- For all of Romeo’s talk, he has difficulty living in a new way as a result of Juliet’s love. Having watched his friend Mercutio die at Tybalt’s hand, Romeo says, “O Sweet Juliet, / Thy beauty hath made me effeminate / And in my temper softened valor’s steel.” This is some next-level excuse making: something akin to Adam’s hatchet job on Eve in the garden of Eden. Romeo has been nothing but passive for the entire play. He hasn’t played an active role in the feud. It’s unclear how Juliet is to blame for his blundering attempt at making peace with Tybalt. At least he’s now participating in the life of the community instead of wholly removing himself from it. Juliet’s effects, such as they are, point Romeo in the right direction, not the wrong one. He gets this wrong.
- Since the prologue’s reference to “fatal loins” and “star-crossed lovers”, the play HAS had a deterministic vibe. The play’s plot has already been decided. What will be will be. Thus, when Romeo kills Tybalt, he cries out, “O, I am fortune’s fool!” He sees himself subservient to an impersonal force that controls his actions.
- According to Benvolio, Romeo should be worrying about the Prince, not Fortune. It is the Prince’s judgment that that will “doom” Romeo to “death.” The first scene of this act ends with the Prince renouncing mercy: “I will be deaf to pleading and excuses; / Nor tears nor prayers shall purchase out abuses.” The Prince talks a good game, but the end of the play testifies to his ineffectiveness at carrying out his threats.
- Juliet continues to idolize Romeo. After hearing about Tybalt’s death at Romeo’s hands and the Nurse’s curses on Romeo, Juliet says, “Upon [Romeo’s] brow shame is ashamed to sit. / For ’tis a throne where honor may be crowned / Sole monarch of the universal earth.” This is another statement of hierarchy. For her, Romeo is the ultimate earthly authority.
- For all his desires to escape the mores of Verona, Romeo thinks even less of the rest of Italy. He tells the Friar that banishment his a fate worse than death: “There is no world without Verona walls, / But purgatory, torture, hell itself.” Why? “Heaven is here, / where Juliet lives.” He has refigured the world into heaven and hell through the power of his love.
- The Friar urges Romeo to see his banishment as grace, not law. The law demands Romeo’s death. The Prince has shown grace in merely banishing him. This is interesting because in the 1559 Book of Common Prayer, “grace” and “justice” are joined together in the following prayer: “That it may please thee to blesse and keepe the Magistrate, geuing them grace to execute Justice.” The Prince’s grace here has not executed strict justice on Romeo. Does this connection imply the Prince isn’t doing his job, or is the Friar right to commend the Prince’s actions to Romeo?
- The Friar too goes after Romeo’s manhood when Romeo threatens suicide. “Art thou a man?” he cries. “Unseemly woman in a seeming man!” This question of appropriate action and gender is also connected with hierarchy.
- It’s Juliet’s turn now to invoke Fortune and the impressions of an “ill-devining soul!” In what sense is the fate of this play orthodox Christian teaching about God’s sovereignty, and in what sense are the invocations of fate a shadow doctrine of an impersonal force that rules the world? The “fate” and “fortune” governing the play are analogous to the romantic love that imitates but cannot replace the doctrine of love’s true mystery which points to Christ and the church. There is a secret providence at work in the world. It is not mere fortune. Romantic love is an amazing mystery. It is not an end in and of itself, however.
- The act ends with competing lords. Juliet has sworn allegiance to Romeo. Capulet demands subservience to him: Juliet will marry who he tells her to marry. The consequences for disobedience? The same as Romeo’s: banishment. “Get thee to church a Thursday / Or never after look me in the face.”
The act is thus filled with competing authorities: the Prince, the church, and the family (with at least three groups duking it out in this particular institution). An authority’s ultimate power rests in judgment: who can levy the greatest punishment? The Prince and family threaten banishment. The power of heaven and hell, typically the domain of the church, only get invoked by Romeo to describe life without Juliet.
Experiments in Criticism 