Conflict and violence

How Shakespeare explores the feud, honour, violence and the conflict between love and hate across the text, and why it matters to the text's meaning.
Where it appears, the key quotations that show it, and different ways it can be interpreted.
Evidence from the beginning, middle and end of the text.
How to use the lesson's key quotations in an essay, with a short worked paragraph.
Key quotations: 'Two households, both alike in dignity', 'I hate the word, / As I hate hell, all Montagues, and thee', 'Your lives shall pay the forfeit of the peace', 'A plague o' both your houses!', 'fire-eyed fury be my conduct now', 'See, what a scourge is laid upon your hate'.
Conflict inside the Capulet family as well as between the houses, and the public brawls that frame the play.

What you need to know