In this essay, I will be examining Shakespeare’s treatment of relationships in Romeo and Juliet. As a poet and playwright, he wrote 154 sonnets, 2 long narrative poems and 38 plays, one of his most famous plays being Romeo and Juliet. There are many different types of relationships between characters, and these are essential to the play. The prologue tells us that the play is about two star-crossed lovers from two feuding families, the Montagues and Capulets. There is hatred between these two families, this explains this, ‘Thou villain Capulet’. This quote suggests because of the hate between their families, the lovers are doomed from the start. Romeo’s relationship with Rosaline shows he is deeply infatuated and passionate. In act 1, scene 1, Romeo compares his love for her to being, ‘strucken blind’. He uses this hyperbole which empathizes his strong feelings towards Rosaline. He says long speeches, where he repeats the phrase ‘O’. These speeches imply that he is obsessed with Rosaline. ‘With Cupid arrow, she hath Dian’s wit;’. This proves that she does not the feel the same way about him, which shows his unrequited love for her. He often refers to Rosaline’s beauty, ‘that when she dies, with beauty dies her store’. This suggests that he feels lust for her and how Romeo is immature and confuses this lust for love. Shakespeare says that there are many different types of love in the play, in this case, infatuation. Romeo and Juliet meet in act 1, scene 5, during a social gathering at the Capulet’s mansion. In his speeches he shows strong emotion and exaggeration. This shows his immaturity and how he is overpowered by love. For example on line 43, ‘teach the torches to burn bright’. He compliments her saying she is more bea... ... middle of paper ... ...mmon for rich, aristocratic families to hire a nurse to care for the children in Elizabethan times. The nurse calls Juliet by her first name and nicknames such as, ‘lamb, ladybird‘. This suggests that they have a loving relationship Juliet confided in the nurse about her and Romeo, and she helps to arrange their marriage. This shows how she feels she can talk to the nurse and she is more like a mother to her than Lady Capulet. This explains this, ‘There stays a husband to make you a wife’. Shakespeare’s plays are still relevant today in today’s society because the relationships shown, people can still relate to. They are part of our everyday lives, even though the play is based around Shakespearean times. I think that the moral message of the play is that when people commit themselves to one another they need to be mature and have consent of their parents.
There are many forces in the tragic play of Romeo and Juliet that are keeping the two young, passionate lovers apart, all emanating from one main reason. In this essay I will discuss these as well as how love, in the end, may have been the cause that led to the tragic deaths of Romeo and Juliet. Their strong attraction to each other, which some call fate, determines where their forbidden love will take them.
Romeo and Juliet is the tragic story of two young, “star-crossed” lovers from feuding families, destined for disaster. The Capulets and the Montagues have an ancient grudge on one another that has been passed down over generations. Unfortunately, Romeo and Juliet end up victims of their families’ vicious loathing. Romeo and Juliet’s story has several intertwining themes such as the aforementioned hatred between the Capulets and Montagues and the revenge Romeo strives for after his friend Mercutio’s death. Also, the love and passion between Romeo and Juliet and the loyalty of Romeo and his friends. Honour and revenge also feature frquently throughout the play including Juliet’s pressure to honour her family, and the revenge Romeo sees as his duty when Tybalt kills Mercutio.
In conclusion, the irony is that their love, and death, was able to do what their lives could not, to end the feuding between the Montague’s and the Capulet’s. It is with this thought that I shall examine “the thin line between love and hate” which is evidently shown on many occasions, such as when Romeo uses his love for Juliet to remove his hate for Tybalt “Tybalt, the reason that I have to love thee doth much excuse the appertaining rage” and also the play itself is evident of this, Romeo and Juliet’s love was so strong for each other, that they were able to overcome hate and also the hate that others possessed towards each other.
Despite the formidable obstacles they must overcome, their intense love survives because they do not just give up on their love. Prior to seeing Juliet, Romeo had intense feelings for Rosaline. These feelings were not felt by Rosaline though, so nothing came out of it. These lines are spoken by Friar Lawrence who is referring to Romeo as a waverer.
The nurse has raised Juliet since she was a baby. She plays more of a
Romeo has an obsessive personality. The morning before he meets Juliet, he is obsessing on Rosaline. To see Rosaline, Romeo snuck into a Capulet’s party; once there, he meets Juliet and instantly he forgets his obsession of Rosaline, thinking Juliet is the most beautiful creature on earth. Friar Lawrence even acknowledges this when he states, “Young men’s love then lies / Not truly in their hearts but in their eyes” (II iii 67-68). Romeo’s affection is easily swayed from Rosaline to Juliet.
Have you ever asked yourself the question, what makes for a healthy relationship? Romeo and Juliet give us a good picture of what a healthy relationship should look like as they fall in love. In this story of Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare depicts a healthy relationship through Romeo and Juliet by the act of being faithful and being compassionate and also making sacrifices
Romeo and Juliet is set during the Elizabethan period when women had to acquiesce to men. This was known as a patriatical society. It was the time when fathers decided whom their daughters should marry. In the Elizabethan period events such as marriage were more traditional and were taken very seriously as well as the fact that men were more powerful than women. The Elizabethan period was a period of internal peace between the English Reformation and the battles between Protestants and Catholics as well the battles between the Parliament and the Monarchy that repulsed the seventeenth century which relates to the Period that Shakespeare wrote the play because it creates this contrast that people were fighting over reputation for example, Capulet wanting to give his daughter Juliet to a rich and respectable man like Paris rather than someone like Romeo who does not have a reputation in the society. However, In the Elizabethan society men were the ''head of the household'' so the women of the Elizabethan society had no say in anything or anyone as well as not being able to know what the men had been up to because the men were seen as the dominant sex but on the other hand, in the twenty first century the women are mostly controlling the men such as a wife of a footballer. Men that were married were able to masquerade (sleep with another women or cheat) on their own wife's and even if the wife of the husband found out about the situation, she could not have done anything about it. She would either accept the situation or leave the husband but rarely women of the Elizabethan period did that because most of the men in the Elizabethan society were rich. As soon as the play starts, Shakespeare wants the audience to know that there is goin...
Sometimes relationships are complicated, and other times their easy, but even though your in a complicated relationship, it doesn't mean that the relationship is bad, it just means that you might have to work on it a little more than other people might have too. Easy relationships aren't always good either, having a relationship where you never fight or disagree on anything might just mean that you can’t talk to the person you are with. Both of these types of relationships are portrayed in Of Mice and Men written by John Steinbeck, and in the Romeo and Juliet written by William Shakespeare. George and Lennie have a stronger relationship than Romeo and Juliet, because George and Lennie have goals that they want to accomplish together, like getting
“The course of true love never did run smooth” –William Shakespeare. Shakespeare truly proved this quote in his illustrious play called Romeo and Juliet. These two star-crossed lovers definitely did not have a smooth course to true love, as they experienced many hardships along the way that ultimately resulted in their downfall. Romeo and Juliet’s forbidden love unleashed a strain on their reputations, friendships, and their relationship with their families.
“Is she a Capulet? O dear account! my life is my foe’s debt” (1.5.117-118). There are many factors that put pressure on Romeo’s and Juliet’s relationship throughout Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. The young couple is effected in many ways by every instance that creates stress which Romeo’s and Juliet’s relationship is being forced to carry. The biggest factors that impact them are, their families ongoing feud, the broken relationships they both have in their families, and all the instances of miscommunication. Through the story of the couple who meet one another at a dance, sneak around at night to see one another, and fight for eachother, they face challenges many challenges, that add stress to their relationship.
When Romeo meets Juliet, he claimed to be immediately in love. Although he has been sulking over Rosaline, when he met Juliet, he states, “Did my heart love till now? forswear it sight! For I ne’er saw true beauty till this night” (Act 1.5 Lines 51-52). The entire time as he envisions love with Rosaline, it was all incoherent. Romeo’s impulsive attitude causes him to fall head over heels with Juliet, which begins the drama in this play.
In Friar Lawrence's cell, Romeo dramatically cries, " There is no world for me outside the walls of Verona." Romeo murderer Tybalt, and the result of that Romeo was banished. In addition, the law states that death will be brought to whom kills. Romeo ridiculously does not accept his responsibilities. Romeo reveals his immaturety for assuming it is the end of the world for being banished from a place his "soulmate" lives. After Juliet and Romeo make love, Romeo passionately cries, " Let me be put to death. I am content if that's what you want." Romeos irrational need to stay with Juliet is becoming a foolish remedy. Knowing he would be put to death if he does not leave shows how lustful and courageous Romeo truly is. If Romeo wasn't being irrational then he would have kissed Juliet goodbye without a lustful thought of having to stay. As a result, Romeo barely made it out of Juliets home. If he had not he would have been executed.
The value Romeo most cherishes is privacy between him and Juliet. The value of privacy is expressed through the metaphor of night. Through night, darkness is a veil that removes any obligations to social institutions and implications, rules and regulations. In short, night is the individual’s escape from the public world. In a way, the lover’s eventual suicides may be viewed as an eternal night. Romeo rejects the values of his surrounding public and social institutions. The placement of familial power on the head masculine figure of the household creates a profound obstacle between Romeo and Juliet. Both lovers must rebel against their lineage especially Juliet. Because of the patriarchal power structure, Juliet’s love is not hers to give away. There is a strong hostility between their two families that conflict with the renaissance value of honor.
Producers all over the world have tried to create Romeo and Juliet using many different methods. Modernizing this will give the audiences a better way of learning what Shakespeare wanted to express in his piece. For this process, we will be focusing on the scene where Romeo and Juliet meet for the first time. It will be a film production, which highlights the character Juliet at a high school dance. At this school there are distinct popularity groups that say they are not allowed to socialize with people outside their group. Juliet is a geek and Romeo is a popular.Being at a dance the kids are all dressed up making it hard to tell who's who. Juliet goes to the dance looking for Paris the boy her mother said she should look for, but she ends