Spoiler
This is an essay on Romeo and Juliet. The prompt was to explain with examples whether violence begets more violence. This is due in two days so any critiques would be very much appreciated.
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A child watches as his friend falls, pushed down by the small hand of another. Anger swells inside and the child moves, walking across gleaming gravel to where the others fight. His hand shoots out to make the antagonist stop, shielding the broken child on the ground. Power, anger, rage, the need to seek revenge for what this bully has done all drive him as his fingers curl and make contact with the enemy’s skin. The human brain’s thirst for justice causes violence as retaliation for violence directed at them or some one else; some see it as the only way to fix things.
Shakespeare uses this often in Romeo and Juliet. With out violence the vague fighting of the elite families shows that violence does in fact cause more violence. The families’ children are fighting even thought they have no cause for it. They have no reason but that of their parents to hate each other and still they argue, show by Samson and Abram in Act One. They aren’t even apart of the families by blood and yet they defend the names of their masters.
The rivalries between the families cause animosity between the characters creating many examples of the Capulet and Montague’s trying to fight fire with fire. One great example is Mercutio’s death. Heated words of a Capulet cause fighting to break out between Tybalt and Mercutio. When word gets back to a heartbroken Romeo, he sees the only solution is to rid the world of his problem. He believes the way to stop the fighting is to kill the one who is provoking the strives. Tybalt’s death is derived directly from violence just pages before.
It could be said also that the violent end to Tybalt’s life causes the ends of both star-crossed lovers, Romeo and Juliet. Romeo is threatened by death by the police’s hand and Juliet is crushed to know that is in fact scheduled to marry Paris after her cousin’s horrible death. The violence is more subtle with the taking of their own lives but it was still caused by the fighting of the families and the unwillingness to stop the arguing. In turn Juliet’s “suicide” causes Paris’s death by Romeo’s hand. And it also causes Romeo’s suicide, which causes Juliet to really take her life.
Shakespeare takes violence to the extreme as he does with the themes in all of his plays. But the examples make it clear that fighting fire with fire will cause a fire that is so out of control it will burn everything in its path without hesitation. The tragedy of Romeo and Juliet is fed by human nature and confusion, by love and hate and still stands true today. In the words of Reverend William Sloane Coffin, Jr. “The cause of violence is not ignorance. It is self-interest. Only reverence can restrain violence—reverence for human life and the environment.”
