To thine own self be true is a respected age-old saying, but while it epitomises the value of self-understanding and integrity, society often forces false identities onto individuals. What ensues is a culture where we constantly act in a way that is not genuine to who we are, to please family, friends and to follow society’s pattern. Revered writer William Shakespeare addresses this theme over multiple texts, namely Romeo and Juliet, in which two star cross’d lovers challenge their identities with true love, and ultimately forfeit their lives as a result. Shakespeare presents the notion that despite the pain and suffering that may come with being true to oneself, it is necessary to achieve authenticity regardless of these consequences. He proves …show more content…
Thus it is hard for Juliet to challenge her family to be true to herself and be with Romeo, as this challenge could lead to death. In a similar encounter, Romeo decides that he must reconcile with Tybalt as being with Juliet is being true to himself, and being with Juliet means becoming kin of Tybalt. He completely disregards his status as a Montague and his hate for Capulets to prove his sincerity, by stating, “And so, good Capulet—which name I tender as dearly as my own—be satisfied.” This is another scenario in which Shakespeare shows the pain that comes with challenging identity, by killing Romeo’s dear friend Mercutio in the fight that ensues. The highly revered modern film Dead Poet’s Society (1989) continues Shakespeare’s theme through Neil’s journey. Neil attends an elite private school and his parents wish for him to be a doctor, but his true passion is acting. Upon deciding that “[He’s] gonna do it! Whether [his] father wants [him] to or not!” (ref) He commits to acting, yet his family don’t accept him for his true self, only what they want him to be. As a result he falls into depression and commits suicide. This is again evident of the pain that can follow one becoming their true
In the two stories The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet and Pyramus and Thisby they both were star-crossed lovers and made their own choices throughout the stories. For example they chose to love each other even though they knew it wouldn't end well. Personal choices affect the characters more than destiny because they decided to get married and they killed themselves.
When Juliet finds out that Tybalt has been killed and Romeo is in exile, for killing Tybalt, Juliet feels both passionate about Romeo and disappointed in both Romeo and herself, which reveal her inner struggle. In Act 3, Juliet’s Nurse comes back with this news that Tybalt is dead and that Romeo is such an awful person for killing him. Juliet fights back at the Nurse, and herself, for speaking bad about Romeo. She claims, ““Shall I speak ill of him that is my husband? Ah, poor my lord, what tongue shall smooth thy name, When I, thy three hours' wife, have mangled it? But wherefore, villain, didst thou kill my cousin? That villain cousin would have killed my husband.” (3.2.99-101). This shows that Juliet is passionate about Romeo, because first of all, she says that she was wrong to say bad things about her husband.
In the play entitled Romeo and Juliet, two people named Romeo and Juliet fall in love with one another. They are obsessed with one another that they feel as if they should be together all the time regardless of the feud between the Capulets and the Montagues. Being obsessed with one another is a type of romantic crush, not an identity crush which is explained in the article Adolescence and the Teenage Crush. Not only does Shakespeare use romantic crushes in the play, but he also uses identity crushes in the play to show what may happen if parents do not pay close attention to their teens’ relationships.
Romeo and Juliet was a classic romance novel about passion, love and tragedy, written and first acted in 1595. According to Alan Durband, many versions of Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet all relate to Shakespeare's understanding of early life in Verona. Romeo, a Montague, falls in love with Juliet, a Capulet, because he is romantically inclined. The Capulets and Montagues are feuding households His impulsivity caused a lot of people to die and experience emotional pain. Falling in love with Juliet was the event that started a chain reaction.
In Shakespeare’s critically acclaimed play Romeo and Juliet, the Nurse and Lady Capulet are foil characters. Shakespeare uses the Nurse and Lady Capulet to portray that the morals of a person, can affect another person’s actions.
A secret is, by definition, something that is kept, or meant to be kept, unknown or unseen by others. One example of a secret is Romeo’s and Juliet’s marriage. In Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare includes the secrecy of characters that affects the plot and contributes to the meaning of the work as a whole.
“I have night’s cloak to hide me from their eyes; And but thou love me, let me find me here. My life were better ended by their hate than death prorogued, wanting of thy love.” (Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, line 14-17) Romeo and Juliet first saw each other at a ball and fell in love right then and there, but they couldn’t be together because their family hated each other. This scene shows a mood of romance because they couldn’t see each other but they found ways to still be able to see each other.
At first glance, the Shakespearean plays Hamlet and Henry V are not similar. This is because they truly are not similar – not in genre, since Hamlet is a tragedy and Henry V is a historical play; not in plot, since the protagonist in Hamlet hides in the shadows of conflict while the protagonist of Henry V charges head-first into it; and certainly not in tone, where Hamlet is disastrous and Henry V is triumphant. It is these dissimilarities of context that make Henry and Hamlet’s similarities in identity all the more interesting. Both Shakespearean protagonists are faced with extreme circumstances, and in such extreme circumstances, they both resort to the same human response: they question. In both plays and both characters, Shakespeare seems to explore the depth of such questions as they pertain to human identity and as they pertain to each character’s sense of control, thus seeming to pose a question himself: what does it mean to control one’s identity?
Throughout Romeo and Juliet the theme of conflict is conveyed in many forms, mostly through physical violence; reflected in the era of the Renaissance where there was political turmoil and many European nations were at war. Shakespeare presents the theme in other forms as well; family versus family, sacred versus profane, parent versus child and language versus inner conflict. Conflict is a key in the structure of the play; it is highlighted in the beginning, middle and end. As an audience we are constantly being reminded of conflict which is reflected within the era the play was written in. The Renaissance was the 'rebirth ' of classical learning and was also the time when Science challenged many traditional Christian beliefs which resulted in Catholics fighting Protestants; the Gunpowder plot and the Spanish Armada. Shakespeare chose to dramatise conflict as it was the context in which he was writing plays. It is therefore arguable that this period was characterised by irreconcilable opposites in politics, religion and art. Nothing in the world can exist without its opposite- just as love cannot exist without hate, violence cannot exist without peace.
In the scene of the Nurse, Lady Capulet and Juliet, it shows that the Nurse knows more about Juliet than Juliet’s own mother when Lady Capulet didn’t know her age. Even though Juliet and Lady Capulet are related by blood, the Nurse is more of a mother to Juliet than her. Another significant thing about this is that Lady Capulet looks at Juliet like an object just to get
Secret is defined as something that is kept or meant to be kept unknown or unseen by others. If that is true, why do we tell others our secrets? No one's secrets are truly theirs, at some point anxiety will build up, information accidentally comes out, or you may just tell someone. Your confidentialities are not always yours, at a young age kids tell their parents everything. As those kids grow up, and become teens they start to develop barriers between their parents. Not telling them whatever is going on, at school or at practice can only last so long. This is hardly the case, because everyone has told their friend or parent something that was meant to be classified. For example, if one player on the basketball team knows a secret about another player, the whole team knows. That is due to the fact that we are a family and don’t care what we think of each other, because we are one. Trustworthiness is hard to prove, confidence is needed to tell someone a secret. If the friend is not trustworthy then that secret could be floating around school completely changed from its original stature. A secret is only a true secret if it is kept with only yourself. Just as honesty is evident in life so it is in literature. In William Shakespeare’s famous love story, “ Romeo and Juliet” and in life, withholding secrets is the
In the novels, Romeo and Juliet and The First Stone, the authors display through the characters, that unknown identities cause unlikely relationships, which in the end are beneficial to the people involved. Firstly, both sets of protagonists get to know one another, without knowing the person’s true identities. For example, in The First Stone, Reef and Leeza become friends, until Leeza realizes that Reef was the one who put her in the hospital. Likewise, in Romeo and Juliet, the two teenagers experience ‘love at first sight’ before recognizing they were each from one of the feuding families. Secondly, unaware of each others true identity, the pairs form unlikely bonds. For instance, in The First Stone, Reef is known to be the ‘bad boy’
William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet has been adapted into several films, but the film that properly demonstrates the mood of Act 2, scene 2 is Baz Luhrmann’s 1996 version.
In Act II: Scene 5, Juliet who is deeply in love impatiently waits for the Nurse to return with news from Romeo about wedding plans. Juliet’s upset with the Nurse considering her belief messages about love should be fast as thought, “Love's heralds should be thoughts, which move ten times faster than light from the sun.” Regardless of the Nurses old age, Juliet’s accusing her of not having feelings considering she knows of Juliet’s eagerness. At first, Juliet thinks the Nurse could not find Romeo. Juliet even begins to put down old people saying they’re all slow, “But old folks, many feign as they were dead, Unwieldy, slow, heavy and pale as lead.” When the Nurse returns she calls her a nice word, “Honey.”
While secondary characters are less important than the main characters of the book, they often have a noteworthy impact on the story. In William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, a secondary character, Friar Lawrence, plays a vital role throughout the play. The play takes place in Verona and focuses on Romeo and Juliet, two star-crossed lovers from two feuding families; the Montagues and the Capulets. The extremely violent feud between these families has been ongoing for generations, extending out to even the serving men of both houses. Romeo and Juliet must profess their love in secret because of the quarrel between their parents. This is a catalyst in triggering tragic events, consisting of the deaths of many other characters, including