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Romeo & Juliet Themes (Love (driven to defy their entire social world,…
Romeo & Juliet Themes
Fate
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The family feud is never explained, the audience must just accept that it's undeniable fate
Watching the characters struggle against an invisible and unbeatable force such as fate heightens the sense of tension
Love
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its meaning, its causes and its impact - both positively and negatively, and its goal
different types of love and their impact on individuals, families, friendships and the wider society of Verona
violent, ecstatic, overpowering force that supersedes all other values, loyalties, and emotions.
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Shakespeare is uninterested in portraying a prettied-up, dainty version of the emotion
brutal, powerful emotion that captures individuals and catapults them against their world, and, at times, against themselves.
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Simple rhyme shows Romeo's naivety towards love and how he fantasises whereas Juliet is much more grounded
"Alas, that love, whose view is muffled still,
Should without eyes see pathways to his will"
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"With love’s light wings did I o’erperch these walls,
For stony limits cannot hold love out"
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Comic characters
Like Mercutio, Juliet's Nurse views love as a purely sexual and temporary relationship, as opposed to Romeo and Juliet's love which is presented as fragile and eternal
Death, Violence and Conflict
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always connected to passion, whether that passion is love or hate.
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importance of honor, for example, time and again results in brawls that disturb the public peace.
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Treatment of women
Juliet's heart, in her family’s mind, is not hers to give
Last Capulet puts pressure on Juliet to think about Paris as a husband before Juliet has begun to think about marriage at all
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Christianity
Although they both usually uphold traditions of Christianity, their love causes them to think of each other in blasphomous terms
Juliet calls Romeo “the god of my idolatry,”
Sex
Romeo implies his relationship with Rosaline didn't work out was because she wanted to remain a virgin
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Whereas Mercutio cynically conflates love and sex, Juliet takes a more earnest and pious position.
In Mercutio’s view, there is ultimately no such thing as love, since love is ultimately reducible to sexual desire.
Juliet, by contrast, implies that the concepts are distinct and that they exist in a hierarchical relationship, with love standing above sex.
Sampson proclaims his desire to attack the Montague men and sexually assault the Montague women: “I will / push Montague’s men from the wall and thrust / his maids to the wall”