The story of Romeo and Juliet was based in an antagonistic period between two conflicting entities in Verona, Italy. The Montague and Capulet inhabitants had been engaging in regular brawls despite their respective masters’ prior attempts to bring an end to the war by making truces and signing treaties. The House of Capulet was ruled by their chief patriarch, Lord Capulet, who was the father of Juliet. Determined to secure a desirable future for his daughter, Lord Capulet controlled and validated any decision made by Juliet. Romeo, on the other hand, is the prince of the House of Montague, which is ruled by his father, Lord Montague. Just as the Capulet, the House of Montague was a politically influential faction. However, unlike Capulet, Montague consists of peace seekers who want to end the conflict between the two Houses of Verona. Seemingly, the conflict is later resolved after Romeo and Juliet fall in love and start a relationship, despite the significant disapproval from both houses, which results in a remorseful demise.
Throughout the story, the House of Montague is depicted as the morally upright side since most of the treaties and truces are upheld and administered by them whereas inhabitants of Capulet often provoked street brawls and other conflicts that breached amended treaties. After a severe street brawl between the two houses gets out of hand, Prince Escalus, from another significant entity known as the House of Escalus, decides to intervene and restore the peaceful agreements amended by the two houses. The house of Escalus was a similarly influential faction that was ruled by Prince Escalus, Mercutio, who was a close friend to Romeo of the Montague house, and Count Paris, who planned on marrying Juliet. Despite Count Paris’ bold attempt in asking for the hand of Juliet in marriage, Lord Capulet felt reluctant and always insisted that he should wait a little longer until the feud between Montague and Capulet had dissolved. However, since Count Paris was the Kinsman of Prince Escalus and thus wealthy, Lady Capulet, Juliet’s mother, and her nurse tried to persuade her to marry him. Based on this Romeo and Juliet essay prompt there are various Romeo and Juliet essay topics that one can be asked to write about.
Romeo and Juliet first encountered at a Capulet ball, where all houses were welcomed to facilitate terms that would result at the end of the feud. Empirically, throughout the story marriage is portrayed as a unifying aspect that facilitates the end of conflicts and feuds between houses. Therefore, Lord Montague felt compelled to bring his son, Romeo, to the Capulet ball so he can encounter her long lost lover, Rosaline, who was one of Lord Capulet’s descendants. However, this almost results in a bloody outcome after Tybalt, Juliet’s cousin spots Romeo and considers him unwelcomed. However, after Lord Capulet orders Tybalt to respect his guests, Romeo spots Juliet and falls in love with her. This is followed by the prominent balcony scene where Romeo finds his way to a balcony near Juliet’s room and overhears her confess her newly profound love for him. Touched by Juliet’s affection for him, Romeo appears to her and declares her mutual feeling for her. Eventually, the two vow unconditional love for each other despite the prevalent conflict between their families. With the help of a peaceful enthusiast known as Friar Lawrence, the two got secretly married. However, the conflict between Capulet and Montague enraged later in the Capulet ball after Tybalt challenged Romeo for a duel since he still felt that he had intruded and was getting closer to his cousin Juliet. Seemingly, Romeo refused to engage in the duel knowing that Tybalt was secretly his kinsman. Alternatively, Mercutio, Romeo’s friend decided to engage in the duel on his behalf. Since Tybalt was a superior swordsman with outstanding skills, he ended up fatally injuring and eventually killing Mercutio. Agonized by the loss of his friend, Romeo confronted Tybalt and murdered him. This significantly intensified the feud between the houses of Verona.
Although Tybalt execution was considered justifiable, Romeo was compelled to flee to exile and never return to Verona for killing a kinsman. Relatively, since the end of the feud seemed impossible, Lord Capulet decided to allow Count Paris to marry Juliet. Even after Juliet exhibits reluctance to the marriage, the wedding seems imminent after Lord Capulet threatens to disown her if she doesn’t comply with the marriage agreement. Deviant of his father’s demands, Juliet seeks advice from Friar Lawrence who devises a plan to reunite Juliet and Romeo. Friar Lawrence suggested that Juliet should consume a portion that would make her appear to be dead for a period of ‘two and forty hours’ before she awakes. He declared he would make sure that Romeo is aware of the plan so that he can come back and rejoin with her wife after her awakening. However, Romeo never got the message about the plan.
After Juliet consumed the portion just before her wedding to Count Paris, she entered a death state and laid to rest on the family crypt. Count Paris was devastated as he cried beside the half-dead Juliet. Relatively, after Romeo heard the news, he was completely heartbroken. He came back to the Capulet crypt so that he could lay eyes on Juliet one more time before committing suicide by drinking poison he bought from exile. However, after finding Count Paris at the crypt, the two engage in a fatal brawl and Romeo ends up killing him. Then, he gazed upon Juliet one more time and consumed the poison, which killed him as he laid beside her. Eventually, after Juliet woke up and saw Romeo’s corpse next to her, she took a dagger and stabbed herself. Later, after the conflicting houses of Verona found the three corpses beside each other at the crypt, they felt the need for closure and reconciliation. Enlightened by Friar Lawrence’s doctrine of the story of Romeo and Juliet, Capulet and Montague ended the feud between them.
The story written by William Shakespeare entails a major empirical theme about sexuality and gender role. Furthermore, the stereotypical platform whereby women are portrayed as less superior beings with less authority is evident. During ancient times, women did not have authority to dictate terms in most clans. They were regarded as household servants who were necessary for procreation and other involuntary services for respective purposes. For instance, intermarriage to unify conflicting clans.
In the story, Lord Capulet significantly exhibits the superiority of the male over the female gender as he orders his daughter to marry Count Paris and even threatens to disown her if she refuses. This form of involuntary submission to marriage is a form of stereotype as women have the right to choose whom they want to marry based on their emotional attachment. Furthermore, Count Paris also exhibited male superiority by making wedding arrangements with Juliet without figuring out her opinion concerning the matter. Count Paris assumed that as long as Lord Capulet has approved him to marry her daughter, then the wedding is imminent. Relatively, as a result of Friar Lawrence’s discretion, Romeo and Juliet got married secretly because they knew that the marriage would be unacceptable based on the norms and principles as dictated by Lord Capulet. Seemingly, submission of daughters to marriage should attribute to a beneficial result determined by an authoritative body which is male most of the time
Lady Capulet primarily played the role of an inferior woman. Even though she was aware that Juliet did not want to marry Count Paris, she kept trying to convince her. This shows that she disregard her daughter’s sexuality due to her adherence to the stereotypical role adapted by women, which involves doing what you have been told by superiors (males). Although they were often close, Juliet decided to hide her marriage to Romeo from her other since she knew that she could never accept it.
Shakespeare’s depiction of the Verona culture was that it is primarily dominated by masculinity and conquest. Women were considered inferior vessels which were often ridiculed and subjected to various sorts of embarrassment. Any man who did not demonstrate boldness was considered and treated as a woman. Anyone who had a conflict with another person was obligated to confront him and challenge him to a duel. During the Capulet ball, Tybalt challenged Romeo for a duel simply because he felt that Romeo was not welcomed and that he had intruded to the ball. After Romeo declined the challenge, he was regarded as a coward. However, he simply declined the challenge because of his secret matrimony with Juliet. On the other hand, Mercutio saw Romeo’s decline as a form of disgrace and cowardly act. As a result, he decided to engage in the duel himself and ended up being killed. This consequently infuriated Romeo and led him to execute Tybalt. This concept of dominance is considered masculine since women could not engage. Also, women could not intervene in any form of confrontation between men.
In the story, Shakespeare assumes that his audience resides in a more civilized society where women are considered with utmost regard without regular insults, ridicule, and exploitation from men due to their inferiority. Instead, women are given fundamental and constitutional rights to regard their emotional and moral feelings concerning their lives. This enables the audience to acknowledge the empirical depiction of genderism in the story. However, there are still various cultures where women roles and rights are limited to household duties and chores. In such a community, where men are free to engage in their various concepts of dominance in resolving conflicts without regard or consent of the women, unnecessary loss of lives, as depicted in the story, is imminent. Both the Capulet and Montague families incurred an unnecessary loss of lives due to the masculine concept of dominance.
The questions surrounding Romeo and Juliet essay include:
The guideline with good essay hooks how to develop this essay is fundamentally the same of each formatting style. The keen part that a writer should look out for is the citation format. Further, one should look at the story in the context of the Victorian society.
In an Romeo and Juliet essay, who is to blame is one the main points of argument. A writer can use facts from the story to develop a succinct argument on who is to blame.
