way to make an audience laugh?
Sex and violence seem to be on opposite ends of the spectrum of love and hate, but perhaps they differ less than imagined. Perhaps Shakespeare contrasted these two concepts to further heighten and intensify the other, much like a dramatic foil. Romeo and Juliet's love, matrimony, and physical expression of it contrast with the hate, violence, and murder associated with their quarreling families. On another level, as sex and violence link on levels not quite as opposite as they appear, so do love and hate. Romeo vengefully kills Tybalt, his true love's favorite cousin. Juliet labels Romeo as long string of oxymorons "Beautiful tyrant! Fiend angelical! ...Just opposite of what thou justly seemest!" (Act 2, scene 2: lines 75-78) In this one act of murder, reality finally confronts the two lovers. Their emotions of pure and holy love clash and blend with the realized reality of their feuding families and their roles as members of each household.
The love between Romeo and Juliet unites with the hate between their families to lead them into love as well as death. In a modern-day movie adaptation of the play, "West Side Story," the writers suggest (rather obviously) that only love brought Tony and Maria together while only hate in the form of racism and gang rivalries tore them apart. Is Shakespeare this simple? Would Juliet and Romeo have fallen that desperately in love with each other if they were of the same household? Indeed it would have been far less romantic. There is a mysterious power of allurement in the unattainable and forbidden. Would they have killed themselves if they hadn't been so in love that they could not fathom life without each other? Hate played a role in bringing them together, as love also took part in separating them.
Although Juliet muses on roses and their names (Act 1, scene 2: lines 43-44), humans are not plants. People possess more complexity and layers of petals than a mere rose, whatever its name. They initially ignored their heritage, but eventually come to recognize that ties of blood and family run deeper than merely a name. Though they love each other, they too are forced into conflict. As their lives darken in complexity and emotion, so does their relationship. They marry, Romeo kills Tybalt, and they have sex all in very condensed time frame. These events happening in this sequence provides a particular point of interest. Sex before murder would indeed have been seen purely as an act of love; however, sex happened after murder. By doing this, Shakespeare therefore suggests that love and hate intertwine in their act of sex. It is at the same time both a passionate expression of affection as well as a violent act of conquering and penetration.
The short time frame and lack of perspective perfectly caters to passion as a theme. Acts of passion happen in the heat of the moment, rarely logical or thought through. Shakespeare made his lovers young teenagers for a reason. To a teenage mind, everything is all or nothing. Romeo pines after Rosaline in the beginning, and at first glance switches his affections to fall desperately in love with Juliet. Once the ball starts rolling, they cannot stop it. They cannot wait; only the present moment exists. Neither of them possess any sense of future, and their already hormonally-warped tunnel vision distorts even further as their passions guide them. In the passion of love, they marry. In the passion of fury, Romeo kills Tybalt. In the passion of lust and despair, they have sex. And ultimately in the passion of grief, they each suicide. They could not imagine a future without each other, and lost, they commit their very last act of passion.
"Romeo and Juliet" studies the violent and sensual dance between love and hate. In the form of sex and violence, they unite. Humans deal with complex concoctions of emotions and drives. To this day, Shakespeare captures audiences (and English students) in his fascinating study of human relationships; a reflection of reality where bonds are created and destroyed by the dangerous force of passion.