If enmity is not settled amicably, there is no end to it.

Essay Question number 5

“Romeo and Juliet”, written by William Shakespeare, was always seen as a story of “forbidden love”. As Shakespeare tells the readers in the prologue, there are “two households, both alike in dignity” and they both held “ancient grudge” towards each other. The background of the setting of the two households already forebodes the hardship of this love, and as the full plot gradually unfolds, the feud between the two families is proofed to be the chief culprit of this tragedy. If there isn’t a feud of both families, there will be no need for the couple to hide their love and marriage, and more importantly, there won’t be so many unfortunate incidents led by the feud.

Interestingly, the feud is represented in the first scene, right after the prologue. of the play where Sampson and Gregory ,who belong to the house of Capulet, instigate Abram and Balthasarto to fight against them simply because both of them cannot bear the sight of the people in the House of Montague. After that, the entrenched hatred was revealed to be more dangerous. During the party, Tybalt already shows his bias and enmity when he uses “this is a Montague, our foe, a villain that is hither come in spite to scorn at our solemnity this night” to describe Romeo. After his plan of expelling Romeo from the party is refuted by Capulet, Tybalt holds the grudge and self-talks “Now seeming sweet, convert to bitt’rest gall”. Although the tension and violence seem to be minor at the time, that line of self-talk actually foreshadows the greater consequence due to that small unpleasure.  

Mishap always pays an unexpected visit. When both Juliet and Romeo is immersing in felicity in which they successfully marry each other and  unite together, Tybalt decides to find Romeo and get his revenge for the shame he got from Romeo. Tragedy happens when Tybalt finds Romeo. Due to the long-holding feud, when Romeo is saying words like “I have to love thee” to Tybalt, Tybalt thinks Romeo is teasing him. Dramatically, after that, Mercutio replaces Romeo to duel with Tybalt and finally gets killed under Romeo’s arm. Romeo, outraged by the death of his best friend, slays Tybalt. The feud between two family becomes increasingly fierce after the death of Tybalt. Both lady Capulet and Capulet, distrust the word of Benvolio because “he is a kinsman to the Montague, affection makes him false”, insist to let Romeo get severe punishment and Romeo is eventually banished from the city. The final result for that abhorrence, as we all know, turns out to lead to death of the couple and the regrets of both the family.

People, not only those in Shakespeare’s play, can easily be blinded by hatred. The accumulation of lack of civility could likely produce misconception and even violence in the society. Without the feud in the play. for example, Tybalt would not feel disgraced by the appearance of Romeo and Romeo and Juliet would have lived happily ever after their marriage. Therefore, it is better to get rid of an enmity than keep it alive.