Shakespeare's Message in Romeo and Juliet

The first 200 words of this essay...

Romeo and Juliet

The moral of the story...

In Las Angeles in the 1980's & 1990's unjustified and irrational hatred was the cause of over one hundred thousand deaths. During the Blood-Cript gang war people were afraid to be on the streets, fearing they could be beaten or even killed for as little as wearing a red or blue shirt. Although this sounds atrocious the idea of hating a person you have never met is not a new concept to the world. In fact it has been the subject of countless books and movies through out the years. William Shakespeare told this tale in the play Romeo and Juliet. The theme or life lessons in this story are to judge a person not for who they are but for their actions and decisions, as well as to not impress your animosities on others, and finally to forgive.

The idea of judging a person by their actions and not for whom they are seems relatively simple. But when a relationship between people is founded on hatred that is generations old it is a little more complicated, as is the case with the Montegues and Capulets. During