William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet
In the age of Rome and Juliet’s creation, many values of society were
different from those we can observe in modern day life. Women did not
have equal rights, fathers had a lot more authority over their
children and arranged marriages were still practiced. A big factor was
people’s Christian faith; it was much stronger in those days so the
church played a huge role in society.
There are lots of factors that contribute to the outcome of the play
and these can be separated into Generic factors and society and
values.
In modern families, parents tend to have control over the household.
They do not force the children to marry or force their life decisions
upon them but they have a subtle yet firm grasp on their children’s
lives. They use this grasp to guide, not to force their children.
However, in the time of Romeo and Juliet, the parents had control over
the household, the father more so than the mother. They would tell
their children how to live. We see evidence of this in Act III Scene v
when Capulet discusses marriage with Juliet. He is very upset to hear
that she does not want to go through with her arranged marriage.
Capulet: “Hang thee young baggage, disobedient wretch! I tell thee
what: get thee to church a’ Thursday, Or never after look me in the
face... Wife, we scarce thought us blest That God had lent us but this
only child, But now I see this one is one too much, And that we have a
curse in having her. Out on her, hilding!”
This seems like a very drastic reaction but it shows how much control
a father considered himself to have, and just how important he
considered it ...
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that stood between Romeo and Juliet, but some of them brought them
together. The society and values contributed to the outcome of the
play to a great extent, but fate and chance was the catalyst that
created the tragic outcome. I think that if it wasn’t for the simple
bad luck, Romeo and Juliet could have been together. The Elizabethan
audience would have seen it like this because they had first hand
experience of the society and values of the time. The modern audience
has a much narrower understanding of all the things affecting Romeo
and Juliet. But the Elizabethan audience would have had less sympathy
with Romeo and Juliet than a modern audience because they would look
down on people going against the major factors of their society as
Romeo and Juliet did. They didn’t feel that true love was of much
importance.
The acts of the characters in the play results in conflict, betrayal, and death. I feel if Romeo and Juliet told their parents about how deeply they love one another it might have worked out. Also, if the two families would get over their silly fight and talk it out, no one would have lost their lives. If everyone thought about each other instead of themselves the turnout would be much
The story of Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy. The two lovers go against their families and against their hate to be together but they don’t think about the consequences, which in the end are devastating.
The first reason why the play is a traditional tragedy is that the hero, Romeo, possesses a major flaw which leads him into much trouble and eventually his demise: his fiery, impetuous nature. In one of the many brawls between the Capulets and the Montagues, Romeo displays his rashness. In this encounter, Tybalt and Mercutio, Romeo’s best friend, joke around as they are dueling, but the duel takes a turn for the worse when Tybalt kills Mercutio. Romeo, devastated by the death of his best friend and hell-bent on avenging it, challenges Tybalt to a duel. Romeo kills Tybalt out of anger and is banished from Verona, separated from his love Juliet. The punishment does not fit the crime, but it cannot be denied that Romeo brought it upon himself. He acknowledges his own rash behavior by saying, “Oh, I am fortune’s fool!” (III, i, 99). If he could have controlled his temper, the whole fight would have been avoided. Not only is Romeo impulsive in battles...
Everyday there is something that one must interpret whether it is a book, movie, or even the news. One must come to one’s own conclusion about the information they are interpreting. For instance movies are mostly easier to understand then books though the plots may have slight differences.
Amussen, Susan. "The Family and the Household" in A Companion to Shakespeare. Ed. David Kastan. Malden Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishers Inc., 1999. 85-99.
“He who falls in love meets a worse fate than he who falls from a
such a love can arise out of hatred and then triumph over it in death,
"What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would
...ous information; and knowing Romeo’s impulsive nature he should wait for Romeo to arrive and tell him the truth. Therefore, Friar Lawrence’s useless wisdom has become the cause of the young couple’s death.
William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. In Shakespeare's plays he very rarely used original ideas. Most of the plays he wrote, such as "Romeo and Juliet," were adapted from other people's stories. Shakespeare used these ideas as basic outlines for his plays.
of life: if something is meant to be, it will be, no matter what the
Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare is also a prime example of those who choose to end their life to escape from their reality. The Capulets and the Montagues haven been in feud for many years when a fight between their servants breaks out in the streets. Prince Escalus arrives to end the brawl and tells both sides that the next person to start a fuss will be sentenced to death.
Anna Freud, the founder of child psychoanalysis, once said, “It is only when parental feelings are ineffective or too ambivalent or when the mother's emotions are temporarily engaged elsewhere that children feel lost” (“Anna Freud”). In this case, the children, Romeo and Juliet, get lost and confused, leading to their ultimate deaths. While they cannot live without each other, they also cannot live with each other either, since they end up dying together from all the conflicts piling on top on each other. Since Romeo and Juliet do not really have any parental influence in their lives, they do not know how resolve their conflict of star-crossed love. Due to miscommunication, conflicting viewpoints between parents and adolescents, and a lack of involvement in their children’s lives, Shakespeare shows through Romeo and Juliet that adults are ineffective in saving their children’s lives.
Shakespeare wrote Romeo and Juliet in the 16th century, at a time where the role of the woman was to be subservient to men and act as a wife to their husband and a mother to their children. Women were expected to conform to the expectations of society, and were seen as possessions by their fathers and husbands. Fathers arrange their daughters’ marriages, usually for financial or social gain for the family. In Romeo and Juliet, the unfair treatment of women is conveyed through characters such as Juliet, a young girl who is growing into the expectations of society, and Lady Capulet, who represents a traditional side of love and values social position rather than men themselves. Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet centres on the relationship between two young protagonists, but much of what occurs during the play is as a result of the inequality between men and women.
Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy of an ancient feud where the children of two families at war fall deeply in love with each other. Set in the 16th century William Shakespeare’s play has many different themes running throughout it, which include love, hate, death and conflict. The play opens with a fight but ends with suicide that creates peace between both families who unite from their losses. The conflict, violence and aggression in the play happen from revenge and an ancient family grudge. An audience from the 16th century would have enjoyed Romeo and Juliet because of the real life drama and tragedy the play goes through. The patriarchal society gave women absolutely no rights and they had to obey their man’s ordering a patriarchal system. The theme of conflict is revealed as the characters argue over Juliet’s disobedience.