The foolish actions of people have surely not disappeared in the media because history repeats itself. Audiences notice that the foolish actions that people create a sequence of bad events, which result in a tragedy. Jack and rose’s unlikely love story of a working-class man and a woman who is not in love with her fiance and Maria and tony’ doomed love due to the afflictions of their rival gangs, fall under this category. However, Romeo and Juliet have claimed the right to this title.
Romeo and Juliet unravel mistakes that love can create and how passionate and impulsive it can be. Presented as the greatest love story of all time, Shakespeare also depicts the harsh truths of who is at fault for the doomed romance; the parents of Romeo and Juliet. In two hours, Shakespeare reveals the evidence behind their deaths; ancient feud, persistence of marriage, and the relationship with their children. The parents of Romeo and Juliet are the cause of this feud-driven tragedy.
After the party, Romeo sneaks into the Capulet’s orchard to see naive Juliet to avoid a tragic interaction with Capulet. However without the feud, Romeo would not feel the need to sneak into their property, but instead politely ask Capulet to see Juliet. Before their wellknown encounter, Shakespeare intentionally uses a false iambic pentameter, “O Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou Romeo? ” (Shakespeare 2. 2. 33). He proves that in order for the iambic pentameter to flow, the name Romeo Montague must be removed not only from the verse, but from the play.
Thus, demonstrating that their titles clash. She asks why Romeo has to be called Romeo Montague. Juliet shares how torn she is with her love and titles that they were given, “Deny thy father and refuse thy name… And I’ll no longer be a Capulet. ” (Shakespeare 2. 2. 34-36). She expresses to the audience in a soliloquy of her inner struggle and demonstrates her first act of subtle rebellion against her parents by thinking and speaking to a Montague and the growth of her new independence and maturity in the play.
She separates her identity of Romeo and herself and contemplates to desert her family in order to be with him. After Romeo and Juliet’s forbidden marriage, Tybalt forces Romeo into a duel which results in the utter deaths of Tybalt and Mercutio. This thickens the plot, causing a lead of catastrophe duet exile and planned suicide of Romeo and Juliet. Tybalt and Mercutio quarrel in which reflects the mirror images of the different heads of the families. They take the place of Montague and Capulet in fighting and hope to be a ‘strong’ leader as they are to them.
However, both parties are clueless and in fact weak because they are not civil with their encounters, they are rather careless about their abilities and consequences faced when fighting. Mercutio and Tybalt deliberately misinterpret their communication, “… Consort? What, dost thou make us minstrels? Here’s that shall make you dance. Zounds, “consort”! ” (Shakespeare 3. 1. 19-23) Any interaction with the opposing household would be blasphemy. However, they both refuse to settle with peace because they would like to fight to secure their pride.
This demonstrates how Capulet and Montague’s subjects feel to continue the feud to the extent of death to defend their name in order to appear as the superior household. Throughout the whole play, the audience perceives the common theme of marriage that the parents persist upon Romeo and Juliet. Capulet, dishearten about the recent death of Tybalt, reschedules and plans the wedding of the County Paris in order to bring happiness rather than woe for Juliet, “O’ Thursday let it be. —O’ Thursday, tell her… ” (Shakespeare 3. 4. 22-25).
Capulet not only created rash decisions for his own benefit (social status, security, and economic state) and forces marriage on to Juliet, but has complicated Romeo and Juliet’s plan to be together. Juliet revokes this arranged marriage and is overwhelmed by the advancement that her parents have created. Capulet, being the head of household has patriarchal power making it harder for Juliet’s opinion to be valid. He uses force and power showing that he is selfish and prone to rage, “Hang thee, young baggage! Disobedient wretch…
An you be mine, I’ll give you to my friend. ” (Shakespeare 3. 5. 160-167,177-196). Juliet begs to cancel the marriage but he being a misogynist, revokes her opinion, and in hope to know what is best for her. He continues to use verbal abuse to prove his point and treats her as a piece of property instead of a human being. The lack of proper communication and contentment presented proves how challenging it is for Juliet to reveal to her parents that she is loyal and married to Romeo and that her opinion is valid, gives her further reason to be disobedient.
Her parents fail to acknowledge that this is a new step in her life due to being with a different guardian, and the overwhelming amount of misinterpreted emotions that she is experiencing, such as her parents believing that she is only crying for the death Tybalt, but for the exile of Romeo too. The audience witness the similarity of the relationship with their parents; they are emotionally distant. In the beginning of the play, Lady Capulet calls Juliet to speak to her about an arranged marriage. “This is the matter.
Nurse, give leave a while, we must talk in secret- Nurse come back again. ” (Shakespeare 1. 3. 8-9). Soon after, she calls back the Nurse due to the awkwardness of being alone with Juliet and how distant they are and attempt to cover it up, by ‘remembering that she can share secrets with the Nurse. The audience notices that throughout the whole play, Romeo has never been onstage with his parents, nor talked to them. Romeo refuses to talk to his parents about his problems and isolates himself, causing Montague to send Benvolio to talk to him, “both myself and many other friends… (Shakespeare 1. 1. 36-40).
Montague has observed his emotions, but is incapable of properly interacting with him. Capulet and Montague parents share a trait of adolescent misunderstanding and exemplify that they have trouble confiding their youth. Their relationships with their children are weak and appear to be acquaintances rather than an actual family with proper interaction. Romeo and Juliet encounter others, such as Friar Lawrence and Nurse who are significant in their lives and play maternal and paternal figures in an aristocratic family.
In act three, the audience notices a difference between how the Nurse talks and speaks to and about Juliet in contrast to how Lady Capulet speaks to her, “… And since that time it is eleven years; For then she could stand high-lone; nay, by th’ rood, She could have run and waddled all about… ” (Shakespeare 1. 3. 18-49). In this scene, the strong bond is present between Nurse and Juliet because Nurse has nurtured her for her whole life. Juliet confides to her about her problems and her love of Romeo rather than her mother.
Friar Lawrence being Romeo’s benefactor has done anything to the extent of death for Romeo and Juliet. He had married them in secret in hope of Capulet and Montague to be at peace, and had given them a potion to lie in the stars. The parental and maternal figures are willing to take great lengths in order to care for their ‘children’, unlike their actual parents who are not actively present in their lives. Therefore the distance of their parents led Romeo and Juliet to their eventual demise. Shakespeare’s classic Romeo and Juliet reveal that their parents are at fault for the tragedy.
They aid a matter of six deaths and only till the end they communicate as civilized men and forgive each other, “Poor sacrifices of our enmity. ” (Shakespeare 5. 3. 313-320). They realize that they are the cause of the deaths of their children and they were poor sacrifices due to the rivalry Shakespeare challenges people to think about their relationships and to value communication and to not take it for granted like Montague and Capulet. Whether or not people should approach each other about something, the danger of believing the worst outcome comes from personal and social costs.
