Of Romeo and Juliet

anfernee simon According to Duff Brenna, “All literature shows us the power of emotion. It is emotion, not reason, which motivates characters in literature.” This is demonstrated in The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet and Of Mice and Men. Human beings are often driven by their emotions or passions. Sometimes their actions defy sound reason or judgment. However, due to the emotions that the individuals might be experiencing at that time, their initial response is usually impulsive. I agree Duff Brenna in her assessment of how characters in literature are motivated by their raging emotions and not by reason, common sense or wisdom. One cannot merely act upon how they feel, especially if those emotions are negatives. Negatives emotions, if acted upon, will lead to negative actions; whereas positive emotions will leads to positive actions. In the play, Romeo and Juliet, The Capulet’s and The Montegue’s hated each other’s families. The literary term I used to best describe the story is irony. The irony in the story was that the two families were feuding and the two cross lovers fell in love. The main character in the story that relates to my interpretation of the quote by Brenna is Romeo. Romeo was a teenaged Capulet. He was tall with dark brown eyes. Romeo killed other people and bought poison to kill his self afterwards. For an example, Tybalt was Juliet’s cousin. Romeo and Tybalt were never in agreement with anything. When Romeo tried to be nice to Tybalt, Tybalt got aggressive and attacked him. That behavior resulted in Romeo’s killing of Tybalt. There are many themes that are represented in the story Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck. The theme that I will focus on is idealism. The two main characters of this novel, George and Lennie, always dreamed on having a dream farm. Lennie loved to play with any animal that had soft hair. The story consisted of mice, rabbits and a dog. That dream that they had doesn’t get fulfilled because George killed Lennie. George killed Lennie because Lennie had a mental disorder. It was George’s responsibility to take care of him. Lennie was just too much for George to handle, so George had no choice to kill him. Everybody in the story realized that the two men weren’t going anywhere in life. For an example, Crook expresses his doubt about the dream. Nobody ever gets into heaven and nobody gets any land. Crook is simply referring not only to literal ownership, but the dream of contentment about what these simple men fantasize. John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men revealed the dreams as well as the pains that these two men experienced in their lives. The actions of the characters in The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet and Of Mice and Men were motivated by their emotions and not by reason. Duff Brenna is accurate in her statement that “All literature shows us the power of emotion. It is emotion, not reason, which motivates characters in literature.” Romeo in Romeo and Juliet and George in Of Mice and Men both committed actions based upon the negative emotions that they were experiencing. Had they given much thought to the emotions that they were feeling; and had they applied sound reason, I am convinced that their actions would have been different and so would the overall stories of the books.