“Romeo and Juliet” is a classical 16th century Shakespeare play. However does it merely reflect the lives of the 16th century, or can the play replicate our lives we inhabit today, in the 21st century? Numerous people believe Shakespeare’s plays have no place in today’s academic studies. But I hope to persuade you that this is not so, that the themes and extraordinary poetic brilliance still have a definite position in today’s narrative society. By focusing on the language used, the historical features of the society and the thematic influences.

The story commences with the conflict between the Capulet’s and the Montague’s.-

Prologue:

“Two households, both alike in dignity, in Fair Verano, from ancient grudge break to new mutiny, where civil blood makes civil hands unclean”

The immense grudge between two families confined great hatred, but amongst the animosity, the force of love was flourishing between the young children, “Romeo and Juliet”. The feuding of the families was the whole reason for the ultimate tragedy, they should have reconciled their differences years before. The reasons for their fighting seems unknown. Just as so many people believe that the USA was so wrong about invading Iraq, they belived there was no significant reason and subsequently so many people perished.

Juliet’s father wishes for her to marry Paris, a rich handsome young man. This shows that he wants Juliet to be happy and have a secure future, quote.

Act 1 scene 1-Capulet:

“She’s the hopeful lady of my earth
But woo her, gentle Paris, get her heart,
My will to her consent is but a part”.

Although Juliet’s father believed he needed to improve her social standing by her marrying Paris, his superior social class would provide prestige and money. This is also apparent today; fathers are often very protective and wish the best for their children. Although some of the ways in which Juliet’s father displayed these motives to her, the intention always remains indistinguishable, that he sought after her having a secure and blissful future. This connection shows that parents still want the best for their children and will go to extreme lengths to acquire this. Some parents spend thousands for private tuition just to enhance the intelligence of their children, believing this will broaden their social reputation and enable them to become a superior character within society. Some execute such an activity as they believe that if the children are respected then this will improve other peoples opinions of them as parents, so this can be done for the Children or often just for the honour and selfishness of the parents. Honour is one of the main reasons that Juliet’s father attempts to marry Juliet to Paris, because he wishes to retain his honour as he had promised Paris the hand of Juliet

Some societies today still believe that women are completely inferior and although the aspect of having to get forcedly married is dying out in today’s western society and culture since there is wide spread promiscuity, some cultures like Pakistan and other religions still have this regulation. People in the 16th century used to interpret bible passages or twist them to indicate that women are inferior. When juliet disobays these regulations her father is enraged because he believes he is trying to do the best for her and she is shown disrespecting him.

Act 3  scene 5 -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..
And you be mine I'll give you to my friend...'


The themes of death and violence permeate Romeo and Juliet, and they are always connected to passion, whether that passion is love or hate. The connection between hate, violence, and death seems obvious. Like the  overwhelming passionate love connecting Romeo and Juliet and the pure hatred between the “The Montagues” and “the Capulets”. But the connection between love and violence requires further investigation. Although we are not told exactly what it was the started this conflict it could be for many reasons, for example; religious, territorial, financial, imperialism. But mainly due to stereotypes, Some members of the Capulet’s and Montague’s have never even met and yet they hate each other. Why? Because of a person's last name. This is also extremely reflective of how some people stereotype others and due to this stereotyping they often ending up hating them, this can be damaging in a society. For example, some naive people often dislike Germans due to their past Nazi history, although its more apparant that the Germans themselves detest their unscrupulous history more than anyone. So it is clear that the stereotyping of people can often lead to more conflict and hatred.

This can reflect other conflicts such as the extract:

“The police handling of the inquiry into the murder of a 15-year-old is to be independently investigated.

Jessie James was shot dead in Raby Street, Moss Side, on 9 September.”

This vicious attack seems to be the result of this child merely entering a rival gang land territory, similar to the numerous brawls the two gangs have within Romeo and Juliet, of which ends up Tybalt murdering Mercutio .This shows the similarities of how vindictive people can be when it comes to pride and honour.

It seems such attacks always commence subsequent to some variety of taunt, this demonstrates similarities linking the “biting of thumbs”, which was the taunt used from one rival to the other in the “Romeo and Juliet”.

Act 1 scene 1

Sampson:
'Nay, as they dare. I will bite my thumb at them, which is disgrace to them if the bear it.

Abram:
Do you bite your thumb at us, Sir?

Where as today equal taunts can reflect the same significance for example, displaying the “middle finger” to another, can often be a sign of disrespect or taunt. Other phrases can be used as a taunt in modern society as apparant also in Romeo and Juliet.

In Shakespeare time, the “nobles” used Iambic pentameter where as the poor used prose. In this day and age this  sort of stereotype is still apparent. Some examples of this superior / inferior language is.
-Using stereotypes of – “the royal family” against the stereotype of- “poor Londoner” these 2 sentences give evidence that the “poorer” of the 2 uses inferior lingual structure.

The Royal Family- “Has the time come upon us of whom we will be requiring an afternoon beverage”

Poor Londoner- “Get us a cuppa!”
Although these two examples are quite extreme it can be shown in a smaller scale….

The greater socially challenged the person may be, the more inferior his/her vocabulary, pronunciation, spelling, reading etc will be. In the majority of scenarios, although there are always going to be exceptions. So there is a great similarity between the lingual usages of the different types of classes in the society.

Throughout the play there are many sacrafices, Romeo and Juliet were willing to sacrifice their relationship with their families in order to be together. Tragicly at the end of the play, both Romeo and Juliet sacrafice their own lives because they believe they can not live without the other.

Act 5 scene 3- Juliet:

“ Go get thee hense, for i will not away
What’s here? A cup clos’d in my true love’s hand?
Poison i see hath been his timeless end.
O churl, drunk all, and left no friends drop
To help me after? I will kiss thy lips,
Haply some poison yet doth hand on them,
To make me die with a restorative.
Thy lips are warm”

“ Yea, noise? Then i’ll be breif. O happy dagger,
This is thy sheath”

These sacraficial acts are so comparable to others in todays civilization, people today perform human sacrifice, in the context of religious ritual, although this often only occurs in some traditional religions, for example in muti killings in Eastern Africa. There are less extreme sacrafices that people have to make every day, be it for you who gets the prefered outcome, or you who makes the sacrafice as to improve someone elses equities.

Furthermore, it is apparent that there is a clear connection and relevance relating “Romeo and Juliet” to the 21st century and although this play displayed immense romantic thematic, not exactly boy/girl love but nonetheless you can explore the theme of undying commitment as being a prevalent idea in Romeo and Juliet and apply it to this example.   

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Originally posted by flanders56
are they no educated people in which can analyse a 15 year olds essay?

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kk cheers

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Originally posted by flanders56
Act 3  scene 5 -Capulet

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Originally posted by flanders56
Act 5 scene 3- Juliet:

“ Go get thee hense, for i will not away
What’s here? A cup clos’d in my true love’s hand?
Poison i see hath been his timeless end.
O churl, drunk all, and left no friends drop
To help me after? I will kiss thy lips,
Haply some poison yet doth hand on them,
To make me die with a restorative.
Thy lips are warm”

“ Yea, noise? Then i’ll be breif. O happy dagger,
This is thy sheath”

These sacraficial acts are so comparable to others in todays civilization, people today perform human sacrifice, in the context of religious ritual, although this often only occurs in some traditional religions, for example in muti killings in eastern Africa. There are less extreme sacrafices that people have to make every day, be it for you who gets the prefered outcome, or you who makes the sacrafice as to improve someone elses equities.

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Originally posted by flanders56
are they no educated people in which can analyse a 15 year olds essay?

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Originally posted by Dazmatic
and i dont think anyone wants too read through your whole stupid "essay" anyway

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thank u very much for ur input i will further read and analyse that particular scene

The best person to read your essay before handing it in is your teacher.

Oh, and the title of the novel should be in italics instead of quotation marks.

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Originally posted by flanders56
Numerous people believe Shakespeare's plays have no place in today's academic studies. But I hope to persuade you that this is not so, that the themes and extraordinary poetic brilliance still have a definite position in today's narrative society. By focusing on the language used the historical features of the society, and the thematic influences.

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Originally posted by FrozenDaggers
I'm doing English Lit at A Level but I've never read this novel

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I'm not sure if your essay is supposed to conform to any specific writing style, but from what I can tell, it's kinda just all sprawled out.

Well its a not bad esay, is all i can say, as im too young to really understand it all, btw puniksem unblock me as i was just jokiing jeez, just wanted to know your response lol....

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Originally posted by SpunkyLoveMuff

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Originally posted by FrozenDaggers
I'm doing English Lit at A Level but I've never read this novel

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How the hell did you get away with that?! I had to do it in GCSE

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so what level is this, personally although i am obviously very unexperienced i beleive this is high B.

Well coursework etc is not necessary marked on your English skills, you should learn that now. It is accessed on the content you have down. Make a good plan of an essay, and take each point individually, then make sure you have answered the essay question

then what do i need to add, change or anything to improve my essay pleeeease!

Well it is a little small. A 1369 word essay is a bit on the small side. You can easily elaborate on more points or go into some research about the play. You will be rewarded marks for extra research, something your classmates won't have . It may also help to give a background of the time, what was the message of the play, why did Shakespeare write it. When I wrote my Macbeth essay I add to mention the history of James I, and why it was based in Scotland etc.

I think you have your hopes way too high for that high B. Shakespeare is hard, and I wrote double that length and only scraped a B out of it.

Also you will get better marks if your work is unique in the some way. May be use a developed writing style. Again I think you are thinking GCSE's are easy. Yes, understanding them is easy, but you need to learn how to get your brain on paper.

This may help:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romeo_and_Juliet

my teacher said try to do about 700-1000 words. so i allready did quite alot of excess work thanks for the help though will make some adjustments to the essay

A conclusion to sum up the basic points could also help, just to tidy it up. Hint, leave the final sentence on a powerful message, something significant, and if possible your own opinion

kk thanks.

some please write a suitable summary for me, if needs to be handed in tommorow its a peice of my GCSE coursework and i know that is all it is lacking please som1 try to improve my poor summary pleeeease i beg you!!!!!!!! thank youuuuuu

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Originally posted by flanders56
some please write a suitable summary for me, if needs to be handed in tommorow its a peice of my GCSE coursework and i know that is all it is lacking please som1 try to improve my poor summary pleeeease i beg you!!!!!!!! thank youuuuuu

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Originally posted by Tasha

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Originally posted by flanders56
some please write a suitable summary for me, if needs to be handed in tommorow its a peice of my GCSE coursework and i know that is all it is lacking please som1 try to improve my poor summary pleeeease i beg you!!!!!!!! thank youuuuuu

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Tbh, you shouldn't ask us to write/improve it for you, it's YOUR coursework, YOU should be the one to meet the deadline, and YOU should be the one writing it.

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This is brill, I have an essay due about pretty much the same thing and I had absolutely no idea what outline to follow

Don't worry, I wont plaigarise

First time when I was in 8th standard, one of my school teacher had told me a great love story of Romeo and Juliet. At that time I know about them and really they were in true love as there love must alive today anywhere. This is called the true love story..

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Originally posted by jobybruk
First time when I was in 8th standard, one of my school teacher had told me a great love story of Romeo and Juliet. At that time I know about them and really they were in true love as there love must alive today anywhere. This is called the true love story..

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Hey.. I just share what I first time got at the school about the topic and as per new one is concern I will be ofcourse do this.. I also wanna your thought for this.

For such a short essay, I would have taken one or two points and elaborate more as opposed to picking a few and not going into depth.  There is a lot of "meat" in Shakespeare plays and especially Romeo and Juliet.  For example, regarding the conflicts between the families, one angle you could take is to examine the political or racial conflicts over history or research couples in history that got married despite the taboos of society.

You could also research the topic of "mercy killing" in different societies as related to the deaths in Romeo and Juliet.

And something quite modern that you may want to look at is the subject of marriage due to physical attraction as opposed to similar values and cultures...what you might want to compare is Romeo and Juliet's marriage in comparison to "Hollywood marriages" which appear to be based on physical attraction where the couples live happily ever after as opposed to the reality of the high divorce rate.

Someone continued this thread which turns out to be an essay from may years ago!, but this is just some food for thought for anyone writing the subject in the future.

Hey guys just an update. I kinda plagiarised some of this for my report due in a few days, hope you don't mind, it's got some good points so I thought instead of rewriting it with some general ideas, copy pasting would be better (you've got a very nice style of writing).

Thank you very much

might as well as close this thread