Conflict and Violence in Romeo and Juliet Essay

I am going to be writing this essay on the well known play Romeo and Juliet. I will be focusing on the main elements of conflict and violence in the plays plot and language. I will also look at the range of linguistic devices employed in the plays script.

The Prologue of the book tells us a little bit about the background of the two family's; the Montague and the Capulet family's. It mentions that there is an 'ancient grudge to break new mutiny' this tells us that there is an ancient rivalry between the two family's that will start up again and cause chaos in the town of Verona.

Also, in the prologue it tells us about the basic plot of the story. Including Romeo and Juliet 'A pair...Take their life' In this lines it could be telling us how Romeo and Juliet kill themselves as they are the 'star crossed lovers'.

In Act One Scene One Sampson and Gregory are bragging about their part in the feud between the two family's. They talk about how they will not be humiliated by the Montague's, they begin to joke about taking the virginity of the Montague women by saying 'T is for...I will cut off their heads.'. What Sampson means by this is not that he will literally cut off the maidens heads, he is telling Gregory that he is going to defeat the Montague men and take the virginity of the Maidens (Montague Women). Gregory insults Sampson by saying 'T is well...Draw thy tool'. Gregory is insulting Sampson's virility as he is telling him how his 'poor john' is floppy and would not be able to stand up. Also Gregory mentions 'drawing thy tool' as the two Montague servants approach, this could be a multiple meaning word with a risqu meaning. It could mean that they could be drawing their swords to fight the Montague's or it could mean their penis's as a pose to what they are talking about.

Later on in Act One Scene One, two Montague servants approach; the Capulet's try to provoke a fight. Sampson bites his thumb at Abraham (Montague) which is a gesture of hatred to the Montague's. Abraham begins to fight with Sampson until they get split up by Benvolio. Prince Escalius appears with his train and gives them a speech. Shakespeare an oxymoron in the first part of his speech as he calls them 'enemies to peace' this shows a contrast on how peace and fighting your enemies is very different. The prince says that they are 'beasts' he is comparing them to animals as they are fighting in a public street. Shakespeare uses a metaphor in the next few lines of the Princes speech 'That quench...on pain of torture'. This linguistic device is employed to show that the people fighting had an anger inside of them (a quench of fire) and saying about their 'pernicious rage'. These are all words of hatred, destruction and quite hateful words the Prince uses in his speech.

Moving later on in Act One Scene One in Romeo's speech, Shakespeare has used a lot of oxymoron's in this speech. For example a few of the oxymoron's he uses in this speech are; 'O brawling love, O loving hate';'O heavy lightness, O serious

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vanity';'Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health'.

All of these oxymoron's combat each other by putting two words completely opposite into the same sentence, this is a very clever technique used by Shakespeare too make the reader feel sorry for Romeo.

In Act Two Scene Two Juliet asks Romeo What's in a name?. This question could be referring to how people could interpret many of the multiple meaning words in the play. The question could also relate between the violence between the two family's and that Juliet Is not bothered that Romeo is Montague and that she still loves him. The play has a lot of words that could mean different things for example in Act One Scene One Sampson mentions that his 'naked weapon' is out, He is talking about his sword from one point of view but as Gregory and Sampson were talking about taking the Montague Women's virginity, he could he referring to his penis instead of his sword.

Moving on to Act Three Scene One, Mercutio begins fighting with Tybalt, Romeo tries to split the fight up between them but Tybalt wounds Mercutio from behind. Mercutio is in agonising pain as he begins to talk, he calls a dying man's curse on the two family's 'A plague o' both your houses!' . Mercutio has realised that there was no need for fighting in the first place and now he is dying he delivers a curse on the two family's hoping that they will not fight again.