Fall 08

The Cyclical Nature of Love and Violence: An Analysis of Romeo and Juliet and Crimes of Passion in Modern Society By Saraglen Fish

Abstract

Through crimes of passion, Shakespeare demonstrates the intertwining of love and violence that create

cyclical escalations still present in society today. Through a comparative analysis of the Elizabethan

time period, modern day society and Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, it can be determined that passion

can be synonymous with violence. The literature of the Elizabethan time period reflects on society’s

perceptions of and traditions involving love; this reflection on Elizabethan society can be compared to

modern day society to demonstrate the link between passion and violence. The term “crimes of

passion” can be directly correlated from modern society to Elizabethan society through an analysis of

the patterns present that justify the use of this term. The entwinement of love and violence is present

throughout Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet and will be best evaluated through close reading and a

psychoanalytical lens.

Senior Seminar Final Project November 20, 2011 Fish 2

Literature throughout the Elizabethan period can be marked through society’s perceptions and interpretations of love at the time. As evidenced through the works of

Shakespeare, love was marked by passion leading to violence. These violent episodes of love evidenced in the literature of that time period directly correlate with crimes of passion of society today. Passion and love are represented in many of Shakespeare’s works, including Othello and Romeo and Juliet, as being marked by violence and tragedy.

Shakespeare deeply explores the entwinement of love and violence in his play

Othello, as Othello is set up to be a grave, noble and respectable character throughout the first two acts. He appears to be honorable and to have a good head on his shoulders; however, he places his trust in a poor source and appears at his downfall. His passion ignites his jealousy when he believes false accusations against his wife Desdemona;

Othello turned his thoughts of Desdemona into a common harlot due to Iago’s fabrications, and this led him to viciously murder her. By believing in the lies that Iago invents and causing destruction and tragedy, Othello demonstrates the severe ties between love and violence. Othello’s passionate love for Desdemona easily turned to passionate hate. His dramatic swapping of behavior demonstrates how powerful passion and love can be; a Jekyll and Hyde type of transformation occurs in Othello, which can only be explained by his intense passion for Desdemona. It is evident through his murderous act that extreme passion can lead to violence, thus solidifying the connection between love and violence.

This concept of hate and passion leading to violence is most solidified in

Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. This work deeply examines the connections between Fish 3 love and violence to the point of defining the human condition. Today, being passionate can be interpreted as loving to the point of destruction. The evidence within Romeo and

Juliet exists to support that crimes of passion result from cyclical patterns created by love and violence. It is a widely held belief that passion can be synonymous with violence as evidenced by literature and society both historically and today. Through crimes of passion, Shakespeare demonstrates the intertwining of love and violence that create cyclical escalations still present in society today.

Love in Elizabethan Society

The idea of courtly love was a tradition upheld by society during the Elizabethan era. Courtly love was a commonly accepted practice and was categorized by men loving unobtainable women from a distance, as the women were usually from a higher socio- economic class (Meader 10). The idea of courtly love is present throughout many of

Shakespeare’s plays and demonstrates its existence and prevalence in this time period.

Shakespeare demonstrates courtly love from the beginning of Romeo and Juliet through

Romeo’s love of Rosaline. Rosaline is the prototype for the female in the courtly love situation as she is silent and unattainable. Romeo voices his longing for the unattainable

Rosaline for in act one, scene one he says, “Out of her favor where I am in love

(1.1.163)”. This acceptance of courtly love set up the situations in which love could be played out.

Match making in Shakespeare's society was influenced by both affection and material interests. Freedom of choice was restricted in various ways, and the couple seldom brought about marriages alone, as young people were expected to respect parental Fish 4 wishes. Due to this, Romeo and Juliet demonstrates the dramatic tension in the conflict between self-fulfillment and the expectations of parents, friends, and society. In this way,

Shakespeare underlines the innocence or vulnerability of the lovers (Cook 12).

Romeo and Juliet

Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy of foolish young love and the inevitable downfall of those seemingly innocent young lovers (Weinberger 351). According to young people, love is the ability to make their own universe and to disregard the entire world around them. Young people are not yet corrupted by the responsibilities of being an adult and, instead, look at the world as if it is theirs for the taking (Moore 652). The nature of their young love, invites Romeo and Juliet to view their love as above the level of ordinary humanity. This can be due to their age, beauty and social standing. This being said, they are in no way the poster children of perfection and love. Their flaws include conflicting principles and motivations- obligation to family versus obligation to love, to be part of homo-social relationships versus part of hetero-social relationships, need for rebellion versus need for stability, curiosity versus patience and the desire for sexual relations. The lovers are mere children and are, thus, hardly capable of making the serious decisions required of the complex situation they thrust themselves into. In relation, both their parents are contemptible models for respect, character, love, and decision making for the couple to emulate (Weinberger 352).

Death and violence are prominent themes throughout Shakespeare’s works including Romeo and Juliet. In the play, these themes are consistently intertwined with passion. Passion is represented in the play through love, hate and the clear connection between violence and love. Love is represented in the play as blind and overwhelming; Fish 5 love is a great passion that can completely overwhelm a person. Love, like hate, can take over someone and powerfully alter his or her mind. Romeo and Juliet’s love is marked by death from the beginning, as the moment Romeo falls in love at first sight with Juliet,

Tybalt vows to kill Romeo for intruding on the festivities. This scene is one of many demonstrating love’s close connection with violence.

From the beginning, the play is set up with the close entwinement of love and violence in the prologue. The environment that is set up in the prologue is violent and hate-filled; it demonstrates to the audience exactly how the feud between the two families will play a major role throughout the play. The close placement of references to love and violence is evident in the prologue, as it says, “The fearful passage of their death-marked love/ And the continuance of their parents' rage/ Which, but their children's end, naught could remove/ Is now the two hours' traffic of our stage (Prologue 9-12).” Describing love in terms of death from the beginning demonstrates the close connection between love and violence that will continue throughout the play.

Violence and love are demonstrated with the characters’ fascination with suicide throughout the play. Both Romeo and Juliet threaten to take their own lives in act 3; when with Friar Laurence Romeo threatens to kill himself after he has been exiled. Death is in the forefront of the characters’ minds as Romeo’s reaction to his exile is, “Ha banishment? Be merciful, say death (3.3.12)”. Then, in another instance Juliet attempts to take her life when faced with the idea of marrying Paris; she says, “If all else fail myself have the power to die (3.5.242)”. The morning after scene is even associated with death and violence, as Romeo and Juliet reference the other’s appearance of death in their sleep. In reference to this death-like appearance, Juliet says, “Methinks I see thee as one Fish 6 dead in the bottom of a tomb (3.5.55)”. The tragic ending of the double suicide is the culmination of the entwinement of love and violence. Romeo and Juliet’s conclusion that only through death could their love be preserved demonstrates the sheer power of passion that causes this entwinement of love and violence. Their final acts led to destruction and tragedy that only the intense passion of love could be capable of.

Love’s connection with violence is also demonstrated through the mere language of the play. In act one, scene one Romeo, in regards his to unrequited love of Rosaline, says, “O brawling love, o loving hate (1.1.170)”. By attributing aggressive terminology to love and affectionate terminology to hate, it entwines the two passions. Love is also seen as pain and loss, as Romeo compares his love of Rosaline to blindness when he says,

“Being black, puts us in mind they hide the fair/ He that is strucken blind cannot forget

(1.1.225-6)”. Juliet’s love is so strong for Romeo that it impairs her better judgment. She is distraught when she discovers that Romeo is a Montague, but she has developed such an intense passion for Romeo that she is willing to die rather than to be unfaithful. She has enough love for him that she is willing to risk death by taking the drug that Friar

Laurence gives her.

Psychoanalytic and Medical Lens on Romeo and Juliet

Psychoanalytic theory has been used to evaluate passions and love. Shakespeare’s works and dealings with love can benefit from a critical approach that balances an awareness of the time period's theories for understanding the passions with a psychoanalytic perspective on the human condition.

By using psychoanalytic theory to analyze Romeo and Juliet Romeo's Fish 7 impulsiveness stands out as deriving from "ill-controlled, partially disguised aggression", which leads to both the death of Mercutio and the double suicide of the main characters.

Psychoanalytic readings of the play make the tragic male experience equivalent with sicknesses (Trevor 6). Critics focus on the hatred between the families, arguing that this hatred is the cause of Romeo and Juliet's passion for each other. That hatred manifests itself directly in the language used throughout the play. This is demonstrated clearly when Juliet says, "my only love sprung from my only hate (1.5.138)." Also, it is common throughout the play for the characters to express their passion with references to death and violence.

Romeo and Juliet addresses issues of love, selfhood, and passionate outbursts. At the start of the play, the audience is led to believe that Romeo is suffering from an extreme bout of love melancholy in reaction to Rosaline’s rejection of his love. His father describes this condition as follows:

Many a morning hath he there been seen With tears augmenting the fresh morning's dew, Adding to clouds more clouds with his deep sighs. But all so soon as the all-cheering sun Should in the farthest east begin to draw The shady curtains from Aurora's bed, Away from light steals home my heavy son, And private in his chamber pens himself, Shuts up his windows, locks fair daylight out, And makes himself an artificial night. Black and portentous must thus humor prove, Unless good counsel may the cause remove (1.1.125-36).

Medical and philosophical texts of the time period regarded the condition of love melancholy with utmost seriousness. To find one's death by love unreciprocated is the worst of imaginable calamities because without the benefit of reciprocal love, the Fish 8 figurative death of the soul risks becoming the literal death of the body (Trevor 9). If interpreted through medical knowledge of the time, the abundance of the melancholic humor in the overheated blood makes a person susceptible to all other physical and mental sicknesses (Trevor 10-4). Romeo’s friends and family do not react in the same way to his condition as the medical texts would. Benvolio's reaction to his cousin's mournful state causes Romeo to ask if Benvolio is in fact laughing at him; Benvolio sarcastically responds that he weeps for Romeo in his condition. Benvolio actually refers to the humors though when speaking of Romeo when he says, “Romeo! Humors!

Madman! Passion! Lover (2.1.8)!"

Juliet's levelheadedness is a stark contrast to Romeo's apparent emotional immaturity, and her body does not seem to obey the same dynamics as Romeo’s. She appears to be in control of what she is thinking and her passionate outbursts appear appropriate in relation to the objects and events that cause them. She is in control of her own emotions and is not swayed by others for she says, "I'll look to like, if looking liking move/ But no more deep will I dart mine eye / Than your consent gives strength to make it fly (1.3.99-101)." Juliet not only stands outside of a certain kind of historicist analysis, she invalidates it as irrelevant to her psychological situation.

It is clear that love is idealized throughout the play. The importance of idealization is key in the understanding of love for "without idealization there is no love”

(Trevor 10). This means that narcissism is a fundamental attribute of love because lovers project their own images and wants onto the person they love, rather than erasing or supplanting the actual identity of their beloved (Trevor 12-6). Shakespeare is aware of this fact and exploits it for dramatic effect by having Juliet learn that Romeo has killed Fish 9

Tybalt before she consummates her love with her husband. This fact makes it so that

Romeo's murderous act makes Juliet's idealization of him stronger instead of weaker.

This is supported by her description of Romeo as the, "Beautiful tyrant, fiend angelical! /

Dove-feathered raven, wolvish-ravening lamb (3.2.76-7)!" The fact that he has been revealed as a murderer, forces Juliet to love him that much more in order to justify her desire for him. By psychoanalytically analyzing this scene, we can interpret Juliet’s love of Romeo as mere desire. Instead of Freud’s notion that mere desire actually degrades love, it can be shown here that love and desire can mutually reinforce one another

(Trevor 17). Romeo and Juliet's passions constitute the heart of this play and focus on how these passions are described to others such as the Nurse and Friar Laurence throughout the play.

Modern Society

A crime of passion refers to a crime in which the perpetrator commits a crime, especially assault or murder against someone because of sudden strong impulse such as sudden rage or heartbreak rather than as a premeditated crime. A typical crime of passion might involve a husband who discovers his wife cheating and proceeds to brutally batter or even kill his wife and the man with whom she was involved. In the United States civil courts, a crime of passion is referred to as "temporary insanity". United States

Congressman Daniel Sickles first used this defense in 1859 after he had killed his wife's lover. Homicide and manslaughter laws in the United States were modeled on those in

England, where the “heat of passion” defense was adopted to protect against mandatory and disproportionately severe death sentences for all felons (Goldstein 32).

Many cultures view men who attack their lover as having been provoked Fish 10 sufficiently to excuse extreme punitive action including beating, maiming, burning, and killing. In many countries a defense is often based on unspecific explanatory factors; if a man were acting in a state of high emotional distress, he would be less responsible than he would have been if acting with economic motives or premeditation. This "heat-of- passion” defense actually permits reduction or omission of penalties, especially within more patriarchal judicial systems. “Crimes of passion” are not limited only to the United

States, as Goldstein discusses the legality of crimes of passion in Jordan. The Jordanian

Penal Code offers mitigation to anyone who commits crimes in a heat of passion, as the legislation is phrased that, “The commiter of a crime who undertakes it in a furious passion produced by a bad or dangerous act on the part of his victim, benefits from a mitigating excuse (Goldstein 28).”

In a modern case of a crime of passion, a New York Times article outlines the murder of Freda Ward by her lover Alice Mitchell. The two women had become close friends at the Higbee School for Girls in Memphis, and they declared their love for each other and planned to elope to St. Louis to live together as husband and wife. When

Freda’s family stopped the relationship, forbidding Freda from seeing Alice, events took a violent turn. On the afternoon of January 25, 1892, Alice Mitchel met Freda Ward on

Front Street and slit her throat with a straight razor (A Most Shocking Crime). It was determined by the court that Alice Mitchell was driven by intense passion, love, insanity and jealousy to commit this crime. This case was considered a crime of passion and the jury returned the verdict of insanity. Her predisposition to insanity was triggered by the emotional disturbance of love and jealousy (Duggan 42-50). On the witness stand, Alice detailed her reasoning for the violent events as, “I wanted to cut her because I knew I Fish 11 could not have her, and I did not want anyone else to have her. My intention was to cut

Freda’s throat and then my own, but Jo’s interference made me cut Freda again (Duggan

33).” This sudden intense passion leading to violence relates back to Shakespeare’s

Romeo and Juliet. This case of Alice Mitchell also echoes the lovers’ planned suicides in

Shakespeare’s play.

Romeo + Juliet Adaptation

Modern day adaptations of Romeo and Juliet such as Baz Luhrmann's Romeo +

Juliet demonstrate the notion that love and violence are still closely intertwined in society today. This film exaggerates the violence of modern day society as a contrast with the growing love of the main characters. Romeo + Juliet adapts Shakespeare’s original

Romeo and Juliet into the modern day setting of Verona Beach. The setting mixes together aspects of pop culture from 1940 and 2000; guns replace swords and fast cars replace horses. The original language is maintained while modern-day music from Ever

Clear, Radiohead and more is added in the background. The film style lends itself to that of a rock video full of special effects, splashes of color and camera tricks. The loud, brash style highlights the violent and intense tones of the play. Much time and attention is paid to the more violent events throughout the film that contrast the budding romance of the main characters. Luhrmann’s version of the text uses violence to address major societal issues of the western world of today. He portrays violence to show how it leads to senseless deaths rather than pure entertainment. Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet handles a,

“chaotic world where children and adults don't understand each other and where both use guns and violence to settle their problems (Loehlin 128).”

The editing reminds the audience that Romeo and Juliet’s love is constantly Fish 12 threatened by violence. While Juliet awaits Romeo on their wedding night, the scene cuts to a bloodied and hateful Romeo racing after Tybalt. When Romeo shoots Tybalt, the camera cuts back to a startled Juliet in her bedroom as if she could have heard the gunshots. Later, while the lovers are lying in each other’s arms, Romeo is startled awake by the image of the dead body of Tybalt. The film employs quick cuts of the scenes in order to demonstrate the stark contrast between the peaceful love and hateful violence present in the film (Loehlin 124).

The Marriage of Romeo and Juliet Caught in a Crime of Passion

It can be argued that the marriage of Romeo and Juliet in Act 2, scene 6 is, in fact, caught within a crime of passion that leads to the violent death of Mercutio, thus defining the existence of the cyclical nature of love and violence. This can be argued because, due to the marriage, Romeo’s alliances are tested during the conflict between Mercutio and

Tybalt. Romeo says, “I do protest I never injured thee/ But love thee better than thou canst devise/ Till thou shalt know the reason of my love,/ And so, good Capulet—which name I tender/ As dearly as mine own—be satisfied (3.1.56-60).” Due to Romeo’s changing allegiances, he feels compassion and love for both sides- Mercutio and Tybalt.

As stated earlier, a crime of passion refers to a crime in which the perpetrator commits a crime, especially assault or murder against someone because of sudden strong impulse such as sudden rage or heartbreak rather than as a premeditated crime. Due to this love that Romeo now feels for Tybalt, it can be considered a “crime of passion” when he murders Tybalt for slaying Mercutio. His passion for both parties and his sudden rage caused by his discovery of the death of one of the parties leads his to the sudden strong impulse to murder Tybalt. His newfound passion can be accounted for by his marriage to Fish 13

Juliet, thus pointing to the marriage as the instigator of the violence. Again, this fact displays the close connection between love and violence found throughout the play.

In another instance of the play, it comes to the audience’s attention that Romeo’s mother, Lady Montague, has also taken her own life due to the exile of her son. This exile stems from Romeo’s murder of Tybalt and thus, connects back to his marriage to Juliet. It can then be concluded that, in fact, the death of Lady Montague is caused by the marriage of Romeo and Juliet. By analyzing the total number of deaths in the play, it becomes clear that each can relate back to the secret marriage between Romeo and Juliet-

Mercutio, Tybalt, Lady Montague, Romeo and Juliet.

It is a potentially less considered theory to see the actual marriage of Romeo and

Juliet then as a crime of passion itself. Since a crime of passion was defined earlier as not being premeditated and, instead, a sudden strong impulse caused by passion, the marriage itself could fall under this category. The marriage was a sudden urge caused by passion that led to a series of violent acts; in this way the marriage itself is a crime of passion.

When defined in this way, the strong connection between love and violence is exposed as being cyclical in nature. Acts of love lead to acts of violence time and time again throughout the play. The strong parallel of love and hate throughout the play display the idea that the two are interconnected and one will always follow the other.

Conclusion

Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet clearly demonstrates the concept that hate and passion can lead to acts of violence. This work deeply examines the connections between love and violence to the point of defining the human condition. Within society today, the idea that passion and love can lead to violence is interpreted legally to define crimes of Fish 14 passion. The evidence within Romeo and Juliet exists to support that crimes of passion result from cyclical patterns created by love and violence. It is a widely held belief that passion can be synonymous with violence as evidenced by this literature and society both historically and today. Through crimes of passion, Shakespeare demonstrates the intertwining of love and violence that create cyclical escalations still present in society today.

Fish 15

References

“A Most Shocking Crime.” The New York Times 26 Jan 1892.

Cook, Ann Jennalie. Making a match: courtship in Shakespeare and his society. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1991. Print.

Duggan, Lisa. Sapphic Slashers, Sex, Violence, And American Modernity. Duke University Press Books, 2000.

Goldstein, Matthew. “The Biological Roots of Heat-of-Passion Crimes and Honor Killings.” Politics and the Life Sciences 21.2 (2002): 28-37

Loehlin, James N. "'These Violent Delights Have Violent Ends: Baz Luhrmann's Millennial Shakespeare." Shakespeare, Film, Fin De Siécle. Ed. Mark T. Burnett and Ramona Wray. New York: St. Martin's P, 2000. 121-135. Luhrmann, Baz, dir. William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet. Perf. Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes. 1996. DVD. 20th Century Fox 2002.

Meader, William. Courtship in Shakespeare: Its relation to the tradition of courtly love. New York: Octagon Books, 1971. Print.

Moore, John Rees. “The Enemies of Love: The Example of Antony and Cleopatra.” The Kenyon Review 31.5 (n.d.): 646-674. Shakespeare, William. "Romeo and Juliet." The Necessary Shakespeare. 'Ed'. David Bevington. Pearson Education, Inc., 2009. Print. Trevor, Douglas. "Love, Humoralism, And "Soft" Psychoanalysis." Shakespeare Studies 33.(2005): 87-94. Academic Search Premier.

Weinberger, Jerry. "Pious Princes and Red-Hot Lovers: The Politics of Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet"." The Journal of Politics 65.2 (2003): 350-375. Online.