Do you feel that tragedy or love is the central theme to William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet?

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Do you feel that tragedy or love is the central theme to William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet?

Many people feel that Romeo and Juliet is the greatest love story ever told, their names are always associated with great love and affection. However with the final line of the play the prince states “for never there was a story of more woe than this of Juliet and her Romeo” this suggests that it is more the most tragic story of all time.  In an essay I will discuss both these themes and conclude by explaining, which I feel is more important.

The play of Romeo and Juliet is set in the 16th century in Verona, Italy. It is based around the two main families of the city, the Capulet and the Montague’s. These families have been fighting and at war for many years. In the prologue, it talks of there “civil brawl”. From these two families we meet the main characters Romeo the Montague and Juliet the Capulet. When they meet at the Capulet ball they immediately fall in love, Romeo says, “I never saw true beauty till this night,” suggesting that she has brought new meaning to beauty. Immediately following this, they learn of each other’s identities. There love becomes a forbidden love. Through a serious of events the two hide there love from others and secretly get married, when Romeo gets revenge for the death of Mercutio by killing Juliet’s cousin he is banished from Verona. During this time Juliet has been expected to marry Paris, therefore Juliet creates a plan to make shore she can be with Romeo. Ultimately this goes wrong leaving Romeo to be leave she is dead and therefore kills him self, when Juliet awakes from her death like state she finds Romeo and then kills her self as she would rather die than be without him. Because of their deaths, the families finally make peace.

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Clearly, you can see that this story contains lots of romance and tragic events. However, which is more important? Firstly, I will discuss the idea of love.

It is important to understand that marriage in the times of Romeo and Juliet being written was very different to today’s western standards. Firstly, girls were expected to marry at very young ages such as 13, in Romeo and Juliet, Juliet herself was only 13 we learn this when her father states, “she has not reached change of 14 summers”. Secondly it was common for young girls to be involved in ...

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