Romeo and Juliet: Theme Paper In Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, violence plays an important part of the action and causes the deaths of several of the characters. And a theme of the play is violence begets violence. The chorus states "From ancient grudge break to new mutiny Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean." (Prologue lines 3 and 4). This tells us in the prologue that the feud has been going on for some time, the fighting has recently flared up and the civilians fighting each other. The first fight takes place at the very beginning of the play in Act I, scene i . Gregory and Sampson of the Capulet house are the initiators of the brawl. As Abraham and Balth