Violence and Conflict

• Romeo and Juliet


  • It is a tragedy
  • Includes a substantial amount of conflict
• Conflict


  The mental struggle characters may feel towards their feelings and what is happening to them
• Types of conflict


  • External (dispute and fighting between the Montagues and the Capulets)
  • Internal (mental struggle characters may feel)
• Conflict building tension and releasing tension

  1. Possibility of conflict builds tension

  2. Violence ensues and releases the tension
• Conflict in the Capulet household

  • Tybalt vs Lord Capulet in Act 1 Scene 5
  • Juliet disobeys her father and refuses to marry Paris in Act 3 Scene 5
• Tybalt


  Hot-headed and loyal Capulet who believes it is his duty to protect his family from the Montagues
• Lord Capulet's reaction to Tybalt

  Becomes angry, patronising and belittling towards Tybalt, reaffirms his authority
• Juliet disobeys her father

  Lord Capulet becomes aggressive and violent towards her
• Juliet is disowned by her father, which would have been the expected reaction
• External conflict


  The dispute and fighting between the Montagues and the Capulets
• The prologue sets the scene of the conflict, telling us of the "ancient grudge" between the two households
• Conflict in Act 1 Scene 1

  1. Starts from a small insult, the resulting arguing builds dramatic tension

  2. Transition from comedy to violence and danger demonstrates the rapid pace that dictates the play
• The Prince's speech


  Explains the effects of the Montague and Capulet conflict on the people of Verona, foreshadows later events
• Friar foreshadows that Romeo and Juliet's "violent delights have violent ends"


  Act 3 Scene 1 juxtaposes this, showing a lot of love and desire but also violence and bloodshed
• Act 3 Scene 1


  One of the biggest accumulations of conflict, results in the deaths of Mercutio and Tybalt
• Mercutio's last words


  Foreshadow events that come later in the play, act as a catalyst for the events that come
• Romeo kills Tybalt


  Romeo is banished from Verona, setting in motion the tragic ending
• Internal conflict


  The mental struggle characters may feel towards their feelings and what is happening to them
• Juliet's internal conflict


  • Struggles between her love for Romeo and her loyalty to her family
• Juliet: '"Deny thy father and refuse thy name / Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love, / And I'll no longer be a Capulet."'
• Juliet: '"What's Montague? It is nor hand, / nor foot, / Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part"'
• Juliet: '"That which we call a rose / By any other word would smell as sweet. / So Romeo would, were he not Romeo called, / Retain that dear perfection which he owes"'
• Juliet's conflicting views of Romeo after he kills Tybalt


  Sees him as both a "serpent heart" and a "beautiful tyrant"
• The Prince says "Never was there a story of more woe than Juliet and her Romeo"