Stereotypes In Shakespeare's Romeo And Juliet

Does a traditional romance story about rapid love simply make teenagers joyful or push them into outdated stereotypes? That is a question that popped into my head after watching the new hit movie “Romeo and Juliet” by William Shakespeare. Romeo and Juliet is a typical romance movie exploring the theme of forbidden love. Romeo and Juliet are both a part of a family with an everlasting rivalry; Romeo is a montague and Juliet is a capsule. This movie is rapidly being watched by teens all over the country. Romeo and Juliet is rather dangerous as it explores many themes which are not healthy for teens in today's world to explore. Romeo and Juliet begins a disturbingly violent fight scene between the Montague and Capulet servants. The extremely hateful

Meanwhile, a significantly older man, Paris, asks Capulet to marry his thirteen year old daughter, Juliet. Capulet decides to throw a party hoping for Paris to woo Juliet into marriage, without even consulting Juliet. Soon after, we are introduced to Juliet. Juliet is portrayed as an innocent young girl in a white nightgown whose whole role in life is to marry. Later, at the previously mentioned party, Juliet and Romeo meet and “fall in love” without even knowing each other's names. Shortly after discovering each other's identities, Romeo proclaims his love to Juliet from outside her window. This scene is ironic considering that Romeo and Juliet have met only once and just earlier that day Romeo was in love with Rosaline. Shortly after, Friar Lawrence absurdly marries the couple without anyone other than Juliet's nurse knowing. The violence of this play commences when Tybalt challenges Romeo to a duel. Romeo soon commits the only non-aggressive act of this play and pleads to not fight Tybalt as he considers Tybalt “family.” Out of the sheakspheres need to promote violence, Mercutio takes Romeos place and disturbingly fights

Because the violence in this play seems so exciting, it propels boys to engage in it. Sheksphere uses over dramatic language like.. (worms meat) to make violence seem emusing. Romeo and Juliet has a dangerous tone as it shines a positive light on violence. The repetition of violence in men and the consequences of peace engrain the “social norm” of violence in teenage boys. A play that not only reinforces stereotypes from the past, but also encourages boys to be violent is not a play that teens should be constantly viewing. Juliet is depicted as a pure, innocent teen in a white nightgown, whose sole purpose is to wed. Her family thinks of her and uses her as an object and there are no signs throughout this play indicating that to be out of the norm. Her struggle in this play is solely of marriage when she is a thirteen year old girl. She is clearly portrayed as a mere possession when her father accepts Paris’s marriage proposal without even asking Juliet. On top of that, when she stands up for herself and shows how she is against this marriage her father responds by “insert quote of Capulet telling Juliet she is stupid and disowning her for not wanting to marry Paris.” These words again reinforce the idea that women shouldn’t be able to think for themselves and make their own