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Romeo And Juliet Gender Roles

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Romeo and Juliet, written by William Shakespeare, tells a tragic romance of a teenage couple’s forbidden love ultimately leading to their deaths. Romeo and Juliet are madly in love with each other and will go any lengths to be together. Unfortunately, the excessive love caused destruction to not only them, but to their surroundings as well. Clashes always drive the rivalry between Verona’s warring families, where Romeo and Juliet are from. Due to the instability and conflicts between the families, the star-crossed lovers cannot be together. As a result, the two grievously take their lives. The gender expectations in Romeo and Juliet are dissimilar to today’s society. Throughout this story, it is evident that gender expectations are shown through …show more content…

During The Elizabethan Era, a men’s role was to objectively learn and become the role of being the “bigger man”, such as having all the authority, expected to be the head of the household, and generally being the one with all powers. In this story, in many occasions, it was often the case that men from opposite of families and sides were meant to be defeated through fighting duels. For instance, Sampson challenges Abram to a fight by saying, “ Draw, if you be men…” (1.1) The quote identifies the societal standards he believes should be found in a man, which is with the idea that he is less than a man if he doesn not respond to the fight. Additionally, through Abram’s enforced concept of dominance and confidence, shows that he is conforming to masculine expectations, because men occasionally showed their strengths and power through fighting duels and always had the mentality of resolving issues with violence during this era. The typical Elizabethan life for men was the one of power and were expected to live up to the standards of their titles. However, this is much different in today’s society. Up to present time, people are more considerate and understanding, which means everyone is aware of the fact that everyone has their weaknesses, as well as their strengths.Many have left the idea of a having a standardized definition for a “perfect man or women”, unlike the Elizabethan Era. Not to mention, even though in every society violence is present no matter that the circumstances are, many have evolved from the brief that violence isn’t always the immediate response to all unpleasant

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