These are love, sex, marriage and conflict. I will explore how Shakespeare includes these themes, the significance of them, and whether the trinity of love, sex, and marriage is needed for a relationship to exist.

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Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet was a very famous play and it upholds its reputation to date with many modern interpretations. There are many themes in the play, which I noticed within the first act. These are love, sex, marriage and conflict. I will explore how Shakespeare includes these themes, the significance of them, and whether the trinity of love, sex, and marriage is needed for a relationship to exist.

The first theme I will explore is Conflict; this is made very obvious at the very opening of the play. In Act 1 Scene 1 a fight breaks out between the houses of Montague and Capulet. These two families have always had a hatred for each other, which has existed for a long time. The fight is started between the servants from the Capulet house, Sampson and Gregory, who provoke Abram and Balthasar of the Montague house.

“Do you bite your thumb at us sir?” Abram questions Sampson who had bit his thumb as a provocation. To bite your thumb was an insult in Shakespearian times. This act simply continues the long feud that the houses of Montague and Capulet have always had. This fight shows a very large over all conflict between the two houses and shows how Shakespeare includes conflict very early on.

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Another conflict that is displayed is in Act1 Scene 5, when Romeo attends the masked party at the Capulet’s house, and Tybalt, cousin to Lord Capulet, recognises his voice, and asks for his sword but is refused by Lord Capulet.

“Fetch me my rapier” Tybalt asks his slave for a sword.

“Content thee, gentle coz, let him alone” Lord Capulet tells Tybalt to calm himself so that the party wouldn’t have been ruined. If he had not interfered, there would have been much blood shed. By Shakespeare putting this in the play, he his showing again that the hatred ...

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