Theme Of Dichotomy In Shakespeare's Romeo And Juliet '

Shakespeare 's 'Romeo and Juliet ', an amalgamation of both comedy and tragedy exposes both the harsh conflict and symbiosis of the engrained feud between Montagues and Capulets in 12th Century Verona. Through a compression of time, Shakespeare seeks to amplify both the dramatic urgency and desire, particularly experienced by Romeo and Juliet and acknowledge the importance of respecting our foes through the linguistic mirroring of the Montagues and Capulets and the intertwining of both comedy and tragedy, symbolic of the uncontrollable fate and melancholy conclusion to the play. The human construct of the dichotomy of enemy and ally, child and adult, love and war, and other Petrarchan images, “one fire burns out another’s anguish”, suggesting …show more content…
The concurrent conversations between Capulet and Paris, and Romeo and Benvolio in the streets of Verona provide a visualisation of equality between the two houses, yet both discourses serve as a turning point in Juliet’s future, which as a product of her time has little control over. The accidental nature of time furthers the fusing of comedy and tragedy; the initial coincidence of Romeo 's invitation to the Capulet 's party evokes the comedic elements of a passage of turmoil to clarity. Similarly, the ill timing of Juliet and Romeo 's alternating suicides is another product of accident in time yet with adverse results. Shakespeare has constructed forces of fate beyond the characters ' control, this tragedy of time, amplified by the fast pace of the narrative in which he rather positions us to question the ill effect of societal pressures, rather than constructing a narrative which serves to reprimand a certain human characteristic through fate. The internal obsession of time, such as Capulet’s consideration of Juliet’s age, “She hath not seen the change of fourteen years” and unfortunate butterfly effect of miscommunication more broadly transgressing the typical characteristic of Shakespearian tragedy in which a character is punished by fate for an undesirable …show more content…
Juliet’s womanhood is deemed to be a commodity, as indicated by Capulet’s mirroring of his daughter’s age to the practicalities of growing crops, “Let two more summer wither in their pride”. Concurrently, Romeo seeks to embody the anguished lover, employing religious allusions to describe the “fair” Rosaline, “the devout religion of mine eye… turns tears to fire” further fashioning a caricature of himself that he established the the preceding scene. However, the extent of Romeo’s ability to mature is illuminated in the parallels of Petrarchan imagery used in his speeches to Juliet, “I lent him eyes… vast shore washed with the furthest sea” 2.1, 381, suggesting a development of character contradictory to the timing of the play, yet further saturates the fantastical romantic spirit of the play. Constraint is similarly demonstrated in the language, Benvolio and Romeo’s rhyming couplet’s and the end of the scene suggests