Why Is Honor Important In Romeo And Juliet

Finding a way to describe good and bad is something that, since its inception, society has grappled with. Through the course of history, a number of societies have assigned many different words to describe both benevolence and malice. The word honor has become one of the most ubiquitous terms to distinguish good and bad. Despite its seemingly benign nature. Honor is problematic; honor is something that a lot of people come to struggle with to some extent. Honor is a construct that has had a lineage of being interpretable. The interpretability surrounding honor has made it so that it can be used to lend validity to malicious actions. Even in modern society–despite warnings in centuries-old works of literature, such as William Shakespeare’s Romeo

For instance, Tybalt escalates a fight in the first scene of the play, furthermore, he wants to kill Romeo because he is of a different last name. In the face of his actions, Tybalt’s perception of his honorability seems to hold no merit and yet he proves that he's not dishonorable either. At the feast, Tybalt abstains from killing Romeo saying, “I will withdraw, but this intrusion shall,/...convert to bitt’rest gall” (1.5.102-103). Later when he encounters Benvolio and Mercutio, Tybalt says, “Peace be with you [sirs]. Here comes my man” upon Romeo arriving (3.1.57). Despite Mercutio associating with the Montagues, and Benvolio being a Montague; Tybalt decides not to slay either of them. Tybalt’s honorability is a matter of interpretation, and that speaks largely to the nature of honor. Honor relies on personal speculation consequently there is no unambiguous answer to what it means. The enigmatic nature of honor has not gone with time. Journalist Fred Barbash documents in “‘She wouldn’t listen’: A Wrenching Story of an ‘Honor Killing’ in Pakistan” the story of Mubeen Rajhu and his sister Tasleem, who was, “Only 18 when she fell in love with a Christian

In South Korea for instance, “children....often spend over 16 hours a day at school” in an effort to, “get into the top...universities” however, “Family prestige and honor are often tied to where children go to university, and many adolescents take their own lives out of that stress.” (Singh). The interpretation of honor, in this case, has bred an environment wherein children work grueling hours to uphold it. In Japan, the interpretation is as troublesome. In 2015, “More than 25,000 people took their...lives” (Wingfield-Hayes). Historically honor has been something that many Japanese citizens have been ready to give life for, that burden to uphold honor with ‘honorable suicide’ still exists today, many pointing to it as the cause for the high suicide rate. Wataru Nishida, a psychologist at Tokyo’s Temple University agrees with this assessment, adding that, “...here suicide is not a sin. In fact, some look at it as a way to take responsibility” (Wingfield-Hayes 1). In this instance, honor has been construed to portray suicide as something positive despite its overwhelmingly negative nature. It's through the hardship of these people that Romeo and Juliet remains a relevant tale. The death of Romeo and Juliet, among other things, demonstrates the potentially high price one may pay for the interpretability of honor. Two