Romeo & Juliet - Flossy Parker-White

Romeo & Juliet by Anthony Falbo

❦ ROMEO & JULIET

By Flossy Parker-White

The classical love story of Romeo and his dearest Juliet. The story that is widely known for the strength of love that guides the two ‘star cross’d lovers’ through their life, until the end. We often have a strong, distinct idea of what love should be, but this story has deeper meaning, with hidden ideas that we question; we ponder about their true morals, how Romeo actually perceived Juliet – the focal points of feminism intertwined with love offers a different perspective – one that offers a whole different viewpoint, crushing the fairy-tale believed abstraction that we all desire.

As a modern-day audience, we focus on different things to fit our criteria of a ‘perfect love story’; Romeo and Juliet’s devotion towards each other was constructed by Shakespeare to represent the expectations generated by those of society, and they are used as a pair to highlight the pressure felt by those growing up to marry early and continue the family line. Ultimately, Shakespeare uses this play as a cipher to represent and underline his own opinions of society during the Elizabethan era, and how he wished to abolish this pressure that created a world full of ‘too rash, and too unadvised’ decisions. This is heavily contrasted by our society today – the pressures we face are argued by some to be larger, yet some believe that it is easier for us. We have more freedom within our lives as a generation, and slowly we see our world changing, becoming a better place with a more diverse and optimistic outlook towards love. We see more and more people falling in love at a later age, and finding themselves, developing their own characters before they develop their relationship with others. I find incredible that we still choose to listen to Shakespeare today – he shapes our society, through his works written in 1594, into 1595.

Look at the patriarchal values. The society we live in today has such a different construction, with such different outlooks; we take pride in the freedom that is given to those who would have been considered inferior during the Elizabethan era. Throughout Shakespeare’s play, we can see Juliet suffer from the injustices represented by the embodiment of her Father – Shakespeare uses the two characters and their interactions as tools to amplify the inequality. The most significant moment to underline this idea is when Juliet refuses the marriage of Paris – her father takes it with personal offence – he finds it absurd that a young girl would go against her Father, especially with such a naïve outlook on such a heavy, serious topic. He reacts with such anger that causes such a dispute that fuels the pace and the tragedy that shapes the denouement. The final tragedy in act V: scene 3, where we see both young lovers commit suicide, shows us just how inferior Juliet felt, and as she acts as a cipher for all young women in the time period; we see their power taken from them, as they are left unable to make their own decisions. Or perhaps this idea is amplified in the scene where Juliet is so confused by her emotions that her actions towards the Nurse’s change – she gains a shorter temper and appears to be more selfish – she is overpowered by love, as she has never had the freedom to think and feel for herself. Fast forward to our society today and women have a stronger voice, we have more ability to speak our own opinions and make our own decisions. Whilst this isn’t the case in all the countries globally, we can see how far Britain has come, and we can only use this to spark the hope to ameliorate the societies of other nations, encouraging them to follow in our footsteps. Perhaps, we took meaning from Shakespeare’s works; Beginning Theory, written by P. Barry, an English political philosopher best known as an exponent of classical liberalism, suggests the idea of Shakespeare crafting his play to challenge representations of women. We could argue that Shakespeare’s cipher was crucial for our society for us to see our flaws and forced us to change to improve and develop the idea of a ‘society’.

Ipersonally feel that we should have huge amounts of appreciation and gratitude for Shakespeare and his carefully constructed works – he has linked the ideas of feminism and choice of love within a romantic play, purposefully creating a tragic ending to reflect and mirror the significance and importance of these themes. We are allowed to see the shallow surface ideas, but also open our viewpoint and broaden our understanding of the society that Shakespeare created.