Romeo And Juliet Relationship Between Parents And Children

Companionship of a Child’s Mistakes and Their Consequences in Literature

In today’s life, arguments between parents and their children occur quite often. You may even be able to think about a time in which you’ve argued with a parent or sibling, which resulted in tension between the two of you for a while. Disagreements between one person and another occur not only in real life, but also in famous fictional worlds, such as Romeo and Juliet. In today’s life, Romeo and Juliet, and Attack on Titan, issues dealing with disagreements between children and their parental figures continuously occur, and often lead to to detriment, or a disservice for both the parental figure, the child, and even others.

In Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, these arguments and fights are quite persistent. Within Verona, the Montague and Capulet families share a deep hatred for one another. Their families would prefer to not interact and cooperate with one another, due to unknown reasons. Lords Montague and Capulet make it apparent to their families that it would be an outrage for members of both parties to befriend one another, let alone have a romantic relationship with each other. Despite the beliefs and orders of their parents, Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet find that they deeply love one another, and

they form a relationship. It would be a terribly dangerous mistake to announce their love to their families, so instead, they keep their relationship a secret, and decide to marry each other discreetly. Romeo knows that if he is seen with Juliet, he would become a dead man. He disregards this thought, and continues his risky relationship with Juliet and marries her. Later on in their relationship, Juliet and her father commence a quarrel amongst one another. For days, Lord Capulet had endeared the thought of his daughter being wedded to Count Paris, who was a wealthy and well-mannered man. He plans for Juliet to marry him in a few days, however, Juliet secretly does not approve of his plan. She wants to remain faithful to her husband, and simply doesn’t have any interest in Paris. “You disobedient wretch! I’ll tell you now: Go to church on Thursday, or never look on my face again. Don’t speak, don’t reply. Don’t answer me (Shakespeare, III.5.164)!” Lord Capulet bursts out these words directly to Juliet, and disregards all kind sentiments he had for her. At this point, it is clear that if Juliet chooses to not marry Paris, she will never have a caring father ever again. He threatens to hit and disown her, furthering the damage Juliet has done to their relationship. Afterwards, the Nurse comes to comfort Juliet, and tries her best to persuade her that marrying Paris might be a better option. “Romeo is a dishrag compared with him... Curse my own heart, but I think you’ll be happy marrying Paris, for he’s better than Romeo (III.5.230).” This is just one of the many cases in which someone has tried their best to convince Juliet to marry Paris. Despite the Nurses’ pleas and attempts at persuasion, Juliet refuses, which would eventually lead to her own death, as well as the death of Paris.
Not only in Romeo and Juliet do these disagreements surface, however. In plenty of other stories are these problems present. In Attack on Titan by Hajime Isayama, soldier Eren Jaeger begins to let his emotions fuel his decisions, before realizing that there will be consequences for doing so. He is met with a dire situation in which his best friend, Armin Arlert, is near death, but so is his commander, Erwin Smith. A spark of hope, a serum within a syringe that may be able to give them another chance at life, is in the hands of Eren’s captain and fatherly ally, Levi Ackerman. Levi believes that the serum should be given to Erwin, who has had numerous years of experience in being a strong commander, however, Eren and his sister, Mikasa Ackerman, feel indifferent. They have been friends with Armin for as long as they can remember, and they refuse to let him die at such a young age. When Levi refuses to give Armin the serum, Eren tries to snatch the serum from Levi, who punches Eren. Mikasa follows Eren, and holds her blade to Levi’s neck, threatening to kill him if he doesn’t inject Armin with the serum. Their quarrel continues, until other soldiers step in and drag Eren and Mikasa away to let Levi make his decision. Within a few minutes, Armin has revived, and is fully healed.
For a brief moment, Eren is grateful to have his friend back, squad leader Hanji interrupts their conversation to inform Eren and Mikasa about their current situation. “Your violations of military law will of course be punished. But do you think you can get away with anything so long as you accept the punishment (Isayama, 11)?” Eren and Mikasa are sentenced to time within a jail cell, for disobeying their captain’s orders, and threatening their superior. Hanji indirectly informs them that they have given their corps a great disadvantage by influencing Levi’s decision to inject Armin with the serum. “Thus both Erwin’s legacy… and the titan’s power were entrusted to you. No matter what anyone might say, this is who you are now. There’s no turning back. So we’ll be expecting more from you from now on (14).” Hanji directs her words at Armin, and explains that because of Eren and Mikasa’s actions, commander Erwin, her one and only hope, is now gone, as well as the majority of the soldiers in their corps. Because of this, Armin must carry the great burden of meeting her expectations to see Armin reach the level of their commander. He also must soak in the fact that with the serum, he is now able to shift into a monster of the species known as humanity’s greatest threat, a titan. He has a hard time believing this, and is sickened by the thought. Eren and Mikasa must recognize that this is all their doing, for fighting their captain. They have not only done damage to those whom they care about the most, but to many others, and the fate of humanity (now that they are lacking their commander).
Most children in their lifetime may argue with their guardian at some point, which is why similar fights in fictional worlds may occur. Like many other children, I occasionally disagree with my mother at some point. Depending on the severity of the conflict, my mother may react in different ways. However, there is never a good outcome from an argument with her. After any arguments, my mother always tends to be apathetic towards me, and refuses to listen to anything I have to say. This may or may not be my doing, depending on whether I initiated the argument, but she persists and refuses to show any sympathy for my disagreement, no matter how reasonable my argument is. Aside from this, She refuses to communicate with anyone in my household (such as my father and I), and refuses to take any further disagreements from anyone else. For a few hours or days, there may also be some kind of tension standing between us, which makes me feel as thought it would be safer to not interact with her. To a degree, these are all my doings, for disagreeing with her, which provokes her anger. I have come to realize that because I make foolish decisions to argue, there are consequences to my actions.
These actions not only lead myself into a disadvantage, but also may cause others, who are not directly involved, to suffer from them as well.

This has been proven in numerous books, including Romeo and Juliet, in which Juliet goes against the orders of her father, and ends up deceased. It has also been shown in Attack on Titan, in which Eren fights his captain, which leads to the death of their commander, and a burden left on his best friend. These books and real life situations show that not coming to an agreement with your parental figures or guardians may thoroughly damage your relationship with them, and make situations worse for them, you, and possibly even

others.