The Power of Love in Romeo and Juliet

Renown writer William Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet has been considered the

most famous love story in the whole world. Love, other than fate, is the play’s most dominant

and important theme, as it tells the story of two young "star-crossed lovers" who fall in love

with each other through fate despite the fact that their families have had a long-lasting feud

against one another. Romeo and Juliet majorly focuses on their romantic love, specifically the

intense passion that springs up at first sight between the two, and unfortunately causes them to

take their own lives. Shakespeare illustrates that love is complex; it is a violent, ecstatic,

overpowering force that supersedes all other values, loyalties and practically all other emotions.

Although their love caused the two lovers their lives, Romeo and Juliet's love is so strong that it

makes the couple defy their personal relationships, question their emotions, as it fails to be

comprehended by themselves and causes their two families to forgive each other.

Romeo and Juliet's love is so strong that it causes them to literally disobey their families

own beliefs. That is to say that in the course of the play, the young lovers are driven to defy

their entire social world, like their families, just so they can be free to love each other. They

wish to deny their own names just for the sake of their love:

Deny thy father and refuse thy name

Or if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love,

And I’ll no longer be a Capulet

Romeo and Juliet are already defying their parents' wishes by falling in love with each

other, but when trials occur, they still are loyal to one another. In act IV, scene V, Juliet's father

tells Juliet that she is going to marry Paris the upcoming Thursday. Juliet, of course, is already

secretly married to Romeo and refuses. Lord Capulet threatens to disown her if she does not
comply. Shortly after, the Nurse attempts to convince Juliet into forgetting about Romeo and

marrying Paris. Juliet reacts terribly to this and cuts ties with her and seeks Friar Lawrence's help

for a way to reunite with her lover. This scene proves Juliet's love and loyalty to her beloved.

Another example is in act II, scene I when Romeo abandons Mercutio and Benvolio after the

feast in order to go to Juliet’s garden. Love is the overriding theme of the play, but a reader

should always remember that Shakespeare is uninterested in portraying a prettied-up, dainty

version of the emotion, the kind that bad poets write about, and whose bad poetry Romeo reads

while pining for Rosaline. Love in Romeo and Juliet is a brutal, powerful emotion that captures

individuals and catapults them against their world, and, at times, against themselves.

The powerful nature of love can be seen in the way it is described, or, more accurately, the

way descriptions of it so consistently fails to capture its entirety. The clarified definition is

pretty vague because it has been illustrated in so many ways. At times love is described in the

terms of religion, as in the fourteen lines when Romeo and Juliet first meet. At others, it is

described as a sort of magic:

Alike bewitchèd by the charm of looks

Although it seems that their love is more infatuation than real love, it clearly reflects their

emotions when they first noticed each other at the Capulet ball. Juliet, perhaps, most perfectly

describes her love for Romeo by refusing to describe it:

But my true love is grown to such excess

I cannot sum up some of half my wealth

Their love was so strong that it broke their own personal barriers. Romeo and Juliet truly

understood how grave the risk they were taking was, and they proudly did it anyway because

they believed and cherished the love that they had for one another. When struggles, like Romeo
killing Tybalt, arose that made them lose their control, they attempted to do as much as they

possibly could to persevere. They both took the largest leap of faith when they killed themselves

in order to be with each other through death, as their love would become immortalized. Love, in

other words, resists any single metaphor due to the fact that it is too powerful to be so easily

contained or understood.

Even though Romeo and Juliet died not being able to love each other openly, they were

able to end the vendetta between their families postmortem. In act V, scene III. When the

Capulets and Lord Montague arrive at the churchyard, the Prince blames their children's on

them, calling the tragedy a consequence of their feud. If there had not been a feud, there would

not have been a reason for Romeo and Juliet to keep their love a secret, and Friar Lawrence to

devise a plan. Nonetheless, the two decide to put aside their differences after losing their loved

ones, and they both promise to make golden statues of their children's likenesses. It's upsetting

to consider that the two could have been happy together if it wasn't for their families, and the

Capulets and Montagues were too late. Their death, fortunately, does not end in vain, as the

future for their families is now at peace.

Romeo and Juliet does not make a specific moral statement about the relationships

between love and society, religion, and family; rather, it portrays the chaos and passion of being

in love, combining images of love, violence, death, religion, and family in an impressionistic

rush leading to the play’s tragic conclusion. Romeo and Juliet's love betrays the trust of their

families and contradicts their duties to their families, but at least their tragic deaths give their

families the ability to reconcile. Although their love caused the two lovers their lives, Romeo

and Juliet's love is so strong that it makes the couple defy their personal relationships, question
their emotions, as it fails to be comprehended by themselves and causes their two families to

forgive each other.