A number of poisons are medicines also, if used carefully and with measure. Foxglove is an excellent medicine for the heart, but it is also deadly. Henbane is a painkiller, but can kill an entire human being too. Belladonna (Amaryllis, Αμαρυλλίς in Greek, I think) is poisonous and known as "deadly nightshade", but can also be used in treating asthma and rheumatism!
Apart from our beloved Romeo, another user of poisons and chemicals in literature is evil Count Fosco in The Woman in White, Wilkie Collins's famous sensation novel. Fosco is an expert in chemistry, poisons and drugs, and has a huge monologue in the book, where he tells us that, (a) there is nothing chemistry cannot do, and, (b) we should count ourselves lucky that chemists are nice people -- if they set their mind to it, they could poison us all with great ease.
Though he is abominable, Count Fosco reflects Victorian fascination with the power of science (the Victorian was the age that gave us the literary genre of science fiction). Moreover, the Count stands for the sensation fiction's attention to the evil that lurks behind someone seemingly cultivated and respectable.
Romeo and Juliette belongs to a different age, and has a different theme. It is all about the power of love, and how old and narrow minds and attitudes can destroy the beautiful and the new.
Have a good afternoon for mid-week! :-)
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