Like the poles of an electrical circuit between which runs the high voltage of emotions, love and hate create a dialogue and a dialectic, a dynamic tension which powers the action and generates heat. When I noticed that two of the plays this season had settings in Verona, I decided to find out a thing or two about the place. Checking another book, I discovered that Rose, in a typically English way, was understating the severity of the summer weather rather considerably. For now, these hot days, is the mad blood stirring. Unfortunately, he warns too late, and the brawl he seeks to avoid is met in the form of Tybalt.
Tempers explode when it's hot.
The connection between heat and violence is well-known and documented. In fact, in 9 of 18 riots, the temperature reached 90 degrees or more during the day, and in all but one of the remaining cases, the temperature had been in the 80s. Perhaps it is not too great a stretch to postulate that Verona is experiencing just such a long, hot summer. Something must have happened to have touched off the feud between the Montagues and the Capulets. By the time Romeo and Juliet begins, the violence is already under way.