How are the dualities within Romeo and Juliet responsible for the play’s

tragedy?

Conflict causes chaos. It is through the innate conflict of opposing ideas does our inherent
human suffering manifest. Upon the romanticised backdrop of 14th-century Verona,
Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet (1597) displays how an intricate interplay of dichotomous
forces ultimately reveal the protagonists’ hamartia, leading to their tragic demise. The
eponymous star-crossed lovers aim to subdue the impacts of fate by use of their own free will.
Moreover, their romantic love contests entrenched familial strife, where the intertwined
dualism displays the perverse implications of conflict. Likewise, the binary of light and dark
conveys the how their profound love eventually led to their joint suicide.

In the protagonists’ pursuit of free will, it was in their supposed defiance to fate that ultimately
fulfilled their destiny. The opening prologue describes the two as having “death marked love”,
which paradoxically foreshadows that their own actions eventually lead to their predestined
nature. This is what makes the play’s denouement so heartbreaking. In Act 5 Scene 3, after
learning of Juliet's supposed death, Romeo declares his opposition to the destiny that so grieves
him, going so far as to take his own life in order to ‘shake the yoke of inauspicious stars’. When
Romeo is looking upwards towards the sky, seemingly talking to God, the dramatic construction
corroborates the religious connotation of the personified “stars” controlling his destiny. Later in
the same act, as the Prince retrospectively reflects on how there “never was a story of more
woe” than that of the protagonists. In all the calamity that occurs in the play, it ultimately ends
in the way it starts. The opening prologue describes the play in iambic pentameter in the same
way the Prince addresses Verona in Act 5 Scene 3. As the audience’s hearts and the rhythm of
the play beat as one, the denouement displays how order had been achieved via fate being
fulfilled in their death. Shakespeare’s supposedly cruelty in condemning independence within a
hierarchical world through the dichotomy of fate and free will resonates with audiences in a
way that connects to our human suffering.

In the unresolved play-long dispute between love and hate, their interwoven nature manifests
dire harms on the protagonists. Shakespeare initially displays the coexistence of the two in the
opening prologue as “with their death” they “buried their parents’ strife”. The paradox that
love can only transpire from the hatred that caused their death, foreshadows how as the
protagonists’ love amplifies, so too does the families’ hate. In spite of the feud, Juliet later urges
Romeo to “deny thy father and refuse thy name” in A2S2 in the pursuit of love. Juliet was thus
given an ultimatum: her family or Romeo. Loved by one, hated by the other. Love, as the
mechanism that defied the familial conduct, caused Juliet’s own family to hate her. In the
Prince’s final speech in A5S3, he tells the families “your hate” caused “heaven to kill your joys
with love”. The reflection of their familial feud is cathartic for audiences, establishing the
perverse implications of hate contesting with romantic love, as it had ultimately led to their
death. Thus, the protagonists’ romantic love exacerbated familial hate, leading to the eventual
tragic ending of the play.

Romeo and Juliet’s love transforms from dark to light in a way that displays its profound and
impactful nature in spite of societal pressures. However, this love eventually leads to their tragic
ends as it causes the protagonists to commit suicide. Unbeknownst to Juliet, Romeo is hidden
on the floor beneath her as she proclaims in Act 2 Scene 2; “O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art
thou Romeo?”. Here, Romeo uses darkness, a symbol of chaotic disorder, as a place of hiding -
physical refuge from the perverse societal pressures that forced their relationship private.
However, Shakespeare displays how their love is transformative in A2S2 as Romeo, calls Juliet to
“Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon”. The antithesis displays a symbolic transformation of
their love withstanding the darkness of sinister societal judgement. It is this that accentuates
the heartbreak at the end of the play. As Juliet lies asleep in Act 5 Scene 3, appearing dead in
her coffin, Romeo still describes it as “a feasting presence full of light”. Romeo’s affirmation
over a supposedly lifeless corpse creates a cruel dramatic irony, forcing audiences to reflect on
the profound nature of their romantic love. The light, full of purity and fulfilment, was so
endearing Romeo was willing to kill himself because of the supposed death of his lover. Thus,
the binary of light and dark displayed how the lovers would go to such an extent that it
effectuated their own deaths through joint suicide.

In conclusion, Romeo and Juliet’s nuance in traversing the interplay of dualities eventually lead
to the tragic demise of the protagonists by their own hands. It was through challenging these
binaries – fate and free will, light and dark, love and hate – do the protagonists ultimately
execute their own deaths.