Then they take their matters in their own hands and give her two choices either to marry Count Paris or be abandoned by the family, Juliet feeling she has no other options stays with her parents while keeping a relationship with Romeo.
They then carefully master a plan to get married in secret before Juliet marries Paris and to escape and live happy ever after.
As we know not all endings are happy as the plan had some confusion in it and ended up with both Romeo and Juliet dead.
Both families learning this make an agreement to never fight again, but too little to late.
In Elizabethan times the church controlled almost everything, brainwashing people into believing their views of what’s right on what’s wrong or else the people would go to jail if they disobeyed the church and its customs and be charged for treason.
Friar Lawrence goes against this when he decides to marry Romeo and Juliet in secret, this is extremely unorthodox and would most defiantly turn Elizabethan heads.
As a man of the church friar Lawrence was expected to encourage Romeo and Juliet either not to marry of to get consent from their parents, but instead he did the opposite and decided to marry them.
Themes
Love and Romance
This is one of the most powerful themes in the play playing a major part in the story.
The innocent love of Romeo and Juliet overcomes all but still manages to be stopped at the end in unfortunate circumstances.
Their concept of love at first sight was something new to the Elizabethans who would be surprised at this, Elizabethans were used to arranged marriages in accordance to wealth and social class, to them it was more like a investment then a marriage, it wasn’t about the love at all.
Violence
Violence is another powerful theme as it is constantly repeated.
The main violence is the feud between the Montague’s and the Capulet’s, with Romeo and Juliet caught in between al this.
Tybalt hated Romeo because he was a Montague and was interested in Juliet. He then tried several times to have a fight with him in the end killing Romeos friend Mercutio and Romeo killing him.
Tybalt was a fiery character and the audience must have liked him for that.
Revenge
Revenge also plays a big part in this play, as two important characters die from it.
First Mercutio dies because Tybalt was angry at Romeo for romancing with Juliet.
Then Tybalt dies because Romeo wants to take revenge for Mercutio’s death.
This is exciting for the audience who would be in suspense the whole time.
Betrayal
Romeo and Juliet both betrayed there parents by choosing t marry each other and going against the parents will. Elizabethans would consider this as betrayal and would find it un acceptable.
The nurse also betrayed the Capulet family by supporting Juliet to marry Romeo and witnessing the marriage, the Elizabethans would be disgraced by this as the nurse was a trustworthy person who does what is best for the family and the nurse did not do that.
Friar Lawrence is also betraying the church and its power, he is going against the norm and is telling Romeo and Juliet to get married and actually preceded with the ceremony for them, Elizabethans would have probably left the play because of this or maybe thrown some rotten vegetables at him for what he had done.
Humour
Humour is a powerful technique as the audience might come to the play just because they heard it was funny but then they would get to see all the other themes too, so it will attract the audience.
Most member-able for her humour is the nurse with her antics the audience would have found her humorous and warmed to her.
Public disorder
Public disorder is when the two rivalry families fight in the streets of Verona and disturb the peace there, this is where Prince Esecalus steps in to try and stop the violence but it clearly doesn’t work as there at more people killed.
Tragedy
Tragedy in the play is one of the main themes of the play as it’s is the most powerful it creates an impact when the two innocent lovers Romeo and Juliet die in a tragic way because there families silly feud.
Religion
Religion is also an important theme as it controls what happens in the story and how some of the characters act.
Friar Lawrence is a man of the Church but he did not act in a way that the Church would have expected him to by marrying Romeo and Juliet.
Role of Women
The role of women back then is very different to now.
In the Elizabethan time women had no roles except to serve their husbands or parents, girls would never have the chance to make her own decisions as her parents decide for her until she is married and her husband would decide for her after.
Romeo and Juliet was different to the norm of what would happen in real life for a girl like Juliet, as she would have to listen to her parent and have to marry Paris without any complaint even though she had no love for him, love was not thought of in Elizabethan society.
When Juliet disobeys her mother her mother turns her back on her and says
‘I wish she were married to her grave’
Harsh words to hear from your mother and she gave in and said she would marry Paris after the prospect of being thrown out on the street.
She behaves more like a modern day teenager, by disobeying her parents and following her own rules, even going behind her parents backs to get married to Romeo, this can be compared with a grounded teenager escaping through the window to do the thing she was grounded for.
Language
Shakespeare’s plays were written in old English language, and their re-adaptations today are still in the same format.
The language is affective as they could describe something with almost any word
"Tut, man, one fire burns out another's burning" (1.2.45) that would mean that you should forget the woman you over because there no chance of it happening but there are plenty more women out there, this is what Benvolio tells Romeo to do after his love sickness over Rosalind.
There is also a lot of language with love in it such as "What lady is that, which doth enrich the hand of yonder knight?" (1.5.41-42). He is enchanted with her beauty and decides to go and touch her hand when the dance is over.
There is also language to describe violence "Romeo, the love I bear thee can afford No better term than this: thou art a villain" (3.1.60-61).
Tybalt there is telling Romeo that he is a villain and is trying to provoke him into a fight.
There is also language used for humour such as "Consort! What, dost thou make us minstrels?" (3.1.46). "Consort with means associate with, and has a derogatory meaning, as though Romeo is some sort of criminal, which some members of the audience would find funny.
Characters
Romeo
The name Romeo is almost similar to the words ‘Romance and Lover’ which is no surprise why that name was chosen for him as it fits in perfectly with his character.
Romeo Experience’s a love of such passion that he kills himself when he believes that his one true love Juliet has died. The power of Romeo’s love, however, often shadows Romeo’s true character, which I think is far more complex.
Romeo First believed he Loved Rosalind who was not interested in him and in his woe his character turned sad, lonely and pathetic, I think he falls in love too easily and always ends up getting hurt in the end.
Romeo willing and daring to do anything for love goes into his enemy garden to catch a glimpse of the girl he loves while risking capture and death for it.
He is also willing to do anything if he is angry as he was when his friend Mercutio died and he went and killed Tybalt instead its these strong actions he does that makes him such a strong character in the story.
Juliet
She plays a 13 year old facing decisions most 25 year olds wouldn’t have come across
Which is very difficult for her as she is not mature enough yet to make those decisions maybe that’s why she disobeys her parents and goes with Romeo instead of count Paris.
Juliet shows us determination a Strength that shows us the woman that she may become but it seemed never meant to be in a society were everything she is opposite to every other girl her age.
Juliet seemed to be getting on with everyone until her shocking announcement that she wasn’t going to marry Paris. Her parents wouldn’t accept this but Juliet had more encouraging signs from her nurse, who supported her action.
This just made their special bond grow more as the nurse helped Juliet out with what ever she needed as she acted more as a mother to Juliet, then Juliet’s biological mother.
Nurse
The nurse was an unusual character as she was funny, bubbly and exciting at the same times. She had a very different personality to all of the other characters in the play which made her special.
She worked for the Capulet’s and shared a special bond with Juliet as she was there from the moment Juliet was born, breast feeding her, changing here teaching her and nurturing her.
I think part of the nurses personality shows in Juliet as the nurse speaks freely and so does Juliet, I think Juliet saw the nurse as a role model as she was the only person Juliet knew, this is where I think Juliet got some of here traits while developing others.
