The thematic significance of William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet represents the concept of death in life. Indeed, it sounds illogical to describe death as being part of life but for the characters in Shakespeare's tragedy, it perfectly describes their myopic existence for one another as they blindly go through the motions of life and death. "Ever since Romeo and Juliet, the notion of young lovers passionate enough to die for each other has been romanticized. And it's well known that adolescence is a time of extremes. During that confusing evolution from child to adult, teenagers die a dozen metaphorical deaths a day…" (Farr 108).

One might boldly suggest that the motivational factor behind Romeo and Juliet's passion was fueled by the notion of irrational love. The basis behind irrational love representing death to a man’s hopes and dreams reflects how life is in reality, how society lives day to day. Indeed, it can readily be argued that there is emotional despair in everyone’s world, effectively plotting and planning to disrupt the very aspirations they work so hard to achieve. Love is said to be a component of the common man's arsenal because as it turns to hate in the hopelessness of despair, it exudes the very essence of death that casts mortal man to his deepest chamber of disheartenment. Yet to have the ability to love is something that does not escape the young couple, for they do have the capacity to accept the grandeur that is love; while their worlds are not immersed in overwhelming obscurity that prevents them to feel the reality of life, they ultimately lose sight of the distinction between the gift of life and the curse of death. "With love's light wings did I o'er-perch these walls; For stony limits cannot hold love out, And what love can do that dares love attempt; Therefore thy kinsmen are no let to me" (Shakespeare 2;2).

The characters of Shakespeare's tragedy address the sadder side of reality, a side where aberration serves as the underlying conflict. Inasmuch as Romeo and Juliet's true love ultimately lures them into a premature death, one may readily argue that they completely lost sight of the one thing to which they both aspired. Indeed, it is a very erroneous existence to be associated with irrational love, for it is a false friend who does not promote one’s best interests, as it initially appears to do. It is no wonder, then, that senseless actions become associated with its presence, remaining at the forefront of irrational love's arsenal, in that it encourages Romeo and Juliet's desperation to relinquish precious life. Just when they come to believe they are within range of safety, irrational love pulls them out from underneath so that they fall into the bottomless void of death. "Let me be ta'en, let me be put to death; I am content, so thou wilt have it so" (Shakespeare 3;5).

Indeed, the presence irrational love represents the young couple's worst enemy, all the while masquerading as their best friend -- if only the characters of Shakespeare's tragedy realize that they have placed their trust in such a sham, that their realities and passions are being mocked and their dreams of love are never to truly materialize. Romeo and Juliet is as close to reality as it can be, effectively demonstrating how people grasp for things out of sheer desperation that present themselves as something else entirely, only to find that what is in store for the young couple is far more horrid than they ever dreamed. "There is no world without Verona walls, But purgatory, torture, hell itself. Hence-banished is banish'd from the world, And world's exile is death: then banished, Is death mis-term'd: calling death banishment, Thou cutt'st my head off with a golden axe, And smilest upon the stroke that murders me" (Shakespeare 3;3).

Analyzing the ultimate sacrifice made for love, one finds that the human condition is a regular consideration, in that humanity is constantly in question: Is Man strong or weak, good or evil, redeemed or condemned, honorable or chicken-hearted? The climate of the human condition is what spurs on a great many of these love-based fears that delve deep into the conscience of humanity. Indeed, Shakespeare achieves all this and more through his employment of Romeo and Juliet's characterization. How does the reader's interpretation alter the truth of conflict in these troubled characters? If the reader proves victorious at ascertaining the entire concept as a whole, while comprehending the connection of the detailed statement as compared with the story's absolute objective, what is left to be determined is that of the reader's personal judgment. If that judgment is of an implied manner by which the interpretation of life is skewed or one's attitude toward life is left as incomplete, then has the reader truly grasped the author's definition, or has he only incorporated his own interpretation which is opposing that of the playwright's?

It is sometimes a rather difficult task to ascertain when Shakespeare is truly incorporating human conflict into his tragic tale, inasmuch as it is often hidden behind the characters' quiet, pastoral façade. This is where the reader's skills of interpretation come into play, as people have such diverse understanding and opinions about what denotes human conflict. Some may contend that irrational love cannot reference superficiality, silliness or childishness in order for it to be considered meaningful, but that effectively rules out many of the most significant aspects of such emotional attachment. While some may interpret Romeo and Juliet as being superficial and immature in its content, the very application of the piece is not of an awkward or amateurish nature when it relates to the depths of irrational love and human conflict.

That Romeo is so completely taken aback by Juliet's beauty is yet another indication of how irrational love is more prevalent than true love. It appears as though he loves more with his eyes than with his heart, although one cannot deny the fact that both Romeo and Juliet believe they are within the throes of true love. However, a combination of youth and life's inexperience renders them unable to recognize the presence of irrational love. This irrational love addresses a love that is separate from true love; rather, it is an all-or-nothing love that both lives and dies upon one's overzealous sense of passion. "This bud of love, by summer's ripening breath, May prove a beauteous

flower when next we meet. Good night, good night! as sweet repose and rest Come to thy heart as that within my breast!" (Shakespeare 2;2).

What happens is not so much at issue as what did not happen as a means by which to salvage the all-consuming love the young couple has for each other, for this is what Romeo and Juliet fear the most: their inability to overcome outside influence that they perceive as a threat to their love. This irrational love that fills their minds and imitates true love represents the kind that always burns itself out, inasmuch as one cannot love someone more than life itself. Indeed, this concept proves too great a burden for the inexperienced lovers to perpetually sustain. "The story tells us the fights and rumbles between the two families until it all ends with the tragical death of both lovers" (Vandael k_romeo.htm). It can be readily argued that if one wants such passionate love to endure, one must discipline one's feelings on a more realistically human scale. The bottom line is that irrational love does not equate to true love, which is the only love that will prevail even in the midst of tragedy. Romeo and Juliet confuse their desire for irrational love with the staying power of true love, forever destined to end up on a collision course of mixed up feelings. It is at this point that Juliet completely gives herself up to Romeo and ultimately loses sight of everything rational. Romeo is just as eager to meld as one with Juliet as the two young and inexperienced lovers forge ahead with the naiveté of a newborn babe. In the final scene before consuming the sleeping potion, their defiant love is fully developed. Juliet, like Romeo, chooses death as the only means by which to triumph in love (Webster 127-28).

Shakespeare's extreme humanitarianism and devotion to the written word is significantly apparent within the literary boundaries of Romeo and Juliet. Not only does the reader assume the fact that the author is wholly attentive to his craft, but he also is privy to the notion that Shakespeare does not write about things that are not close to his heart. Romeo and Juliet is but one play in a long list of popular works that were derived directly from the author's seat of passion. In fact, it can readily be argued that Romeo and Juliet represents one of the most insightful and emotionally charged literary pieces that Shakespeare ever composed that focused upon the combined concepts of love and death. It is the aspect of death upon which the playwright capitalizes, inasmuch as the lamentable finale is instrumental in making the story more effective. That their deaths were their "only means to triumph in love" (Alexander 227) suggests that suicide was the only way to become victorious over their parents. "From the opening scenes of the play these two children of feuding families were destined to fall in love together and eventually die together" (Anonymous r&j4.shtml).

Romeo and Juliet possesses many important components of death that, if not taken in their direct context, will be overlooked by the average reader. It is essential to also look beyond the author's obvious intention with regard to the story's overall tragic meaning so as not to miss the grand but elusive subtleties. To be sure, Shakespeare's storytelling incorporated a significant amount of blatancy while also implying considerable obscurity, a dichotomy that has served to be the cornerstone of the author's works, which have successfully stood the test of time. Without question, Romeo and Juliet provides a unique insight into the relationships among the characters, the dual themes of love and death, as well as the overall structural content as it relates to the young couple's ultimate downfall. Also evident within the very essence of the story is the manner in which it illustrates the compassion inherent within such a master composer as William Shakespeare. "Romeo and Juliet opens with a prologue announcing the story's star-crossed young lovers will die and their deaths reconcile their warring clans. Shakespeare opens his story by boldly announcing the climax of its plot. How can he get away with this? Because the better the storyteller, the stronger their understanding that a story is a journey" (Johnson rjoutlin.htm).

Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet is indicative of the prolific writer's inherent ability to pursue even the most complex of concepts. Not unlike his myriad other works, Shakespeare effectively appeals to the innermost recesses of the reader's soul. "O my love! my wife! Death, that hath suck'd the honey of thy breath, Hath had no power yet upon thy beauty: Thou art not conquer'd; beauty's ensign yet Is crimson in thy lips and in thy cheeks, And death's pale flag is not advanced there" (Shakespeare 5;3). The author has a long history of reaching out and inviting his audience to experience with him the sometimes intense and often-expansive sense of being that is clearly portrayed within his works, and the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet's death is no exception.

Alexander, M. A Reader's Guide to Shakespeare. (Barnes &

Noble Books, 1980).

Anonymous. "Romeo & Juliet -- Star crossed lovers.,"

http://www.bignerds.com/shakespeare/r&j4.shtml

Anonymous. "William Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet.,"

Farr, Louise. "When young passion kills.," Redbook, vol.

183, (1994) : October, pp. 108(7).

Johnson, Bill. "The Power and Passion of Love and Hate: A

Shakespeare, William. Romeo and Juliet. (Dover, 1993).

Vandael, Saar. "Romeo & Juliet.," Ultra, (1997) :

http://www.antwerpen.be/p/ultra/1997/k_romeo.htm

Webster, Margaret. Shakespeare without Tears. (Putnam

Books, 1975).

*PG denotes page number taken from an online electronic source.

The Power and Passion of Love and Hate

A Review of Romeo and Juliet

by Bill Johnson

This review explores how Shakespeare structured this story and brought it to life.

Romeo and Juliet opens with a prologue announcing the story's star-crossed young lovers will die and their deaths reconcile their warring clans. Shakespeare opens his story by boldly announcing the climax of its plot. How can he get away with this? Because the better the storyteller, the stronger their understanding that a story is a journey. That a well-told story makes every step of that journey engaging and dramatic, more than the sum of its parts. Shakespeare can do what most inexperienced writers would be loathe to do -- give away his ending -- because what makes his story satisfying is a separate issue from the mechanical working out of its plot.

Further, by telling the audience the story's outcome, Shakespeare gives the story a poignancy it would lack otherwise. Knowing the lovers will die makes their every step toward that fate more deeply felt. This speaks to that issue of drama being not only the anticipation of action, but the feelings and thoughts that anticipation arouses.

Act One

Scene One

Act one opens with some of the men of Capulet clan meeting on the street men of the Montague clan. A brawl erupts, citizens join in, and the heads of the houses of Capulet and Montague come upon the scene. The Prince of the City arrives. His judgment, if there is more fighting, those guilty face death.

The dramatic purpose of this scene is to introduce that the families are bound together by an ancient blood feud that has grown to a lethal hatred. The scene does this through a measured introduction of characters that always gives the audience time to assimilate who a particular character is, their personality, and their relationships to other characters.

On a story level, because this story is about a conflict between love and hate, introducing the hate that fuels the story's action also sets the story into motion.

In the aftermath of the brawl, a question arises to the whereabouts of Romeo, a young Montague. It comes out that Romeo has been shedding tears and avoiding his kinsmen, but why is unclear. It is left to Benvolio to discover the cause of Romeo's distress.

Story note, the play opens with some hotly contested action that sets up the retribution further conflict will bring. There's clearly something at stake if anyone from either household engages in more brawling. Second, Romeo is mentioned in a way that it's made clear before his arrival he has issues he's dealing with. Because it's made clear he has an issue to resolve, he is a character who is "ripe" even before he appears. The story's audience anticipates some outcome to Romeo's issues.

Romeo enters as the others exit. It comes out quite quickly that Romeo is lovesick. "Out of her favor where I am in love."

Story note, the dramatic purpose here isn't to withhold that Romeo is lovesick.

Scene Two

The Senior Capulet enters, mentioning the ban on any further fighting and that it should be easy to uphold. Note how Capulet's words will come back to haunt him. During this scene, Count Paris reminds Capulet of his desire to wed Juliet, not quite fourteen. Capulet wishes that Juliet be older before she weds, but Paris presses his suit. Capulet invites him to a party that night, and they exit.

Story note, our introduction to Juliet offers a sense of who she is. Further, that Juliet's life is at a moment of potential transition, i.e., she's a "ripe" character.

Enter Benvolio and Romeo, still caught up in his love sickness. They immediately come upon a servingman sent out by Capulet to announce the party to those on a list he cannot read. He asks Romeo to read the list. It comes out that Rosalind, for whom Romeo pines, has been invited to this party. The servingman, grateful to Romeo for reading the list, invites him to the party as long as he's not a Montague.

Benvolio suggests Romeo go, that seeing some of the town's other beauties aid his recovery from his infatuation with Rosalind.

Romeo answers, defending Rosalind,

"One fairer than my love? The all-seeing sun

Ne'er saw her march since first the world begun."

Story note, note the speed and ease with which the author has set up Romeo to attend this party. He's even prodded into it by Benvolio. Since to advance the story means bringing together its principles, Shakespeare designs the play to make that happen.

Through these opening scenes the author maintains a measured, brisk, pace that introduces the principles and their issues. He now begins bringing them together in a way that escalates the story's dramatic tension. Romeo going to a party at the Montague's is inherently dangerous.

Scene 3

This scene opens with Lady Capulet, Juliet's nurse, and Juliet. The nurse is a folksy, humorous character. She ends a long answer to a simple question with the hope she live long enough to see Juliet marry. That becomes the lead in for Lady Capulet to broach her parents desire she consider marrying Paris. Juliet's answer,

"I'll look to like, if looking liking move.

But no more deep will I endart mine eye

Than your consent gives strength to make it fly."

They exit to attend the party.

Story note, again the measured, brisk pace of introducing characters and their issues.

Scene 4

When Romeo, Mercutio, and Benvolio enter the party, it is a masquerade, which means they do not have to announce who they are, nor are their faces visible. Romeo and Mercutio pause to talk about dreams, then Romeo says,

"I fear too early, for my mind misgives,

Some consequence yet hanging in the stars."

Something about this moment troubles him, but he goes forward.

Story note, to have Romeo and company pause before entering the party allows the drama over what will happen to build for the audience.

Scene 5

Capulet welcomes Romeo and company to the party. Romeo sees Juliet and exclaims,

"O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!"

Story note, Romeo falling in love with Juliet is the purpose of this scene, so it is not delayed. The question now becomes, what will be the outcome of this?

Many writers struggle because they build up to a moment of dramatic tension and then cut away. Shakespeare begins a scene with dramatic tension and quickly works to heighten that tension to a higher release point. It's a subtle point to understand, but a major fault for inexperienced writers is cutting away too early from the tension they create.

Tybalt, who crossed swords with Benvolio in scene one, hears Romeo's voice and sends for his sword. The elder Capulet orders Tybalt to stand aside, and even praises Romeo. Again, an act that will come back to haunt him. Tybalt protests, but Capulet rebukes him and orders him to not upset the party.

Romeo takes Juliet's hand and speaks to her,

"If I profane with my unworthiest hand,

This holy shrine, the gentle sin is this:

My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand

To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss."

Story note, it is the purpose of the scene to show how quickly and deeply Romeo falls in love with Juliet. It is not delayed, nor does it happen off stage.

Juliet is quickly swayed by Romeo's passion. Juliet,

"Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hands too much,

Which mannerly devotion shows in this;

For saints have hands that pilgrims' hands do touch,

And palm to palm is holy palmers' kiss.

Romeo kisses Juliet, then again.

Juliet's nurse calls her away, and Romeo learns from the nurse that Juliet is of the house of Capulet. Romeo,

"O dear account! My life is my foe's debt."

Again, the author maintains his brisk pace of setting up and advancing the story.

Juliet, on learning Romeo's identify, speaks,

"My only love sprung from my only hate!

Too early seen unknown, and known too late!

Prodigious birth it is to me

That I must love a loathed enemy."

This is the end of act one. All the major elements are in place. The hatred of the Montagues and Capulets. That Romeo is lovesick and in love with the idea of love. The fate of what will befall the next person to disturb the peace. And now Romeo and Juliet in love. The curtain closes on a note of high drama and feeling. The storyteller has brought the audience to this height of feeling by potently and directly putting into play the elements of the story. Very little is withheld for some far off plot effect or revelation. What's important to setting up and advancing this story has been presented in a clear, dramatic way with poetic grace and wit.

In a script written by a struggling storyteller, one could imagine the brawl that opens Romeo and Juliet being the climax of act one. Because Shakespeare had a clear sense of his story and how to escalate its drama, he doesn't delay setting out the conflict that fuels it. In this story, if Shakespeare writes that one character doesn't like another, one can surmise they will meet in either that scene or the next. Because of this arrangement of the story's elements, the play's audience develops a sense of trust the author won't introduce characters for no clear dramatic purpose, introduce information but delay its import.

When Romeo is introduced, he is already lovesick, and very poetic and direct about it. What he's feeling isn't withheld to create a revelation at the end of act one. Because it defines Romeo, it comes out in his opening scene. Further, the dramatic purpose of his introduction isn't to make a statement about the kind of character he is. It's to show a young man in the anguish of first love that will quickly be tested. This speaks again to that issue of trust that develops between a writer like Shakespeare and his audience, because one trust Shakespeare to move the story forward dramatically.

Further, Shakespeare writes every moment of every scene to bring out its drama, texture and poetic richness. If a character is angry, they speak of that; lovesick, they speak of their heavy heart; vengeful, they speak of the joys of vengeance. Each moment he creates heightens the drama of that particular moment. The struggling writer is forever doing what I call "describing the furniture." Describing characters, events, environments as if from rote, while the dramatic richness of what should be the heightened moments of a scene are held back for some revelation or plot effect. Shakespeare is both a master of the moment, the scene, the act, the story. He presents passionate, feeling characters in full flower, not as seeds set to bloom late in the fall.

Wonderful structure for the first act of a play.

Act Two

Scene One

The second act opens with a Chorus that posits the problem for Romeo and Juliet:

"Being held a foe, he may not have access."

But the Chorus also points out,

"But passion lends them power, time means, to meet,

Temp'ring extremities with extreme sweet."

Just as the opening lines of the chorus foretells the end of the story, this chorus foretells what will soon transpire in the second act. Again, with a master storyteller, it's the journey the story creates for its audience that is moving, not a withholding of the destination for dramatic effect.

The action of the scene opens with Romeo having two lines,

"Can I go forward when my heart is here?

Turn back, dull earth, and find they center out."

Romeo goes over a garden wall into the Capulet estate.

Story note, Romeo is a lovesick, rash, impulsive character. Shakespeare acts that out by having Romeo voice just two lines before going over the wall to return to Juliet. He doesn't think about it, doesn't discuss it with others, he simply acts on his feelings in a way that advances the story.

Many writers struggle because they spend a great deal of time setting up why characters will do something when they eventually meet. Shakespeare arranges for characters to meet, because in those moments, their goals and feelings are more naturally revealed.

Benvolio and Mercutio see Romeo go over the wall into the field by the Capulet's house. Both Benvolio and Mercutio realize there's no point in trying to find Romeo, who they think has gone off to find Rosalind.

Scene Two

Romeo goes forward and sees Juliet upon a balcony. He speaks of his love for her,

"Oh, that I were a glove upon that hand,

That I might touch that cheek."

Juliet speaks from her heart,

"O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?"

And,

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose

By any other name would smell as sweet."

Poetic language treasured through the ages.

More, Juliet speaking,

"My love as deep, The more I give to thee,

The more I have, for both are infinite."

And,

"Yet I should kill thee with much cherishing.

Good night, good night. Parting is such sweet

sorrow

That I shall say "Good Night" till it be morrow."

Of what can one add to such beautiful language? Spoken in the moment, from the heart, to the heart. Again, these are scenes written from the inside of the dramatic moments they bring to life. They are not words chosen to describe a girl on a balcony, or a young man standing below.

Scene Three

Romeo meets with Friar Lawrence and asks that he perform the marriage to Juliet. Friar Lawrence chides Romeo, that he was so recently lovesick over Rosalind. But he agrees to the marriage because it would end the feud between the two clans.

Romeo, about the marriage,

"Oh, let us hence. I stand on sudden haste."

Friar Lawrence,

"Wisely and slow. They stumble that run fast."

Romeo meets Juliet and arranges their marriage. Again, the story is always advancing forward.

Scene Four

Mercutio and Benvolio wonder about Romeo, and think he's still mad in love with Rosalind. It comes out that Tybalt has sent some kind of challenge to Romeo's father, possibly a challenge to Romeo to a duel.

The nurse comes upon the scene with a message for Romeo from Juliet, but first comes a comic exchange between the nurse and Mercutio. It varies the pace of the story. Romeo asks the nurse to have Juliet meet him at the cell of Friar Lawrence to be married.

Scene Five

Juliet waits impatiently for the nurse, who returns but delays offering the message from Romeo to instead offer a list of her aches and pains. Hearing that all she need do to be married to Romeo is meet him at Friar Lawrence's cell, Juliet is ecstatic.

Scene Six

Romeo and Juliet meet at the Friar's cell. They leave with the Friar to be married.

Friar,

"Come, come with me, and we will make short work,

For, by your leaves, you shall not stay alone

Till Holy Church incorporate two in one."

Story note, the preceding four scenes have all been brief, focused, and have quickly advanced the story. Because the story is not about the details of how Romeo and Juliet get married, Shakespeare does not dwell on those scenes Once a scene has fulfilled its dramatic purpose of advancing the story in a dramatic way, it's over.

This scene ends Act Two. The act answers the question, can Romeo and Juliet be together? It also leaves the question, will they be able to be together to open the Third Act. It's important that a storyteller be able to see how far this second act has advanced the story at a measured, brisk pace, even while it left open one question to draw the audience back into the third act. Many writers struggle because they withhold and delay a great deal of their story to create a single, powerful revelation. Shakespeare, however, made the journey of the story itself a revelation, with this question at the end of the act something that adds to the story's drama.

Act Three

Scene One

The intensity of the story heightens with the opening scene of Act Three. Benvolio and Mercutio come upon Tybalt. They taunt each other, and then Romeo arrives on the scene. Tybalt challenges Romeo to a duel, which Romeo refuses, hinting that he and Tybalt have no cause for quarrel no.,

"And so, good Capulet, which name I tender

As dearly as mine own, be satisfied."

Romeo's words infuriate Mercutio, who draws his sword and challenges Tybalt. Tybalt mortally wounds Mercutio. Romeo responds,

"...Tybalt, that an hour

Hath been my cousin! Oh, sweet Juliet,

Thy beauty hath made me effeminate

And in my temper softened valor's need."

Tybalt returns and again challenges Romeo. Romeo slays Tybalt.

The Prince is immediately upon the scene, with the heads of the clans Capulet and Montague. For his part in Tybalt's death, the Prince exiles Romeo from Verona.

That ends the scene.

Scene Two

Juliet awaits Romeo, when the nurse enters with news of his banishment. Juliet speaks of killing herself over her grief at the loss of Romeo,

"I'll to my wedding bed

And death, not Romeo, take my maidenhead."

The nurse promises to find a way to bring Romeo to her.

Scene Three

Friar Lawrence tells Romeo he is banished, thinking it a good end to a bad situation. Romeo feels only his grief over the fated loss of Juliet. The nurse arrives with news of Juliet, that she grieves deeply the loss of Romeo. Plans are made that Romeo will come to Juliet, and that the Friar will arrange for them to leave Verona together.

Scene Four

Count Paris approaches Capulet and pushes for his marriage to Juliet. Capulet gives in to a marriage within three days.

Story note, the dramatic purpose of this scene is to escalate the pressure on Juliet.

Shakespeare introduces characters when they have a dramatic purpose in the story. For example, he introduced Count Paris earlier in a scene where he asks for the hand of Juliet. That scene serves the dramatic purpose of showing that Juliet being considered for an arranged marriage. His new proposal escalates the drama around whether she can be with Romeo. Friar Lawrence, on the other hand, only enters the story when he has a dramatic purpose to serve, arranging for the marriage of Romeo and Juliet. He's not simply introduced earlier as a background character, because that would serve no dramatic purpose. Many writers struggle because they use the opening scenes of their plays to introduce characters whose dramatic purpose in the story only becomes clear later.

Scene Five

As another day dawns, Romeo and Juliet prepare to separate.

Juliet,

"Then, window, let day in, and let life out."

Romeo,

"Farewell, farewell, one kiss and I'll descend."

Juliet has a premonition of Romeo's death, which frightens her. Romeo departs, and Juliet's mother comes on the scene. She vows to Juliet that when Romeo is exiled, someone will be sent to kill him. When Juliet is told of the plan she marry Count Paris, she counters that it is only Romeo she will wed.

Juliet's father refuses to hear why she resists marrying Count Paris. He exits. Juliet's mother refuses to listen to Juliet as well, and also exits. Juliet sends word to her parents she's going to see Friar Lawrence to seek absolution. Her final words,

"If all else fail, myself have power to die."

In this scene Juliet shows herself to be a character willing to die rather than submit to her parents concerning the marriage to Count Paris. By speaking these words to end Act Three, the audience is cued to Juliet's dramatic dilemma and one solution, and drawn back to the next act to find the answer. Another powerful, well-developed Act.

Act Four

Scene One

Count Paris visits Friar Lawrence to arrange his marriage to Juliet. He explains her reluctance arising from her grief over Tybalt's death. Juliet arrives and she speaks to Paris about her love for Romeo, but in a veiled way. He, not understanding, takes his leave. Juliet pours out her grief to the Friar, and shows him the knife she will use to take her life if something cannot be done. The Friar gives Juliet a potion that will make her appear as dead, that she should take the night before her wedding to Paris. Juliet agrees to take it. Once again she acts out her determination to control her own fate. The Friar also tells Juliet that he will send a note to Romeo through a courier, so Romeo will not be alarmed at her supposed death.

Story note, once again, Shakespeare brings together the principles whose actions advance the story. Romeo's thoughts about his exile to another town and his journey there, for example, serve no dramatic purpose to this story, so they are not included.

Scene Two

Juliet returns home and finds her father preparing for her wedding. She now pretends that she will honor his request to marry Count Paris. Her father is so delighted, he says the wedding should happen the very next day.

Story note, Shakespeare deliberately heightens the dramatic pressure not only on Juliet, but on the audience as well, by hastening the marriage. The storyteller is always looking for ways to increase the dramatic pressure on their characters, not to reduce it.

Scene Three

Juliet speaks to her mother, that all is in preparation for the next day, words rich in irony. Juliet,

"No, madam, we have culled such necessaries

As our behooveful for our state tomorrow."

Juliet takes out the vial and wonders if it is really a poison that will kill her and save the Friar the embarrassment of having married her to Romeo.

Finally, Juliet drinks from the vial, with the words,

"Romeo, Romeo, Romeo! Here's drink. I drink to thee."

Scene Four

The elder Capulet and the nurse stay up preparing for the wedding. The approach of Count Paris heard, Capulet sends the nurse to awaken Juliet.

Scene Five

The nurse finds Juliet seemingly dead and calls for others. Lady Capulet is first on the scene, followed by Juliet's father. They mourn Juliet's death. Moments later, Friar Lawrence is on the scene with Count Paris. Friar Lawrence instructs that Juliet's body be taken to the church for her internment. The scene ends with an exchange between a Capulet serving man and the musicians trying to think of a way to at least get a meal for their labors of coming to the Capulet estate.

These five scenes constitute the Fourth Act. They all revolve around Juliet and her determination to do whatever must be done to be with Romeo and not marry Count Paris. In these scenes Juliet comes to life as a fully dimensional character whose actions advance the story to its final act.

Act Five

Scene One

A man brings Romeo news of Juliet's death. Romeo is bereaved, but still asks if the man brings a letter from Friar Lawrence. When the answer is "no," Romeo instructs the man to hire him a horse to take him to Verona. As soon as the man departs, Romeo speaks of his intentions,

"Well, Juliet, I will lie with thee tonight."

Story note, as always, Romeo speaks directly and to the point about his intentions. And by making his intentions clear, the drama of the story is heightened.

When Romeo tries to buy a poison to take his life, the apothecary hesitates, because it's against the law. Even this moment in the story is presented in a way that its drama is heightened.

Scene Two

Friar Lawrence is told the letter he sent to Romeo about Juliet's seeming death was not delivered. Friar Lawrence realizes he must go immediately to Juliet's tomb and break in to forestall a new tragedy.

Scene Three

Paris comes to see Juliet in her tomb. Soon afterwards, Romeo arrives determined to join Juliet in death. He asks that Balthasar, his companion, take a letter to his father. Paris comes upon Romeo and blames him for Juliet's death, thinking that she killed herself over grief for Tybalt. Romeo tries to tell Paris that he's at Juliet's tomb to join her, but Paris insists on taking Romeo into custody. Romeo draws his sword and slays Paris, who asks with his dying words to join Juliet. Romeo realizes then that it is Count Paris, a kinsman of Mercutio, which adds to his grief.

Romeo opens Juliet's tomb and speaks,

"For here lies Juliet, and her beauty makes

This vault a feasting presence full of light."

Romeo kisses Juliet, then drinks his poison. As soon as he falls dead, Friar Lawrence comes on the scene and finds Paris and Romeo. At that moment, Juliet awakes and asks for Romeo. Friar Lawrence, hearing others approach, wants to take Juliet away to be a nun, but she refuses. Friar Lawrence leaves, and Juliet picks up Romeo's dagger and speaks,

"O, happy dagger,

This is thy sheath. There rust, and let me die."

Juliet kills herself.

Others come upon the scene and a search is mounted to discover what has happened. The heads of the clans Capulet and Montague are sent for, and the Prince of Verona. Balthasar is found and Friar Lawrence.

Romeo's father arrives on the scene with news that his wife has died that night.

The Prince demands an explanation of the events. Friar Lawrence tells him of how the events transpired that led to the deaths of Romeo, Juliet and Paris. The Prince reads Romeo's suicide note, then turns to Capulet and Montague and says,

"Where be these enemies? -- Capulet, Montague,

See what a scourge is laid upon your hate,

That heaven finds means to kill your joys with love,

And I, for winking at your discords too,

Have lost a brace of kinsmen. All are punished."

Capulet responds,

"O brother Montague, give me thy hand.

This is my daughter's jointure, for no more

Can I demand."

Montague,

"But I can give thee more,

For I will ray her statue in pure gold,

That whiles Verona by that name is known,

There shall no figure at such rate be set

As that of true and faithful Juliet."

The play ends with a summation by the Prince and the final lines of the play,

"For never was a story of more woe

than this of Juliet and her Romeo."

As with all the other scenes of the play, these final scenes bring together characters at the height of their feelings. It places them into an arena where they interact in a way that advances the play to its resolution -- the deaths of Romeo and Juliet. The plot also advances the story to its fulfillment, that the love of Romeo and Juliet is so great as to defy even death and reunite their families.

Summary

Every character and every scene of Romeo and Juliet speaks to an underlying dramatic purpose. Every character's actions act out the story from its introduction. The story's complications heighten its drama by blocking its movement toward resolution. Its dramatic resolution sets up the story's fulfillment. Because every moment in every scene speaks to the dramatic purpose of the story, it sets up between author and audience a trust that enables the story's audience to more deeply internalize the story's movement.

Some reviews of the structure of the play point out that much of the action is determined by chance events and meetings. The letter to Romeo not being delivered, etc. While these points are true, they actually point out the strength of the story. That it engages and absorbs the attention of its audience in spite of these issues. It does this because so much of the play is so well done and richly textured and moving. It is the writer who fails to move their audience who more rightly fears an audience with time weighing heavily noticing each and every flaw of a story's structure.

Shakespeare is rightly renown as one of the great artists of all time as revealed by the craft of the story Romeo and Juliet.

Romeo

and Juliet

viewed by Saar Vandael

William Shakespeare's ROMEO AND JULIET is the latest creation from Baz Luhrman, the Australian responsible for the charming production "Strictly Ballroom".

It has been a couple of years, but Luhrman has finally come through with a very personal film, for which he had all the possibilities he required.

You won't find that surprising when you know that this movie is meant to reach a large audience and has got all the potential to hit high tops in movieland.

For starters Baz invited the gorgious Leonardo di Caprio for the part of Romeo Montague, who won't only capture the heart of the fair Juliet but of many teenage-girls as well. The sixteen year old Claire Danes plays the beautiful Juliet.

This Shakespeare-classic tells the story of two youngsters from rival families in Verona, who unfortunately fall in love big time.

Baz Luhrman even gives Juliet wings when she first catches Romeo's eye.

The story tells us the fights and rumbles between the two families until it all ends with the tragical death of both lovers.

The originality of the film lies in the paradox created by the director: the original lines were put in a modern imaginary scenary, in this contemporary version called Verona Beach.

Flashing images, beautiful colors, great outfits and an appropriate sound-track make this movie trendy and hip so it will definitely appeal to the MTV-generation.

The main characters are very convincing,which cannot be said from all the rest.

Di Caprio and Danes are perfect for the type of film Luhrman had in mind and I'm sure their pretty faces had something to do with it. But they've really proven their talent and contributed a whole lot to this romantic everlasting story.

The movie has got spirit and rythm and it's very entertaining, but with all the speed and modernisation I think it misses a bit of the original drama that make the story so tragic.

Check out yourself where this groovy story will take you...

Cast:

Leonardo DiCaprio . . . . . . . . Romeo

Claire Danes. . . . . . . . . . . Juliet

Harold Perrineau. . . . . . . . . Mercutio

John Leguizamo. . . . . . . . . . Tybalt

Pete Postlethwaite. . . . . . . . Father Laurence

Dash Mihok. . . . . . . . . . . . Benvolio

Brian Dennehy . . . . . . . . . . "Ted" Montague

Paul Sorvino. . . . . . . . . . . "Fulgencio" Capulet

Diane Venora. . . . . . . . . . . "Gloria" Capulet

Paul Rudd . . . . . . . . . . . . "Dave" Paris

Jesse Bradford. . . . . . . . . . Balthasar

Miriam Margolyes. . . . . . . . . The Nurse

Vondie Curtis-Hall. . . . . . . . Captain Prince

M. Emmet Walsh. . . . . . . . . . The Apothecary

Christina Pickles . . . . . . . . Caroline Montague

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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Two households, both alike in dignity,

In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,

From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,

Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.

From forth the fatal loins of these two foes

A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life;

Whose misadventured piteous overthrows

Do with their death bury their parents' strife.

The fearful passage of their death-mark'd love,

And the continuance of their parents' rage,

Which, but their children's end, nought could remove,

Is now the two hours' traffic of our stage;

The which if you with patient ears attend,

What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.

Romeo & Juliet - Star Crossed Lovers "A pair of star-crossed lovers", Romeo and Juliet. From the opening scenes of the play these two children of feuding families were destined to fall in love together and eventually die together. How does the reader see this? How do we know it was fate which triggered these events? Coincidence caused the death of these two lovers. For this reason Romeo and Juliet is one of Shakespeare's great tragedies. For coincidence to have caused the death of Romeo and Juliet it must have been evident in the events leading up to their deaths. These events include their meeting and falling in love, their separation, their reunion and finally their suicides. Solving the ancient feud between their families was the only real result of these untimely deaths. How did Romeo and Juliet meet? Was it by fate or could it have been avoided? Romeo and Juliet could not have avoided coming in contact with each other, they were brought together by uncontrollable circumstances. In Romeo and Juliet's time Verona (a city in Italy approximately 100 km west of Venice) was a fair sized city, and "bumping" into an acquaintance was unlikely. During the course of Act I, Scene II, the contrary had happened, and happened by chance. As Romeo and Benvolio were nearing a public area they were stopped by a Capulet servant. After Romeo had read the guest list to the Capulet party and the servant was on his way, Benvolio suggested that to relieve himself of his sadness for Rosaline, Romeo should go to the party and compare Rosaline to the other female guests. Romeo agreed Another example of coincidence is evident here. If Rosaline had not been attending, Benvolio would not have thought anything of the party. During the Capulet's ball Romeo and Juliet had seen each other, once this happened, there was no force that could have stopped them from falling in love. The encounter with the servant in the city set off an unlikely chain of events. Given the information following, none of these events could have been altered or avoided . "And for that offense immediately we do exile him hence," (Romeo and Juliet, III, II, 191-192). Romeo's banishment and the fate involved with it is a prime factor in the deaths of Romeo and Juliet. Why banishment? In Act I, Scene I the Prince's words were quite the contrary. Was it intentional that a man of such high standard would go back on his word? Perhaps. Romeo's exile poisons all possibility of happiness for himself and Juliet. His exile causes Juliet great sorrow, greater then if he had been executed, as stated by Juliet in Act III, Scene II, lines 130-131. Juliet's sorrow drives her to obtain a "knockout potion" from Friar Laurence which, in effect causes Romeo to make some important decisions regarding his well being. Romeo's banishment (brought about by the death of Tybalt) initiated the Friar's scheme which eventually leads the two lovers to their deaths. In reuniting the two lovers, timing played the largest role in deciding if they would live or die. Friar Laurence had two chances to deliver the message to Romeo regarding Juliet's present state. The first and most practical method of sending this message was through Romeo's "man", Balthasar. The second method was to send the message with Friar John. Timing was an important factor in both of these events. Friar Laurence had missed his opportunity to send the message with Balthasar and reverted to sending it with Friar John. As fate would have it, Friar John was locked up in a condemned house because of the plague. As a result Romeo received incorrect information. The only information he received from the unsuspecting Balthasar was that Juliet was dead. There are two important points to note in this area of the play. One being the reference to star-crossing made by Romeo when he heard of Juliet's death. "Is it even so? then I defy you, stars." (Romeo and Juliet, V, I, 24). The second being that when Romeo received the poison he states "Come cordial, and not poison, go with thee." (Romeo and Juliet, V, I, 85). This is coincidental to what Juliet had said earlier, in Act IV, Scene III, when she drinks to Romeo. Cordial means hearty, or sincere. When someone drinks to someone else it is usually in good health. The reuniting of the two lovers in such circumstances (Romeo's unawareness) could only have happened as it did by timing. One could ask what if the friar had left early?, or what if the friar had caught Balthasar and given him the message? Because of bad timing neither happened. Coincidence is a controlling element regarding the deaths of Romeo and Juliet, more so than in other areas of the play. The following examples also deal with "close-calls", which involve timing as well as coincidence After Romeo had slew Paris and entered the tomb and found Juliet's seemingly dead body, he uttered some interesting words. "Death that hath sucked the honey of thy breath, hath had no power yet upon thy beauty. Thou art not conquered; beauty's ensign yet is crimson in thy lips and cheeks." (Romeo and Juliet, V, III, 92-95.). Here Romeo is saying how alive Juliet looks. All he had to do was touch her and she may have been awakened and the play would have ended without a tragic closing. As Romeo drank the apothecaries mixture he drank to Juliet, as she had done before in Act IV, Scene III. This minor coincidence does not have much bearing on the course of the play, but changes the way we think of "toasting" to someone. Friar Laurence entered the tomb just less than half an hour after Romeo had killed himself. If the Friar had entered the tomb earlier he could have explained the situation to Romeo and no harm would have come to anyone. The Friar has proved himself to be a brave man. He married Romeo and Juliet without the consent of Juliet's father. Then why did the friar behave out of character and leave the tomb when he heard the call of the watch. This gave Juliet the opportunity to get hold of Romeo's well placed dagger (coincidence?) and kill herself. If the Friar had not fled he would have convinced Juliet not to kill herself as he did with Romeo in Act III, Scene III. To prove Romeo and Juliet to be a tragedy we must first prove that the death of the two lovers was caused by circumstances outside of their control or more simply, by destiny. The events which lead up to Romeo and Juliet's death are all inter-related. If any of the events were absent from the list, the following events could not of happened. The list, as mentioned before is as follows; meeting, separation, reunion, and their suicides. Romeo and Juliet's meeting has been proved to be by coincidence. If Romeo and Benvolio had not "bumped" into the Capulet servant the events would not have unfolded in the way they did. Romeo and Juliet had been separated because Prince Escalus had ordered it, what makes this unusual is that in Act I, Scene I, the Prince's warning indicated that further violent confrontations would result in death. Romeo did not receive the message from the Friar in Act V, Scene I, because of coincidence. If he had received the message, the Friar's scheme would have gone as planned. Coincidence is exceedingly evident when Romeo enters the tomb to die with Juliet as proven earlier. As the coincidences in the novel build up, the reader's idea of reality changes, and enables Shakespeare create one of his greatest tragedies, Romeo and Juliet.

When young passion kills. (teenage murder and suicide)

( Redbook ) Farr, Louise; 10-01-1994

Gayla Balfour has placed the photographs of her daughter Khristina carefully under thin plastic sheets in an album whose label promises a "lifetime guarantee." But there was no such guarantee for 17-year- old Khristy. After the photos of Khristy in a swimsuit and Khristy in a prom gown, there are pictures of flower-filled urns at her Houston memorial service, and of the sun setting on darkening waves when her ashes were scattered at sea.

On October 20, 1992, Khristy Balfour committed suicide, just a few days after a tearful breakup with her boyfriend of a year and a half, Patrick, 18. (His parents have asked that family members' real names not be used, to spare their son further anguish.) Patrick, handsome and dark-haired with a diamond stud in his ear, planned to become a police officer. Khristy was working hard to get As and Bs in the hope of becoming a teacher or a psychologist. Every morning before school, Khristy would pick Patrick up in the red Hyundai her mother, a real estate agent, had bought her. Patrick's house was just 20 minutes away, yet Khristy complained that she couldn't stand that he lived so far from her.

Often Khristy talked about the day they would marry. They'd live in a house with a picket fence, she said, and have two perfect children. Patrick's parents, who loved this smart, vibrant girl almost as much as their son did, had already contributed a set of black octagonal dishes to Khristy's hope chest.

Khristy's last weekend alive was homecoming. That night another girl criticized the new black dress Khristy was wearing--or so Khristy imagined. And she became convinced that Patrick was flirting with the same girl. In a burst of anger and jealousy, she told him she never wanted to see him again. She had done this before, and he'd been hurt. He had warned her the last time: Do it again, and I won' t come back when you ask.

On Sunday Khristy drove to Patrick's house and dropped off possessions of his that she'd accumulated. Then she moped around her house, crying on and off. Trying to cheer her up, Gayla Balfour pointed out that there were other boys waiting in the wings.

But Khristy kept calling Patrick, saying she wanted him back. "I really wanted to go back with her, but I didn't want to play that game," Patrick says. And when Khristy threatened to kill herself, he didn't believe her. He says he spoke to Khristy's sister, Cyndie, then 20, and warned her: "Watch Khristy. She's talking crazy." Cyndie denies getting such a warning.

The Monday after the breakup, Khristy skipped school, embarrassed, her grandmother thinks, to face her friends. The Balfours say she seemed better. She was laughing and roughhousing with Cyndie, and she planned a shopping trip and an outing to a country club.

But Patrick's mother, Carol, says a hysterical Khristy called Patrick repeatedly that evening. He asked his mother's advice, but Carol was busy with people she had over for a work project. She still regrets that she didn't talk to Khristy directly to try to calm her down.

That night Khristy cleaned her room, took a bath, and arranged pictures of Patrick and her family on her dresser. At some point, she took the loaded .38 her mother kept on top of the refrigerator for protection and carried it to her room. She climbed into bed, drew the covers up to her chin, and at about five-thirty Tuesday morning held the revolver to her temple and pulled the trigger.

Gayla and her mother, Mary Ann, were in the kitchen making coffee when the shot startled them. Thinking it came from outside, Mary Ann pushed the panic button on the house alarm system. Cyndie, awakened by the noise, smelled gunpowder and ran across the hallway to her sister's room. Blood soaked the pale blue bedcovers and splattered the walls and floor. Cyndie started to scream, then raced to the bathroom to throw up. Their brother, 7-year-old Glen, slept on, peacefully unaware.

While Mary Ann frantically began to administer CPR, Gayla raced to a neighbor's to call an ambulance (activating the alarm had momentarily tied up the phone line). Then she called Patrick to urge him to go to the hospital. Maybe the sound of his voice would help keep Khristy alive, Gayla told him, hearing his anguished cry of "No!" as he tried to absorb the news.

The sky was still dark that cold, crisp morning when the police call went out for a medical helicopter. By the time technicians put Khristy's limp figure on board, her heart was barely beating. She was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital. When Patrick was told, he punched a wall, breaking two fingers.

"They say it gets better as time goes on," Gayla says. "It doesn' t. When you step in a puddle of warm blood and it's your daughter' s ... the grieving, the why did it happen?... It takes your skin off. People need to know that with kids, broken hearts can kill."

EVER SINCE ROMEO AND JULIET, the notion of young lovers passionate enough to die for each other has been romanticized. And it's well known that adolescence is a time of extremes. During that confusing evolution from child to adult, teenagers die a dozen metaphorical deaths a day: over their hair, or grades, or allegiances to rock stars. They're often warring with their parents, worrying over their futures, navigating cliques, and--amid furtive phone calls, slammed doors, and declarations of "forever"--learning how and whom to love.

Most handle the joy and misery and emerge safely on the other side of maturity. But when love falters, some children refuse to let go, and passion turns to obsession. In a 1993 study of 67 adolescent suicides by the Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic of the University of Pittsburgh, 40 percent had suffered a breakup, twice as high as reported in a control group of nonsuicidal teens. Girls attempt suicide at about triple the rate of boys--although boys' attempts are more often successful. Boys, on the other hand, may turn their rage outward and strike out at others.

Whatever the destructive urge, these young people can't imagine that their pain will pass and life will go on. "Part of their immaturity is that they feel if they don't follow through with the intensity of their feelings, they're being insincere," says Mark De Antonio, M.D., director of the inpatient adolescent psychiatric unit at the University of California at Los Angeles. "They think, If I don't want to die, then I was never really in love. I was a fraud."

When kids become sexually active, the stakes are raised. "Sometimes the feelings are too intense for teens to work through, so when something goes wrong, it really feels like the end of the world," says Dr. De Antonio.

But experts caution that although a broken romance may trigger violence, it's rarely the only cause. "Teens already standing on the edge are particularly sensitive to relationship losses," says Washington D.C. psychologist Alan L. Berman, Ph.D., past president of the American Association of Suicidology. An early trauma can render a teenager vulnerable: One parent leaves or dies and the other is too depressed to take up the emotional slack; a setback at school leads to a loss of self-esteem; an idolized older sibling leaves home. Such cumulative early wounds to a child's ability to trust can make him or her emotionally dependent, leading the child to pour too much into--and expect too much out of--relationships. When a romance then crumbles, the child, hypersensitive to rejection, may find the grief too much to bear.

AFTER KHRISTY'S DEATH, THE LOCAL media left the distorted impression that Khristy's problems erupted fully formed over the weekend her relationship ended. In reality, her troubles had built up over a lifetime.

"Her relationship with Patrick was her redemption for the life we' d led," says Cyndie Balfour, referring to the turmoil of the sisters' early years. At 15, Gayla Balfour dropped out of high school to marry her stepbrother, David. She left him--and the small Texas town in which they had been living--when Khristy was 5 and Cyndie 8. Khristy lost not just her father but a large extended family. In Khristy's lifetime her mother married four more times, and the children changed schools and homes depending on where their stepfather. lived.

"I'd rather switch than fight," Gayla, 39, admits about her marriages (she's now on her sixth). But she quickly dismisses the suggestion that they caused Khristy's insecurity. The children knew, she says, that they were more important than their stepfathers.

Khristy's father, David, thinks his younger daughter was the black sheep in the shadow of perfect, blond Cyndie, who seemed to do everything well without trying. He and others also characterize Khristy as a Cinderella figure, always housecleaning and babysitting her younger brother. (Gayla counters that she paid Khristy to do these chores.) "This wasn't all based on Patrick," David Balfour charges. "It was based on a broken relationship with her mother."

Khristy clearly had an abysmal self-image. At nearly five feet eight and a perfect size six, she was convinced she was overweight. She also despised her long, elegant nose. Gayla, who'd had hers fixed, promised her daughter a new one for graduation. She took Khristy twice to a psychologist to discuss her unhappiness, and he judged her problems as normal teen insecurity.

There were secrets, too. Long before she succeeded in killing herself, Khristy, despondent over another boy, tried to overdose on aspirin, her cousin Stephanie says. Another time, Khristy later confided to Stephanie, she took a straight pin to her wrists, then lost her nerve. Gayla says she learned of these attempts from her daughter's friends only after Khristy's death.

Patrick's mother remembers many weepy phone calls from Khristy during the time the girl dated her son. She would have to reassure Khristy that Patrick wasn't flirting with other girls and that he really did love her. The calls didn't alarm Patrick's mother; they reminded her of her own adolescent dramas. "If everybody killed themselves over a broken heart, we'd all be dead," she says.

Sometimes when young passion turns to obsession, only a gossamer line separates killing oneself from killing a rival. When it came to their 16-year-old son, Brian, Arthur and Rita Tate knew enough to worry about suicide, but they never thought of homicide.

The Tates live on Maryland's Broadneck Peninsula in a columned house on a large wooded lot. Arthur Tate owns his own construction company and Rita is a technical writer. They have three children, the oldest of whom is Brian--handsome, six feet tall, and once a star of his high school football team.

In February 1992 Brian was dating a pretty, brown-haired girl who sent him a Valentine's Day card expressing what Rita Tate describes as "undying love." Less than a week later, the girl broke up with him over the phone and began dating Jerry Haines, 19. "Brian thought she had really cared for him," says his mother. He was devastated.

Jerry was the youngest of four boys his mother, Jacqueline, struggled to raise alone after a divorce. He had dropped out of high school to become a plumber's apprentice. At just five feet tall, he looked 14, but his charisma made him a pint-size ladies' man.

In the week after the breakup, Brian began stalking the new couple. He would cruise by them in his car and shout threats from the window. "Mom, this boy's crazy," Jerry told his mother. Jacqueline was worried, but Jerry insisted he could handle Brian himself When Jerry bumped into a police officer he knew, he asked for advice. Maryland had no stalking laws, the cop told him, so authorities could do nothing unless Brian acted.

Later Jerry confided to his brother Michael that Brian had threatened to slice his throat. But since Brian was a minor, Jerry worried he' d get into trouble with the police if he hit Brian first.

That week Brian paced around the house. He had nothing to live for, he told his worried mother. The Tates claim they stayed home during the weekend that followed, hovering over Brian in what they characterize as a suicide watch. "We just sat on him, kept talking to him," says Rita Tate, They also put in two calls to a therapist, who never called them back.

By Monday, February 24, Brian's dark mood seemed to have lifted. He went to school, brought home an A on his geometry test, then went out with a friend to buy school supplies. But by ten o'clock, when he wasn't home. the Tates drove out to search. If they had driven to Jerry Haines's house an hour later, they would have found Brian pummeling Jerry with brass knuckles and stabbing him 24 times as Jerry begged for his life. Police, alerted by a neighbor who'd been awakened by the commotion. found Jerry's body under a pile of leaves. When they roused Jacqueline Haines. asleep for hours with a flu, she wandered barefoot out of her small duplex into the brilliance of crime-scene arc lights. Her son's body lay in the cold rain, his red baseball cap and asthma inhaler on the ground nearby. Jacqueline gave the police Brian Tate's name. "He's the only enemy my son ever had." she said. Brian was arrested the next day.

Rita Tate had noticed that her son had started to change six months earlier. He'd been his team's quarterback but was benched for poor team spirit. His grades had slipped and he began picking fights.

Then, late in 1991, Brian had trouble with a girlfriend who also began dating, someone new. When that boy's house burned down. the fire was ruled an accident but--unbeknownst to his parents--Brian bragged to friends that he had set the blaze.

The Tates had taken their son to a therapist, who declared him " a typical teenager." They should clamp down and use a "tough-love" approach. was his only suggestion. "You trust people in these positions to know what they're doing," says Rita Tate. She and her husband took Brian out of his public school and enrolled him in a Catholic boys' school.

Rita Tate does not believe her son killed for love. The murder " was about his inability to deal with his life falling, apart." she says. Defense psychiatrists claim that Brian suffered from a number of personality disorders. But according to the state's prosecutor, Brian's biggest defect was a narcissistic personality. Brian Tate pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and last year was sentenced to life in prison at Maryland's maximum security Patuxent Institution.

MOST ACTS OF VIOLENCE REMAIN partial mysteries, the full answers locked forever in the minds of those who commit them. But researchers are probing deeper by conducting "psychological autopsies," in-depth interviews with "survivors" such as relatives, friends, and teachers. Interviews reveal layer after layer of pain in what fire often troubled families. And though it's easier for survivors to move on with their lives if they can settle on one reason for the violence, experts say there is never a single explanation.

Increasingly, researchers are looking to biology to unlock the mysteries of violence. Scientists at the National Institutes of Health have linked low levels of serotonin (a brain chemical that regulates emotion and impulses) to depression. aggression, and suicide. Scientists have also discovered that there is more depressive and manic-depressive illness in the families of those who try to take their own lives. And suicide is known to run in families: According to Gayla Balfour, both she and Khristy's maternal grandfather made unsuccessful attempts to kill themselves.

EVEN IF A TEENAGER IS NOT SUICIDAL or homicidal. obsession with a lover can still lead to violence, One classic scenario is the "good girl" attracted to the "bad boy." Raised on romantic images of surly, leather-jacketed movie idols who soften with the love of the right woman, girls can be lured by a boy's rebel status and their own fantasies of taming him.

That was the case with Jamie Michelle Faris. At 16. she was the cherished only child of hardworking. financially comfortable parents in the bucolic northern California town of Lakeport. Beautiful and smart, with long, dark hair. she earned straight As and worked part- time in a restaurant to pay for her new red Geo Storm. She wanted to be an artist and was in line to receive a summer internship through Oakland's College of Arts and Crafts.

In the spring of 199 1. Jamie showed her art teacher, Sue de Mille, some drawings of a young man she said she was in love with, Roy Corbett. He had a few problems, she told de Mille, but she was going to change him. De Mille warned her: "If you find yourself wanting to change someone, it's time to find somebody else." But she worried the girl wouldn't listen to her. "I think for Jamie," de Mille says, "there was something exciting about the danger."

Roy, 15, was the stepson of a successful contractor. His out-of- control behavior had worried authorities from the time he was in elementary school. When Jamie met him, he was taking LSD and amphetamines, and was hanging out with a troublemaking crowd of bikers. Jamie's parents made it clear that Roy wasn't welcome at their house. But that didn' t stop Jamie from seeing him.

"I like how he lives on the edge," Jamie confided to a friend. She started wearing a leather jacket. smoking marijuana, and sported a temporary tattoo of a skull on her left breast.

After a year, Roy left Jamie for another girl. Still, he kept Jamie dangling. He continued to call her. And Jamie, hoping for a reconciliation, tried to keep seeing him.

In May 1992 Roy invited her to visit him the next week at his friend Paul Hennis's grandparents' walnut ranch. Jamie was so excited that she talked all week to friends about the meeting.

When Jamie got to the ranch, Roy was waiting, but so were Paul and another boy. And there was no tender reunion. Instead, Roy attacked Jamie, crushing her skull with a baseball bat and strangling her with Paul's help.

"He told me he was tired of her," Paul Hennis told police. He and Roy were tried as adults, and this year they were found guilty of first degree murder. Both are serving a sentence of 25 years to life.

"GOD RESCUE ME," KHRISTY BALFOUR wrote to her cousin Stephanie shortly before she died. "All I'm thinking about is my future lately .... I'm really afraid I'll be a failure." Says Stephanie: "Khristy wanted so much to just be happy. If only she could have realized that things could change."

That's a message parents wish any teenager in pain would heed.

WHAT MAKES A CHILD VIOLENT?

It isn't always easy to know. Like adults, teenagers newly in love spend a lot of timee alone together and see less of their friends. And experts say if isn't unusual for adolescents to be drawn to themes of death, paradoxically because of their feelings of invulnerability, but also because they're emeriging from the safety of childhood and sensing the dangers of the adult world. Writing morbid poetry or worshiping suicidal pop icons needn't worry parents, either, as long as teens seem otherwise healthy. But when sexually active teens isolate themselves from peers and lose interest in activities they previously enjoyed, they're more likely to fall pieces when love goes wrong, says UCLA' s Dr. De Antonio.

After a breakup, about one-third of all teens engage in mild staking, such as driving past someone's house to see if the lights on or the car's them, says Michael L. Peck, Ph.D., executive director of the Institute for Suicide Prevention Los Angeles. But they're over the line, he says, if they follow an ex aound town or break into his or her locker or home.

Often, well-meaning parents try to after reassurances. "A mother says to a girl, 'Don't worry. You'll get another boyfriend. You'll go to the prom next year,'" says Winifred Meyer, M.D., a Los Angeles forensic psychiatrist. But these comments belittle an adolescent's depth of feeling. Acknowledging the child's loss and pain is better than glossing over it.

Much has been written about suicide warning signs--insomnia, giving away possessions, talking only about death--but mental health experts say family members are often too close to see them. "Families possess a true blind spot," says David C. Clark, Ph.D., director of the Center for Suicide Prevention at Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center in Chicago. What's more, those aft-repeated signs may work when applied to adults, but adolescent behavior is different. Some teens may look like textbook cases and yet not be in trouble; others may give few classic indications. That's why parents need to be attentive to their own children's behavior and can't take their reassurances at face value, since teens are not reliable judges of their own state of mind.

Sometimes parents dismiss what their children are going through as puppy love or assume their kids are more wordly than they really are. But even when teens appear to be tuning you out or are openly hostile to your counsel, says Dr. De Antonio, your show of support is invaluable. If your child's unwilling or too uncomfortable to talk to you, make sure he or she gets guidance from another responsible relative, a pediatrician, or a mental health professional.

And don't wait until the eleventh hour to get help. Many at-risk kids exhibit antisocial behaviors (running away from home, picking fights, setting fires, abusing drugs or alcohol). A long history of these can mean that a child may resort to violence next, and substance abuse makes it easier for a child to pull a trigger or swallow pills. If the therapist you pick assures you that all is well when you know it's not, consult a different therapist.

Many teenagers who threaten suicide or murder at the end of a romance can get through that stage with the right help. And those with a reasonabl sense of self-esteem and a network of support are more likely to survive unscathed. -- L.F.

COPYRIGHT 1994 Hearst Corporation

Farr, Louise, When young passion kills. (teenage murder and suicide). Vol. 183, Redbook, 10-01-1994, pp 108(7).