Tuesday Siesta Analysis

Equality: How Are People Perceived?

The theme of equality expresses the state of being equal no matter the status, class or gender of a person. It is only rarely that an individual views the person as who they truly are, through their actions or words. Throughout life, people are always looked at based on who or what they associate with. In William Shakespeare’s, Romeo and Juliet and Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s, “Tuesday Siesta,” both authors use characters from their texts to express their views on equality. The texts show that a person’s status will affect how an individual regards someone else. They also describe the contrasting views of gender equality; how a man and a woman must present themselves in society; classism, the difference between

The authors convey the messages that in life, people are always looked upon based on their status. A person’s status can show their standing in life and how society views them. Status can be looked at positively or negatively depending on who the person is and what he/she does. In the first aspect, both authors look at status with negative emotions and repulsion. Shakespeare uses Romeo in Romeo and Juliet to show his perspective when said by Tybalt, “This, by his voice should be a Montague, --/ (to his PAGE) Fetch me my rapier, boy. -- What dares the slave.” (1.5.61-62). This demonstrates that Tybalt’s hate for Romeo, purely based on his status. Tybalt barely knows Romeo, only is aware of the fact that he is a Montague, yet he still loathes him. Likewise, Marquez displays the mother in “Tuesday Siesta” when the Father notices something gone awry, “Now there were not only children. There were/ groups of people under the almond trees. The Father scanned the street swimming in/ the heat and then he understood”. (Marquez 4). When the people in the town notice that a poverty stricken woman, a woman whose son was a thief, a woman who had no right to be in that town was there; they immediately despised her. The