Themes of Love and Conflict in William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet

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Themes of Love and Conflict in William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet William Shakespeare was born in 16th century England, on the 23rd of April 1564. He was born in Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire. Shakespeare was a very famous poet & playwright. During his life he produced 37 plays, ‘two gentlemen of Verona’ being the first. He is regarded as one of the best English writers of all time. ‘Romeo & Juliet’ remains one of his most popular plays & was written in around 1597. During Elizabethan times when Shakespeare was alive things were done much differently than compared with today. For example, teenagers & especially girls were treated completely differently. A girl like Juliet wouldn’t have been able to go out by herself & she wouldn’t have gone to school. As well as this a girl in Juliet’s position would have had her husband chosen for her, as is shown in ‘Romeo & Juliet’. Parents had such strict ideas about what their children should be like that Juliet’s father would rather totally disown her than let her be with a man other than Paris. Romeo & Juliet is about two lovers who strive to be together despite the obstacles that are put in their path by both of their families. At the start of the play a fight occurs between the two houses, Montague’s & Capulet's, The prince of Verona threatens that if any more fights happen in the streets the ones responsible will be punished with death. Romeo & his friends hear about the ball at the house of the capulet’s, & even though they are not invited they deicide to attend. The ball is where Romeo & Juliet meet for the first time. The next day the two lovers are married by ... ... middle of paper ... ... friend. ‘Tybalt lies ‘ere slain, whom Romeo’s hand did slay‘. The theme of conflict plays as big a part as that of love. Although it is love which first brings Romeo & Juliet together, it is the conflict between the two feuding families which pulls them apart & is the other factor which leads to the end tragedy. This concludes my essay on the ‘themes of love & conflict’. These two themes are an important part of ‘Romeo & Juliet’. Many, if not all, of the events have either, or both, of the two themes to trigger it off. If one of these aspects of ‘Romeo & Juliet’ were missing the end result would definitely be different, & you should be able to see this by taking into account the examples which I have given throughout.

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