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Why would Shakespeare put such contrasting themes about marriage/love and hate in one play? What is the effect in Romeo and Juliet?

Love and hate are antipodal--direct opposites--yet they both signify passionate emotions toward something or someone. Some say that one cannot hate without love. Romeo and Juliet is filled with both of these passions and shows how one can cancel out the other. Romeo and Juliet’s love is drowned by hate and leads to their deaths, but, after death, their love for one another quenches the hate between their families.


Something else central to the play...

Love and hate are antipodal--direct opposites--yet they both signify passionate emotions toward something or someone. Some say that one cannot hate without love. Romeo and Juliet is filled with both of these passions and shows how one can cancel out the other. Romeo and Juliet’s love is drowned by hate and leads to their deaths, but, after death, their love for one another quenches the hate between their families.


Something else central to the play is sexual attraction. In Shakespearean English, the word “die” could mean both to climax sexually and to lose one’s life. This comparison between the fires of love and death shows the extremity in which the characters of Romeo and Juliet live. They are surrounded by murder and violence, but the young lovers also discover the equally explosive force of love. Friar Lawrence describes the connection between ardor and violence:



These violent delights have violent ends
And in their triumph die, like fire and powder,
Which as they kiss consume...



This contrast between affection and spite is what makes Romeo and Juliet such a powerful, intense story, one that is relatable in countless contexts and cultures.

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