Fire Symbolism in Romeo and Juliet Essay Example

Throughout the play, Romeo and Juliet, the characters’ actions are more likely to be based on strong emotions and less on logic. This leads to extremely awful results. In the play Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare uses fire as a symbol of intense passion to convey how fierce feelings can lead to tragic outcomes.

At the beginning of the play in Act I Scene I, the Capulets and Montagues start a fight because they have a long rivalry between them. The prince breaks up the battle and tells the two families to “quench the fire” of their “pernicious rage”(line 79). In this scene, the characters from opposite houses are fighting because of their rage and anger at each other for being in the opposite house. The prince describes this rivalry as fire that needs to be put out. He then proceeds to threaten the two houses that if they start any conflict again they will be killed. A consequence of the heated antagonism of the two houses is the upsetting outcome of the threat. If there had been no acute anger from the members of the two houses, they wouldn’t have started a fight that led to a troublesome threat. Here, the anger at each other because of the rivalry causes the upsetting outcome of the threat from the prince enforcing that intensive emotions lead to tragic outcomes. Another example of this is in Act III Scene I when Romeo challenges Tybalt to a duel because Tybalt has killed Mercutio. Romeo is angry and proclaims “away to heaven respective lenity”(line 121) and that his “fire-eyed fury” will now be his “conduct”(line 122). In this quote, Romeo’s fury is compared to fire, which is fierce and burning, to show how angry he is. Consequently, Romeo forgets about logic and mercy and allows his anger to lead him into challenging Tybalt to fight with him. Romeo's fire-eyed fury is a symbol of the substantial rage that is overwhelming him. Because of his fiery anger, Romeo is impulsive and ends up killing Tybalt which leads to the tragic outcome of him being banished and not being able to see Juliet anymore. In this scenario, the intense passion that Romeo is feeling is immense resentment for Tybalt which causes the tragic outcome of his banishment. Frair’s words in Act III Scene III further enforce how fierce emotions can lead to tragic outcomes. During this scene, Romeo tries to kill himself. After all, he believes that banishment is the same as death because he can’t see Juliet anymore. Frair stops him and compares him to the “powder in a skilless soldier's flask” that is “set afire by thine own ignorance”, which is a stupid soldier who kills himself accidentally by causing his gunpowder to explode. Here, Romeo is not thinking logically because of his anger at his banishment. This angry heat is what causes Romeo to try and kill himself. If the Frair wasn't there to stop him, Romeo would have killed himself causing yet another tragic outcome of fire as powerful feelings. 

Besides extreme anger, Romeo and Juliet's intense love can also cause tragedy. When Romeo first meets Juliet in Act I Scene V, he is immediately drawn to her and falls into a strong attraction. He says, that “she doth teach the torches to burn bright”(line 44) and that he has “ne’er saw true beauty till this night.”(line 53). This quote shows how Romeo believes that she is so beautiful that she shines brighter than a torch. After Romeo and Juliet meet, they discover the tragic news that they are from rival houses. Furthermore, if  Romeo had not suddenly got attracted and fallen in love with Juliet because of her beauty, they wouldn’t have known they were enemies. Romeo’s profound attraction to Juilet, because she burns brightly like a torch, causes him to go and meet her leading to the troublesome news that they are in adversary houses. Another example of their passionate fondness causing trouble is in Act II Scene VI when the Frair is marrying the two of them. In lines 9-11, Friar describes their relationship “Like fire and powder” and how easily it is for them to explode “as they kiss”. The Friar is warning them about how “violent delights have violent ends”. Nevertheless, this becomes true because Romeo and Juliet were delighted to be married but do end up dying because of their marriage. Again, the use of fire shows that their passionate love leads to disaster when everything starts to go wrong because of their secret marriage. Romeo asking the apothecary for poison is another example of the use of ardent heat as a symbol leading to tragedy. Romeo wants the poison to be “As violently as hasty powder fired” so that he can die quickly when he goes to see Juliet. This poison ends up causing the greatest tragedy of the whole play which is both Romeo and Juliet dying. Here, Romeo is acting on his deep devotion for Juilet and therefore drinks the poison to kill himself. This in turn shows how his powerful emotion of love causes disaster.