Juliet doesn’t need love, or Romeo, she needs a restraining order

BY KAHA G.

In English class, we read the play, Romeo and Juliet, and were asked to make a video, diorama, or poster on an act (basically the chapters) in the play of our choice. Then, we all had to write an analysis on our part of the play that we chose, and that is what I’ll be sharing with you this week, as well as what we can take away from this.

In the play, Romeo and Juliet, there is great significance in the themes in 2.6. To start, the dangers of rash action and not loving moderately are seen when Romeo and Juliet get married in secret, disobeying their lineage and ignoring Friar Lawrences’ warning. For example, Romeo expresses how he denounces the: “Love devouring death,” also known as fate, showing how he doesn’t care what the outcome is and that he only wants to call Juliet his own (2.6.7–8). Shortly after that, Friar Lawrence warns Romeo that he should “Love moderately,” and that, “The sweetest honey is loathsome in his own deliciousness,” (2.6.11–12,14).

Romeo and Juliet rush into marriage shortly after seeing each other at a party and learning that they are from opposite houses (Capulet and Montague). This is concerning, because not only does Romeo recognize their urgency and delusion to get married, but because he just got over his love for Rosaline. Friar Lawrence sees this so-called “passion” in Romeo and advises him to calm down and take his time when deciding who to marry.

This ties into the quote on how “The sweetest honey is loathsome in his own deliciousness,” (2.6.11–12). In my opinion, this means that in the same way honey can get tired of itself, Romeo can get tired of Juliet, and fall out of love the same way he did with Rosaline.

Furthermore, in 2.6, Shakespeare talks about how the themes of love and violence are interconnected. After Romeo expresses his deep love for Juliet, Friar Lawrence warns him that “These violent delights have violent ends,” (2.6.9). Friar Lawrence tells them how the focal point of their existence could lead to their end because they are way too passionate about their love. They don’t realize that love can be as blinding as being in a fit of rage, and that it makes people act irrationally.

This quote is foreshadowing upcoming events. Additionally, the fact that Mercutio dies in the next act and that everything starts going downhill from there proves his point. If Romeo took Friar Lawrence’s advice this whole tragedy could have been avoided. I love how Shakespeare thought of all of these factors (themes, morals) while writing these plays (if he even needed to).

In conclusion, these themes and the concept of foreshadowing show William Shakespeare’s true prestige, and how precise he was when writing plays.

Now what can we learn from this? We can learn to take the advice of people who genuinely care about us, not to fall in love so blindly, and how talented Shakespeare was. Now, if you have read the play, another very important thing we all know is that Juliet doesn’t need love, or Romeo, she needs a restraining order because how did Romeo just find her house like that and start calling out to her? Seems suspicious to me.