Romeo and Juliet Themes Explained
The main themes of Romeo and Juliet are love, hate and violence, fate, the haste of youth, and the clash between individual desire and family or society.
Light and dark imagery runs through all of them.
| Theme | Where it shows |
|---|---|
| Love and hate | The balcony scene and the street brawls |
| Fate | The Prologue, the undelivered letter |
| Youth and haste | A marriage within a day of meeting |
| Individual vs family | Juliet refusing Paris |
| Light and dark | Romeo's speeches about Juliet |
Love and hate
The play sets a passionate love against a long-running feud. Juliet sees the contradiction at once when she learns who Romeo is: her only love has sprung from her only hate. The two forces are never far apart, and the same night the lovers meet, Tybalt swears to take revenge for Romeo coming to the feast.
Love in the play is also dangerous. It makes Romeo act rashly, and it drives both lovers to a death that the feud, not the love, made possible.
↑ Back to the topFate and chance
The Prologue calls Romeo and Juliet star-crossed, which tells the audience from the first lines that the stars, or fate, are against them. Then a series of accidents seems to confirm it: a servant who cannot read is sent with an invitation list, and Romeo happens to be nearby; Friar John is quarantined and cannot deliver the letter; Juliet wakes a moment too late.
Whether fate really rules, or the characters' own choices cause the disaster, is left open. Romeo declares that he defies the stars when he hears of Juliet's death, but his defiance leads straight to the tomb.
↑ Back to the topYouth and haste
Everything happens fast. The lovers meet on a Sunday night and are married the next day, and within days both are dead. The adults counsel patience: Friar Laurence tells Romeo that those who run fast stumble, and urges him to love moderately. Juliet herself says their love is too rash, too sudden, even as she hurries on.
The speed is partly Shakespeare's design. He squeezed the story into a few days, while his source spreads it over months.
↑ Back to the topThe individual against family and society
Both lovers are held to family duty. Romeo is a Montague and Juliet a Capulet, and their names mark them as enemies before they speak. Juliet asks Romeo to refuse his name, and she defies her father by refusing Paris, which makes him furious.
The play does not say that the lovers are wrong or that their families are. It shows a world where the demands of honor and loyalty leave little space for the choices of two young people, and where the cost of the feud is paid by their children.
↑ Back to the topLight and dark imagery
Romeo repeatedly describes Juliet in terms of light: a sun, a bright angel, a figure that teaches torches to burn bright. Much of the lovers' time together is at night, and the final scenes are set in a dark tomb. The contrast of light and dark underlines the contrast between love and death.
↑ Back to the topMore about Romeo and Juliet
This guide covers the play only. Film and stage versions differ in places.