Hate In Shakespeare's Romeo And Juliet

Romeo and Juliet is a tragic story of love set in Verona. At the start of the play, the audience see a prologue, which informs them that the story is going to end in tragedy. The play is filled with huge contrasts of emotions. At the start of the play we see a fight between the Montague's and the Capulet's filled with violence and hatred when the play is actually about love. This contrast between love and hate will become apparent as you go further through the play.

The play starts with the serving men and servants setting the tables. This is important as it gives an insight into the lower class point of view (groundlings) who would be standing watching the play. The speech made by cat the start of the play is very important as it sets
Tybalt however, uses cutting aggressive words full of hatred. He says ‘This, by his voice, should be a Montague which could tell us two things. Firstly, the Montague's and the Capulet's may have very different accents or it could also tell us that Tybalt hates the Montague's so much he can tell one just by the sound of their voice. Tybalt then says ‘Fetch me my rapier, boy' which emphasises the fact that Tybalt is a violent man and really despises anyone who is associated with the Capulets. Tybalt thinks that Romeo has come to mock the Capulet party but in in reality he has come for a very different reason. He then says ‘To strike him dead I hold it not a sin'. Shakespeare makes this very dramatic, as the audience do not know if another fight is going to break out between the two families, as they now know just how much of an aggressive person Tybalt is. This aggressiveness will almost certainly make the audience dislike Tybalt and immediately go on to Romeo's side. After this outbreak from Tybalt, Capulet responds calmly saying ‘Content thee, gentle coz. Let him alone. He bears him like a portly gentleman. This speech will calm the audience down as they will be uncertain as to how Capulet will react would react too a Montague being at there party but Capulet recognises Romeo as a dignified gentleman and is quite
Romeo starts by saying ‘Your hand is like a holy place that my hand is unworthy to visit'. This could suggest that Romeo maybe thinks that Juliet is too good for him but also the fact that he compares Juliet's hand to a holy place. The language used by Shakespeare in this scene brilliantly describes the deep passion that Romeo and Juliet have for one another. Romeo uses religion to persuade Juliet to kiss him after only a few sentences have been exchanged ‘O, then dear saint, let lips do what hands do, they pray, grant thou, less faith turn to despair indicating that if Juliet does not agree to kiss Romeo then she will be going against her duties as a saint. Romeo says that the love between him and Juliet is almost God like and in the olden days this could be viewed as a form of idolatry as Romeo sees Juliet as a person that he should worship and this was looked down upon back in the times when the play was set. When Romeo finally does kiss Juliet says that she has received the sin that Romeo has purged from himself and Romeo wittily replies that hem must take back the sin and kisses Juliet for a second time. In my opinion, I think that Romeo loves too easily as at the start of the day he was obsessed with Rosaline (who the audience never see) but once seeing Juliet compares Juliet to a Beautiful white dove standing amongst a flock of Crows (supposedly a common and ugly bird) and by