Abstract
"Eros" and "Thanatos" mean "love" and "death" respectively in Greek. In Beyond the Pleasure Principle (1920), Sigmund Freud employed the ideas of "Eros" and the "death instinct" (which is generally called "Thanatos") as psychological concepts. "Eros, " the libidinal, sexual or life instinct, aims to form living substances into ever greater unities. "Thanatos" leads the living creatures to death and manifests itself as destructive or aggressive impulses. Romeo and Juliet dramatizes the romantic love and tragic death of the two young lovers. However, as the opening of scene 1, Act 1indicates, this drama is full of bawdy or sexual words, representing "Eros. " M. M. Mahood suggests that "the bawdy has always a dramatic function, " and this becomes clearer with reference to "Thanatos. " From the Prologue's first reference to "death-mark'd love, " this play abounds in the imageries of death, most of which are directed toward Romeo and Juliet. In addition these imageries are connected with the imageries of love. Freud first supposed a struggle between "Eros" and "Thanatos, "but in the course of time he allowed the fusion of these two instincts. In the final scenes where Romeo and Juliet kill themselves can be seen this fusion of "Eros" and "Thanatos. "
