Romeo and Juliet Paper

Dear Ms.Graham,







         Romeo and Juliet is known world-wide as one of the greatest love stories of all time. Through this movie, I hope to portray the power of love over all other emotions and reasoning. I would like to show how the love Romeo and Juliet experience becomes, in a very short amount of time, something so powerful that it leads to their demise. In Romeo and Juliet we see two powerful, and loyal families, dedicated to the feud between them. Then, in only a few days, we see this dedication be shattered by the two young teens Romeo and Juliet. In this play I aim to reveal how romantic love is strong enough to destroy the feud between the two families, and loyalty within the families so quickly. This is why it is vital for the scene in which Juliet discusses Romeo and Tybalt (p.137) to remain in the film. It gives a deeper insight to the power of romantic love and its effects. The scene must stay to show the extreme power of romantic love and how it can conquer all emotions and reason, and cause one to make rash and harmful decisions.

         The old proverb "blood is thicker than water" states that family, blood, will always be more important than any other relationship. However, Romeo and Juliet challenges this phrase as Juliet has known her family her whole life, and only known Romeo for a few days, and she is already in deep conflict about who she should side with. Juliet was raised in a world where her family was very close and loyal to each other. Although her mother and father do not have a close bond with their daughter, the family still expected her to stay true to them. However after only knowing Romeo, someone she has been raised to hate, she is already confused as to which person she should side with. Although it may seem like choosing her family is the sensible decision, Juliet is somehow puzzled. This is because the power of romantic love is so much stronger than any other emotion, in a matter of days it is challenging Juliets love for her family. The nurse questions this asking; "Will you speak well of him that killed your cousin?", and but Juliet doesn't think she should "speak ill" of her husband, whether or not he has just shot and killed her family member. Juliet is believed that since Romeo is her husband, and they are in love she should not doubt anything he does. Juliet believes their love is more important than anything else, even murder. Juliet also is not mad at Romeo since she knows that Tybalt "would have slain my husband" if Romeo had not killed him first. She is sad for Tybalt, but is also happy that Romeo is the one that lives. She feels guilty about being happy about her own cousins death, wishing her tears to return to their "native spring". She wants to stop crying as her "drops belong to woe", but she is actually crying out of "joy" . Juliet feels ashamed that she should cry out of joy, instead of sadness, but she can not help that her love for Romeo is already stronger than her love for Tybalt.

         I refuse to let this scene get cut from the play as it shows how romantic love triumphs over family love. Although Juliet does feel confusion at first, she ends up feeling worse about Romeo being banished then Tybalt dying. Romeo has been banished by the by the prince for killing Tybalt, and to Juliet this is even worse then Tybalt dying. At this point she is far beyond just forgiving Romeo for killing her cousin, she now feels worse about him being banished then the death of her cousin. She believes that Romeo's banishment has "slain ten thousand Tybalts". Tybalts death is nothing compared to the horror of Romeo being banished. Juliet's romantic love with Romeo has not just become equal to that of her family in a matter of days, it has become a thousand times stronger. Juliet even goes as far to wish that when the nurse told her Tybalt was dead she followed the news with "Thy father" or "Thy mother" was dead rather than Romeo being banished. She would rather her mother or father had died, people who she has been with her whole life, then Romeo, a man who she has known for a few days, had been banished. This may seem outrageous, foolish, and unrealistic, but really this passage just shows the power romantic love has to cloud someones judgment. Due to her love for Romeo, hearing that he is banished is "father; mother, Tybalt, Juliet, / All slain, all dead", everyone might as well be dead now that Romeo is gone. Her whole world revolves around her love for Romeo, and his banishment has caused everything to fall apart for Juliet. The power of romantic love is not only much stronger than that of family, but it also holds the power to keep people from making good judgment.

         The conflict Juliet experiences after Tybalts death gives us a clear understanding how of deeply and quickly romantic love has affected her. Juliet loves, and cares about Romeo more than she cares about her family. Although she realises that this might be wrong, her love for Romeo is stronger than her common sense. Although in our society we often romanticize intense love, in Romeo and Juliet the fact they fail to make clear decisions ends up killing them. From this we should learn that as amazing as love is, it has the power to overwhelm our ability to make and think clearly, and it is important to keep your love from consuming your life and thoughts, or it could cause harmful, and possibly fatal results.

         Your Director,

Azanah K