Theme of Intentions in Romeo and Juliet, Unbroken and in the Real World (Essay Example)

One of the things that I believe are most underappreciated in our everyday lives is our intentions. If one has good intentions and strives for positive outcomes, good things will come. If one has bad intentions and wants bad things to happen, bad things will happen, but not the bad things that they want. It is not always this simple for good intentions can have bad outcomes. The theme, “not all good intentions have good outcomes” is present more than we think, it is present in Romeo and Juliet, Unbroken and in the real world, throughout history. 

The first example of this theme being present in a literary work is in Romeo and Juliet. Friar Lawrence encourages and even helps the young lovers marry because he believes it will resolve conflict between the two feuding families. For this alliance may so happy prove. To turn your households’ rancor to pure love.” (Shakespeare II.iii.91-92). His intentions are well-meant but they do not turn out the same way and ends up being the first domino that fell leading to the eventual death of Romeo and Juliet. “I am the greatest, able to do least, Yet most suspected, as the time and place. Doth make against me, of this direful murder; And here I stand, both to impeach and purge Myself condemned and myself excused.” (Shakespeare V.iii.223-227). 

The second literary work referenced in the introduction is Unbroken. This historical fiction story contains three examples of the theme. One of the men stranded in the raft, Francis Macnamara (Mac), becomes overcome with hunger and impulsively eats all of the men’s chocolate rations. He was only wishing to feed his hunger, not to cause the other men to starve, or to cause other problems. Unfortunately, he could not just satisfy his hunger. “Louie decided to divvy up breakfast, a single square of chocolate. He untied the raft pocket and looked in. All of the chocolate was gone. He looked around the rafts. No chocolate, no wrappers. His gaze paused on Mac. The sergeant looked back at him with wide, guilty eyes. The realization that Mac had eaten all of the chocolate rolled hard over Louie.”(Hillenbrand 100). I believe that the guilt placed upon Mac for eating the chocolate was a factor in his early death. 

The final source of this theme being present is in our world. Throughout history, this theme has been not only shown, but been a factor in shaping the world today. The Hawley-Smoot Tariff was meant to end the Great Depression by raising import taxes to protect American businesses and farmers. It unfortunately did none of those things. The tariff started a worldwide depression because no Americans were buying foreign goods, meaning that the rest of the world lost a major market. These are not the only examples of this theme being shown in these sources.