Theme of Virtue in Romeo and Juliet Essay Example

Being virtuous isn’t a badge that you can earn, but it is a habit that can be practiced. Living a virtuous life requires that a person has many good qualities. However, having too much or too little of a virtue would have an opposite effect. These qualities of a person aren’t necessarily affected by him/herself, but many other people can affect it. In the play, Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare shows how an imperfect balance of virtues leads to the tragedy of the characters. Virtues like love, responsibility, and patience need balance for a person’s life to be successful. All virtues are also metaphysically connected, so if one virtue changes in a person, others can be affected. The characters in Romeo and Juliet never had practiced these virtues the right way, and it led to their struggles.

Love can be considered a virtue because showing love can lead to happiness and bonding, but it is different from other forms of virtues due to the fact that love usually isn’t applied generally. A person doesn’t love their parents the same way they love other people, and that’s fine, but it’s the amount of love you give to that particular person, compared to other people, that can determine a person’s life. This is the case for Romeo and Juliet, where Romeo gave so much love to Juliet that Romeo’s love for other people lessened quite a bit. This is especially true when he killed Paris in the tomb. He didn’t give a second thought about killing him, since the only thing in his mind was Juliet. When Tybalt met with Romeo right after he got married, Romeo claimed that he wanted to love Tybalt as a brother. This isn’t true. He did this because he loves Juliet, not because he has empathy for Tybalt. This is proven in the next scene, where Romeo kills Tybalt in cold blood due to Mercutio’s death. He didn’t hesitate before the kill, did he? This theory is also applied when people give less love to others, obviously. Tybalt pretty much hates all Montagues, and he doesn’t have a great relationship with Capulet. This leads to much hate and anger, and his life is much less virtuous. If someone actually wants to have a decent life, they need to have a balance of love between the people who are important to them, and Shakespeare accurately shows what happens when there is not enough or too much of it.

A person’s natural reaction to their mistakes is to somehow compensate. This is great, but the problem comes when the person thinks it is going to solve everything. Also, compensations themselves could be mistakes. At the ending of the play, Montague and Capulet agree to make gold statues in honor of Romeo and Juliet, as if the gold statues fix everything they did wrong. It is almost obvious that they don’t really blame themselves for the deaths of the lovers, and that compensation will make everything right. Like love, balance is needed when making compensations, but the quality of the compensations matters more than the quantity. In this example, making gold statues is more of a quantitative compensation because the gold statues don’t really mean anything, except as a constant reminder of Romeo and Juliet’s death. This understanding of the quality of compensation is important because it shows how much a person actually cares about the mistakes they made. This is why Capulet and Montague will keep on making mistakes and therefore have a less honorable life. Compensations don’t only affect the person making it, but it also affects other people. As compensation for Mercutio and Tybalt’s death, Prince decided to banish Romeo. Notice here that Prince wasn’t compensating for his mistakes, but he is compensating for others. In this case, the quality of the compensation was garbage and therefore Prince’s sense of ethics was affected, and it led to Romeo and Juliet’s struggle in life. When a person shows that he/she can be responsible for their own mistakes, then trust and love will form between that person and other people, leading to a better life. 

The idea of patience is widely discussed throughout the play. Patience is definitely a virtue, and Shakespeare shows that impatience can lead to tragedy. In the play, both Juliet and Friar Lawrence suggest that Romeo and Juliet’s love is “too rash, too unadvised, too sudden” but still went on with the wedding, and therefore rash decisions were made and death occurred. Capulet and Paris are very impatient with Juliet and Paris’s wedding, and therefore rash decisions were made and death occurred. Patience is a virtue because it allows people to make the best decisions, which will affect everyone for the better. However, Shakespeare also shows us that having too much patience can lead to tragedy. The Prince of Verona was pretty patient with the Capulets and Montagues throughout the play, since he didn’t really enforce any laws or bans on the Montagues and Capulets. That is, until death came in the form of Mercutio and Tybalt, and also Romeo and Juliet. Less deaths could have occurred if the Prince was less patient with them. I’m not suggesting that impatience is a virtue, but that patience needs balance, just like love and responsibility. Since the characters of Romeo and Juliet didn’t have a clear knowledge of the idea of being patient, lots of death took place in the city of Verona. 

Having a good and stable set of virtues can lead to a stable life. Just like dominos, if one virtue is affected, for good or for worse, other virtues are also affected. For example, a balance in your compensations to a person can lead to more love to that person. Since many of the characters’ qualities in Romeo and Juliet don’t fit the description, it’s no wonder that many of them live less virtuous lives. Their endings in death and tragedy should teach us a lesson about how important virtues are in our life.