Shakespeares Romeo And Juliet Essay, Research Paper

Romeo and Juliet

Expository Essay

Romeo and Juliet, by Shakespeare, is a play which shows how prejudice leads to escalating violence. Prejudice leads to violence shown in the play when the feuding families, the Montagues and Capulets fight. In each case, disruption, fighting, injuries and death occur. Also, the prejudice against the two families never got resolved because they were enemies. The prejudice started in Act one Scene one, when the Capulets and Montague servants confronted each other. Then the Capulets servants insult the Montagues. Which lead to a street brawl of the two feuding families. Furthermore in Act three Scene one, the prejudice between the families get worse. When Tybalt wanted revenge with the Montagues, he then confronted Romeo and Mercutio and started a duel. In addition the prejudice between families got even worse, when Tybalt kills Mercutio. Also, in Act five Scene three, Tybalt challenges Romeo to fight and Romeo kills him. Which lead to prejudice between the families.

The street in Verona, a public place, is where the prejudice starts between the two families. In Act one Scene one, Sampson and Gregory servants for the Capulets, insulted the Montagues servants Balthasar and Abraham by biting his thumb at him. This leads to a fight, which involves the Lord s of both families and the Prince. No death occurred, but the families attitudes against each other were worse then before. Which caused a lot of prejudice against the families that lead to violence.

In like manners, another duel between the two feuding families start up again in the street of Verona in Act three Scene one. When Mercutio and Benvolio friends of Romeo, are confronted by Tybalt, who is still prejudice against the Montagues. Tybalt thinks that they crashed the Capulets ball and know he wants revenge. Mercutio and Tybalt fight between each others. Now Romeo arrives trying to stop the arguments. Tybalt draws his sword and challenges Romeo. Romeo refuses to fight and Mercutio stops in to meet Tybalt challenges. Romeo again, steps in to stop the fighting, but Tybalt stabs Mercutio under Romeo s arm. Mercutio from this action dies from his injury and this caused disruption between the families which lead to prejudice.

Instead of a Capulet killing a Montague, in Act five Scene three, a Montague kills a Capulet as prejudice leads to violence. In the Capulets Tomb at night, Paris, a young nobleman, kinsman to the Prince has come to pay his respect to his “lost” Juliet. When he hears the footstep of his enemies Romeo and Balthasar. Paris thinks Romeo has come to desecrate Juliet s grave in act of the prejudice against them. While young Romeo was only trying to see his only love dead.. But Paris didn t know so he challenges Romeo to a fight and Romeo kills Paris. This event was caused due to prejudice that lead to violence which included injuries, death and disruption.

From examining Romeo and Juliet, it is evident that the play shows how prejudice leads to escalating violence when the opening brawl started by the servants, the duel between Mercutio and Tybalt and Romeo and Paris. So it is evident that Romeo and Juliet, is a play that shows how prejudice leads to escalating violence between the feuding families.

The Capulet family is one of pride and high social standing. It consists of

Lord and Lady Capulet, their young daughter Juliet, and their kinsman Tybalt.

They have a nurse, as well, who has taken care if Juliet since she was born.

They get along quite well, yet, like all families they have their differences.

However, one thing that happens frequently when two members of the

family disagree on something, is that usually someone gives in to their

superior, regardless if they agree or not. One example is when Romeo shows

up at the Capulets party uninvited and Tybalt wants to throw him out. Lord

Capulet objects to this by saying, He shall be endured…I say he shall…Am I the

master here or you? For a little bit, Tybalt argues, but he very soon backs

down and lets Capulet have his way.

Perhaps the reason why this happens is because the inferior person is

somewhat intimidated by the superior. This intimidation that some of the

characters produce on each other shows that there is not a great deal of

communication in the family. Throughout Act I, there were several more

examples of characters yielding to others and not standing up for what they

believe. For instance, when Lady Capulet brought up the idea of Juliet marrying

Paris, Juliet just went along with the concept , even though that was possibly not

what she wanted.

An even more significant instance of such a thing occurring is the fact

that Juliet feared to tell her parents that she had fallen in love with Romeo, a

Montague. She knew that if she informed them of how she felt, they would get

angry and maybe disown her, just because of their hate for all Montagues.

That is another of the Capulet family s flaws. They are rather

narrow-minded because of their continuing, senseless conflict with the

Montagues. Both households are of equal fault in this case, but that only

proves that the two families are alike in that way. Even still, if the Capulets

believe that they truly are the more dignified, they should have ceased their

dispute earlier and prevented their daughter s unhappiness (and eventually

death). Instead, they decided to keep the feud going and believe that all

Montagues are the same and that ll should be despised.

As head of the family, Lord Capulet is largely responsible for everything

that has been going on, but despite his closed-mindedness he is still a pretty

admirable man. He is a good father who only wants the best for his daughter.

He doesn t realize though, that marrying Romeo is what really is best for Juliet.

It is what she truly wants and it is the only thing that will make her happy.

Capu1et exposes a different side of himself in the first scene than in most

of the rest of the play. In Scene I, he only says a few lines but he still

communicates the fact that he is angry at Montague and he wants to fight.

Later in Scene II he says,

But Montague is bound as well as I,

In penalty alike and tis not hard, I think,

For men so old as we to keep the peace.

This verse displays his more compassionate side; the part of him who is tired of

fighting and who just wants it all to stop.

The Capulets are a lot like all other families. Obviously, the problems and

fights that normal families have aren t as extreme as the Capulets , but

everyone has obstacles to get though and the Capulets are no different in this

manner. Of course they lack some communication, and they should have been

more open-minded, but they were pretty functional. Maybe that s the way most

families were in Verona so long ago.

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