Without doubt, Romeo and Juliet is one of the most classic love tragedies which tells a pair of fateful lovers’ story. However, the thoughts and feelings that Romeo and Juliet bring to me are not only about love, but also the consideration about marriage. To be precise, why marriage, what’s are the factors we, and the family in Romeo and Juliet might consider in a marriage?
Well, for most of the animals, they don’t have marriage, but they choose companion to reproduction. So, how do they choose? First, DNA, which is appearance, and health. Then, living conditions and status. the animals want they children to survive better, this is why they considering these.
However, do humans also based on these to choose marriage partner?
Obviously, the answer is yes, for Mr. Capulet. Paris is handsome, healthy, and most importantly, he was the relative of prince, which means he was rich, and had power, which also can be considered as a kind of “living conditions” and social status. At the same time, maybe for most of parents, whether nobles or commoners, no matter in drama or real life, they all agree with Mr. Capulet. I trust most of parents are not selfish, they consider more realism, putting the living conditions of they children, grandchildren, and the entire family first.
But humans do have another factor that animals and lots of parents won’t consider, the emotion, or we say love. Overall, marriage is not just about parents, but also the lovers. And the lovers do think love is the very first factor to consider about. So did Juliet. For Juliet, why did she love Romeo and absolutely disagree to marry Paris? Because of love, which unfortunately is the factor that Mr. Capulet would like to ignore. Juliet would not consider to not loving Romeo because he was an enemy of her family, nor would she fall in love and marry Paris because he was a relative of the prince. So, do the love between lovers benefit their children’s living conditions? In physical perspective, no. but it do benefits children’s emotional conditions. Some lovers think the good mood and relationship between themselves are way more important than their children. This also makes sense.
Completely different idea from her father, isn’t it? Mr. Capulet was right, marry Paris was good for family. Juliet was also right, marry Romeo, because she loved him! One is realism, one is romanticism, and it is impossible to answer who is correct anyways. This is a social, philosophical question, but it is interesting, which is the truth of marriage. And Shakespeare brought this truth to the public through his play.