“Of all the words of mice and men, the saddest are, it might have been.” -Kurt Vonnegut. After reading Romeo and Juliet, by William Shakespeare, all one can think about is what might have been. Set in Verona hundreds of years ago, two rival families continue to fight because of an “ancient grudge” (Prologue.3) Two teens, Romeo and Juliet, fall in love, defying their families rules. After only a couple of days, their love cause both of their deaths. Friar Lawrence was the cause of their deaths for his irresponsibility and lack of urgency to solve the conflict he started.
Antigone is more heroic than Creon, she takes risks and she is brave. When her own blood brother is sentenced to eternal suffering by being denied a burial, Antigone decides to break the law and risk her own life for her brother; “But I will bury him; and if I must die” (1.55) said Antigone, all for the sake of Polynesis’s eternal rest. Creon, on the other hand has no heroic traits apart from wanting the best for the people; he humiliates Antigone and her sister in public. This value and importance Creon has for the people’s opinion is destroyed when the people protest Antigone’s death, and he does not decide to follow what the people believe. Gentlemen, I beg you to observe these girls: One has just now lost her mind; the other, It seems has never had a mind at all (1.150) said Creon.
Their relationship is doomed from the outset, which is made clear to the audience within the prologue, ‘two star- crossed lovers take their life’. There are many factors that take place prior to this scene that can be argued as contributing to the death of the protagonists but overall the family feud seems to play the leading role. The purpose of this essay is to discuss both the feud and the effects of the other factors on the young lovers’ fragile and fate- driven lives. The scene begins outside the tomb with Paris and his page; he is visiting Juliet with flowers because he is under the illusion that she is dead, ‘Sweet flower, with flowers thy bridal bed I strew’. She is in fact only sleeping for 24 hours as a result of a poison she has taken as part of a plan concocted by her and Friar Lawrence in order to ensure her love for Romeo survives.
He constantly lies to his wife about where he is and what he is doing. Unfortunately, his marriage is crumbling down quickly through lack of communication and intimacy. Though these factors are not only the causes of his deteriorating relationship, his secrecy of his homosexuality becomes a problem. His wife confronts him with wanting to know the truth, he responds, “Does it make any difference? That I might be one thing deep within, no matter how wrong or ugly that thing is, so long as I have fought, with everything I have to kill it...Im a shell”(46).
69-70 ) This made Juliet miserable over Romeo's banishment, meanwhile her parents thought her unhappiness was over Tybalt's death. Then, Juliet's parents, trying to make her happy, moved up her wedding date, only to make her even more depressed due to the fact she was already married to Romeo. All of this led up to Juliet's fake death, which caused both of their deaths. Romeo and Juliet are at fault for their own deaths. Romeo and Juliet did not have to keep their love a secret.
One of the first similarities between two of the texts, is the perceptible barriers that the ‘falling in love’ creates, barriers are built in great contrast to one another, and these come across as impossible to destroy. “His name is Romeo, and a Montague; The only son of your great enemy.” A barrier is built by the two families ongoing feud between one another, in which they do all they can, to protect ones maiden name. It is first brought about in the prologue, “and the continuance of their parents’ rage” highlights the foremost hurdle they encounter, its initial intention is to separate their togetherness and never let it merge into a “new mutiny” but in actual fact it brings them closer together. This creates the sort of scenario of ‘not being allowed to have something, increases you’re covet for that thing’ be it love or even a symbolic item, like say, an onion maybe... Juliet reacts in a way that she expresses her anger and frustration at this barrier of hatred, which is held together by the concrete family name “My only love sprung by my only hate” It weakens her mentally, knowing that she feels for the man so deeply, the man that “If they do see thee, they will murder thee” Her hearts love and desire for Romeo has only strengthened “Prodigious birth of love it is to me” yet the barrier still stands. This makes her more vulnerable to being hurt but only motivates her further, to bulldoze the barricade down as if it is her heart that is controlling her mind, rather than hear actual intellect controlling her mentality, this foreshadows and explains future tragic events which occur ever so wretchedly.
This hatred had been around for centuries: Two households, both alike in dignity, In fair Verona, where we lay our scene, From ancient grudge break to new mutiny, here civil blood makes civil hands unclean. (Prologue) The feud between the two families required the young couple to keep their love a secret, which forced them to rebel against their families by secretly getting married. In the beginning of Act III, Romeo kills Tybalt and is banished from the city. Not knowing what to do next, Juliet goes to Friar Laurence’s cell seeking for advice for the solution to this problem. He came up with a plan for Juliet to drink a potion so she could fake her own death.
Frontrunners for this distinction are: The Family Feud, the star- crossed lovers were doomed from the start entirely because of their families’ hatred of one another. Fate, because the Prologue suggests this when it calls them "star-crossed lovers" and talks about "their death-mark'd love" Lack of perspective, they were young, and they could not see past their terror of living without each other to make the correct choice and go on living. If they didn’t rush into things, they probably would have ended up together in the end. Love, the love between Romeo and Juliet not only gave them happiness, but it also caused them pain and heartache, and eventually their lives. Impetuousness, if they had only waited then time would have kept them apart and alive.
(Stabs herself) There rust and let me die.”-P. 579 lines (169-171). It’s really sad that all of this could have been avoided if Juliet would’ve just left with Romeo or if their families gave up their hatred for one another. Throughout Romeo and Juliet, Romeo and Juliet’s personality drastically changes. At first Romeo was love-sick and Juliet didn’t want anything to do with marriage. Then they meet, fall in love and get married.
In John Knowles’s novel-A Separate Peace, Gene kills his best friend in a jealous moment before he realizes what he has done. The great Gatsby revolves around the love story of Daisy Buchanan and Jay Gatsby, but they do not get married because as Daisy says “Rich girls do not marry the poor boys” ,and so she marries Tom Buchanan. However, after Daisy meets Gatsby and sees the luxurious lifestyle of Gatsby, that includes his collection of English shirts, she begins to cry. She cries because she regrets her wrong decision; she chose the wrong man who she never loved. Then Gatsby convinces Daisy to say to Tom that she never loved him.