Identity In Shakespeare's Romeo And Juliet

Romeo and Juliet, a tragedy written by William Shakespeare, is a play focusing around the secret, fast-paced love story of two young people from rival families, and their deaths.Throughout the story, Shakespeare uses ideas of identity frequently, and shows how strongly these themes contribute to the chain of events within the play. Things such as social class, age, and gender play a strong role in this tragedy and its progression. If not for family affiliation, Romeo and Juliet’s future, along with others in the play, could have easily been much less tragic. However, because of the Capulets’ and Montagues’ feud, the story is much more complex, and ends much worse than it otherwise would have had the families been on good terms. In Act 2, Juliet says, “O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo? Deny thy father and refuse thy name,Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love, And I'll no longer be a Capulet. In this passage, Juliet is asking Romeo to desert his family name or vice versa. Juliet loves him, but because they are from opposing families, their love is forbidden, and they are meant to hate each other. However, she prioritizes her love for Romeo above family name. If not for their families’ rivalry, Romeo and Juliet would not have had to make

Another example of how family affiliation contributes to the idea of identity in this play is Mercutio’s death. In Act 3, Mercutio says “A plague o’both your houses! They have made worms’ meat of me: I have it, And soundly too: your