The Conflicting Forces

The Conflicting Forces

"Hate is not conquered by hate: hate is conquered by love. This is a law eternal."- Buddha. Both the Capulet and the Montague families' ascertain of the destructive nature of hate as they lose their only children to the feud. In Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, the use of dramatic foils, juxtaposition and oxymoron emphasize the opposite forces of love and hate.

Shakespeare uses dramatic foils to stress the opposite forces struggling in the play. The Capulet's have one daughter and they enjoy indulging their pugnacious nature in combat. In movies, the Capulets usually dress themselves with the color red. On the other hand, the Montague's have one son, and fight only when necessary. They adorn themselves with blue garments. Also, Tybalt and Benvolio act as dramatic foils. Tybalt, a member of the Capulet family, encompasses a short temper and holds the position of the best fighter in Verona. When Romeo and his friends crash the Capulet party, he quickly gets offended and wishes to start a fight. Benvolio, a Montague, does not believe in unnecessary fighting. When the two families clash in the beginning of the play, he steps in and tells them to stop. Furthermore, the star-crossed lovers, Romeo and Juliet, differ on many aspects. Romeo thinks with his heart which permits him to fall in love swiftly and commits suicide when he discovers of Juliet's death. Juliet thinks with her head, she discovers some way to please her dad after she refuses to marry Paris. Additionally, Juliet, in order to stay with Romeo, devises a plan. Finally, the Friar, his own dramatic foil, possess both a spiritual side which allows him to marry Romeo and Juliet and a scientific side for with which he attains to injured patients and composes a potion to help Juliet seem dead. As a result, the use of dramatic foils accents each characters struggle in the battle between love and hate.

Secondly, the dramatist utilizes juxtaposition to contrast love and hate. On the streets of Verona, the play commences with the Capulet and Montague boys colliding. In the end, Lord Capulet and Lord Montague wave their swords to show abhorrence towards each other. Subsequently, the next scene displays love, with Paris asking Lord Capulet for Juliet's hand in marriage and Romeo grousing about how Rosaline does not reciprocate his love. Also, the intense fight between Tybalt and Mercutio ends with the death of both competitors