Examining the Theme of Conflict in Romeo and Juliet

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Conflict has many different meanings for both physical and verbal abuse. Conflict could be a viscous feud or a full on physical fight. These days in television soap dramas we intend to see more verbal conflict than physical violence. But over the last couple of years new television programmes have been released which contains a lot of action-packed fighting and physical conflict of some kind. Some programmes include physical and verbal conflict including, “Eastenders”, “The Bill” and other programmes similar to these. The releasing of films such as, “Indiana Jones”, and “Rambo” catches the audience’s attention by involving action-packed, exciting features such as heavy arguments or thrilling battles. Some films are made to include action and excitement but when audiences watch it they cannot help feeling sorry for the victim or just generally sad for the people having the fight. In the same way Romeo and Juliet presents conflict more intense than most soap dramas. When the play was first performed in “The Theatre”, in Shoreditch in the mid 1590’s, the Elizabethan audience was shocked at how Juliet disobeyed her father and also how Romeo and Juliet disobeyed their families. Sympathy must be felt for the audience because they would have never known the idea of a son or daughter disobeying their father. The law at that time stated that the daughter was the property of her father until the daughter got married then her husband “owned” her as property. From this sympathy must be felt for Juliet because she is a victim of arranged marriages. When the play was first performed it got massive great responses which then lead to the play being transferred to The Globe theatre at the start of the 1600’s. Props and different costumes helped ...

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...the intensity of the play, the very sweet and romantic scenes would have intrigued the audience and with the shock deaths at the end it would have saddened then because Shakespeare involved his audience and drew them in with his soft and subtle scenes to the heart wrenching scenes. When, after Romeo and Juliet die, the two families make friends. I would think the audience wouldn’t be surprised because in the prologue it said, “Doth with their death bury their parent’s strife.” This means that with Romeo and Juliet’s death it will end the family’s feud. In conclusion I would say that Shakespeare puts conflict in sense which represents both physical and verbal abuse. It is important to include both aspects because not every character is going to have either a constant physical or verbal fight. Romeo and Juliet without conflict are like Romeo and Juliet without love.

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