How would the behavior of Lord and Lady Capulet be viewed by both a modern and a contemporary audience?
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Introduction
How would the behavior of Lord and Lady Capulet be viewed by both a modern and a contemporary audience? In this essay I am focusing on how the behavior of Lord and Lady Capulet are viewed by both a modern and contemporary audience. This play "Romeo and Juliet" was written by Shakespeare who was a magnificent writer. "Romeo and Juliet" was written in 1594 and its focus was on love and marriage which were arranged at the contemporary times. Modern audiences are people who are viewing something at the time after "Romeo and Juliet" was written. On the other hand contemporary audiences are people who are viewing the play back then when the play was actually written. This means that their opinions are divergent to the point of view of the modern audience. This is because over 400 years people's social life have diverted from reverence towards parents and the decisions they make for you to making independent decisions about your life. Therefore in this essay I will describe how both audiences feel about Romeo and Juliet's love and the decisions their parents made for their future. ...read more.
Middle
This also adds tension and how dramatic the atmosphere is as how Juliet is trying to keep her distance and is not falling for anything as she knows whats happening. Lady Capulet describes Paris as a "gentleman" on line 80 in act 1 scene3. This shows she has much respect for him but also using flattering language to soften Juliet's heart towards him. The contemporary audience would see this conversation very prosaic as arranged marriages were very common in those times. On the other hand the modern audience would object to what is happening to Juliet as everyone has the right to make their own decision about who to marry but she is being pressurized to get married and also at such young age when the 21st century you have to be atleast 16 to get married with your parents consent. Act 3 scene 4 is a very short and summarized, the structure shows how these is a very secretive talk between the 3 as they are not relaxed but are agitated and want no one to hear that is why they finish their conversation very quickly. ...read more.
Conclusion
However the modern audience would see the morality as she waited to get married before having sex with Romeo therefore she did the right thing, furthermore the audience would feel very disappointed to see their love tore up because of family history. Therefore both audiences would have very different attitudes towards the morality of the play. I believe on one hand that the love shared by the two main characters were very realistic and still happens in the 21st century. On the other hand the time span of all these events are however unrealistic as it all happened in less than a week. Moreover it showed how everything can happen very quickly and also time passes just le that. I believe that Shakespeare wanted to prove a point by writing this play, he's aim was to inform us about the social roles in the contemporary times but also to show love doesn't always have a happy ending. Lastly lord and lady Capulet learned their lesson through the death of their daughter that pressure can have side affects. Furthermore also how lady Capulet was never a good mother as Juliet could not share her feelings with her. This also taught other parents how they should change their behavior towards their children's love. ...read more.
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