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We’re going to spoil this Recap for you. In The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare’s great theme is…

Mmm. On second thought. No. We can’t do it. You’ll just have to give us another 60 seconds.

Video Transcription:

You don’t even need my help on this one. Romeo and Juliet’s biggest, most obvious theme is … Let’s see if we agree. Stay tuned.

Love.

You knew that was the answer, didn’t you?

But love is a little simple. Let’s call Romeo and Juliet’s most compelling theme the power of love.

Think about what love gets people to do in this play: It compels them to deny their families, to forget their friends, to confront their enemies. It pits them against their own community. Love even invites death.

OK, and here’s something that’s even cooler about this theme. It’s represented not just in the action of the play—the way people act once love has them in its grip—but even in the language of the play.

What is love according to Shakespeare? Is it magic? Is it death? Is it a passion that can’t be resisted? Well, yes. It’s all those things. It’s even a kind of religion. Remember when Romeo and Juliet first meet? Shakespeare uses words like shrine, sin, and devotion.

And Romeo says:
“For saints have hands that pilgrims’ hands do touch,
And palm to palm is holy palmers’ kiss.”

In fact, it may be Shakespeare’s language that gets his theme across best of all. The true power of love lies in the fact that it simply can’t be captured in words.