The Interaction Between the Old and Young in William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet

The Interaction Between the Old and Young in William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet

In William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, he tells a tale of “A pair

of star crossed lovers”. Unusually for Shakespeare’s play, Romeo and

Juliet focuses on two very young people. Throughout the play there is

a contrast between the young and older characters in the play. The

interaction between the characters is very important as it would form

what happens in the play. In Shakespearean times there were probably

different interactions depending on how you were related to each

other. One of the main themes in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is the

relationship between the young and old. It is a story of two

generations failing to understand each other. There is a contrast

between the behaviours of both, young and old characters throughout

the play, although at times there are similarities. There’s a struggle

between the young lovers and their parents, because of this, Romeo and

Juliet each need to have an older confidant to guide them and to help

them handle their parents. Juliet confides in her Nurse and Romeo

confides in Friar Lawrence. Both Romeo and Juliet trust their

judgements without questioning, even though the children’s parents

would not trust the Nurse or the Friar’s advice. These older

confidants unintentionally confuse Romeo and Juliet; this directly

leads to the tragic end of Romeo and Juliet. The audience/reader would

expect a tragic ending because Romeo and Juliet disobeyed their

parent’s wishes.

Throughout the play there are many examples of the contrast between

young and old. The young are being irresponsible, impulsive and

disobe...

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...r. The audience would be annoyed with

Juliet for not following Lady Capulet’s own advice to get married to

Paris and that they know that the Friar is giving bad advice. The

audience would definitely know that there will be a tragic ending to

the play.

Romeo and Juliet’s fate leads them to their tragic deaths, they kill

themselves and rest in peace together. From this tragic loss the two

families, Montague and Capulet ended the feud and restored peace

amongst themselves. They raised a statue for their dead children,

Romeo and Juliet. Although there are many examples of stereotypes in

the world, people do not always act in the stereotypical way.

Shakespeare has shown this in his tale of “A Pair of Star Crossed

Lovers”, Romeo and Juliet by giving the characters their own unique

and special personality and qualities.