Violence in William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet
In this essay, I am going to discuss the different aspects of the play
Romeo and Juliet, including things such as violence, language and
culture.
Shakespearean culture was during the Tudor period, meaning the theatre
and way of living was very different to how things are now in a modern
western culture.
The first difference would be the aspect of lighting. As they had no
artificial lighting, the theatre would only be open during the
daytime, meaning the audience would take days off work simply to go
and see these wonderful plays.
Another difference includes women’s rights. It would have been seen as
obscene for a woman to perform on stage, therefore young men would
play women and young boys would play animals. This also connects to
the fact that women, in the Shakespearean period, had barely any
rights and were very dependant on men. Women were owned by their
fathers and after that were owned by their husbands and this would now
be seen, in a modern western culture, as bazaar and unacceptable,
although there may be the few exceptions who may agree with it.
The play is set in Italy in a city called Verona. Romeo and Juliet,
although considered a famous love story, is actually a very violent
play. The plot is juxtaposition of love and violence and consists of
irony as the love between Romeo and Juliet is the reason of the
majority of the violence. The central problem in ‘Romeo and Juliet’ is
a deadly feud between two powerful families and a touching love story
of a beautiful young Capulet, Juliet, and a handsome young Montague,
Romeo, who are trapped in the middle of this feud. The play ends
violently and disastrously and each of the rivals, both Montague and
Capulet, have different views and thoughts to what had happened and
why it had happened. A large part of the play would include the
rivalry between the Montague family and the Capulet family. Their
rivalry has been going on for so long that they no longer know why
In the Shakespearean play, Romeo & Juliet, aggression is represented in different ways by the different characters in the play. Tybalt, Romeo, Benvolio, and the others all have their own way of dealing with hate and anger. Some do nothing but hate while others can’t stand to see even the smallest of quarrels take place.
Conflict has many different meanings for both physical and verbal abuse. Conflict could be a viscous feud or a full on physical fight. These days in television soap dramas we intend to see more verbal conflict than physical violence. But over the last couple of years new television programmes have been released which contains a lot of action-packed fighting and physical conflict of some kind. Some programmes include physical and verbal conflict including, “Eastenders”, “The Bill” and other programmes similar to these. The releasing of films such as, “Indiana Jones”, and “Rambo” catches the audience’s attention by involving action-packed, exciting features such as heavy arguments or thrilling battles. Some films are made to include action and excitement but when audiences watch it they cannot help feeling sorry for the victim or just generally sad for the people having the fight. In the same way Romeo and Juliet presents conflict more intense than most soap dramas. When the play was first performed in “The Theatre”, in Shoreditch in the mid 1590’s, the Elizabethan audience was shocked at how Juliet disobeyed her father and also how Romeo and Juliet disobeyed their families. Sympathy must be felt for the audience because they would have never known the idea of a son or daughter disobeying their father. The law at that time stated that the daughter was the property of her father until the daughter got married then her husband “owned” her as property. From this sympathy must be felt for Juliet because she is a victim of arranged marriages. When the play was first performed it got massive great responses which then lead to the play being transferred to The Globe theatre at the start of the 1600’s. Props and different costumes helped ...
time and also in those days people had a lot of hopes and dreams but
...isible. They drove cars and had money to spend. They were a new source of power, independent from their parents and ready for a change.
Themes of Love and Hate in William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Romeo and Juliet is a play about two young lovers, whose love was destined for destruction from the beginning because of hatred. between the two families, Montagues and Capulets. Therefore, Themes of love and hate are very important in the play as the plot is driven by these two themes. Shakespeare brings out the love between the two rivals through Romeo and Juliet and their relationships with the Friar and the Nurse.
In William Shakespeare’s "Romeo and Juliet", Prince Escalus exclaims at the end; "All are Punished." Is this true? Montague and Capulet have certainly committed a crime of upholding an ancient grudge that has claimed many lives. The Friars crime was to run away from a suiciding person and also to mastermind Romeo and Juliet’s wedding and plans to run away, which eventually lead to the death of Romeo and Juliet. Even the main characters, who are painted as innocent and saint-like, have committed crimes punishable by the law. We know that the main characters have committed the crime, but do they all serve the time. The paragraphs below explain if they do.
- It takes the traditions of that time and only changes them gradually and not very
If I had to direct Act 3, scene 5, I would use a modern setting. The
than the times of today. Back then, the most important aspect of life for a
make the reader sense that there is going to be s fight of some sort
Even though Romeo is presented with violent situation, he remains calm. Do you think you can do he same? In the story "Romeo and Juliet" by William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet is about two lovers whose love is fobidden. They sneak under there parents eye to meet secretly to show there live for one another. The character Romeo is what you would call a lover. Which also means he is not a fighter. Even though he does show acts of violence in the story most would say Romeo is a violent person.
until one person gets killed. In those days if you said no to a duel,
a new way of life, the people here still were trying to catch up. Many were
However, the people of that time most likely did not believe that they were. Perspective is vital in any comparison. A person from a highly technological society cannot easily understand the lifestyle of a civilization not so advanced.... ... middle of paper ... ...
not exist in the way they do today. Life was rural and close knit with smaller communities it is