The Downfall of Romeo and Juliet in William Shakespeare's Play

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The Downfall of Romeo and Juliet in William Shakespeare's Play

One of the many messages in the play, 'Romeo and Juliet', was if you

follow a love that is not sensible, going against your family, it will

lead to your downfall. In this essay I will show ways in which this is

true, but also that there were some things leading to their downfall,

which they couldn't control. William Shakespeare started writing this

play in 1592, at the end of the Elizabethan period. Around this time

he also fell in love with Anne Watley, aged 18 (same as him), although

in the same year he married Anne Hathoway, aged 23. All this love in

his life would have influenced the way in which he wrote his plays,

especially 'Romeo and Juliet', and is most likely where he was

inspired for his big twists and complications in the plays.

There are many different themes in the play, although they all link

together. Love is linked to death because it is because Romeo and

Juliet love each other that they both end up killing themselves in the

end. Although which of these things are good? The general idea would

be that love is a good thing, but in the play it is love that leads to

death, and death that leads to peace. But it is because of the hatred

between the families that love ends up leading to death. This links to

the question because it is love that leads them to their downfall,

being death, although if it weren't for hatred then this would not

happen. And it was their death, which made peace between the families.

The known moral to the play is 'make love, not war' although probably

also to put peace before love, if you do not want to lead to your

downfall, because if there had been peace between the families in the

first place, then none of the problems would have occurred.

These themes would have been relevant, when the play was written,

probably in a different way to how they are now.

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