Skye Ozga 26 February 2015 English I honors Mr. Sullivan Hierarchy in the Capulet Household In the play Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, there is a clear hierarchy in the Capulet household. This hierarchy, from bottom to top, follows the traditional feudal social pecking order. At the bottom there are the servants and those employed by the nobility. Next come the kinsmen such as Tybalt, who answer to the immediate family. As in most families, the children, or child in the case of Juliet answer to their parents who are the noble Lord and Lady. Even though this hierarchy is seen prominently throughout the play and is well established in feudal society, there are many instances of the hierarchy being broken, such as the nurse overstepping her boundaries or Juliet 's disobedience to her father -- the ultimate upset. Shakespeare uses the breaking of the hierarchy to demonstrate the weakness, and to a degree incompetence, of the leadership within the families to add to the unrest in the story and to exemplify the need for a strong monarch. With the fragility of this hierarchy being such a crucial aspect to this story, Shakespeare introduces it almost immediately. After the opening sonnet, we see the Capulet guards talking about how much they hate Montagues, then two Montague servants enter and the Capulet guards start a fight with them. While the guards are fighting the servants, Benvolio, a kinsman of Montague, tries to stop them. Tybalt, a Capulet of a similar
Once in our lifetimes we all go through a tragedy, but who is responsible? In Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, several characters are responsible for the deaths in the play. The characters; the Capulets, Friar Laurence, and Tybalt are the ones most responsible.
In Act 1, scene ii. Capulet appeared to be a kind hearted man and he defers to Juliet’s ability to choose for herself, “My will to her concent is but a part” (I.ii.15). Juliet’s mother, Lady Capulet also has an influence over Juliet and her life and puts pressure on Juliet to marry Paris (the suitor that her father picked for her to marry). Juliet admits the power of the influence of her parents when she says of Paris, “I look to like, looking liking move; / But no more deep will I endart mine eye / Than your consent gives strength to fly” (I.iii.100-101). The specter of parental influence is very evident in this scene and it shows the influence of the society that they lived in.
Love is like a flame, it provides you with warmth, but too much of it can also burn you. Such is the plot of the play, Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare. It is a tragedy about two lovers, Romeo and Juliet, who unfortunately, belong to families who bear an ancient grudge against each other. In the play, Romeo and Juliet fall in love and quickly decide to marry each other. At the end, Romeo and Juliet’s decisions cause their untimely death, but in reality, there were other people who also contributed to the lover’s death. Friar Laurence, the Nurse and Lord Capulet are responsible for the tragic deaths of Romeo and Juliet.
Tybalt’s ill-tempered demeanor brings repeated conflict upon Shakespeare’s young and naïve couple as well as the battling houses of Montague and Capulet. While goading the servants of the sparring families to fight in the market, Tybalt’s rabble-rousing heightens despite Benvolio’s
In the play Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, figures of authority play a prominent role in the tragedies that take place throughout the story. Friar Lawrence is a respected member of society, and both the Capulet and Montague families trust him for advice and support. However, throughout the play, Friar Lawrence makes hasty decisions, like marrying Romeo and Juliet, hiding the fact of their marriage, helping Romeo after he is banished, and faking Juliet’s death. Through Friar Lawrence’s bad choices, Shakespeare demonstrates that blind reliance on people of authority is ill-advised, because they have flaws and make mistakes just like everybody else.
One of Shakespeare’s most eminent plays, Romeo and Juliet is a tale revolving around a pair of star-crossed lovers whose premature relationship must go undiscovered because of their feuding families. However, in the arduous process of protecting its secrecy, several essential figures including Romeo, Friar Lawrence and the theme of fate play decisive roles that hold responsibility in the turnout of events that lead to a tragic conclusion. Romeo, the lover himself is rebellious and desperate for love. His impulsive personality towards love and marriage establishes danger not only upon himself but as well as his partner Juliet. Friar Lawrence is well-regarded, but his rashness, ignorance, and ill-advised thinking place both lovers in
William Shakespeare’s famous play Romeo and Juliet is filled with serious decisions. The two title “star-crossed lovers,” Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet, not only decide to get married mere days after their first meeting, but also choose to carry out a ridiculous plan to avoid an unwanted marriage and eventually kill themselves (prologue). Although such subject matter is not often found in young adult novels, the impulsivity of this behavior is a mark of Romeo and Juliet’s teenage inexperience. Their immaturity ultimately results in drastic consequences— namely, their own deaths; however, their naiveté was not a hazard for the entirety of the play. The way it affects their decisions and relationships with others changes over time, different at the start of the book before they meet than at the end, when they both finally make the monumental decision to commit suicide. Before they first encounter each other, Romeo and Juliet’s immaturity is harmless, but after their first meeting and as their relationship develops, it begins to prove dangerous.
Hence, Capulet’s desire for his daughter to marry “a gentleman of noble parentage” (Shakespeare 3.5.179) may have seen audiences adhering to the viewpoint of the parents, rather than that of the lovers, as it is these deeper truths of the play which speak to Elizabethan concerns. Capulet’s desire to uphold a power structure in his household sees him personally self-fashioned as a patriarchal figure. Unlike works preceding Romeo and Juliet; advocating austerity and conceding Juliet’s father in the enforcement of his authority, Shakespeare gives voice to the juvenile perspective as Juliet responds to Verona’s rigid social structure; first by asserting her independence, and then retreating back into vulnerability to gain sympathy “So soft a subject as myself” (210). Social roles are
Friar Lawrence plays a major role in the play “Romeo and Juliet”, and he is one of the key characters that make this play by William Shakespeare the renowned romantic tragedy that it is. In Italy during the 1400’s – 1500’s religion played a strong and influential part of society. Holy men known as Friars were therefore very trusted and respected. Anointed by God they lead a life of permanent commitment and were bound by vows of poverty, obedience, chastity and a life of prayer. The Franciscan Friar, in the play, is shown to be an expert of plants and remedies and it is this characteristic which enables him to make the beneficial comparisons between the healing and harming side of plants and herbs, a key importance to the play. The Friar’s role as friend and advisor to Romeo and Juliet highlights the conflicts between parents and their children. The centrality of the Friar’s role suggests a notable failure in parental love and this is why in their isolation Romeo and Juliet turn to the Friar for neutral advice. To begin with the Friar can’t believe how Romeo has abandoned Rosaline, his once beloved, and quickly fallen in love with Juliet. However he agrees to marry Romeo and Juliet in the hope marriage will end the feud between the Montague and Capulet households. Ironically, his intentions were never truly fulfilled because the circumstances surrounding the marriage made it almost impossible for peace to occur. Thus emphasising the Friar’s naive underestimations of fate.
He Drank the Poison; She Drew the Sword; Romeo, Juliet and Others Accountable for Their End
A significant quote from Romeo and Juliet: “Wisely and slow. They stumble that run fast” (2.3.94). This is the advice given by Friar Laurence warning about the dangers of fickle love, but it also says something about how action may lead to disaster. In Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, the two protagonists for whom the play is named, Romeo and Juliet, are children of two relentlessly feuding families. Juliet belongs to the Capulet family while Romeo belongs to the Montagues. When the two meet, they fall in love, and decide to get married secretly, despite the disapproval of their families that would be blatant if their love was made public. The character of Nurse is someone who has watched over Juliet throughout her childhood, and Juliet confides in Nurse as if she were her mother. Friar Laurence is a figure which Romeo seems to confide in from the beginning. Both of these characters are involved in the “star-crossed lovers’” secret marriage plans. In Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet, Nurse and Friar Laurence, who serve as supporting characters to Juliet and Romeo, both influence the decisions made by the protagonists, and therefore affect the final outcome of the story, Friar more effectively enabling the couple through his action than Nurse, who acts as an assistant, advisor, and messenger.
In William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare opens with two servants of the Capulets explaining their hatred towards the house of Montague, their mortal enemies. A fight between the two houses soon breaks out and the prince must remind them once more that he will not permit more fighting between the two. The story proceeds to pan over to Romeo the lovesick heir of the Montagues. To cheer him up, his friends joke with him and then a golden opportunity arrives. A servant of the Capulet house requires someone to help him read out the list of people he needed to fetch for a grand party at the Capulet household. The servant did not realize it was a Montague whom he allowed to go to the party. Meanwhile, Paris and Lord Capulet are discussing his marriage to Juliet. Even though Lord and Lady Capulet are married, their views on love are complete opposites.
Shakespeare is known for numerous literature achievements such as Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, MacBeth and so on. However, he is also known for his short but witty sonnets. While Shakespeare was known for more romantic stylistic poems and plays, his sonnets attack conventional notions in a number of ways. Shakespeare takes the ideas and attitudes of other sonnets and twists them into his own which goes against the habitual descriptions. Two sonnets, in particular, "Sonnet 130" and also "Sonnet 138", are examples of how he mocks and attacks the conventions of relationships, women 's beauty and also the conventionality of love in poetry itself.
The play starts off as a man by the name of Don Pedro and his fellow officers are returning to Messina from war. Leonato is informed that Don Pedro wishes to come to his home for a month. Before the war, Hero, Leonato 's only daughter, had been attracted to Claudio. Leonato holds a masked ball to celebrate the end of the War, and also to celebrate Claudio and Hero’s engagement. Don John, the dukes brother, plots to mess up this relationship. Alot of deceit and lies take place during the play. We are all taught to “Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none” (William Shakespeare). As humans we should love and care for all our neighbors. Trusting people is a very difficult task that nobody can do easily. If you truly love someone and you know
Foolish and impulsive desires can easily influence one, which can force them into undesirable situations. Such is the case with William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. This play is centred on two adolescents, Romeo and Juliet who are blinded by love. Alas, the love that brought them together is ultimately what leads to their demise. The blame for the deaths of Romeo and Juliet can only rest on themselves. This is due to the facts that they formed a marriage hastily, they had a defective, sexually driven relationship, and they committed the mistakes of making lamentable decisions.