Lesson 5.3B: Timeless Themes
 Shakespeare certainly covers a great deal in Romeo and Juliet. While the previous lesson focused more on characters and their choices and the role of fate, this lesson will focus on some of the themes developed in the play. As well, we'll look at how Shakespeare helps us to understand these themes throughout the play, primarily through foreshadowing.
O brawling love! O loving hate!
Two themes that Shakespeare explores in Romeo and Juliet centre on ideas of love and hate. If you go back to Section 5.1A, these themes were introduced, and the remaining lessons have touched on these ideas directly or indirectly.
Beginning with the prologue, Shakespeare introduces these conflicting themes of love and hate. Romeo himself, when talking to Benvolio in Act I.i, states the paradoxical nature of these themes. After hearing of the big fight between Montagues and Capulets, he says to Benvolio,
“Yet tell me not, for I have heard it all.
Here's much to do with hate, but more with love:
Why, then, O brawling love! O loving hate!” (Act I.i.171-173)
Before the first scene is even finished, we see how tightly knit these two concepts are, how inescapable they are one from another.
Here are some more references from Romeo and Juliet that illustrate how closely connected love and hate are in this play:
Upon discovering Romeo is a Montague, an enemy, Juliet realizes that,
“[Her] only love, sprung from [her] only hate!
Too early seen unknown, and known too late!
Prodigious birth of love it is to [her]
That [she] must love a loathèd enemy” (Act I.v.138-141)
Later, Romeo throws caution to the wind when he is in Capulet's orchard, wooing Juliet. When Juliet expresses her fear that he's inside the wall, Romeo replies,
“My life were better ended by their hate
Than death prorogued, wanting of thy love.” (Act II.ii.77, 78)
 There are a number of other examples of the effects of love and hate in Romeo and Juliet. Here's another excerpt from the play that further illustrates the idea of how love and hate cannot be separated. When Romeo, newly married to Juliet, encounters Tybalt (who has just called Romeo “villain”), he replies,
“Tybalt, the reason that I have to love thee
Doth much excuse the appertaining rage
To such a greeting. Villain am I none;
Therefore farewell; I see thou know'st me not.” (Act III.i.61-64)
Not even Romeo can escape these two emotions, and later in this scene he ends up killing Tybalt. Both feelings give rise to destruction and death throughout the play.
Shakespeare's exploration of these two ideas is meant to speak to us at the end of the play. Shakespeare wants to show us some aspect of ourselves and human nature. Through Romeo and Juliet, he is saying that love and hate are the only two feelings that cause destruction and death. He offers a warning to his audience.
Foreshadowing and Ill Omens
Of the many themes Shakespeare explores, love and hate is perhaps the most important. He is uses a number of dramatic devices to reinforce these ideas, most notably the use of foreshadowing. Through dreams and ill omens (portents), Shakespeare points us toward the death and destruction that will occur throughout the play. From the beginning prologue, where Romeo and Juliet's love is described as “star-cross'd” and “death mark'd,” Shakespeare foreshadows what is to come.
For Shakespeare, foreshadowing is an important device, as it gives the audience insight into upcoming events, as well as adds suspense. These moments of foreshadowing, be it through dreams or ill omens, are important to prepare the audience for what is to come later in the play, and also to make the various elements of the plot fit together and make sense. As so many of the events that occur in Romeo and Juliet are surprising or shocking even though the prologue reveals what will happen, Shakespeare knows that it's important to prepare his audience for these things. The best way to do this is through foreshadowing.
The following are two examples of foreshadowing from the play. Shakespeare uses the first example to teach a lesson, and the second to prepare the audience for what will come later in the play.
Friar Laurence warns Romeo that there is a danger in rushing into things blindly when he says, “Wisely and slow; they stumble that run fast.” (Act II.iii.94). If you think about this caution, so many of the fateful events point back to this line. The hasty decisions of many of the characters, including the Friar, lead to the tragedy of Act V.
 Later on in the play, when Romeo is about to leave for Mantua, Juliet looks down on him from the balcony and says,
“O God, I have an ill-divining soul!
Methinks I see thee, now thou art below,
As one dead in the bottom of a tomb:
Either my eyesight fails, or thou look'st pale.” (Act III.v.54-57).
This is clearly an omen of things to come. If we move forward to Act V, when Juliet awakes and asks for Romeo, the Friar says to her, “Thy husband in thy bosom there lies dead” (Act V.iii.155). How prophetic Juliet's lines in Act III become.
There are many more examples of foreshadowing that appear throughout the play. Shakespeare uses each to prepare us for the ending of the play, and to reinforce important themes like love and hate.
Images of Light and Dark
Shakespeare also uses images of light and dark to emphasize themes of love and hate. (You looked at images of light and dark in the previous section.)
Shakespeare communicates important themes to us through his plays. By sharing the individual and collective experiences of his characters, Shakespeare allows us to think and feel. Romeo and Juliet gives us an insight into human nature, thoughts and actions, and how individuals function within a community. Vivid imagery is central to Shakespeare in communicating these ideas to us. The purpose of this imagery is to clarify the unknown.
These images are closely connected to love and hate, and love and death. Shakespeare uses these images to help his audience understand these themes. We also better understand the characters through these images. To make this imaginary world seem real, Shakespeare makes use of words and phrases that appeal to the senses. These words and phrases, called images, help the audience mentally experience what the characters in Romeo and Juliet are actually experiencing.
How Do We Respond?
The brilliance of Shakespeare is in how he ties everything together, how one thing in Romeo and Juliet relates to something else. Shakespeare develops ideas beyond love and hate, but it is these two ideas of love and hate that point toward many of these other themes.
 Here is a list of other concepts Shakespeare develops in Romeo and Juliet, with some supporting passages to illustrate each. Notice how many of these concepts spring from love and hate, and point towards the destruction and death that conclude the play.
1. Images of sun, moon, and stars (related to images of light and dark)
- “Madam, an hour before the worshipped sun
Peered forth the golden window of the East,
A troubled mind drive me to walk abroad” (Benvolio, Act I.i.118-120)
- “It is the East, and Juliet is the sun!
Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon” (Juliet, Act II.ii.3, 4)
- “O, swear not by the moon, th'inconstant moon,
That monthly changes in her circled orb,
Lest that thy love prove likewise variable.” (Romeo, Act II.ii.109-111)
2. Family feuding
- “'Tis but thy name that is my enemy.
Thou art thyself, though not a Montague.” (Juliet, Act II.ii.38-39)
- “My name, dear saint, is hateful to myself,
Because it is an enemy to thee.” (Romeo, Act II.ii.56, 57)
3. Youth and age
- Now old desire doth in his deathbed lie,
And young affection gapes to be his heir.” (Prologue Act II.1, 2)
- “But old folks, many feign as they were dead - Unwieldy, slow, heavy and pale as lead.” (Juliet, Act II.v.16, 17)
- “These griefs, these woes, these sorrows make me old.” (Nurse, Act III.ii.89)
4. Princely or parental power
- “Rebellious subjects, enemies to peace”
“Throw your mistempered weapons to the ground
And hear the sentence of your movèd prince.” (Prince, Act I.i.81 & 87, 88)
- “Thy fault our law calls death. But the kind Prince,
Taking thy part, hath rushed aside the law,
And turned that black word 'death' to banishment” (Friar, Act III.iii.25-27)
- “Good father, I beseech you on my knees,
Hear me with patience but to speak a word.”
“Hang thee, young baggage! Disobedient wretch!
I tell thee what, - get thee to church o'Thursday,
”Or never after look me in the face” (Juliet & Capulet, Act III.v.158-162)
5. Love
- Is love a tender thing? It is too rough,
Too rude, too boisterous, and it pricks like thorn.” (Act I.i.81, 82)
- “Love, give me strength, and strength shall help afford.” (Juliet, Act IV.i.126)
6. Death
- “Alas! poor Romeo, he is already dead! - stabbed with a white wench's black eye; run through the ear with a love song; the very pin of his heart cleft with the blind bow-boy's butt-shaft. And is he a man to encounter Tybalt?” (Mercutio, Act II.iv.13-17)
- “Ha! let me see her. Out alas! she's cold,
Her blood is settled, and her joints are stiff.
Life and these lips have long been separated.
Death lies on her like an untimely frost”
“Death is my son-in-law. Death is my heir.
My daughter he hath wedded. I will die
And leave him all. Life, living, all is death's.” (Capulet, Act IV.v.25-28 & 38-40)
7. Civil disorder and violence
- “Boy, this shall not excuse the injuries
That thou hast done me. Therefore turn and draw.” (Tybalt, Act III.i.65, 66)
- “I am hurt.
A plague a'both houses! I am sped.
Is he gone and hath nothing?” (Mercutio, Act III.i.90-92)
The concepts of death and violence that permeate Romeo and Juliet are always connected to passion, whether that passion is love or hate. In the play, love leads as much to destruction as to happiness.
Themes of a play result from various elements explored throughout the entire work. Love at first sight and feuding families are two abstract topics. Through the action of Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare works to define and develop these topics into a concrete plot structure. From this action, the themes become apparent to the audience. Conversely, by understanding the themes of this play, the audience will better interpret the action of the plot.
We need to realize that by the end, though a terrible price was paid, there will begin a new day; that while “[a] glooming peace this morning with it brings” (Act V.iii.305), we are to “[g]o hence to have more talk of these sad things” (Act V.iii.307).
Journal Entry 5.3C: "Talk of These Sad Things"
If part of what a writer seeks to do is reveal some aspect of human nature to us, what do you think Shakespeare is trying to teach us through Romeo and Juliet? In the journal section of the assignmetn template, write a theme statement and explain why you chose it.
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Complete 5.3 Assignment: Shakespeare, Prince of Light in the assignment template.
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Summary
Completing this lesson has helped you to:
- consider important themes and images from Romeo and Juliet
- make informed judgments based on what you've read
Move to Lesson C: Module Project: Show 'em What You've Got.
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