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SCMP Reporter

What does it feel like when you fall in love for the first time? What does it feel like when you fall in love with someone whom your parents do not like?

This play answers these questions. It is a play that appeals directly toteenagers because it is about the kind of emotions that you feel.

Romeo is from the Montague family, and Juliet from a family called the Capulets. The two families are nobles, or members of the upper classes, of the city of Verona and are always fighting and  arguing. The families hate one another. At the start of the play, Romeo is in love with a girl

called Rosaline. However, as soon as he sets eyes on Juliet, he falls passionately in love with her, and she with him. It is love at first sight.

What do we learn about Romeo and Juliet's love for one another?

Love makes them happy

At the start of the play, Romeo's friends and family think that he is ill. He wants to be on his own. He is sad. He has no energy. He  thinks he is in love with Rosaline, but she is not in love with him, so  love does not make him happy.

This contrasts with Romeo's emotions when he first meets Juliet, when he goes in disguise to a party at her house.  Although their speech is full of pure and holy imagery, such as the references to saints and prayers, it is clear from their easy conversation that they are in fact flirting. When he then sees her on the balcony outside her bedroom and goes to meet her, they are both full of happiness and laughter. This is true love. They both feel love for the other, and they are happy as a result.

Read the conversations between Romeo and Juliet  during their first two meetings. How can you tell that they are happy? What do they talk about? What images and words do they use that show they are happy?

Love makes Romeo a peacemaker

Romeo has fallen in love with  a family member of his own family's worst enemy. One of the effects of love on Romeo is that he wants everyone else to be as happy as he is. He can no longer understand why the two families should hate and fight one another.

His best friend Mercutio picks a fight with a Capulet called Tybalt. Romeo comes between them to try and stop the fight, and because he is in the way, Mercutio cannot see Tybalt's sword and is killed. Romeo's attempts to make everyone feel love  in the same way that he does ironically cause more hate and bitterness.

Have you ever tried to bring peace and love to friends who hate one another? How did you do it? What was the outcome?

What do you think Romeo should have done when he realised he loved the daughter of his family's enemy?

Romeo and Juliet die for their love

Romeo kills Tybalt in revenge for the death of Mercutio. He is banished from Verona. He spends a last night with Juliet, and the beauty of the language and imagery as the dawn breaks shows the beauty of their love for one another.

The Friar  comes up with a plan that will bring the two young lovers back together again, but it goes wrong. Juliet takes a huge risk in  drinking a potion that makes it seem as if she is dead. It is a sign of her love for Romeo that she is prepared to take such a big risk for him. The tomb where she is laid is deliberately described as a horrible place so that we realise the strength of her love for him, and what she is prepared to suffer for that love.  However, the plan goes terribly wrong. The message  that she is only pretending to be dead does not get through to Romeo and they both die as a result.

Look at all the words that Romeo and Juliet use to describe one another when they are in the tomb. What do the words tell you about their feelings?

How could their deaths have been avoided?

Conclusion

We call the story of the love of Romeo and Juliet tragic. By this, we mean that it is terrible that their love should have resulted in their death; we feel a great sense of waste, in that the lives of two young people should end so early. We feel that these deaths could easily have been avoided.

Yet their deaths bring peace to the warring families in Verona who are shocked into realising the stupidity of their arguments. Despite the tragic ending for the two main characters, we also feel inspired and uplifted by the thought that feelings can be so powerful that people will die for them. In short, the play reminds us of the power of love and makes us glad that human beings are capable of such strong, positive feelings for one another.



Doomed lovers in Shakespeare's famous work