Bloody passion: A romeo and juliet analysis

Zain Kizilbash

In Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare tells a story of love and loss amidst the fires of a generational feud. In the play, the Houses of Montague and Capulet are locked in a fierce fight and perpetuate their struggle through their manic hatred for one another. Meanwhile, Romeo and Juliet, two lovers from the opposing families, find extreme love in one another and go to any
length to pursue it. The motif of blood is utilized to portray the evolution of emotional motivation. Hateful outer blood, as in shed blood, is consistently used to portray extreme conflict and hatred between the families. Meanwhile, loving inner blood, as in flowing, healthy blood, begins by bringing Romeo and Juliet extreme joy and hope, but transforms into increasingly negative emotions, ending in violent desperation born from passion and loss of rationality. Shakespeare uses this decline to warn of the intricacies of over-passionate emotion: while at first the positivity of inner blood contrasts the constant negativity of outer blood, by the end, the two
become indistinguishable.

In the first acts of Romeo and Juliet, outer blood is used as a motif to represent violence and hatred. In Act I Scene I, the Montagues and Capulets are locked into a brutal brawl. However, before they get too out of hand, Prince Escalus arrives to scold them, saying,
Profaners of this neighbor-stained steel–
Will they not hear? --- What ho! You men, you beasts
That quench the fire of your pernicious rage

With purple fountains issuing from your veins:
On pain of torture, from those bloody hands
Throw your mistempered weapons to the ground,
And hear the sentence of your movèd prince. (Shakespeare 1.1.85-90)
The Prince orders the families to cease fighting and scolds them, saying they are attempting to quench their rage with the others’ blood. The Capulets and Montagues are in a violent fight, and the shed blood in the scene references the hatred at play. The Prince refers to their rage as a fire, which they try to put out with blood. However, not only does that fiery rage spread like fire, but the blood comes from their veins, meaning they are only hurting themselves by continuing with their fight. On top of this, the Prince says their hands are bloody, as in the idiom. Shakespeare’s use of this idiom implies that the families are wholly responsible for perpetuating the bloodshed.
The violence and everlasting hatred caused by the endless conflict between the two families reveal themselves through the use of outer blood, and the perpetuation of their conflict by their own hands begins to show.

In the third act, outer blood’s usage as a motif that means chaos and hatred continues from the first two. After the death of Tybalt at the hands of Romeo, the Capulets are informed and arrive. Lady Capulet is outraged and cries out to the Prince, saying,

“O prince! O cousin! husband! O, the blood is spilt/ O my dear kinsman! Prince, as thou art true,/ For blood of ours,
shed blood of Montague” (3.1.154-157).

Lady Capulet briefly mourns over the killing of Tybalt before she commands vengeance for her lost kin. Her immediate cry for bloodshed exemplifies the emotional conflict between the two families. Lady Capulet’s use of the word blood instead of family almost reduces her kin to shed blood, mirroring outer blood’s meaning of violence. However, her outburst demanding the spilling of blood not only mirrors the violence caused by the feud but also brings out the cyclical nature of that feud. Lady Capulet first-hand shows that each new person who dies on one side must be avenged with another, creating a cycle that continues endlessly. The over-passionate anger the two families have for each other leads to an endless cycle of bloodshed, one only they can stop.

In the final acts, outer blood continues to mean hatred and violence. When Romeo is monologuing before drinking the apothecary’s poison, he mentions Tybalt: “Tybalt, liest thou there in thy bloody sheet?” (5.3.97). Romeo is speaking to Tybalt as he sees him lying in his
grave. Tybalt’s death is a turning point in the play and is the climax of the rising tension between the two families. Describing him as bloody reflects how his death is a byproduct of the rising hatred and violent tendencies that the two families are adopting. Across the entire play, the over-passionate hatred between the two families stays consistent, and that extreme emotion leads to the violence that ensues from that hatred. And not only does that violence occur, but it perpetuates through the families’ vengeant mentality. Blood, when shed, consistently represents that overzealous strife that causes them so much pain. However, the emotional results of inner blood don’t stay consistent: instead, evolving throughout the play.

In the first acts of Romeo and Juliet, inner blood is used as a motif to represent love, hope, and passion. After the Nurse tells Juliet about Romeo’s proposal, she comments on Juliet’s reaction: “Now comes the wanton blood up in your cheeks,/They’ll be scarlet straight at any
news” (2.5.76-77). Juliet blushes at the news of Romeo’s proposal. While outer blood means violence and anger, this blood is healthy, flowing through her and demonstrating her love and life. Juliet’s blood is rushing up to her cheeks due to her love for Romeo, contrasting the blood spilled on the hands of the men who fight the other family in anger. Juliet’s inner blood is thus used to show the connection between her and Romeo: a way to portray the passionate emotion that blossoms from their love at first sight. Romeo and Juliet will do anything for one another, and that extreme love contrasts with the extreme hatred the rest of their family harbors. In that same way, blood’s meaning on the outside contrasts with its meaning on the inside. However, Romeo and Juliet’s emotional motivation, and inner blood’s usage as a motif, don’t stay positive forever.

In the third act, inner blood’s usage as a motif shifts to parallel Romeo and Juliet’s more somber emotional states as their separation turns their love-based joy into sorrow. Just before Romeo leaves for Mantua, Juliet inquires about his pale face. Romeo responds, “And trust me, love, in my eye so do you:/ Dry sorrow drinks our blood” (3.5.58-59). Romeo is telling Juliet that her face is also pale and devoid of color like him. Previously, Juliet’s fragile blood rushes to her cheeks to show her passion and love for Romeo. However, after the shocking news of their separation, Romeo and Juliet’s minds have given way to sorrow and melancholy. As their sorrow engulfs them, the passionate blood drains from their face, leaving only emptiness. Romeo and Juliet’s love for each other is so strong that, when separated, their sorrow completely sucks up their joy. Shakespeare uses this lack of inner blood to showcase the more complex emotional development at hand. Due to their endless sorrow, that over-passionate happiness that once filled the two is replaced by extreme sadness. Their love for each other is so strong that, when separated, they fall into a deep depression that feeds on their broken happiness. This replacement of intense emotion is portrayed at this moment through the blood leaving Romeo and Juliet’s faces. Thus, while still rooted in love, Romeo and Juliet’s emotional states have now turned sour and apathetic. While inner blood in the first acts contrasts outer blood, meaning positivity and hope, it becomes more negative in the third. However, in the final acts, the usage of inner blood evolves even further in the direction it went in Act III: blurring the lines between the consequences of outer blood’s over-passionate hate and inner blood’s over-passionate love.

In the final acts, the consequences of over-passionate love and hate become indistinguishable: represented by the mixed usage of inner blood and outer blood. When speaking to the Friar about her impending marriage to Paris, Juliet, threatens death, saying,
Therefore, out of thy long-experienced time,
Give me some present counsel, or, behold,
'Twixt my extremes and me this bloody knife
Shall play the umpire, arbitrating that
Which the commission of thy years and art
Could to no issue of true honour bring (4.1.61-66).
Juliet demands that the Friar give her a way out of the marriage: and if he doesn’t, she will kill herself instead. Now that Romeo and Juliet are separated, Juliet has fallen into desperation. Juliet’s outcry of promised blood feeds into that negativity. The type of blood being referred to in this passage is indistinct. While Juliet is talking about a bloody knife, meaning shed blood, that blood she refers to comes from within: from herself. Shakespeare uses this mixing of inner and outer blood to show how emotionally conflicted Juliet is. She is inciting violence, like outer blood, but that violence is born from her extreme passion and love for Romeo, represented by inner blood. However, this version of violence differs slightly from the rest of the family. While previously shed blood from the families is born from hatred, the blood Juliet wants to spill is her own. Instead of hatred towards others, this blood represents desperation and hopelessness.
However, in both cases, violence is born from over-passionate emotions: hatred for the families and love for Romeo and Juliet. In Juliet’s final moments, the consequences are made more apparent. After Romeo and Juliet’s deaths, a watchman happens upon them and says, “Pitiful sight! Here lies the County slain,/ And Juliet bleeding, warm and newly dead,/ Who here hath
lain this two days buried” (5.1.180-183). The watchman first finds Paris, then Juliet, who is bleeding and warm despite them burying her two days prior. Both types of blood are present in this passage. Juliet is actively bleeding, her blood pouring out due to the violence she caused and her desperation. However, the blood coming out of her flows from her veins. Juliet still being warm is indicative of that. That violent outer blood came into being through her passionate inner blood, just as this violence is born from their love. Romeo and Juliet, since the beginning, have had limitless love for each other, shown by their inner blood. However, while that love brings joy at first, the emotions and actions from that love become increasingly negative. The moment something goes wrong, their over-the-top emotion clouds their judgment and leads them into increasingly negative states. Ultimately, their over-passionate love ends in harm and their violent
deaths. The consequences of inner blood thus end the same way as outer blood: senseless violence, pain, and unnecessary death.

In Romeo and Juliet, the motif of blood is used to display over-passionate emotion and the consequences of over-devotion to something. Despite the two examples represented by blood being opposite emotions of each other (love and hate), the result is the same. The two families harbor over-passionate hate, and across the play, that extreme emotion leads to violence and hatred. While the negativity of hate is constant, love’s consequences evolve throughout the play. While at first, Romeo and Juliet contrast their families by feeling joy through their love, by the end, their love leads them to parallel their families, feeling apathy and desperation. Shakespeare uses this decline to warn against over-passionate emotions. Whether the emotion is good, like love, or bad, like hate, both lead to pain in the end. The tragedy of Romeo and Juliet ends as a cautionary tale against those who have these extreme emotions. No matter the emotion, too much devotion to something will lead to loss of rationality and unnecessary struggle.