Love and Conflict Flashcards
Debunking Cultural Representations of Love
“O brawling love”, “O loving hate”
Romeo’s EXTENDED use of OXYMORONS when describing his unrequited love for Rosaline SHOWS love is a force that can also hurt and fight the very people that experience it
Prologue is a sonnet with language associated with BOTH conflict and love
Introduces this theme right at the start of the play to SYMBOLISE that you cannot have love without hate and this lay will show that
Romeo states that love is “muffled”(blind) yet sees its way to impose its will on lovers
METAPHORICAL PERSONIFICATION to show that love takes full control of its lovers by blinding them and imposing its own will- a malicious description of love
“a madness most discreet”
Romeo describes love this way as he is sad about Rosaline- Love is not really pure and innocent as it was represented in culture in Shakespeare’s time as well as today. FORESHADOWS the crazy things love will lead the lover’s to do.
“a madness…
…most discreet”
“Prodigious birth of love it is to me, that I must love a loathed enemy”
“prodigious” meaning?
Ominous and monstrous- Juliet’s love is monstrous as it is a hybrid of love and hate and an ANTITHESIS on its own. It is going to lead to dire consequences
It is ALSO going against everything she has been taught to believe and feel (She must hate Montagues)
Mercutio says of Romeo that he has been “run through the ear with a love song” and had his heart pierced by Cupid’s arrow
Portraying falling in love with violent imagery- Romeo and Juliet’s love is “prodigious”.
Romeo has been struck by Cupid but he has still been struck.-HIS LOVE WILL KILL HIM
How does Romeo struggle against maintaining bonds with his friends according to Elizabethan Standards and maintaining his love with Juliet?
His friendship/ homosocial upbringing leads Romeo to retaliate against Tybalt and although this is also a reflection of gender rules and the code of honour, it also shows how Romeo struggles between his former close bonds and his bond with Juliet
Romeo as at conflict with society?
And so?-
Romeo’s love for Juliet drives him at odds with both societal customs and the law itself. He ends up EXILED and seen as weak and NOT MASCULINE by his friends
AND SO?- Shakespeare is being dissident of societal rules and customs and showing how they were causing much harm to human relations like love
The theme of love is…
… ANTITHETICAL to the theme of violence.
“Thy beauty hath made me effeminate and in my temper(character), softened valour’s steel”
Romeo claims that his love for Juliet caused him to become soft which is why he refuses to fight Tybalt ultimately leading to Mercutio’s death- PORTRAYAL of how the love between Romeo and Juliet is attempting to rise up and against society, male expectations and the feud between their families. It is in CONFLICT with everything around it even the beliefs and attitudes in Romeo’s “temper” from young.
