The Concepts Of Love And Hate With Loyalty In "Romeo And Juliet"

Loyalty is a virtue that most people strive for as seen in the play, The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, which is about two feuding families, the Montagues and the Capulets. Romeo, a Montague and Juliet, a Capulet fall in love. Throughout the play, Romeo and Juliet’s unconditional love for each other shape the plot of the play by keeping their love and marriage a secret to most people. During the course of the pan, these two star-crossed lovers deaths end the ongoing fighting between their feuding families. In this text, loyalty can be defined as allegiance and devotion to someone. Loyalty should be the social norm most to blame in the catastrophe of the play, The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, because it is accountable for raising tensions in the loyalty between lovers and family. One of the most prominent types of loyalty in the play is loyalty to lovers. 

Juliet is seen as having a great quantity of loyalty to Romeo, “A cup closed in my true love’s hand? Poison, I see, hath been his timeless end. O churl, drunk all and left no friendly drop to help me after! I will kiss thy lips. Haply some poison yet doth hang on them,” (5.3.166-170). This quote takes place when Juliet wakes up 48 hours after she drank the potion that Friar Laurence gave her in order to fake her death. She wakes up expecting to see Romeo waiting for her so they can leave together. But instead, she finds Romeo laying next to her dead. After she makes the decision that her love and loyalty to Romeo is her precedence, she talks about wishing Romeo saved her some poison so she could be with him dead. This portrays a massive amount of loyalty to lovers because Juliet talks about killing herself because Romeo is dead. In the end, she decides to take Romeo's dagger and kills herself because a life without him is not worth living for. For the reason that the loyalty was powerful, the loyalty ended up being more harmful than helpful because both of them are killed in the end. In addition, Romeo is also willing to sacrifice everything for Juliet, “No matter. Get thee gone, and hire those horses. I’ll be with thee straight. Well, Juliet, I will lie with thee tonight,” (5.1.35-38). In this scene, Romeo gets terrible news from Baltazar about Juliet's death. Baltazar and Romeo do not know that Juliet is faking her death to be with Romeo. 

When Romeo perceives that he loves Juliet, his loyalty becomes divided. Consequently, Romeo decides seconds after getting the news about his one true loves death, that he will kill himself to be with her in heaven because of his devotion to her. Romeo will only stay loyal to his soulmate as proven in this quote because he is not thinking about other people like his friends and what they would say about this. Therefore, he has stronger loyalty with his love. This loyalty is harmful because Romeos death is on the line when he hears the message that Juliet is dead. Romeo cannot be sure that Juliet is dead until he sees her but he already starts to plan his death. The norm, loyalty to lovers can have a big impact in the play but, loyalty to family also has a big portion in the play. For instance, Tybalt protects his family at all costs when he sees the Montagues, “This, by his voice, should be a Montague. Fetch me my rapier boy. What dares the slave come hither covered with an antic face to fleer and scorn at our solemnity? Now by the stock and honor of my kin, to strike him dead I hold it not a sin, “ (1.5.61-67). This scene takes place in the Capulet party, that Romeo was not invited to formally. Tybalt hears the recognizable voice of a Montague and loses his mind. He hates the idea of having a Montague at the Capulet party, even if they are not causing any trouble because they were raised to hate each other. 

Tybalt's reaction of hearing a Montague shows a great degree of loyalty to his family because he was raised to hate them and he has rancor against the Montagues so he automatically tries to get permission to fight. Tybalt is unable hide his anger at Romeo's presence and states that he would kill him without any regret or sorrow. Due to the fact that Tybalt has the ease to say he would kill Romeo in a heartbeat, concludes that the loyalty that Tybalt has for his family is more harmful in this situation then helpful. Furthermore, Tybalts loyalty causes him to raise tensions by creating fights, “Tybalt, the reason that I have to love thee doth much excuse the appertaining rage to such a greeting. Villain am I none. Therefore farewell. I see thou knowest me not. Boy, this shall not excuse the injuries that thou hast done me. Therefore turn and draw,” (3.1.63-68). Before this quote, in the play, Tybalt stands down from Mercutio even though he always tries to provoke fights due to the arrival of his main target, Romeo. During this quote, Tybalt decides to try to pick a fight with Romeo as revenge for showing up at the Capulet party. Romeo tells Tybalt that he has a valid reason to love him and he would not like to fight. Romeo refuses to fight Tybalt because they are now related by the marriage of Romeo and Juliet but does not tell Tybalt. Tybalt says he will put his sword asid if he knows what the reason is but he never finds out. 

Tybalt's aggression gets the best of him in the situations that he creates a fight. In this quote, Tybalt implies that he is extremely loyal to his family, the Capulets because he shows up seeking revenge instead of letting the incident go. This highlights the devotion that Tybalt has to the Capulets but in the meantime he creates unnecessary fights. When Romeo refuses to fight, Tybalt kills Romeo’s best friend, Mercutio instead. Through Tybalt's excessive and uncalled-for loyalty, he kills Mercutio. The loyalty that Tybalt has for his family is too powerful that it ends up being more harmful than helpful. All things considered, we live in an age where many of us believe that loyalty is automatically an honorable quality. While this is to some extent true, proven in the play, this is not always true. Loyalty should be the social norm most to blame in the catastrophe of the play, The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, because it is responsible for raising tensions in the loyalty between lovers and family. Loyalty is an important, simple, and overlooked quality in which everyone should strive to give some of. It can be harmful if you give to much but it leads to many other virtues that are key to having a good life.