Section 1: Love as Tragedy: Shakespeare’s Romeo
and Juliet
With true love as her guide, Juliet transforms from an obedient, subservient daughter into a strong and capable young woman.This love, a feeling which she has never experienced, is her guiding force, giving her an unending source of courage as she struggles with many tragic events.During this five-day, roller coaster lesson in maturity, Juliet loses her innocence and falls victim to fate.
Juliet begins this play as
a girl who yields to her parents’ wishes and goes to her Nurse for guidance
and advice.The thought of marriage
is just an “honour that (she) dream(s) of.”When
her mother tells her about
Juliet overcomes a lot in this five day period, but she persists in her desire to spend eternity with Romeo.She possesses so much more courage than the rest of the characters because she is ready and willing to cut her family ties, walk away from the possibility of a good marriage with Paris, and fain (feign) death for Romeo.In this way, Juliet takes an active approach to come of age, whereas Romeo is extremely passive, thinking that fate will do what it must.Juliet instructs Romeo to make formal arrangements for their marriage, and she plans how he can come into her chamber to consummate the marriage while he is in exile.When Romeo kills Tybalt, she has to have a lot of courage to keep devoted to her husband.Juliet also shows her immense courage in her quick decision to use the dagger.Romeo dies painlessly from poison, whereas she must inflict a fatal wound upon herself. The ideas jump around a lot here, but I like this focus on J's activity vs. R's passivity.
Coming of age involves a loss of innocence and usually ends in death.Initially, the Nurse corrupts Juliet with sexual jokes, and the reality of the hatred existing between the Montagues and Capulets opens her eyes.Juliet experiences love for the first time, and it hits her like a tidal wave.Her relationship with Romeo causes her to defy and lie to her parents, causing her to lose her image as an obedient daughter.Fate does not want Romeo and Juliet to be together on this Earth.To end generations of feuding between their two families, Romeo and Juliet must die.Juliet does all that she can do to live happily ever after with Romeo, but Romeo’s inaction and a few misfortunate events cause the pair to take their own lives.If Mercutio and Tybalt had not died, Romeo and Juliet could possibly have patched up the differences between their respective families and led a happy life.
True love provides inspiration and speeds up the maturing process.Juliet, a mere fourteen-year-old, grows in character and transforms into a willful, young woman over the course of the play.She is exposed to the real world and loses her innocence, but displays a lot of courage in her quest to spend the rest of her life with Romeo.As is in many tragic plays, fate will not allow such a match on Earth. Several suggestive ideas here, although you need greater focus, and the ideas tend to leap around. Developing the active/passive contrast more would help. 7.0