William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet
The Role of the parent and parent substitutes in the tragedy "Romeo
and Juliet"
In this essay I will explore the influence of parents and parent
substitutes in the tragedy "Romeo and Juliet".
Two families the Capulets and the Montagues have had a long running
feud between them "Ancient grudge" it is then carried on by the
children from both families. A girl from the Capulet house and a boy
from the Montagues meet and fall in love but it is all to end in
terrible consequences. "Star crossed lovers take their lives".
The parents in Verona at the time when the play was written wanted
their children to be married young, work in the house and raise a
child. Juliet herself has a very bad relationship with her parents,
they treat her with no respect, she is forced into doing things she
does not want to do and has no one to look up to. I think that if
Juliet's parents were more trusting and understanding towards Juliet
she may have felt differently about getting into a relationship with
Romeo or maybe she could have told her parents about their marriage
without any hard feelings. As the Capulets were too hard on Juliet
this may have caused her to make her own actions and it was her own
ideas that contributed to the tragedy.
The Montagues are very close to Romeo, Lady Montague especially
worries about Romeo, after the first fight in the play Lady Montague
asks if Romeo was involved and wants to know where he is
"O where is Romeo? Saw you him today? Right glad I am he was not at
the fray". Towards the end of the play Lady Montague dies of a broken
heart that was caused by the banishment o...
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...ey wanted what was best for the children not for themselves. Neither
of the parents or the parent substitutes are to blame for what
happened. The feud has been passed down from generation to generation.
The younger generation in the play are taught to hate each other and
end up fighting every time they meet each other causing hatred to
escalate even more. The younger characters were responsible enough not
to fight but in the end it took two innocent 'children' to die to stop
the fighting. I don't think the younger generation are to blame as
they were not in control over their emotions as their parents
controlled them. No one should take the blame; Fate and destiny chose
Romeo and Juliet to help the crisis come to an end. Fate brought them
together to get married and to die to save both families from an
everlasting war.
could never do anything on her own and that she was stupid, but as the story
William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. In the age of Rome and Juliet’s creation, many values of society were. different from those we 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.
Romeo and Juliet Although Romeo and Juliet become inextricably smitten with one another, they both enter into the relationship from different perspectives. Their love is strong, but each has their reasons for the intensity of their love. Romeo has just come out of another ?crush?. He has liked Rosaline for quite awhile, but things do not work out because the feelings are not mutual. Romeo sees that Juliet is a beautiful lady that he falls in love with right away, while he attends the Capulet Party. Juliet also instantly falls in love with Romeo, but it could be more of an escape for her.
“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
His love for Rosaline is great but yet she can not say the same and
William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet `Romeo and Juliet` is one of the best love stories of all time but although Shakespeare wrote the play, the story wasn't original. It all started hundreds of years before Shakespeare was born, in Italy when myths and folktales travelled about two young lovers from enemy families. After that, a poem was written called `The tragical history of Romeus and Juliet` by Arthur Brooke in 1562. So although Shakespeare's ideas weren't original, he has developed the basic ideas so well that now the whole world are familiar with the deeply touching love story of `Romeo and Juliet`.
“Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health, still-waking sleep, that is not what this is” (Shakespeare 1.1. 179-180). A string of contradictions explain the love story of Romeo and Juliet, a contradiction. Some critics consider this story a tragedy because Shakespeare once wrote; “the fault is not in our stars but in ourselves”. While others say it does not follow the standard Aristotelian form of tragedy (Krims 1). Romeo and Juliet can not be a tragedy because no flaw causes them to fall, the lovers, could not have controlled fate, and family and friends assisted them to their deaths.
Capulet and Romeo Montague, face a bigger problem; forbidden love. Taking place in Verona, an ignorant Romeo first meets a childish Juliet at the Capulet’s party. Romeo and his kinsman, Benvolio, attend the party masked, searching for his first love, Rosaline. Coincidentally, Romeo meets Juliet, a new beauty, and falls in love with her not knowing the fact that she is a Capulet. The feud continues, leading one mistake after another, until both families realize their selfishness at the last minute. The unfortunate tragedy of two “star-crossed lovers” is ironically caused by the impetuosity of Romeo and Juliet themselves (Shakespeare 7).
Shakespeare’s play, The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, depicts an ancient feud ended by a pair of star-crossed lovers’ deaths. A lord and lady from warring families seek a forbidden love with guidance from a friar and nurse. Due to a tragic course of mischances and fateful errors, their attempt of eloping led the lovers to a tragic end. Because of rash decisions, the four characters are torn apart by miscalculating events and misunderstandings. Ultimately, the four characters encounter a heartbreaking ending, as a result of their hastiness.
William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet is fully summarized in Shakespeare's prologue: "Two households, both alike in dignity, in fair Verona where we lay our scene. From ancient grudge break to new mutiny where civil blood make civil hands unclean. From forth the fatal loins of these two foes, a pair of star crossed lovers who take their life" (Universal, 1996). This movie is a masterful culmination of the director's phenomenal ability to create a powerful introduction, to select a realistic, but surreal setting, to choose realistic actors, and to enact specialized dramatic effects.
Micheal Jordan famously wrote “If you accept the expectations of others then you never will change the outcome” (Jordan). One can appreciate the context of the quote when relating it to one of William Shakespeare’s greatest work, “Romeo and Juliet”, in which two long-feuding families finally end their strife after their children defy the societal expectations, and consequently take their lives away. The two lovers struggle to live up to the expectations society demands from them, which oppose the existence of their love. For example, the audience sees Juliet challenge her family’s expectations in order to protect her relationship with her true love, Romeo. Additionally, both Romeo and Juliet challenge their gender roles in order to love freely without any opposition from society. Also, as the love between the two intensify, both Romeo and Juliet struggle to abide to the social expectations of their Christian faith. In a nutshell, one of William Shakespeare’s most celebrated plays, “Romeo and Juliet”, is about how two lovers choose to defy the social expectations demanded by their society in an attempt to create an environment where the “true love” they possess can exist.
In the tremendous play of ‘Romeo & Juliet’, Shakespeare’s ways engages the audience straight away. The astounding methods he uses hooks the audience into the play and allows them to read on, wondering what will happen. The tragic love story of Romeo & Juliet, as mentioned in the prologue, sets a variety of themes throughout Act 1 Scene 5. Many of the recognisable themes are: youth and age, revenge, forbidden love, fate, action and hate. The main idea of the play is a feud that had been going on between two families, The ‘Montagues and Capulets’, the son of the Montagues and the daughter of the Capulets fall in love and the story tells us how tragic, death, happiness and revenge find them throughout the play.
and Juliet both deep in love with each other, die at the end of the