Character development in song lyrics

¶ … song: Romeo

"From forth the fatal loins of these two foes

A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life"

-Prologue, Romeo and Juliet

The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare is not a tragedy in the conventional sense. It is about two young people, not a great man with a fatal flaw, who both fall tragically in love. The tragedy of their love is not that they do not love one another enough -- far from it, they are passionately in love and sacrifice everything for one another. The tragedy is that society denies them the ability to fully express their love, because of the fact they come from warring families. This is why I have chosen as the 'theme song' of Romeo to be "A Time for Us," as sung by Andy Williams. Romeo passionately believes in the power of love, and believes that love will conquer all. When he believes that his beloved Juliet has died, he no longer wants to live, and instead Romeo hopes that he will be united with Juliet in the hereafter.

"A time for us, some day there'll be/When chains are torn by courage born of a love that's free/A time when dreams so long denied can flourish/As we unveil the love we now must hide." The lyrics of the Andy Williams song reflect a highly idealized conception of secret love, a love that can sustain itself with courage and determination, even if the world cries out to deny that love. In Romeo and Juliet, both lovers are initially confronted with very negative or conventional representations of love. Romeo is continually chided by his friend Mercutio that love is an illusion. "If love be rough with you, be rough with love; / Prick love for pricking, and you beat love down" (I.4). Juliet is chided by her mother and father because she is unwilling to marry. "It is an honour that I dream not of" she responds to a suggestion that she look at Paris with a willing eye (I.3). In the eyes of the older generation, marriage should be a decision governed by Juliet's age and practicality, and her father Old Capulet even goes so far as to arrange a marriage with Paris, without his daughter's consent.

However, when Romeo and Juliet meet, they immediately court one another: the fact that they are utterly 'simpatico' together is embodied in the fact that their words take the form of a sonnet, perfectly complimenting each other's emotions as Romeo begs Juliet for a kiss. Until now, Romeo had been pining for cold Rosalind, a woman who had elected to join a nunnery rather than marry. When he meets Juliet, a living woman rather than a remote ideal, Romeo finally understands what true love is about. He is undeterred by the fact that she is the daughter of a family that is the sworn enemy of his own, and goes to look at her as she stands on the balcony of her home.

Romeo knows, as Juliet reminds him, that he is likely to be murdered if found in the orchard. But because he believes with such great certainty that love will conquer all, he does not care. So long as he is with his beloved, he feels that the possibility of death does not matter. In the words of the Andy Williams song: "And with our love, through tears and thorns/We will endure as we pass surely through every storm / A time for us, some day there'll be a new world/A world of shining hope for you and me." When Juliet says: "If they do see thee, they will murder thee," Romeo responds, brash with love: "Alack, there lies more peril in thine eye / Than twenty of their swords: look thou but sweet, / And I am proof against their enmity... I have night's cloak to hide me from their sight;" (II.2). Romeo says that he would rather die than not see Juliet. His rashness, even when truly in love, demonstrates his conviction in the sentiment of the Williams song -- even through tears and thorns, and the storm of family hatred, true love is eternal. Love is protective in Romeo's eyes, and so long as Juliet is there, he has nothing in the world to fear.

Of course, the question arises: why is the Andy Williams song a perfect theme for Romeo and not Juliet? Juliet, in contrast with Romeo, is more intelligent in her love than Romeo, and although she loves him, she does not as fully embrace his absolute belief that love will make everything come out right. "Though I joy in thee, / I have no joy of this contract to-night: /

It is too rash, too unadvised, too sudden; / Too like the lightning, which doth cease to be / Ere one can say 'It lightens'" (II.2). Unlike Romeo, Juliet has a sense that suddenly throwing one's self into love carries with it a dangerous potential for excess, as well as an exhilarating glee for the lovers. When she and Romeo spend their first night together, and Romeo must steal away, Romeo offers not to go, and says he will risk death for her once again: "Let me be ta'en, let me be put to death;/I am content, so thou wilt have it so" (III.5). But Juliet refuses and sadly responds as Romeo vaults out of her window: "O God, I have an ill-divining soul! / Methinks I see thee, now thou art below, / As one dead in the bottom of a tomb:/Either my eyesight fails, or thou look'st pale" (III.5).

Of course, the plot of play validates Juliet's cautious view of love more so than Romeo's. Romeo tries to broker a peace between the Capulets and the Montagues, but all this succeeds in accomplishing is Mercutio and Tybalt both being slain, and Romeo being banished from Verona. Juliet, to avoid entering into a bigamous, arranged marriage with Paris, feigns death, fearfully taking a potion given to her by Friar Lawrence. "My dismal scene I needs must act alone" (IV.3). She does not do so without careful questioning and consideration -- unlike Romeo whom, without thinking, decides to kill himself when he believes that Juliet is dead.

Clearly, love is not enough -- violence destroys the love between Romeo and Juliet, as embodied in the street fighting that takes place. Even well-meaning and loving adults like Friar Lawrence and Juliet's Old Nurse unintentionally act to bring about the death of the two lovers. Friar Lawrence encourages Romeo to marry Juliet prematurely, in hopes of mending the rift between the families, and creates the scheme that ultimately results in the young couple's demise. The Nurse encourages Juliet to marry Romeo, but just as quickly tells Juliet to ignore the marriage when it appears that Juliet's parents will insist their daughter marry Paris or be thrown into the street.