Relationships between Parents and Children in Romeo and Juliet

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                                                         ROMEO AND JULIET CW

The tragedy of Romeo and Juliet is the result of two noble families' bitter war on each other in the historic Italian city of Verona.

Romeo and Juliet loved each other. They had to keep their romance a secret from their families (Montague and Capulet) because they were afraid that when the two families found out about their romance that a war would start between the two families hence many deaths would occur. This suggests that their relationship with their parents would obviously be formal and distant.

Relationships between parents and children in the time the play was set were very different from the relationship parents and children share today. Back then, in rich and powerful families for example; children were usually raised by their 'wet nurses' because the parents were important people who had to socialise often and had no spare time to raise their children whereas in this current time children are raised by their birth parents no matter their social status or they are sent to foster homes /adoption if they are not wanted.

Children from noble families were often brought up by 'Wet nurses'. Wet nurses were given the job to raise the child for example breastfeeding the child, hence the title 'Wet nurse'. The reason is because the child's parents had such a high status in society where they had to attend parties and other social gatherings to maintain their high status which left them hardly no time to raise a child.

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In the entire play; Romeo is not seen with his parents because of his 'independence'. This suggests that Romeo is an independent man and does not rely on his parent so much or mingle with them. This can be seen in the quote from Romeo's mother (Lady Montague) “O where is Romeo? Saw you him today?”. Finally, this shows that Romeo's parents lack knowledge of his whereabouts and what he is doing which furthermore emphasises his independence and free will.

In act one scene one, Montague talks about his son; Romeo. He states that ...

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