Love as a Cause of Violence

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Love as a Cause of Violence in Romeo and Juliet In the play Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, love turns into uncontrolled feelings and actions, leading as much to problems as to happiness. But in its extreme passion, the love that Romeo and Juliet experience also appears so beautiful that few would want, or be able, to resists its power. The romantic love between Romeo and Juliet formed from the moment of its inception with death, Tybalt notices that Romeo has crashed the feast and determines to kill him just as Romeo catches a glance of Juliet he instantly falls in love with her. From this point on love seems to push the couple closer to love and hardships, not farther from it. Although Romeo and Juliet is a powerful and passionate romance, that romance is surrounded by violence, hatred, and chaos, and ultimately, that deep, passionate romance causes so much of the violence in Verona. Juliet herself acknowledges this in act one scene 5 in saying “My only love sprung from my only hate” (Shakespeare 1.5.138). Even Juliet realizes the violence of loving someone, when their families have a strong dislike for each other. Even with knowing this she pursues with the relationship anyway, a fact that only incites further violence and contempt between Montague and Capulet. As shown near the end of book, where Romeo and Juliet’s deep love for one another results in a significant amount of violence. The lover’s violence is shown on a number of occasions in Romeo and Juliet. In act 3 scene 3 Romeo says, “Ha, banishment! Be merciful say “death”/For exile hath more terror in his look,/much more than death. Do not say “banishment!”(3.3.12-14). This again shows how love can be very painful and hard to handle. Romeo cannot stand to think of banishment from Verona, because this means banishment from Juliet as well. With the pain this causes Romeo and Juliet he
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