Romeo and Juliet: Themes and Symbolism Within

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23 March, 2014 Romeo and Juliet: Themes and Symbols of Love, Life, Sex and Death While Shakespeare’s works are no doubt filled with themes and symbolism, Romeo and Juliet is perhaps one of the very best examples of this that the author produced. Love, life, death, sex, marriage and violence, God and religion to name a few things. The focus however will be on the themes and symbolism of life, love and death inside the pages of this play. In a line known to the majority of people, the two lovers are called star crossed, which early on already hints that perhaps their union is fated to end in a less than happy if not disastrous manner (Shakespeare, 2011). To someone reading this play with no prior knowledge it may appear just to be about two unlucky teens whose families dislike one another and the teens themselves are overly obsessed with sex and one another in general. Many would think that this a typical teen thing, one that we can even find today in our present times but on a deeper look one will see that this is not the case, and that the life, love affair, marriage and deaths of Romeo and Juliet are all highly symbolic in nature as well as themes. One of the main symbolisms that runs throughout the play is not just simply love and death, but love and death merged in a macabre wedding of the two. There is no denying that death isn’t in shortage in Romeo and Juliet’s families during this timeframe, up to an including their own. This love and death symbolism seems to parallel the actual marriage of Romeo and Juliet even; the two meet and fall madly in love, only to have their deaths sealed by being married to one another. A wedding that brings forth both a new life for the couple as well as death shortly after. Even in the first pages, the two are already alluding to their own deaths, even if they don’t know their demise is so soon to happen. While Juliet is on

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