The play Romeo and Juliet was rather puzzling when I first began to read the script. None of the comparisons made any sense so I had to continuously check the side translation to attempt to make sense of the words in my head. The old Elizabethan English was very different from what I am used to when reading literature. All the ways the English language was so different in the past led me to think about what else was different during Elizabethan times. Were there any references that only the audience members would understand? One aspect of the play that is never explained is why the Capulets and Montagues have such a deep hatred for each other. Perhaps, the information was not important to include but, is there a possibility the audience members would have been aware of what households the play was referring to?
The first scene of Juliet shocked me as I was unaware of her young age before watching the movie adaption (1968). Shakespeare’s play seemed as though solely about love and the weight that bond can hold. I was not expecting a young teenager to be a part of a love story with a tragic ending. When Paris proposed marriage to Lord Capulet the scene forced me to think about how young teenagers just like Juliet only had one path in life; to get married to a man and give him many children. This instilled anger in me as I thought: why did her mother let such a young girl get married? Why did no one accept when Juliet adamantly refused to marry Paris? Why did no one seem to care what she thought? Blaming this on the parents seemed to satisfy me until thinking of the women who were brought up before Juliet. Such as Juliet’s mother and Nurse, were not able to take her thoughts and feelings into consideration just as theirs were not either.
In the 16th century, women were not considered to be individuals able to wield a sword or weapon of any sort. Men would only hurt those of equal social standing and who had a weapon. Drinking poison was considered a softer or feminine way of harming another. Coming from the idea that women were the ones who collected berries and plants. It is interesting how Romeo and Juliet’s suicide method contradicts the gender role placed on these acts. Romeo is the one to take the poison and Juliet stabs herself with his dagger.