How is conflict shown in Romeo and Juliet?

Romeo and Juliet is a Shakespearean play set in the Elizabethan times. It is about two star
crossed lovers meeting each other both from different households, Romeo Montague and
Juliet Capulet and they both suffer a tragic death that brings both their families closer
together.
Conflict is the main theme in Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet. Shakespeare shows the
theme of conflict by two fighting families and emotional tragedy between the two main
characters and many different ways. In the prologue it shows that they were taught to hate
each other as shown in this quotation, “Two households both alike in dignity… From ancient
grudge break to mutiny.” This shows that there were two families who have self-respect and
pride, then it goes on to show that there was ancient, meaning old, resentment between
the two families and it will turn into a fight. Shakespeare shows the theme of conflict when
he uses these words, "ancient grudge", ancient means old so it's been a long time since
they’ve been holding their grudges against each other. Grudge is resentment which is when
someone can't accept another person, so they don’t accept each other and that already
shows conflict when Shakespeare wrote "break to mutiny". Also in another line where it
says "Where civil hands make civil hands unclean." That shows that at some point, probably
the end, that there will be a physical fight which is conflict because translating that quote
into modern English is the blood of the citizens of Verona makes the hands of the citizens
both bloody and uncivilised; that is, not polite and possibly murderous. Obviously when a
person kills someone and blood goes everywhere that shows that there was signs of
physical conflict to cause the bleeding. Usually when a fight happens, a physical conflict,
people die so that also includes emotional conflict between the characters because other
members of the story suffer the death of their loved ones in the play and sometimes that
can cause emotional conflict due to the fact they can't deal with losing their child or
someone they loved.
The prologue tells the audience that there is a sick fated couple, Romeo and Juliet. He shows
the audience that by choosing these effective words, "star crossed lovers" which means
against the stars. In modern English that is translated as something that is not meant to be.
In Elizabethan times people thought that stars controlled people's destinies. The prologue
creates a sense of fate by telling the audience that Romeo and Juliet will die before the play
has started. Therefore, the audience will watch the play with the expectation that it must
fulfil what's in the prologue. The structure of the play shows the fate of Romeo and Juliet
that they cannot escape. In the prologue it was structured as a sonnet showing the love
between Romeo and Juliet however the words at the end of most lines, oxymoron,
contradicted that love making it seem that Romeo and Juliet as a couple wasn’t going to last
very long. Also Shakespeare uses iambic pentameter, a line consisting of a stressed word
and an unstressed word, to show how everything was simple at the start when they knew
that they should hate each other when pronouncing the unstressed word but after saying
the stressed word it shows how things got heavy weighted between Romeo and Juliet and
how stressing and complicated it was.
Shakespeare has written in his play "From forth the fatal lions of these two foes." Firstly, he
uses alliteration using the letter "F", this outlines the words to the audience because when
reading or hearing it you would focus on the alliteration because its repeated four times.
Secondly it creates a rhythmic pattern and fastens the pace of the prologue, the letter "F"
creates this particular connotation which is aggressiveness because the words that are being
used are harsh making them sound dissonant. "From forth" tells us that from a starting
point and something came forward into view, which creates suspense and makes the
audience focus on the "F" sound. The next "F" sound is "Fatal" which means deadly, that
already shows conflict because when someone dies people grief and have emotional conflict
because a human just suffered a loss and now they're grieving about it for example, when
Tybalt died in the play Juliet's mother had an emotional conflict because she has lost
something that was part of her. When Shakespeare wrote "Two foes", which means two
enemies, he has already introduced the theme of conflict into the play, this obviously shows
that foes is the definition of enemy and having an enemy causes conflict such as, internal
and physical but later on Shakespeare uses physical conflict to end the family feud. He
basically uses negative words to emphasize the conflict between the two households
physically and the conflict between Romeo and Juliet which is internally and emotionally.
Shakespeare also shows conflict using this quotation, "The fearful passage of their death
marked love". If we zoom in on the world fearful that can cause irrational behaviour which
causes conflict. Conflict is often driven by unfulfilled needs and the fears related to these
needs. When Shakespeare described Romeo and Juliet's love as "death marked love" the
audience intend to ask questions like "why is it death marked love?". It's ironic because
Shakespeare's play has a conflicted theme and questions like that can cause conflict with
the audience. He uses oxymoron to describe their love as a deadly that is targeted. Death is
a negative word because no one likes to see or hear that someone has died especially if they
are close to the victim because to a lot of people when someone dies it feels like they are
uncomfortable with their skin that they have lost their hearts forever. Which causes an
emotional reaction like dizziness and emptiness that shows emotional conflict because the
person doesn’t want to feel this way and wants to stop the bad sensation and that already
describes Romeo and Juliet's love, as a conflicted love.
In Act 1 Scene 1 there is a fight happening between Sampson and Gregory, Sampson bites
his thumb at Abraham, biting your thumb in the Elizabethan time in the modern days it's like
swearing at someone, and Abraham answers back saying, "Do you bite your thumb at us
sir?". Back in Shakespearean time biting your thumb at someone is like swearing in the
modern days. Obviously Abraham feels insulted by Sampson biting his thumb at him which
causes conflict. This shows to the audience that they are childish and immature because
they can't go without insulting each other. This action can cause physical conflict because
Abraham is being insulted by Sampson and wants to do something to prove that he isn’t
scared of Sampson and to prove the Capulet's are weak. The language presented by
Abraham is confident, shown as when he says for the second time "Do you bite your thumb
at us, sir?". Its confident because he asked the same question twice which means he wants
an answer and won't accept being insulted for no reason which shows confidence. Abraham
also shows intelligence when he asked his questions saying at the end "sir" showing he
doesn’t want to be responsible for that fight, if he shows his manners towards the Capulet's,
unlike Sampson towards the Montagues, Sampson would be the one responsible for the
fight. This can result in a future conflict that could have happened if they were caught by
their masters because their masters, Capulet and Montague, do not want any trouble from
each other's families because they have been warned by the prince if a fight happens in the
streets in Verona the people will be sentenced to death. This shows possible conflict
because both masters from both households don’t want trouble however if they get trouble
it will cause conflict between them and their servants. "do you bite your thumb at us, sir?" is
repeated by Abraham, Shakespeare shows repetition in his style of language to emphasize
Abraham's point and get the audience to focus on the conflict that is happening between
them.
Act 1 Scene 1, in the Prince's speech he compares both households to beasts when he says
"What, ho! You men, you beasts" he is implying that their hatred doesn’t seem to have any
rational cause. When comparing beasts to men there is a difference, beasts fight over
anything because they aren’t as intelligent as them humans to rationalise and find a solution
without violence. This shows that both households are conflicted like beasts and are
immature to find a solution by themselves. When the Prince is presenting his speech
Shakespeare uses direct reader address, for example, when the Prince said "You men" this
makes his speech sound more personal and it emphasizes to the audience that the prince
and the people of Verona are fed up with the conflict that has been happening on the
streets of Verona which is caused by the two households.
Romeo is dramatic when he spots blood from the recent street brawl because everything
near him revolves around hate and conflict and he just wants peace and love. The fight was
between the Capulet's and Montagues servants in Act 1 Scene 1. He dizzies himself by
relating the extremes of love and hate, this is shown when Romeo says "O brawling love! O
loving hate!". Shakespeare uses oxymoron to show the contradiction of both households.
This shows emotional conflict; Romeo is well known to the rivalry between the families and
saying that they love to hate each other, hate defined is to dislike something or someone
passionately, both households hate each other and they are showing mental conflict
because they’ve been surrounded by hate for generations. Hate can cause conflict because
when someone hates something they would want to get rid of it and that is how their
conflict is presented in the play, both households wants to get rid of the other to remove
the hatred that has been going on for generations.
In Act 3 Scene 1, Benvolio who seems to play the role of the peacekeeper in the play wisely
notes that a "brawl" will be inevitable if they meet up with the Capulets this is shown when
he says "The day is hot, the Capels abroad, and if we meet we shall not 'scape a brawl, for
now, these hot days, is the mad blood stirring". According to Benvolio violence is inflamed
by the summers heat. Shakespeare uses pathetic fallacy to show the emotion of the
situation through the description of the weather. Conflict is mostly associated with the
colour red, on hot heated days the sky is orange red colour, the colour of the sky is showing
the emotion of the heated conflict between the two families. Shakespeare uses metaphors
to exaggerate the situation when he wrote in of Benvolio's lines "mad blood stirring". When
days are hot your blood doesn’t go mad he uses the metaphors to emphasize. The choice of
word that Shakespeare uses also relates to conflict which is "mad". When someone is mad
they are not thinking clearly and act on what they are thinking at first, in that case
Shakespeare makes some characters kill other characters based on their anger towards
them.
The audience sees the consequences of Tybalt having felt insulted by Romeo in Act 3 Scene
1. Shakespeare uses dialogue to clearly portray the conflict this can be seen in Romeo's lines
when he declares to Tybalt, "I do protest I never injur'd thee, but love thee better than thou
cast devise, till thou shalt the reason of my love." These lines show how much Romeo is
caught up with the circumstances. He was just fallen in love and married to Juliet, but her
family, like her cousin Tybalt, hates him merely because he is a Montague. Romeo tries to
walk away from the fight but Tybalt feels so insulted by Romeo that he wants justice for
that. Furthermore, Mercutio makes things worse when taunting Tybalt resulting in his own
death as well as Tybalt's, and eventually Romeo's. However, Tybalt had no genuine reason
to hate or to feel insulted by Romeo other than that their two families are feuding for
generations. Therefore, this fight with Tybalt perfectly portrays Romeo's character of
conflict.
In Act 3, Scene 1, Mercutio attempts to anger Tybalt with several insulting remarks such as
'rat-catcher'. Mercutio mocks the coincidence that 'Tybalt' was the popular name for a cat in
the sixteenth century and shows Mercutio's intelligent humour. Mercutio's play on Tybalt's
name continues later in Act III, scene 1 when Mercutio says, 'Good King of Cats, I just
want/one of your nine lives!' Nevertheless, Shakespeare also portrays Mercutio as a violent
character, such as in Act 3, Scene 1 when Mercutio challenges Tybalt to a fight: 'Will you
pluck your sword out of his Pilcher by the ears? Make haste, lest mine be about your ears
ere it be out'. Clearly there is conflict between Mercutio and Tybalt and following Mercutio's
insulting remarks and provocative comments in Act 3, Scene 1, Tybalt kills Mercutio.
The conflict between both families was not just that it also happened between Capulet and
his daughter Juliet. Capulet is mad at Juliet because of her actions. During those times of
Capulet's anger, he expressed it towards Juliet and her mother. In this quotation " My
fingers itch", this action shows anger because normally people when angry clench their fists
to control their anger but here Capulet is showing his anger through his fingers when he
itches them. This quote shows Capulet trying to control his anger towards Juliet. Another
quote Capulet says to his wife is "Wife, we scare thought blest". The fact that Capulet uses
the term "blest" in past tense shows doubt and regret because when people feel regret they
use their words in past tense to show that they wish that they have never have done that.
Also people with regrets like Capulet, would want to talk about their feelings to someone
close to them to make them feel better like Capulet talking to his wife about Juliet. Capulet
afterwards says "That god had lent us but this only child". Capulet thinks that he controls
Juliet because in the Elizabethan time it was normal for them, the fathers', to control their
daughters and tell them what to do. Capulet thinks that he controls Juliet, but when Juliet
acts by herself Capulet starts to get mad because that was not normal in his point of view.
Obviously the audience will respond the same as Capulet because it was considered
disrespect to the parent. The audience would be in shock and think that Juliet is being rude,
the reason Shakespeare did this is to show to the parents watching that their daughters
want to marry who they want to marry also to relate to the parent to having complicated
problems with a teenager.
Similarly, Capulet thinks Juliet is a curse when he says "And that we have a curse in having
her". When Capulet compares his daughter to a curse he thinks Juliet brought shame and
dishonour to his family name by rebelling against his wishes. A curses definition is
something that is harmful and causes unhappiness. Basically Capulet sees Juliet as at the
family and he blames her for his anger. Last but not least Capulet says "out on her hiding!".
Translated its, away with you worthless creature. Capulet finds his daughters behaviour
truly appalling and uses it as an insult to show how disgraceful he finds her rebellion. This
shows conflict because Juliet has emotional conflicts with herself about being insulted for
her naïve personality and her choice of marrying Romeo.
Overall Shakespeare uses semantic field to express the theme of conflict as well as a wide
range of types of conflict like mental conflict and physical conflict. Conflict is also used to
relate to the audience. Everyone in their lives should have had a conflict before. He uses
that theme to relate to the audience and to create suspense and tension which makes the
audience more sucked into the story.