Suicide Impulse in Romeo and J
Romeo and Juliet is a play created by William Shakespeare to conceptualize his idea of the highest form of love. This play is meant to show, through example, what real love is; and the desperate measures one would take to maintain such love. Love through Shakespeare's vision is meant to be the ultimate emotion, the one feeling which one would risk their very being to possess. Shakespeare captures that feeling in the final scene of the play when Romeo and Juliet both end their own lives when they believe they will never feel such powerful love again. However, this "suicide impulse" that both Juliet and Romeo exhibit does not relate to the play's theme of the highest form of love, but it relates to another theme in the play: the theme of young, desperate love. Not "young" as in the adolescent minds of Romeo and Juliet, but "young" in the sense that these two lovers have only known each other for such a small period of time. Throughout the entire play, which is based on the relationship of these two characters, Romeo and Juliet only have four encounters. The first at Capulet's feast; where the two first meet each other (1.5, 94-111), the second in the Capulet courtyard, in front of Juliet's window (2.2), the third encounter is
The fact that Juliet's parents want to marry her off so quickly leaves Juliet in a state of desperation, she is not ready for marriage. In the beginning of the play we find Romeo in despair, he is walking the streets of Verona all by himself, avoiding all contact with his family and friends. Romeo himself was also in desperation to marry Juliet, not only because it would bring their two households together, but because he too is at the age at which men were ready to marry. In desperation of trying to escape their families, they look to each other. Romeo is away in exile, and although she is already married, Capulet is arranging Juliet's marriage with Paris. Because they were in love with the idea instead of each other, they involuntarily doomed their relationship. Romeo, again, at this point is in a state of depression, he is in love with someone who does not love him. If he acted too late on his love for Juliet, she would be taken from him by Paris. In this time period, Juliet was the perfect age for marriage, because she was able to bear children, therefore she was being rushed into it not only by her parents, but by society's standards as well. Capulet is in desperation because he has no one to carry on his family name, and no heir to his house. Without thinking that he may yet have that feeling again, he drinks poison and ends his own life. In desperation the two unite, in desperation the two get married, and in desperation the two end their lives.
Common topics in this essay:
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Juliet Paris,
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friar lawrence,
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throughout entire play,
romeo juliet displeased,
juliet marry paris,
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