R+J Themes

Within Romeo and Juliet, you can find two types of bonding: Parental bonding and romantic bonding. Both of these types of bonds created by the main characters allow love to be protrayed in countless ways. One example of parental bonding is between Juliet and The Nurse. Their bond creates a love that only a child could feel with their parent, despite them not being related. This is becasue Juliets actual parents are very cold and distant, leving only her nurse to fill a large role. Their love also creates key moments within the play that span entire scenes, such as the Nure playfully withholding information from Juliet, and the Nurses crude jokes with Juliet.

The second type of bond is romantic bonding, which we only fully experience between Romeo and Juliet. This bond can come in many froms, but it is only presented as being childish and rushed. This is shown through their rushed marriage, and instant "love at first sight". These actions also show that actions have consequences, such as the final outcome of the play and the death of Tybalt and Mercutio.

Death is rampant throughout Romeo and Juliet, driving the plot, and eventually leading to a fateful outcome. Within the play we see at least half a doezen countable deaths, as well as many other deaths that could have happened during the mass brawl scenes.

Fate is also closely linked to death as a theme, as most of the deaths are blamed upon fate by many of the characters, rather than the behaviour of the characters, higlighting their immaturity and carelessness in situations. Death is also closely liked to comedy in the play, as Mercutios death marks the last piece of humor in the play.

Conflict is a mojr driving force of the plot in Romeo and Juliet, but there is more to it than fights and killing.

The main part of conflit is the fighting and harming of others. This is evident through the first scene of the play, in which we see Tybalt and others fighting in the tow square. The fight ends after the Prince decrees that the next person to instigate a fight shall be executed. He tries to fight violence with violence.

Conflict also sees the conflict of interest, especially in the Capulet household. This is shown through Juliets father and herslef fighting over her arranged marriage with Paris. She refuses, but Lord Capulet demands tat she does, or she will be left out on the street. This conflict is not violent, but it certainly a disagreement of some sort.

Families in Romeo and Juliet ae very strained not only to eachother but within the working of each house. The montagues are very distant to the heir of the fortune, Romeo. This results in him seeking advice from Friar Lawrence, a holy man in Verona. This means that he doesn't have many experiences with others, but he is allowed to wander the streets with his friends.

Juliets situation is even worse. Due to her being a girl, she is not allowed out fo the house for her own safety, apart from going to church, something that she abuses. She is also not very experienced with people, including her parents. THis leaver her with the nurse, someone who has raised her from when she was born. This lack of experience with people puts her in a worse situation than Romeo, despite the similarities of their upbringings.

Fate is the main force of Romeo and Juliet, something that many characters look for as a scapegoat in bad and good time, such as killings and falling in love. Fate can be counteracted through supestition and myth. This has been proven by Mercutio, and his Queen Mab speech, in which he says it is not fate that Romeo is in love, but the work of fairies.

Secrets and lies are also large driving forces of the play, whch work with fate in consealing the actual reasons that bad things are happining. These two themes capitalise on the characters arrogance. An example of this is the death of Mercutio and Tybalt being attributed to the secret marriage of Romeo and Juliet.