Love Will Prevail: Romeo and Juliet

Romeo and Juliet, written by the one and only William Shakespeare, is widely considered one of the greatest love stories of all time. The play centers around Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet, children of two different families, who meet each other at a party and fall in love, despite the fact that the families that they come from have been in a bitter rivalry for many decades. They soon figure out that they come from these different families, but even despite this, they go against what their families have always believed and profess their love for each other. The theme that William Shakespeare is trying to get across is that love conquers all; even in the worst circumstances possible for two people to fall in love, they fall in love anyway, and are willing to do anything for each other in order to stay together. Romeo and Juliet couldn’t care less that they come from different families; they still want to be together and promise to love each other until the very end. This theme of “love conquers all” is prevalent throughout the entire play, showing the lengths that two people are willing to go through to stay together, how even two incredibly different people that should be bitter rivals can love each other for eternity, and how said love could even end a long-time rivalry between two families when the families realize that they cared not about the fact that they came from two different families, but about being together until the very end.

Throughout the play, the characters of Romeo and Juliet show that they will do anything to be with each other, and ultimately care more about their partner than themselves and even their own lives. Throughout the first and second acts, Romeo and Juliet find time to secretly converse about their love for each other, and always try to find time to see each other again. However, when Romeo kills Juliet’s cousin, Tybalt, he is banished from his homeland of Verona by the prince of the town, and Juliet is due to marry Paris, a kinsman to the prince. However, after conversing with the local friar, Lawrence, they come up with a plan for Juliet to drink a potion that will make her “stiff and stark and cold, [and] appear like death. (4.1.103)” Juliet drinks the potion, and Balthasar, a friend of Romeo, is sent to tell him the grave news; however, the letter written by the friar to explain the plan to him is not received, so Romeo, devastated by this news of his beloved’s “death,” travels back to Verona and kills himself. Juliet sees her loved one’s body and, desperate to stay with him for eternity, kills herself, too. The theme of love conquers all is represented by showing that when two people are madly in love with each other, in this case Romeo and Juliet, they are willing to do anything, even sacrifice themselves, to be with that person and/or to keep that person alive. Love triumphs, and when it does, two people will do whatever they can to keep it that way.

The story of the play centers around two children of two rivalling families falling in love with each other despite all odds, and despite the fact that they come from these two separate families. The night after the party, Romeo goes to see Juliet on her balcony, and they both confess their love for each other. Juliet, knowing that Romeo is a Montague, asks why he has to be a Montague, and he replies that it’s not someone’s name that matters, it’s the person themself that matters more. He gives the example of a rose, saying “That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet. (2.2.43/44)” They acknowledge the fact that they come from two incredibly different families who have detested each other for many long years, but even though they hate that fact, they don’t care, and they fall in love with each other anyway. The theme of love conquers all is shown here by demonstrating that members of two completely different and polarizing families, even families that have hated each other for years, can still fall in love. Romeo and Juliet don’t care about their supposed rivalry; they push all of that aside and confess their love, caring for each other more than anything else.

The love that blossoms between the central characters eventually culminates in the end of the long-standing rivalry between the two families, as they realize that their children were able to put aside their differences and become a couple, even though their families are so incredibly different. They realize this when they find the bodies of the newly dead Romeo and Juliet, who have both just committed suicide to be with each other. The family starts to realize that their bitter rivalry has been pointless, and Montague decides to “raise her (Juliet’s) statue in pure gold (5.3.299)” to commemorate their sacrifice for each other and end their long and tiring feud. The theme of love conquers all shows that through Romeo and Juliet’s love, they are able to bring an end to a bitter rivalry between two families by showing that despite the worst possible circumstances, they can still get along and even grow to love each other. Knowing that Romeo and Juliet were willing to do anything for each other, they realize that two families who have always detested each other can, in fact, learn to get along with each other.

Romeo and Juliet’s love truly shows that love conquers all, showing that they are willing to die for one another, that they are willing to ignore the fact that they come from completely different families, and that they are even able to end the rivalry between their families because their love is so powerful. Romeo and Juliet kill themselves in order to stay together, they pretend that they don’t come from two completely different families in order to stay together and even get married, and their powerful love makes their families realize that they don’t have to always disagree with each other. In the actual play of Romeo and Juliet, nothing really happens, except basically a day long relationship that culminates in the death of both of the main characters. In that light, the play can get rather boring when you realize that the play doesn’t have all that much substance to it. However, even if the play isn’t that amazing, the message behind it is an incredibly powerful and moving message that is still relevant today. Romeo and Juliet may not have all that much to it, but the “love conquers all” message demonstrated in the play truly shows why it is considered one of the greatest love stories of all time.