William Shakespeare, who was alive 400+ years ago, is still brought up in our everyday writings and speeches. Why is it that Shakespeare is still relevant to us when so many years have passed? In his writings, the sad and depressing love stories are what the main idea seems to surround in, but there are so many other themes, like forgiveness and revenge, in the plays that are still relevant to us. The story of forgiveness and revenge in the play Romeo and Juliet can be compared with the wars that this world faced.
The story of revenge in Romeo and Juliet begins with the usual family feuds between the Capulet family and the Montague family. The two families would always get themselves into fights, leaving them to become more bitter to each other. Later on, these family fights lead to a one on one fight with Tybalt (Capulet’s family) and Mercutio (Montague’s family). The fight that was caused by the hatred between them, leaves Mercutio being killed by Tybalt. Mercutio, who was a friend to Romeo, causes Romeo to want revenge against the Capulet family, so he goes and kills Tybalt. After the death of Tybalt, Romeo is banished by the prince and small disputes continue in the story.
All because of a single revenge led to more and more fights and death. This example of revenge in the play Romeo and Juliet can also be compared with the wars this world faces. For example, one of the cause of the start of World War II was because of the revenge Adolf HItler wanted. It first starts off with Adolf HItler, who was once a soldier in World War 1, in the hospital because of an injury. When he comes out of the hospital, he hears that Germany had surrendered and was now under the harsh rules of the Treaty of Versailles. The harshness that Germany had to deal with made Hitler want revenge against those countries which then slowly led him to become the leader of the Nazi party. Bit by bit, Hitler, now the leader of a strong Nazi party, dragged Germany back into war with other countries which is now known as World War II.
As you can see, the family feuds in Romeo and Juliet and the cause of World War II were because of the revenge they had against someone else. One family/nation will get back at another family/nation, and that side will get back at the other and so forth. In both the play and the world war, the process of getting their revenge is shown clearly through their arguments and battles. First starting off with the annoyance of each other; like flies that buzz around your ear. Then gradually growing into fights that destroy the heart. The play and the war both show that the end of revenge is until both has a tragic ending.
In Shakespeare’s play, the theme of forgiveness is also played out in the end. When the two families find out that their son and daughter who loved each other killed themselves, the two families come together and agree that they should quit fighting. They agree that it is useless to keep fighting while both of their young ones have died because of the family feuds they have. The two families had to go through with losing someone they loved before they had learned their lesson.
Now comparing this forgiveness in the play with the “forgiveness” that occurs in world wars are quite different. The fact that there are many deaths in world wars are similar to how the story goes in the play. However, comparing the end of the fighting of world wars and the play split ways. In the play, two families both lose someone dear which allows them to realize that both of the families should forgive each other. On the other hand, world wars do not end the same way. Even though both countries may lose many people, the fight ends because of the defeat of one country. Also, instead of simply forgiving the other country after a war ends, both countries end the war by signing a treaty.
Even though Shakespeare has written many plays with this scene of forgiveness and revenge, why is it that the world doesn’t seem to grasp the idea that revenge is like fighting with someone to get up a cliff when you know that both of you won’t make it? The same goes for forgiveness. Why is it that nations have to shake hands that has dirt and blood on it when it could’ve been kept clean? Are we simply trying use our human nature as an excuse to object the fact that we could fix the problems that occurs? No matter how many excuses or reasons there might be, the world should not look upon revenge, but instead solving all the problems with the simple, but hard forgiveness. Looking back at all the plays Shakespeare had written, we can make connections with this world and learn from them so that the next time another world crisis befalls, maybe Shakespeare could be brought up then too.