What does this mean?

Question:

What does this mean?

What does the phrase

"all's fair in love and war"

mean??

and can it apply to Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet?

Thanks

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:

Its essentially a metaphor that compares the similarities of love and war. Generals will generally do what ever it takes to win a war, even sometimes committing atrocities and when it comes to matters of the heart people will often do unscrupulous things to win the affection of the person they love without thought to the consequences of their actions.

In Romeo and Juliet their families were rivals and mortal enemies, so you could definitely use the war analogy to describe their forbidden love affair, which eventually ended up with both characters dying tragically. Their families were at war but they were in love, one of Shakespeare's best works.