Question

6. In the book, before marrying Romeo and Juliet, Friar Lawrence tells Romeo: "These violent delights have violent ends / And in their triumph die, like fire and powder, / Which, as they kiss, consume. The sweetest honey / Is loathsome in his own deliciousness / And in the taste confounds the appetite. / Therefore love moderately. Long love doth so. / Too swift arrives as tardy as too slow" (Act 2.6 pg. 1). Here, the word "violent" translates to "sudden". What does Friar Lawrence mean when he says this? What does this play on words also suggest (why use the word "violent")?​

Answer 1

They use the word ‘violent’ because their actions had immediate consequences and to emphasize the actions portrayed.