Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
The influence of Romeo and Juliet
Reflection of society in literature
Reflection of society in literature
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: The influence of Romeo and Juliet
“If my father is going to punish me I might as well run away,” seems to be the thought process of Juliet and Lily. Through this semester we have read The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd and Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare and covered many topics related to the books. Both Lily’s father and Juliet’s father play a large roles in their daughter’s development into a women, causing them to make drastic choices due to their control and ignorance. As Lily and Juliet grow their fathers try to give advice, later ending up controlling their lives. Juliet’s father tried to show his love, soon controlling her decisions in her love life. Lily’s father pays little attention to her other than when he abuses her, consequently lily has do figure …show more content…
From the beginning of the play of Romeo and Juliet Capulet tries to protect his daughter when Paris asks for Juliet’s hand in marriage, knowing of what damage there could come from this marriage. Capulet new his daughter was still young and not completely ready to marry. Yet a few days later Paris asks for her hand again, Capulet knowing his daughter was still mourning her cousin’s recent death thinks a quick marriage would help her to overcome her sorrow. Capulet, ignorant of Juliet’s wants tells her of her arranged marriage in three days. Juliet previously said she would try to love Paris if it so occurred, but now that she had secretly married another man, Romeo, in secret she was unable to marry another, wanting to stay a pure wife. When the marriage was forced on her Juliet became overwhelmed and frustrated with her father. Adding to all this Capulet said if she would not marry Paris he would disown her. This added to her emotional pain with eventual social pain. During this time Capulet also mocked her and broke Juliet’s self-esteem saying she was ungrateful, a burdensome worthless girl. Later because of all her father’s control Juliet made poor life decisions, her running from her arranged marriage by faking her death, leading to her death. Ultimately, Capulet started out as a good, loving, and caring father, in the end causing his …show more content…
Ray was a broken single father, evidently bringing his brokenness out on his daughter by either ignoring her or abusing her. First of all, Lily was punished often punished for things she didn’t do or just abused so often she felt everything was her fault. Because Lily was so mentally damaged because of the way her father treated her she had a low self-esteem in public therefore she was often bullied. Socially it was evident T. Ray was not doing well in his job as a single father. Lily was rejected by others for her poor appearance affected by her father’s ignorance. Eventually Lily runs away to escape her father’s abuse, but even after she was taken into the Boatwright sisters home she still suffered from the mental abuse she had endured from the time she was at
In the beginning of the novel, as the reader is first introduced to Lily’s character, she comes across as an extremely negative young girl. While thinking about
In Chapter 13, Lily learns that her mother indeed ran away from the both of them to August’s home and she’s given proof of this because she’s given some things that were in her possession. Lily becomes angry because most of her life she has had to live with the guilt of killing her own mother. She becomes hopeless, and it shows when she says “I drew into myself and stayed there for a while… I spent most of my time down by the river, alone. I just wanted to keep to myself” ( Kidd 277 ). Lily contemplates whether she should forgive her mother for leaving, whether her mother even loved her in the first place. She calls herself “the girl abandoned by her mother… the girl who kneeled on grits” ( Kidd 278 ). These events cause her to finally let go of her mother and live her life without guilt taking
I really was impacted by T. Ray’s quote during the height of the tension about Lily’s past mistakes, “ ‘It was you who did it, Lily. You didn’t mean it, but it was you’ ” (Kidd 299). This moment was one of my favorites because it showed the growth the lead character had made toward not only forgiving her mother, but forgiving herself. When Lily chases after her father to finally get the raw truth about the fateful day her mom died, it reveals that she is finally ready to come to terms with her past, no matter what really happened. At the beginning of the book, she can’t accept her mother’s death, her disappearance, and her lack of love from her parents. Coincidentally, she grasps at any excuse to punish herself because she is unsure of who she is.
First, Kidd highlights the power of strength through indirectly characterizing Lily as a courageous young woman to display the character’s growing maturity throughout the novel. Her courageousness is demonstrated after T Ray, Lily’s father, picks her up from jail. Upon arriving home, it is clear that Lily is displeased about how T Ray handled the situation. Vexed and irritated, she challenges him: “‘You don’t scare me,’ I repeated, louder this time. A brazen feeling had broken loose in me, a daring something that had been locked up in my chest’” (38). Even though Lily knows that disrespecting her father will mean terrible consequences, kneeling on Martha White grits, she proceeds
Lily’s actions are completely driven by her desire to fit into the upper class part of society and her need to have money to successfully do this. The actions she partakes in to achieve these goals are sometimes harshly judged by other characters, but The House of Mirth seems to almost draw sympathy for Lily from the fact that she is stuck in this role she cannot remove herself from. Even through showing other life paths like Gerty Farish’s, Lily’s options for an independent life where she can live the way she desires are limited. What she was taught as a child, the choices she makes because of her childhood, how being poor is viewed by society, and the unjust view of Lily’s actions are what ultimately both destroys Lily and results in her being shown sympathy.
At the beginning of the story, Lily gave me the impression of an insecure and lonely girl. I think this because she repeats that she wants to be “normal”. ”Because I just want to be normal for a little while-not a refugee girl looking for her mother,
Over the course of several months, August guides, teaches, and helps Lily to accept and forgive herself. August once knew Deborah, and she knows that Lily is her daughter, but she does not confront Lily about the issue. Instead, she waits until Lily puts the puzzle pieces together and discovers for herself the relationship between her mother and August. August knows she is not ready to learn the truth about her mother when she and Lily first meet, so she waits for Lily to come to her. When Lily finally realizes the truth, she comes to August and they have a long discussion about Deborah. During this discussion, Lily learns the truth about her mother; that her mother only married T. Ray because she was pregnant with Lily, then after several years she had enough of living and dealing with T. Ray, so she left. Lily is disgusted by the fact that her mother would've done something like this, she did not want to let go of the romantic image of her mother she had painted in her mind (“‘The Secret Life of Bees’ Themes and Symbols of The Secret Life of Bees). Lily struggles to stomach the fact the her mother truly did leave her and she spends some time feeling hurt and angry, but one day, August shows her a picture of Lily and her mother. As Lily looks at the picture she is comforted and thinks, “May must’ve made it to heaven and explained to my mother about the sign I wanted. The one that would let me know I was loved” (Kidd 276). Seeing
Since the death of her mother, Lily developed a complicated attitude towards her, sometimes ranging from admiration to hatred to forgiveness. Lily always saw her mother as the loving kind until one day when August explained her relationship with Deborah,
At first, she thought that her mother the only one that cared for her as she shouted “My mother will never let you touch me again! ” And “My mother loved me! ” I cried (60) to her father which emphasized how much Lily loved her mother. But after she learned about her mother past she starts to hate her mother saying “It was easy for her to leave me, because she never wanted me in the first place. ” (362) thinking that she was an unwanted child. She later on disliked her mother saying “You should 've let him put her in there. I wish she’d rotted in here” (363) and “Like what? ” I said “Abandon their children” thinking that she a psycho leaving her with T.Ray and not going to come back for her. However, later discover that Lily the one that killed her own mother when she was packing her stuff and about to bring Lily along. She later on realize that the Boatwright sisters and Daughter of Mary were also her mother since they cared about Lily so
Lily’s mother died when she was little. “Someone who thinks death is the scariest thing doesn't know a thing about life.” (Kidd 202). She has a few of her mother’s possessions and uses them to imagine what her mother would have been like. “When a bee flies, a soul will rise.” (Kidd 206). She lacks a loving parent because her mother died and her father physically and verbally abuses her. When she runs away from home she goes to Tiburon, SC because that location is written on the back of her
The abuse for Lily and Ellen was different like when T. Ray made Lily kneel on grits while Ellen’s daddy slapped her across the face. Two quotes that shows more of their abuse are “‘Go ahead, try and hit me!’ I yelled. When he swung, I turned my face.” and “My daddy slapped my face for eating dirt.” A loss for both of them was the death of their mothers. Their mothers were the only people, until Lily got Rosaleen as a motherly figure, that understood them and could help them through the abuse. Lily’s mother died when Lily was four, and Ellen’s mother died when Ellen was eleven. What they faced and how they responded to it may cause them to be similar, but they also have many
Although Capulet wanted the best for Juliet, he didn't give a thought on how she felt and had forced her to marry Paris which had caused problems that led to her tragic end. She didn't want to marry someone who she did not love and wanted to escape this marriage. Her method of escape was death. Capulet's controlling actions appeared as early as Act I Scene 2, when he was arranging Juliet's marriage to Paris without her consent. Paris wondered if Juliet would like him and Capulet responded with, "Of my child's love: I think she will be ruled. In all respects by me; nay, more, I doubt it not." (IV, 3, ln. 13-14). stating that he doesn't just think Juliet will like him but that he knows she will like him. When Juliet refuses to marry Paris, he shouted, "To go with Paris to Saint Peter's Church, Or I will drag thee on a hurdle thither." (V, 3, ln. 154-155). making her agree to go to the church. Although she did agree to go, her thought of, "I'll to the friar, to know his remedy; If all else fail, myself have power to die." (V, 3, ln. 241-242). showed that she did not plan on marrying Paris and that she would die first. Juliet's arrangement to Paris had brought her death because it had resulted in the potion plan which had caused Romeo and Juliet to die. If Capulet had never forced Juliet to marry Paris, she would have been living happily with Romeo.
Lily's relationship with her mother couldn’t change because she had no real relation since Lily accidentally killed her when she was four years old. She only had what people told her and some of her belongings and that’s what formed Lily’s relationship. Since Lily only had an idea of what Deborah Owens, her
She is mad at him for not telling her everything about her mother and pretending that he mother never even existed. When he finds her at August’s house he is furious and starts to hit her and mistakes her for her mother. He wants to know why she ran away but not just her but also why her mother ran away, “How dare you leave me! You need a lesson, is what you need!” This is when Lily realizes that her dad never got closure to why her mother left and that he too had feelings.
Juliet’s arranged marriage with Paris, as well as the ancient feud between Capulets and Montagues, eventually contributed to the deaths of their children. In Act 1 Scene 2, Paris asks Capulet, ‘But now, my lord, what say you to my suit?’ which shows that Capulet and Paris are discussing Juliet’s possible marriage without consulting her, perhaps implying they think she is too nave to decide on her future. They are arranging her marriage for her, which implies that men are very controlling of women’s lives, especially those of their daughters. The scene establishes how Juliet is subject to parental influence, and how she is very constrained since her father can force her to marry whoever he wants. Juliet’s status as a woman leaves her with no power or choice in the decision of whom she should marry.