Family and Obligation

Context

Quotes

Analysis

I wrote a story today about a girl in living in the Victorian era.

Context: Time period of the author (today - Postmodernism)

Setting: The time the girl lived (Victorian era)

Themes:
The forcefulness of love - love and violence
Love as a cause of violence
The individual versus society
The inevitably of fate
Language and wordplay
Family and duty

Love as a cause of violence

- Death and violence are connected to passion (love OR hate).
- Overwhelming emotion can be blinding.
- The passionate love between Romeo and Juliet is introduced at the same time death and murder is
introduced in the play, suggesting the links between love and violence. (Romeo falls for Juliet at
the same time Tybalt wants to kill him for disrupting the feast.)
- As the theme of love grows in the play, the characters are driven closer to death.
- The greatest expression of love is through death and violence.
- The morality of love is obscured, as it leads to destruction and happiness, proving as a powerful
element in the play.
- “If all else fail, myself have power to die”: through violence, Juliet feels empowered as she can
fulfil her desire. She desires Romeo, but she cannot fulfil her desire for Romeo and thus feel
powerless. To regain this power, she resorts to violence, where her ability to take her life
establishes the power over her desires.

From SparkNotes: summarise analysis and quotes of

Individual vs Society
- Romeo and Juliet consists of their struggles against social practices and institutions that oppose
their love for each other (family indifferences and religion)
- Juliet is trapped, having to let her father do whatever he wants with her heart even though she
loves romeo; Shakespeare echoes the patriarchal values and power structure of his time, OR
Shakespeare challenges patriarchal values by empowering Juliet through her motives and final
action of suicide as this grants her control and authority over her life.
 - Juliet calls Romeo “the god of my idolatry” which insinuates that/ conflation Romeo with the
image of God.
- Conflict between masculine honour and religion (Christianity): the example of suicide “quote”
demonstrates the Romeo’s psychological turmoil navigating his desires for masculine honour and
Christian values and morals.
- Masculine honour can be seen in the public brawls: “quote”
- Romeo is put under the pressure of masculine honor which forces him to execute unwanted plans
- The text shows the needs of romeo and juliet wanting a private space away from everything that
is trapping them from doing as they wish and and continuing with their life together.
- Conflict between personal desires and public responsibilities. To navigate these conflicting roles,
Romeo and Juliet seek stability in a symbolic “night”, wherein the privacy grants their desires
away from the public eye. Their death can be understood as their never-ending, private ‘night’.

Inevitability of Fate
- Chorus states that Romeo and Juliet are “star-crossed” suggesting that they would be controlled
by fate throughout the play
- Audiences are positioned and characters are constructed to be aware of the controlling nature of
fate.
- How audiences are positioned to accept fate:
- The unexplained conflict between the Capulet’s and Montague’s forces audiences to
accept that fate has driven both families away from each other.
- The failure of Friar Lawrence’s plans
- Tragic timing of Romeo’s suicides and Juliet’s awakening.
- These events are not mere coincidences, but rather manifestations of fate that help bring
about the unavoidable outcome of the young lovers’ deaths.

- Romeo cries out “Then I defy you, stars,” when he is in the belief that Juliet is dead and is going
agaisnt the ’fate’ he was given.

- The love between romeo and juliet is also what leads them to their deaths
- There are two ways of reading the fate in the play, one being a force caused by social institutions
and the other being that the fate was derived from the personalities of romeo and juliet

Love and The Forcefulness of Love (combined into 1)

- Love is the most dominant and important theme of the play
- Greater focus on the barriers that obstruct love, rather that love itself.
- Romeo and Juliet possess confliciting ideologies of love:
- Romeo: Passionate about his desires, Romeo’s approach to love is shallow and
surface-level, which can be seen through his poetic yet empty dialogue. (romeo is ike
juliet ur so pretty).
- Juliet: Juliet is shown to possess a more profound understading of love, wherein she can
consider the social repercussions of their forbidden romance.
- “O Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou Romeo? / Deny thy father and refuse thy name” which is
juliet asking why romeo had to be a Montagu instead of a capulet, Juliet questions her fate.
 - Juliet asks “Or if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love, / and ill no longer be a Capulet”
- Charms, love at first sight
- Shakespeare's love stories are unique compared to others, he wanted them to be fast-paced and
engaging instead of slow
- The story focuses on the complications and issues that stop the love between romeo and juliet
rather than the theme love itself. Shakespeare includes that the characters own identity become a
barrier to their love
- (the forcefulness of love)
- Love is a violent, ecstatic, overpowering force that supersedes all other values.
- Love drives the characters crazy/ defy their social responsibilities.
- Love is portrayed as a brutal powerful emotion that creates conflict not only between the indivual
and society, but ALSO conflict with the self.
- Shakespeare offers several descriptions of love to highlight the versatility and universality of the
emotion.
- Dramatic Irony: The audience is aware of something than the characters in the play are not aware
of.

Next week:
Violence
- Violence is exhibited through the ongoing feud between Capulets and Montagues.
- Shakespeare intertwines violence with fate, where the buildup of rage within the characters
results in violence between them, which is ultimately inescapable. (first 2 paragraphs - pls write
quotes)
Youth
Fate

Context:

Motifs
- Time:
- Time is used in a way that causes audiences to question the rationality of the characters.
- Time is used to accentuate the character’s affection for each other.
- Time is used to highlight the character’s flaws. Romeo find out Juliet is dead, his swift
response highlights his impatience, rashness and irrationality OR the extent of his love.
-