Loyalty And Devotion In Shakespeare's Romeo And Juliet

Shakespeare seems to believe that extreme loyalty causes people to act rashly as shown by Mercutio fighting against Tybalt for Romeo, and Romeo and Juliet’s suicides.

Loyalty plays a big part in Romeo and Juliet. Ties of loyalty are woven throughout the play, binding certain characters together. The main theme is the feuding families of Romeo and Juliet that holds an “ancient grudge” against each other: the Montague’s and the Capulet’s. Romeo’s family and friends despise Juliet’s family, the Capulet’s, and as the play progresses you will find them defending each other in the face of an enemy. Romeo and Juliet have to defy their parent’s expressive wish not to see each other, and accept the consequences of their forbidden love. They question the fact that there’s no solid fact that the two family’s hate each other: merely time has blown the feuding out of proportion.

Secondly, the ‘ancient grudge’ between the two household is an aspect of fate that can be deemed responsible for the lovers’ deaths. Shakespeare describes the feud between the Montagues and Capulets as ancient, meaning it has been going on for a very long time. Consequently, there were ongoing brawls occurring in the streets of Verona and as a result of this feud many characters are driven to extreme behaviours, including Tybalt and Mercutio. If this ancient grudge had not existed then there would be no reason for them to have a duel, however, as it did exist they had no other choice. Tybalt is furious that Romeo, a Montague, had come into the Capulet household and wanted to take action. He decided to duel with Romeo but as he didn’t want to Mercutio accepted the offer. This specific duel between Tybalt and Mercutio was the undoing of the lovers’ lives. After Tybalt had killed Mercutio, Romeo felt pity and sought revenge and ended up killing Tybalt

Loyalty is the quality of showing constant and complete support to one another. It is about the people who stay behind your back like family and friends you can trust. Similarly, the play Romeo and Juliet written by William Shakespeare shows a great deal of loyalty by Juliet, Friar Lawrence and Romeo. Loyalty and disloyalty is shown by Juliet whom betray loyalty to her parents by loving the son of their enemy, Friar Lawrence whom stays loyal to his friendship with Romeo by helping them hide the relationship and risking his life and Romeo posterior the death of Mercutio.

Romeo was a Montague and Juliet was a Capulet and the families’ feud meant that the two could never be together. This is shown in this quote, “My only love sprung from my only hate! / Too early seen unknown, and known too late!’ (5.3.295-299). In this scene, Juliet complains about Romeo being a Montague. She wishes that he wasn’t so that they could freely be together. Also, both families and their servants would always pick fights on the streets of Verona. One of these fights would result in Romeo being banished from Verona. In a scene of the play, Tybalt, Juliet’s cousin decides to pick a fight with Romeo and his friend Mercutio in the middle of the street. Romeo tries to stop the fight because he is now related to Tybalt through his marriage to Juliet. This is shown in the following quote where Romeo tries to keep the peace, “Draw Benvolio, beat down their weapons. / Gentlemen, for shame! / ... / Forbid this bandying in Verona’s streets” (3.1.381-384), but no one listens to him and Tybalt ends up killing Mercutio. Romeo has no choice but to kill Tybalt for revenge which leads to the Prince banishing Romeo. Without the feud, Romeo and Juliet would not have had to keep their love a secret and, the fight that resulted in Romeo’s banishment would never have happened. This is why the feud between the Capulets and the Montagues is responsible for Romeo

Romeo’s hate towards Tybalt for killing Mercutio leads him to make irrational decisions. He is so blinded by hate, that he kills Tybalt. Up until Mercutio’s murder, Romeo loves Tybalt for his relation to Juliet. This can be seen when Romeo says “ but love thee better than thou canst devise till thou shalt know the reason of my love;”(3.1.65-66). The murder of Tybalt prompts Prince Escalus to sentence Romeo with banishment to Mantua where he learns of the so-called “death” of his Juliet. This news urges Romeo to visit the nearest chemist to ask for a vial of poison that will “disperse itself through all the veins”(5.1.65). The hasty decision to use this poison as a means of death stems from the unknown hate between the two families as well as the death of Mercutio and Juliet. Juliet had no other option than to turn to the sleeping poison, for fear that if she didn’t take the potion, she would have to marry Count Paris. Lord Capulet threatened to disown Juliet if she refused to marry Count Paris, as her parents had wished. Romeo and Juliet’s hate for the feud between their families is what prompts them to end their

Although the classic Shakespearean tragedy Romeo and Juliet depicts love at first sight between the two titular protagonists, such is not truly attainable in its entirety. Mainly, this is due to the nature of true love, which requires more than what can be obtained upon first sight, or even over the course of a few days, as in the case of Romeo and Juliet, where it is illustrated that the protagonists are so deeply in love with each other that they consider their romance to be of a higher priority than their own lives; that they had been willing to sacrifice themselves for their lover. In addition, love often segues

In order to be loyal to yourself, one may have to sacrifice relationships in the process. In the play, Romeo and Juliet, by William Shakespeare, Conveys the story of Young teens, Romeo and Juliet from rival families who fall in love with each other and suffer a hard decision whether to be loyal to their family or themselves. Shakespeare shows Romeo with his one-sided love for Rosaline, resulting in him heartbroken and depressed to being lovestruck about Juliet and Juliet being obedient and reserved to being flirtatious when meeting Romeo. The development of these characters and the love Romeo and Juliet have for each other refines the central idea that loyalty to yourself is more important than loyalty to family.

Loyalty, classified as a virtue, heavily influences the true character within a person. In Romeo and Juliet and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, each character faces a choice. For Romeo, Juliet, and Sir Gawain their pledge of loyalty ultimately effectuates their fate. The choice for Romeo and Juliet lied between each other and their families. For Gawain the choice lands between himself and his duties. In Romeo and Juliet and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the true identity of an individual stems from their entirety of choices not one individual choice.

Romeo’s perseverance of civility and vengeance of Mercutio’s death also illustrate that good intentions do not always lead to good consequences. Immediately following Romeo's marriage to Juliet, Romeo is approached in the streets by the belligerent Tybalt. When Tybalt and Mercutio begin to fight, Romeo tries to maintain the peace by positioning himself between the two. Inadvertently, he obscures Mercutio's field of view, preventing Mercutio from defending Tybalt's blow. Mercutio accuses Romeo of single-handedly causing his downfall, to which Romeo replies, "I thought all for the best" (III. i. 100). Guilt-stricken, Romeo avenges his friend's death by discarding his clemency and slaying Tybalt in a moment of uncontrolled anger. This results in a multitude of adverse effects: Romeo's banishment from Verona, Juliet's arranged marriage to Paris, and Lady Montague's death. Romeo's attempt to keep the peace and the revenge he seeks on

Shakespeare uses the Capulet’s friends and family to convey that sudden, young love is a possible cause of unfavorable outcomes. After Tybalt slays Mercutio, he returns to Romeo, where he is so enraged about his friends death that he kills Tybalt himself. Being part of the Capulet family, everyone is mourning over their beloved cousins death. Lady Capulet is especially upset, as she whines, “‘O, the blood is spilled / Of my dear kinsman! Prince, as thou art true, / For blood of ours, shed blood of Montague’” (Shakespeare 3.1.115-117). She says that the “blood is spilled”, and that because of that, the “Montagues” need to “shed blood” too. Tybalt got slain because he initially found Romeo at a Capulet party, due to Juliet being an attendant there also. This infuriated Tybalt, leading to him to challenge Romeo to a duel, the very duel that cost Tybalt his life. Tybalt was a loved cousin of the Capulet family, therefore causing them much sorrow. This sorrow and negativity is caused by Romeo and Juliet's relationship, as Tybalt wouldn't of been dead, and his family wouldn't of been in grief if it weren't for Romeo and Juliet being “star crossed” lovers. Later on, after the tragic death of Tybalt and Mercutio, Lord capulet sets up Juliet to marry Paris. But, to his surprise, Juliet declines his offer due to her love for Romeo. Lord Capulet becomes incensed and screams, “‘And you be not, hang, beg, starve, die in the streets, / For by my soul, I'll never acknowledge thee, / Nor what is mine shall never do thee good”’ (Shakespeare 3.5.204-206). He says that he wishes for her to “die in the streets” and that he will “never acknowledge” her. Lord Capulet's words greatly affect Juliet, but even more himself. He is distraught he has to be so cruel to her, but meanwhile his veins are flooded with fury as she refused to take part in being married to Paris, therefore she is cursed to “die in the streets”. If Romeo were to never steal her love, Juliet may of been married to Paris, and everyone could have continued their lives as accustomed. Nonetheless, the two young

As a friend of Romeo’s, Mercutio supports the Montague’s in the ancient feud. An example of Mercutio defending the Montague’s is when Tybalt, a member of the loathed Capulet family, abuses Romeo and Mercutio intervenes on Romeo’s behalf. Attempting to restore peace, Romeo gets between the two combatants and Mercutio “hath got his mortal hurt” (Page 149; Act 3, Scene 1) on Romeo’s account. In spite of his “life shall pay the forfeit of peace” (page 17; Act 1, Scene 1), Romeo seeks revenge on Tybalt as he loves his murdered friend. As Romeo kills Tybalt out of love for Mercutio, Shakespeare suggests that love conquered the thought of being penalized with death.

Once love is found, any obstacle presented will neither diminish nor terminate that love, even when tragedy strikes with the loss of a loved one. Tybalt, the cousin of Juliet is one of the Capulet’s that despises the Montague’s and he will do anything in his power to kill them all, and once he confronted Romeo, he met his fate and died by Romeo’s sword. The Prince arrived to the scene and said “Romeo slew him, he slew Mercutio” (III.i.181), him referring to Tybalt, and once realized, he banished Romeo out of the city. Once Juliet discovered the truth about Tybalt’s death and Romeo’s banishment she said in grief “Romeo is banished- to speak that word is father, mother, Tybalt, Romeo, Juliet, all slain, all dead- Romeo is banished” (III.ii.122-124). Her heartache for Romeo’s banishment more than her cousin Tybalt’s death shows that he is her life, her world, and her breath, and without him she would be nothing and life as she knows is would end, even through tragedy and anguish.

Romeo struggles between his dedication to love and his dedication to honor throughout Romeo and Juliet as well as staying true to his family's side in the feud. Although in the beginning Romeo seemed to only "falls in love" with girls because of their looks, but, after being with Juliet, Romeo showed readers that with her it was more than just her beauty that he was in love with. Along with Romeo made sure to stick with Juliet all the way through until he found out that Juliet died and not fighting Tybalt because they were related after Romeo got married to Juliet until after he had good reason to fight. Romeo disregards the families feud after he finds out that Juliet is a capulet and even goes as far as trying to mend the families feud by

Romeo is faced with similar oppositions as Juliet. His family, being sworn enemies to the Capulets, are kept in the dark about his romance with Juliet. Also, when the Capulets begin to perceive of the close relationship between Romeo and Juliet, it makes him a greater target to Capulet men such as Tybalt. There is no doubt as to Romeo’s faithfulness towards Juliet and his desire to do all that is needed in order to have her love, but because of his lack of experience in life, Romeo is not at all faultless. Perhaps the most notable act that sabotaged his relationship with Juliet was his slaying of Tybalt. However honorable and necessary it may have seemed to him at the time, Romeo’s rashness once again rears its ugly head after Mercutio foolishly brings about his own demise. Of course, Romeo immediately regrets his impetuous actions after the grave mistake had already been done as he does many times throughout the story.