Essay on Loyalty in Romeo and Juliet

What is loyalty? Loyalty is devotion and faithfulness to a nation, cause, philosophy, country, group, or person. Most times, it would be a devotion to a group, like a family. Loyalty is something you need to earn, and the only way to earn it is to be supportive. Approving of your family’s beliefs and actions is an effective way to build up loyalty and trust within the group. Talking out problems is another efficient way to build cohesiveness. So, families must be supportive to gain loyalty within the family. 

Truthfully, love is another way to earn loyalty, but there are many downfalls to it. One reason being supportive is effective is because support from families is more important than love. In Romeo and Juliet, Capulet doesn’t love Juliet and only wants Juliet to marry Paris for the status and wealth. “Sir Paris, I will make a desperate tender of my child’s love.” (3.4.14) Capulet is out of touch with Juliet, and that she and her family are distant. Juliet isn’t loyal to her family because her parents don’t support her decisions. Additionally, Romeo and Juliet’s love for each other is sweet but had deadly results. “Be but sworn my love and I’ll no longer be a Capulet” (2.2.35) The love they own overcomes their loyalty to their families. Juliet abandoned her family, and she ended up living for Romeo and died because he died. This shows how love can be destructive and if Juliet’s actions were more supported by her family, she might not have felt the need to rebel against her parents and marry Romeo without her family’s permission. So, as you can tell, love is present but hurts the cause of family loyalty at all. 

Quotes from Romeo and Juliet show that the supportive parents are the protagonists and the non-supportive parents are the antagonists. “For this alliance may so happy prove to turn your households’ rancor to pure love. (2.3.90) Friar Lawrence agrees to the marriage because it might unite the families. In my life, when I decided to stop playing baseball, my parents didn’t say I couldn’t, and they supported that decision too. This could make a difference in the tension within families. Also, when I went to San Marin, my parents were supportive, and it makes me happy that they approve of my decisions.

In the article, the author talks about why children are loyal to their families. “I came to see a much deeper reason for these children’s resistance.” The reason children don’t abandon their families is because of the parents’ supportiveness. Therefore, Romeo and Juliet is a good example of showing this correlation. The Capulets don’t about Juliet’s opinions, and that is the main difference between the Montagues and the Capulets. 

Another reason why support gains loyalty within the family is because if families aren’t loyal, then it will create conflict within the family and could spread to others. Unsupportive parents can do more than ignore their child’s interests. As shown in Romeo and Juliet, they have the power to kill their children. The only reason Romeo and Juliet got together is because Juliet was forced to marry Paris, and since her parents weren’t changing their minds, she rebelled against them and marry Romeo. Then, since Juliet didn’t want them to find out, she took chances that ended up killing her. “Ye, noise? Then I’ll be brief. O happy dagger, This is thy sheath. There rust and let me die. (5.3.180) Juliet’s family wasn’t supportive of her being with Romeo, and the conflict led to her death.

Juliet’s father, Capulet, might have been more evil than Lady Capulet because Capulet was much more commanding and powerful than his wife. In this quote, he is saying that since Juliet is such a disappointment and rebel, then Paris might change her. “Well, he may chance to do good on her. A peevish self-willed harlotry it is.” (4.3.1-16) The conflict is that her father doesn’t care about Juliet’s needs and only thinks of his own. He thinks since Juliet stood up to him a little in saying she doesn’t want to marry Paris, she is a complete disaster and disappointment.  “Too often we confuse loyalty with unconditional acceptance of family dysfunction.” This couldn’t be truer because if your parents aren’t accepting and supportive, then there will be a dysfunction.

As stated above, unsupportive parents can have drastic effects on people outside of their family. If Romeo and Juliet never got married, none of the problems in the play would have happened. “Alas, my liege, my wife is dead tonight. Grief of my son’s exile hath stopped her breath.” (5.3.225) Lady Montague’s death is a representation of how Romeo and Juliet’s relationship affects the rest of the families lives. Lady Montague died because of the stress put on by Romeo, and his rash decisions with Juliet. This shows that the nature of their relationships has affected families. An honest romantic relationship can create a stronger bond within families. “It is not intended, however, to choke off family change and growth.” When family loyalty isn’t present, then it could create problems, however, families should talk conflicts out, like the Capulets.

In families, loyalty isn’t present, then the conflict could be much deeper than arguments

When families have less happiness, then the conflict risk or tensions could rise. Also, they might be less able to communicate their problems, creating an endless circle. This is shown not only in Romeo and Juliet but every non-supportive family now. So as stated above, non supporting families can have drastic effects on the family. Loyalty sprouts from supportiveness.