BY PAUL S. FIDDES
Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet begins like a comedy, with the first half of the play filled by light-hearted banter, but it ends as a tragedy with the waste of two young lives. Viewed through the lens of the modern ‘restorative justice’ movement, the situation cries out for a restorative justice process throughout most of the play, and shows the first steps being taken in this direction only at the very end. For the story is of two families alienated from one another, nursing ancient grievances which they feel to be real, but which are never actually spoken about and faced openly together.
The feuding families are the Montagues and the Capulets, and the play begins with a street fight in Verona between members of the two households. It is halted by the intervention of the ruler, Prince Escalus, who warns all concerned that they will pay with their lives for any further disturbance of the peace of the city. Romeo, only son of the Montagues, is hopelessly in love with a girl called Rosaline, and his friends Mercutio and Benvolio mock his obsession with her. Nevertheless they persuade him to go to a masked ball at the Capulet’s house where she will be a guest and he will be able to see her. Instead he meets and falls deeply in love with Juliet, the only daughter of the Capulets, and she likewise falls in love with him. Her fiery cousin Tybalt recognizes Romeo and is outraged, taking his presence as an insult to the Capulet family. The fact that the ancient grudge between the families could be resolved if only they would talk about it openly together is underlined by the fact that when Tybalt tells Capulet that Romeo is there, he makes light of it. Tybalt however is deeply offended and the seeds of tragedy have been sown. Juliet laments that the families cannot get beyond the surface appearance of a name to see the true person underneath: ‘O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo? … What’s in a name? That which we call a rose/ By any other word would smell as sweet.’
The very next afternoon, with the help of Juliet’s nurse, Romeo and Juliet are secretly married by Friar Lawrence. They rightly think that at this moment a liaison between the two families would not be welcomed. Not more than an hour after the secret marriage, Tybalt picks a quarrel with Romeo, but Romeo answers him peacefully, assuring him that he loves him for a reason that he cannot yet disclose. Mercutio is astounded by what he considers a ‘vile submission’ by Romeo, and enters himself into a duel with Tybalt. Attempting to stop the fight, Romeo steps between them and Tybalt takes the opportunity to stab Mercutio with his sword, who dies as he had lived with a pun on his lips: ‘Ask for me tomorrow and you will find me a grave man’.
Romeo had gained a new perspective, viewing the feud as insignificant in light of his love for Juliet, and he had been anxious to restore the broken relationships. But, ingrief and guilt at the death of his friend, he relapses back into the old view of the situation. Crying ‘O sweet Juliet, thy beauty has made me effeminate’, he challenges Tybalt and kills him. From this point, from a failure to talk together about an ancient grudge and the injuries done in the past on both sides, there is a straight road to disaster. For the Prince banishes Romeo instantly from Verona on pain of death, and after spending a single night of passionate love with his bride, he escapes to Mantua.
Juliet now learns that her parents are insisting, against her will, on marrying her to a suitor they approve of, Count Paris. Even her nurse, who knows about the secret marriage to Romeo, tries to persuade her to fall in with her parent’s intentions. Trapped in a patriarchal system, frantic with worry and fear, she turns to Friar Lawrence, who devises a plan: he gives her a drug which will make her appear dead, so she will be interred in the family mausoleum. He will send a letter to Romeo telling him of the trick, and he will come to the tomb and take her away to Mantua when she awakens from her drugged sleep. Unfortunately the messenger is delayed, and Romeo hears only about her supposed death. He procures poison for himself and goes to Juliet’s tomb where he kills Paris who has come to pay his respects, and who attacks Romeo when he thinks the tomb is being violated. Inside, finding Juliet apparently dead Romeo poisons himself; Juliet wakes to find him dead beside her and kills herself with Romeo’s dagger. The two families, now united in grief, finally vow to end the feud.
In various ways a lack of communication between all concerned has precipitated the catastrophe, and the Prince rightly commands that they must ‘go hence to have more talk of these sad things’. Though too late to avert the tragedy, from a modern viewpoint we can say that they now embark on a process of restorative justice and seek to find a way forward together into the future.
Each family will honour the victim of the other, Montague raising a golden statue of Juliet and Capulet doing the same for Romeo. So the story of Romeo and Juliet will be remembered as long as Verona lasts. They have lost their lives to unresolved grievances, but have left a story behind them which will hopefully prevent any renewal of the feud, and which will have a wider effect on the whole community which has been caught up in the families’ dispute.
Revd Professor Paul S. Fiddes Author of More Things in Heaven and Earth: Shakespeare, Theology, and the Interplay of Texts (University of Virginia Press, 2022)
If you live in or near Oxford and would like to join us for a charity performance of Romeo and Juliet, Wild Goose Theatre Company are allowing us to sell tickets to their dress rehearsal in aid of The Mint House: https://www.minthouseoxford.co.uk/events/shakespeare2023