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Romeo and Juliet

In broad terms, Shakespeare has managed to treat death as a very liberal

concept in Romeo and Juliet. There are many characters who had to lose their lives

in the play. These include, Romeo, Juliet, Tybalt and Mercutio. Characters who

were faced with death as their ultimate end belonged to both the families. Romeo

and Juliet implied that conflictions between two individuals or gatherings can only

result in deaths. For instance, Juliet is the only child of Lord Montague. When

Paris once had a conversation with Lord Montage, the latter was observed

claiming, “Earth hath swallowed up all my hopes but she” (Shakespeare and

Durband, 1985). During the time that this play was written, infant mortality had

already reached its summit. All the authority lay with the Prince who used it to

sentence death penalties to people. Death was a punishment that only the Prince

could sentence.

Since the Prince was the only legal authority, he told the Capulets and the

Montagues, “If ever you disturb our streets again, your lives shall pay the forfeit of

the peace.” Mercutio was Romeo’s closest friend and associate, who was killed by
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Tybalt. The legal force in the play, the Prince, was rather compassionate towards

Romeo who killed Tybalt, who had killed his friend. Tybalt’s death would have

been the ultimate end anyway, particularly because law under the Prince’s reign

would have sentenced a death penalty to him for committing the crime of killing

Mercutio. Since Romeo had already killed Tybalt without waiting for the Prince to

intervene, he was sent to exile.

The façade of death created by Shakespeare was not only liberal, but also

passionate. This can be implied by the death scenes of both, the Romeo and the

Juliet. The cruelties of the world inflicted upon them and their passion for each

other made them resort to committing suicide as their ultimate end. This is

particularly because neither of them could live without the other. Hence, Romeo

and Juliet reunited by committing suicides. The treatment of death in

Shakespeare’s play mainly relies on the death of the character under examination.

The characters of this play belong to both the families, the Montagues and

the Capulets. In Romeo and Juliet, death has been examined from multiple

dimensions and in a multitude of ways. Towards the end of the play, death acted as

a game-changer, resulting in the reunification of the Montagues and the Capulets.

However, there was this one instance earlier in the play that fueled the fire of

death; the killing of Mercutio at the hands of Tybalt. Mercutio’s death was the

initiator of all the subsequent problems that resulted in many other deaths. Until
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the death of Romeo and Juliet, every other character in the play only contributed

towards intensifying the conflictions between the Montagues and the Capulets.

The entire feud is questioned by death, if the fights between the two families

are worth the repercussions. Reunification of the two families could not have been

possible until the deaths of Romeo and Juliet. Had they not given up on their lives

for the sake of their love and passion, the two families could never have realized

that the two were madly in love with each other. Death, in this play, is an exemplar

of love and hate. Love revolves around the two key characters of this play, Romeo

and Juliet, and hate is associated with the dispute between the two families. Death

represented in the play has occurred both in the forms of killings and suicides.

Romeo and Juliet’s love for each other is reflected by how death occurred to them

in the form of suicide.

The deaths of Mercutio and Romeo can be explained by their consequences.

Mercutio’s death is an illustration of the conflictions between the Montagues and

the Capulets that disrupted the peace of the two families. Romeo’s death, however,

is a whole different story that did not occur to him as a killing, but a suicide,

representing his own wish to free himself off the shackles of cruelty, hatred, and of

course, living alone without Juliet. Mercutio’s death was the initiator that, in turn,

caused Tybalt’s death at the hands of Romeo.

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This play revolves around the tragic deaths of many characters belonging to

both the families. People living in Verona could sense the intensity of the love

between Romeo and Juliet, who were also made a part of this play, witnessing the

tragic incidents caused by the dispute between the two families. Romeo was not

only broken, but shattered into bits and pieces until he met Juliet. They were

deeply in love with each other and ultimately resorted to suicide. Shakespeare has

managed to symbolize suicide as love and passion, making one prefer death over

living without their lover.

Mercutio was Romeo’s friend, his conscience, his only source of comfort

and assurance. Mercutio always knew how to control himself; he had an active life.

Romeo, on the other hand, embraced his own thoughts and stuck to them. Romeo

believed that love goes beyond control, “If love be rough with you, be rough with

love.” In order to strike a balance, Shakespeare gave life to Mercutio and Tybalt.

Their deaths, in comparison to the death of Romeo, is an exemplary of the dispute

between the two Montagues and the Capulets. Ultimately, Romeo and Juliet gave

up on their lives too, with Romeo being the first to commit suicide. Juliet was

given a sleeping potion that made her appear dead in Romeo’s eyes. This

ultimately resulted in Romeo taking his own life. Upon regaining consciousness,

Juliet saw Romeo lay inactive; dead. She could not take this pain, and committed

suicide for the sake of her love and passion.

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Works Cited

Shakespeare, William, and Alan Durband. Romeo and Juliet. Hauppage, NY:
Barron's, 1985. Print.