What do we learn of Elizabethan views of love and marriage from reading Romeo and Juliet?

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What do we learn of Elizabethan views of love and marriage from reading Romeo and Juliet?

We lay our scene in “fair Verona” where Romeo and Juliet, “ a pair of star-crossed lovers” are kept apart by their wealthy families, the Montagues and Capulets whose “ancient feud” is only resolved by their children’s death. This classic yet tragic love story by William Shakespeare is set in the sixteenth century, also known as the Renaissance.

The portrayal of this age as a time of a rebirth is only partly correct. However many changes did take place in society that dramatically altered the way men and women thought and lived. The family played a key role during the Renaissance, especially the father and husband of the household whose duty it was to maintain the status, wealth and property of the family with his attention was especially paid to marriage.

Love and marriage are key themes that run throughout Romeo and Juliet.

In this play it seems as if love is doomed from the start by the society full of hate in Verona. The whole play could have been based on the oxymoron “loving hate”, as love will always win over hate. From the very beginning of the play love is condemned and in the prologue all references to love are described with death as “ a pair of star-crossed lovers take their life”. Shakespeare was influenced by the audience to include death or brutal and physical suffering to reflect what many Elizabethans used to enjoy watching at the time.

Parents arranged marriages between their children and those of other desirable families. Most often the choice of a marriage partner during the renaissance period had little to do with modern notions of romance and love. Consequently, the most important part of a marriage contract was the size of the dowry, the sum of money paid by the bride’s family to her new husband. This is why Juliet’s marriage would have been used as financial and reputable benefit, more of a commercial contract than one full of love and hope.

The feud in the play has corrupted many people especially Sampson, as his idea of lovemaking is purely aggressive. His hate for the house of Montague is so intense that he even wants to rape their women, “and thrust his maids to the wall”. This may or may not have appealed to people in an Elizabethan audience, but this sexually aggressive and bawdy language would have certainly entertained many of the poor or less well off people, especially the servants who most likely would have been extremely familiar with this use of language. Here Sampson talks of sex in a crude way and women being subordinate. The effect of these words shows us that the feud has taken over the hearts of these men so that they no longer know what true love is.

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Courtly love is a literary convention and Romeo is the stereotypical young lover who pines for the love of a woman who is unobtainable, although Romeo goes too far in his quest as a courtly lover thus making his love seem pretentious. Romeo displays what was expected of a courtly lover, “where underneath the grove of sycamore”.

During the Elizabethan period there were codes and rules to follow when trying to court a lady and to have sex before marriage was seen to be a sin.

Romeo shuts himself away banished from society, preferring night to day, “Shuts up windows, ...

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