Explain the attitudes and feelings presented in Romeo & Juliet.

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Phil Gornell        Page         10/05/2007

Explain the attitudes and feelings presented in Romeo & Juliet

Most the attitudes and feelings presented in Romeo and Juliet are closely linked to the themes presented in the play. The main themes of the play are developed by contrast and centre on love. These attitudes are different to the attitudes that are used today and that is why Shakespearean characters are seen to be more humorous than they are perhaps intended to be. In the opening scenes, three different kinds of love are portrayed. Sensual love is first presented in the vulgar jokes of Samson and Gregory, in the bawdy comments of the Nurse, and in Mercutio's sexual jokes about Rosaline at the expense of Romeo. After this a ‘love sick’ Romeo is shown, who is in love with idea of love, and believes that Rosaline is the girl of his dreams where in fact she is quite the opposite. He is the only person who is unaware of the shallowness of his love as it is purely sexual. The third type of love presented in the play is "Conventional Love", this is when love is arranged by families who are looking for allies or something In return. Paris offers his rank in exchange for Juliet’s love; this is similar to Romeo’s feelings for Rosaline. He courteously requests for Juliet’s hand in marriage to Lord Capulet, even though his eyes had never met hers. There is no emotion here, only convenience and proper social matching. Nevertheless, against this initial presentation, Romeo’s feelings towards Rosaline are thrown in the air when he and Juliet are first introduced to each other at the Capulet’s ball. He immediately forgets about his ‘artificial’ love towards Rosaline, as true love takes complete possession over his mind.

But there are some opposite feelings shown also, which contrast all of the loving feelings. For example, in act 1 scene 1, Sampson and Gregory are taking a walk across the grounds where they live and they are having a casual conversation about sex. Sampson talks about how women are the “weaker vessels”, this shows that he believes that men are superior to women. This depicts the attitude that many males had at this time. They both talk about what they are going to do to the Montague women. “Ay, the heads of the maids, or their maidenheads-take it in what sense thou wilt.” What Sampson is saying here is that he is going to rape the Montague women and then cut off their heads. The word maidenhead used to mean virginity, so he what he has said has 2 meanings.  The way in which he nonchalantly says these remarks would make it seem that this sort of joking was tolerable banter between young men at this time. Shakespeare also presents this chauvinistic view towards women by using extended metaphors and imagery. There is an ongoing link to natural things, such as when the head of the Capulet household says to the other male characters at his party, “Inherit the delights of fresh female buds.”   This kind of natural imagery is used by Shakespeare to present the natural beauty of women; the word ‘delights implied that they are special and are there to be enjoyed. Also the term ‘fresh female buds’ implies that they are young, and ready to blossom into something more mature. This natural imagery implies that were the women are still beautiful, they are still to be used in a way that the servants would do. This is yet another technique used by Shakespeare; he uses certain people at different levels in the societal hierarchy as symbols to show the array of views throughout society. However, Capulet does not sound as crude as Sampson and Gregory did previously, this was an acceptable view to have towards women at the time in society where as it is unacceptable now.  Shakespeare continues with his extended metaphor of nature later on the story, when Capulet is talking to Paris about him giving away her hand in marriage. He thinks that his daughter is not yet ‘ripe to be a bride.’ This immediately suggests to the audience that she is being compared to a fruit, which again is something wonderful and beautiful. On the other hand, Capulet is very aware that early ‘arranged’ marriage can turn sour eventually just like fruit. This is also shown in the quote “too soon marred are those two early made.”  When Capulet says this in the Zefferelli film, he looks across to his wife, who gives him a significant sour look.  This dramatic technique shows the resentment between Lady Capulet and Capulet and we know he is talking from experience of his own arranged marriage.

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Sampson and Gregory also talk about how they are always up for fights with the Montague servants, Sampson says, “I will push Montagues men from the wall…” This is a metaphor presenting his hatred towards Montagues.  It suggests humiliation of the opposite family because by pushing them from the walls in the streets. sampson goes onto say “…and I will thrust his maids to the wall.” This is a pun, which also denotes embarrassment, this time of the opposite sex.  The pun is made clear through sexual gestures made by Sampson.  This is a dramatic technique used by Zefferelli to ...

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