When Riley and I were discussing the play over
Slack, we talked a little bit about Romeo's death being a form of justice in a
way. I thought it was interesting how it appeared that Romeo felt responsible
for Juliet’s death in a way. In my line of thinking, Romeo’s assumption that
Juliet died of a broken heart caused by his banishment so soon after their
wedding was cause for him to take his own life. Earlier in the play, Romeo
demonstrated that he had very clear ideas of justice and how it ought to be
carried out. Therefore, it should not be surprising that Romeo decided to take
his own life in a sort of repayment for the supposed robbery of Juliet’s.
In fact, this determination was so strong that it
even caused him to kill Paris at the Capulet tomb, something I do not think he
would have done otherwise, since he had given up the feud with the house of
Capulet, and Paris was not even of that family anyway. But since Paris got in
his way, he had to go. Furthermore, I believe that this drive for justice is
proved even more by the statement, “Here’s to my love”, made by Romeo just
before he takes the poison. In my view, if you replace the word “to” with the
word “for”, it gives corroboration to Romeo’s quest for justice, and it becomes
a statement to the effect of:
“Here’s for my love. You died for me; now I will
die for you.”
I like your idea that Romeo enacts justice on himself by killing himself rather than just killing himself out of despair, which was never a satisfying explanation for me. I might expand the idea so that he is not only enacting justice for the death of Juliet, but also for the other people who he killed, or who died because of his decisions throughout the play. It has been a while since I read the play, but I believe there are quite a few people who die because of Romeo, and I think it would be interesting to see how their deaths affected his decision as well.
ReplyDeleteI like your ideas here! I think what you are referring to can be labeled as "poetic justice." According to the definition found here (https://www.britannica.com/art/poetic-justice-literature), poetic justice is "an outcome in which vice is punished and virtue rewarded, usually in a manner peculiarly or ironically appropriate." That could be the whole theme of Romeo and Juliet! I think if you wanted to look at examples of poetic justice in other Shakespeare plays, you could make a great paper out of it.
ReplyDeleteI think these ideas are great. The last line of your analysis, especially, is fantastic. It's always bothered me how Romeo is so quick to take his own life upon seeing Juliet's "dead" body, so it's a nice thought that Romeo had a more concrete reason than grief to kill himself. It would be cool if you could take his suicide and relate it to suicide in other literature- one I'm specifically thinking of is "Madam Bovary" by Gustave Flaubert. Her suicide had meaning, in her own deranged mind. Perhaps you could relate those two or others to emphasize your point.
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