Old Vs Young – Tragedy Essay, Research Paper
The older generation of people in the play can be contrasted with the two young lovers. The lovers portray themselves as rash and impulsive who are filled deeply with emotions. Their elders, on the other hand, have experienced more in life and are probably wiser, thus they see things from a different angle. This leads to the elders not understanding the feelings of Romeo and Juliet, hence causing conflicts, misunderstandings and pain to arise. The older generation in this play refer to Romeo and Juliet’s parents, the Nurse and Friar Lawrence.
I do agree that the older generation did play a major role in their children’s destiny through their foolishness and good intentions, but not all blame is credited to them because Romeo and Juliet did contribute to their own tragedy. Fate also ‘thwarted our intents’.
Montague and his wife show themselves to be caring and loving parents. After the fight on the streets of Verona, Benvolio is conversing with Montague and his wife about Romeo. Lady Montague knows her son has been troubled lately so she is glad ‘he was not at this fray’. Montague has observed his son’s distress, ‘deep sighs’, ‘heavy son’ and wants to relieve his despair, ‘as willingly give cure as know’. From here, we can detect the good intentions of Romeo’s parents, thus we know that whatever choice Romeo makes, they would have rendered their utmost support to him.
Older people are often thought to be wiser. Capulet admits that it is easy for ‘men so old as we to keep the peace’ which shows that the feud between their families can be resolved. However, it is clear that no effort has been put into ending their quarrel. This highlights the idiocy of the two men which leads to the tragedy because the young lovers could be happily married when the feud ended.
Capulet has good intentions when he finds a suitable match for his daughter. Paris is a handsome and gracious gentleman. It can be said though, that Capulet is acting out of pure selfishness because he knows Paris is a relative of the Prince which is why he, later in the play, insists that Juliet marry Paris. Lady Capulet is absurd in her description of Paris, ‘a flower’, ‘to beautify him only lacks a cover’. Her attitude towards marriage and love is so artificial and she seems more interested in the wealth and nobility of Paris.
At Capulet’s ball, we can contrast pure and innocent love with the violence and hatred of Tybalt. Capulet, as a gracious host, praises Romeo ‘virtuous and well-governed youth’ and asks Tybalt to ‘endure’ him. This is a well-intentioned act by Capulet but it arouses the anger of Tybalt ‘convert to bitterest gall’. Tybalt later issues a challenge to Romeo and it results in the death of Mercutio, Tybalt and the banishment of Romeo.
When Romeo informs Friar Lawrence of his love for Juliet, the latter is wise and says that ‘young men’s love.. lies not in their hearts, but in their eyes’. He knows Romeo was merely infatuated with Rosaline ’she knew well thy love did read by rote, that could not spell’. However, he agrees to conduct the marriage rituals for Romeo and Juliet. He is contradicting himself. He has his doubts that Romeo had genuine love for Juliet but because he thought the feud between the Montagues and Capulets could be resolved through this match ‘this alliance may… turn your households’ rancour to pure love’, he went ahead with it. He knows the risk that is involved and even has premonitions ‘they stumble that run fast’. This is a rather silly act of the Friar. Given his knowledge and wisdom, we would have expected him to urge Romeo to wait and hope the feud would end soon than to carry out this plan which was devised by two young lovers who probably do not know the consequences of this grave act.
On the day of the wedding, the Friar and Romeo share a conversation which is ominously prophetic while they are waiting for Juliet to arrive. Friar Lawrence hopes that fate will be kind to their marriage ‘after-hours with sorrow chide us not’ to which Romeo replies ‘love-devouring death do what he dare’ because all he wants is for Juliet to be his wife. The Friar has doubts that the marriage would be trouble-free ‘violent delights have violent ends… die, like fire and powder’ but yet he simply advises Romeo to ‘love moderately’.
After the fight where Mercutio and Tybalt are slain, Benvolio relates the entire episode to the Prince, the Montagues, Capulets and the citizens of Verona. Lady Capulet accuses Benvolio of lying ‘affection makes him false, he speaks not true’ and herself lies that Tybalt had to fight against ‘twenty of them’. She asks the Prince not to let Romeo off ‘Romeo must not live’, not knowing that he is now her son-in-law. Montague pleads for mercy on behalf of Romeo ‘his fault concludes but what the law should end ?C the life of Tybalt’, that he was just carrying out on Tybalt the punishment the law would have passed on him. In response to that, the Prince immediately banishes Romeo for acting on his own accord. Though Montague was trying to intercede for Romeo, it turned out that the Prince did not accept the plea and the banishment leads to the tragedy. The Prince has had enough of the disturbances to the peace of Verona and it is of no fault of his in his decision that Romeo can never enter the city anymore although it results in the death of the young lovers.
In the Friar’s cell, Romeo is waiting for him to deliver ‘the Prince’s doom’. Friar Lawrence gives Romeo a portentous hint ‘Affliction is enamoured of thy parts, and thou art wedded to calamity’. Romeo associates his banishment with death ‘purgatory, torture, hell itself’. The Friar urges him to ‘be patient, for the world is broad and wide’ and reprimands him for his ‘rude unthankfulness’, instead to see it as mercy from the Prince. Romeo laments his pitiful state in an artificial and ridiculous manner. Friar Lawrence preaches of philosophy that it would ‘comfort thee’. Although what he says to console Romeo is wise, the age gap between the older and younger generation is felt ‘thou canst not speak of that thou dost not feel’.
The Nurse comes to the cell and asks Romeo to ’stand an you be a man for Juliet’s sake’. Both the Nurse and the Friar at this point of time are concerned for the couple’s well-being and want to help them. Romeo is depressed and takes a dagger to stab himself. The Friar then engages in a long ’sermon-like’ speech. He chides Romeo for being ‘womanish’ and like an ‘ill-beseeming beast’ that he is putting himself to shame. He advises Romeo to be grateful that he was not sentenced to death and tells him to go to Juliet and comfort her after which, leave for Mantua and wait for the situation to get better. Throughout the play, Romeo and Juliet have matured into strong individuals who are firm in their love for each other. Presently, Romeo’s banishment is a huge disaster to them and they need the support and guidance of the older generation which is provided by the Friar and the Nurse.
Meanwhile, Capulet arranges with Paris for his daughter’s marriage in the hope that this would help get rid of her grief over Tybalt’s demise. He probably does not want to see his daughter so depressed and this is his way of cheering her up. Lady Capulet informs Juliet of her father’s decision and seems genuinely happy for her daughter ’shall happily make thee there a joyful bride’. When Capulet finds out Juliet does not want to marry Paris, he blows his top and demands that the wedding take place, otherwise he would ‘drag’ her there. He calls her names ‘green-sickness carrion’ ‘tallow-face’ ‘disobedient wretch’. He also has an artificial outlook towards marriage ‘fair demesnes’ ’stuffed with honourable parts’. Juliet turns to her mother for sympathy but gets none ‘talk not to me, for I’ll not speak a word’. The Nurse also forsakes her and tells her to marry Paris. The Nurse has always been a mother figure to Juliet and she has always relied on the Nurse for advice. The Nurse says that Paris is now of more use than Romeo because the latter is as good as dead. All the people dearest to Juliet disappoint her through their actions and she is left with no choice but to approach the Friar for emotional comfort.
Juliet asks Friar Lawrence for ’some present counsel’, otherwise her desperate soul will go to the extreme and she would kill herself. The Friar truly wants to help her because he knows how desperate she is. He comes up with a very risky plan ?C to drink a potion which would leave her in a death-like sleep for forty-two hours and he would inform Romeo to go to her grave to fetch her. Although he knows that the plan might not succeed, he has no other solutions to offer her.
The morning of the wedding, when Juliet has been found ‘dead’, the entire household turns into mourning which seems rather late now because they left Juliet with no other choice but to marry a man she did not love when she was still alive.
The plan was going well and would have been perfected but due to Friar Lawrence’s oversight, the letter to Romeo was never delivered so Romeo did not know of their plan. It is funny why Friar John had to go and deliver the letter with a companion. He should have gone alone and he would not have stopped at the village. I believe that Friar Lawrence did not give him the idea that the letter was of utmost importance and dire consequences could result. It is a folly on Friar Lawrence’s part and it caused the tragedy to happen.
When Juliet wakes up, she finds Romeo dead and the Friar urges her to leave and he would place her in a convent. She refuses to, saying that she wants to die too. Friar Lawrence ‘dare no longer stay’ and runs away without Juliet. Although he tries his best to help Romeo and Juliet in this play, there are times when his actions contribute to the tragedy.
Hence, the older generation play a major role in the destiny of the two lovers, although it is not always entirely their fault. Romeo and Juliet themselves are impulsive and they let emotions control them. Their love was genuine and sincere but they could try to end the feud before rushing into marriage. Little setbacks caused them to resort to suicide which led to their own destruction. Fate also had a hand in the tragedy. From the beginning, they were branded ’star-crossed lovers’. It was fate that drew them to each other, without first knowing they were from feuding families. It was fate that Romeo came between Mercutio and Tybalt, fate that caused the wedding to be brought forth from Thursday and fate that caused Friar John to be quarantined in the village, making him unable to deliver that crucial letter. The actions of the Friar, the Nurse, Capulet and his wife, Montague and his wife, be they foolish or good-intentioned, accidental or on purpose, together with fate have no doubt in some way or another shaped the circumstances in the play which have contributed to the tragedy of their loved ones, Romeo and Juliet.