Criticism of Romeo and Juliet
In Romeo and Juliet, love serves as the tragedy. According to critic Denton J. Snider, "love, the emotion of the Family, in its excess destroys the Family; though it be the origin and bond of the domestic institution, it now assails and annihilates that institution." The love of Romeo and Juliet for one another, not only destroys their families, but ultimately destroys them as well. Their love and devotion for one another causes them to rebel against the institution of family. All in all, "love, which is the emotional ground of the Family, is here destroying the Family itself" (Snider).
Among the Capulet and Montague families, why does the persistent rebellion among the children exist? Supposedly, the feud is fueled solely by their parent’s strife; however, it is clear that the children are brought into the picture and are victims of Verona’s violent social climate. Shakespeare critic, Coppelia Kahn places emphasis on the parent’s lack of direction in their children:
Instead of providing social channels and moral guidance by which the energies of the youth can be rendered beneficial to themselves and society, the Montagues and the Capulets make weak gestures toward civil peace while participating emotionally in the feud as much as their children do. While they fail to exercise authority over the younger generation in the streets, they wield selfishly and stubbornly in the home.
As in Shakespeare’s England, Verona was a very patriarchal society, and women had little place there, but to tend to the home. Men must bear and fight for their family name, while women bear the children and see to the men. Kahn points out that "Verona’s daughters have, in effect, no adoles...
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...w York. Copyright 1969.
Reiff, Phillip. “Politics and the Individual”. Freud: The Mind of the Moralist. www.english.upenn.edu/~afilreis/502/rieff.html,. Chapter 7. 1959.
Snider, Denton J. " ‘Romeo and Juliet’," in his The Shakespeare Drama, a Commentary: The Tragedies, Sigma Publishing Co., 1887, pp. 36-78. Reprinted in
Shakespearean Criticism, Vol.5.
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Simpson, JA and ESC Weiner (prep by). Oxford English Dictionary: Volume V, Second Edition.Clarendon Press. Oxford. Copyright 1989.
U.S. Bureau of the Census. Current Population Reports, P20-515 “Household and family characteristics: March 1998 (Update)” and earlier reports.
www.census.gov/population/socdemo/hh-fam/htabHH-1.txt, and
www.census.gov/population/socdemo/hh-fam/htabFM-1.txt.
Shakespeare, William. “Romeo and Juliet.” Literature and Language. Illinois: McDougal, Littell and Company, 1992. 722-842
In the prologue of the play, it is said, “From ancient grudge break to new mutiny” (I i 3) which means that the the two families, the Capulets and the Montagues, have been in a feud for an extremely long time, and the feud has recently caused fights and deaths. This is important because Romeo, a Montague, and Juliet, a Capulet, fall in love that is destined to end tragically. Their love contends with the hatred that their families share towards one another. They knew that the were not to see each other and that if their parents or families found out that it would not have ended good and the consequences would be
Shakespeare’s play is about two families that hate each other for no obvious reason. This fight has dragged on for a long time in Verona, Italy where the play is set. In Verona there are public disturbances between the two families, Capulets and Montagues. It became such a problem that the prince announces “I have an interest in your hate’s proceeding, / My blood for your rude brawls doth lie a bleeding;” (Romeo and Juliet 3:1: 186-87). The families’ feud creates a creepy and dismal atmosphere in Verona, and this leads the Prince to promulgate the rule with both families. Public disturbances will not happen again and if it does then they will take any fighter’s lives in front of those both families. As the reader may notice, the Capulets and the Montagues’ hatred and indignation grew as the feuds escalated. At the Capulet’s party, Tybalt does not accept Romeo being a part of the party saying “I will not endure him” (Romeo and Juliet, 1: 5: 76) and convinces Capulet to drive Romeo out of the room. Although, Capulet accepts Romeo to enjoy the party, “He shall be endured./ What, goodman boy! I say he shall. Go to!”(Romeo and Juliet, 1: 5: 77-78). However, at the end of the play both families finally realize that they have done something wr...
A woman during the 16th century did not have the freedoms that a woman today enjoys. During Shakespeare’s life wives were not allowed the independence they take pleasure in today. Therefore, the role of the mother for Juliet in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is not commanding or authoritative because of the time period Shakespeare lived.
Shakespeare, William. Romeo and Juliet. Ed. Stephen Greenblatt et al. The Norton Shakespeare. New York: W.W. Norton & Company Inc., 1997. Print.
A substantial aspect of the play is the Feud between the Capulet family and the Montague family. The Prince says some harsh words at the beginning of the play, condemning those who “disturbed the quiet of our streets again, / Your lives shall pay the forfeit of the piece.”(I, I) Informing the two families to live side by side in harmony or as close to it as possible. While men die on both sides, love is born “from forth the fatal loins of these two foes.”(Prologue) The love between Romeo and Juliet spells doom as the family members from both sides will never accept this, and will try end it with all their might to stop this unnatural occurrence from happening were they to ever know of it. The Feud not only causes problems between the two families but it also cases unrest and violence to run through the streets of Verona.
Explained in Depth: My Photo Essay In Act 1, Scene 1, another fight breaks out between the Capulets and the Montagues. It states in the Prologue: “From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,” –Prologue, Line 3.
Hunt, Margaret R. The Middling Sort: Commerce, Gender, and Family in England, 1680-1780. London: University of California Press, 1996
Watts, Cedric. Twayne's New Critical Introductions to Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1991.
In the play of Romeo and Juliet the main characters are a young teenage boy named Romeo and the only daughter of his family’s enemies, named Juliet. These two teenagers fall in love with one another but their love is strictly forbidden by fate. There are two families in the story; the Montagues and the Capulets, who had been rivals for many years. As two servants of the Romeo’s household walk, they see two servants of Juliet’s household biting their thumbs towards them. The two argue in public then fight. After a public fight between two servants and one kinsman from each family, the Prince of Verona tells both heads of the families that whoever disturbs the peace because of the feud between the families, will be punished by death. After
One of them being the library, which could hold up to 70,000 papyrus scrolls. No one really knows how many books were held in the library, but it is estimated to be about 500,000. Around 2000 years ago, a fire burned down the library and destroyed lots of scrolls. The prime suspect for destroying the library is Julius Caesar. He was found in the Royal Palace. For his own safety he had his men to set fire to the Egyptian ships, but the fire got out of control and began to spread throughout the city and most likely burned down the
Nizza, Mike. “Failing to Deliver a Jolt on Global Warming.” 21 Apr 2008. 4 Feb. 2009.
These two families the Montagues and the Capulets truly dislike each other for no true reason. For example at the beginning of the script Sampson, a Capulet says “Nay, as they dare. I will bite my thumb at them; which is disgrace to them, if they bear it,” (I, i, 44) to his Capulet friend in order to pick a fight with a Montague. In addition the feud continues between the families when Romeo kills Tybalt and also how the Capulets and Montagues almost started a brawl in front of the Prince. Again hatred was demonstrated by Lady Capulet when she says “We will have vengeance to one in Mantua, shall give him such an unaccustomed dram that he shall soon keep Tybalt company,” (III,v, 98) referring to Romeo. All this hatred led to Romeo and Juliet’s death. Also the Prince said, “And I, for winking at your discords too have lost a brace of kinsmen. All are punished,” (V, iii, 318) saying all are punished for everyone lost a family member.
Interestingly, when I Googled the “Library Alexandria”, over 44 million results appeared. Most of us have heard of this library, and most of the first ten search pages all refer to the destruction of the library. Hollywood and many internet pages all refer to the library as having “burned down”. This is true to some extent, but honestly it is far from the whole story. At the time in history, the Alexandria library was the center and most famous library in classical antiquity. The library dates from around 295 BCE, until approximately 640 CE. During its heydey, scholars and intellectuals from all over the world studied and worked there. Scholars such as Aristarchus, Eratosthenes, Hipparchus, Manetho, and Zenodotus were but some of the library's
...atively, if those frontiers were accepted, would it have been better to build to a different pattern? Would Uganda have done better as half a dozen separate mini-states: as a separate Banyoro nation-state and Baganda nation-state and so on (Davidson 1983)?