Romeo & Juliet Final Considerations

March 5th, 2012 by Mrs. Tavares

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Final Considerations

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6,383 Responses

  1. S Alameda Says:

    I would definitely say that Shakespeare’s views on love, loyalty, friendship and fate are still relevant today. In Romeo and Juliet it was easy to compare the love that Romeo had for Juliet and visa versa to people that I know today. Although Romeo and Juliet’s love was very rushed and dramatic the content is still the same. My great aunt and uncle are a perfect example of the concept of “I love you so much that I would die for you.” (The same concept in Romeo and Juliet.) When Romeo seen Juliet dead its like he didn’t think of anyone else but himself and how he couldn’t live without her so he decided to take his life and this was the same outcome as Juliet. My Uncle died because of a car accident and my Aunt fell so deep into depression leading into dying of a “broken heart.” Shakespeare’s view on loyalty is still applied today as well. When I think of loyalty I think of my friends and how I would never lie to them or sneak behind their back. A great example of Loyalty that was shown in Romeo and Juliet was when Tybalt killed Mercutio and Romeo in anger, killed Tybalt. I think this act was done because Romeo had great respect and was loyal to Mercutio that he would kill anyone that tried to harm him. Friendship is another aspect that Shakespeare had a great view on and is still the same today. The nurse and Juliet had a very happy true and happy friendship in which the nurse could tell Juliet anything even if she didn’t want to hear it. I would compare this type of friendship to my mom and I because she can tell me anything that’s for my own good even if it will hurt me. The last feeling of emotion that Shakespeare had great relations to was fate. I think that Romeo and Juliet were made for each other from the beginning it was fate that they ended up together. A lot of people think that it was also “fate” that had landed them together as well till today. Shakespeare is truly magnificent because he incorporated real human feelings into his play and they are still relevant till today.

  2. M Mahuna Says:

    Shakespeare’s view on love, loyalty, and friendship is still relevant to us today but with a certain twist. We see love and without a second glance sees that this person is our life but we do not mean it literally. For Romeo and Juliet’s case love was everything to them, they were willing to die or kill themselves if they could not be together. Today we say stuff like that, like “UGHH I am going to kill myself” or “I am going to kill everyone” without taking a step back and rethinking that some people actually do this kind of stuff and take this seriously. Loyalty is another thing; I feel that this trait is slowly fading away because of all the drama and stuff we get ourselves into. If we learn to be loyal and committed then people will take us more seriously and look at us as in a different way. We always ask why were being treated like kids and the answer is always because of us or because of our actions. We do things without thought and without caring about the result. I feel like with loyalty come friendship, if you have a lot of trust in your friend and yourself, nothing will come between you two but if it’s a bumpy road and there is problems, that’s when trust start to go down the drain. Having trust and being honest is something that we should not have to think twice about, telling the truth should be automatic but we live in a generation where we hide a lot and start to lie and cheat and not tell anyone anything. Maybe its time for us to look at the life we have and see that we are blessed and start making better decisions. See, if Juliet told her parents about Romeo in the first place I do not think it would of ended like this. Maybe the feud would of stopped, maybe they would accept the marriage we will never know all because the truth and being honest got in the way.

  3. H. Kalai Says:

    I have found that Shakespeare’s views on love, loyalty, friendship and fate differ from ours but are still very relevant, considering the difference in time periods. Like our side of the room had discussed in class, Romeo and Juliet were blinded by the love. I feel that many teenagers or even adults these days are also blinded by love, however there are a few who have maybe lost sight of what true love really is as well. In other words, because life may become extremely stressful, some of our priorities have changed, making love a not so important. For example, in many movies such as Nicholas Sparksʻ movies, we are introduced to a true love that may have existed before our time. Because of these movies, we tend to crave a love just as deep, although due to the changes made over the years, it has also been made quite impossible to be as romantic. There are many unwanted teenage pregnancies in which are most times not based on love. Loyalty, Shakespeare’s view on loyalty is quite similar to the way people nowadays view loyalty. Of course it is and never will be the exact same way he has viewed it, but I think we view it somewhat alike. I also don’t think its necessarily the fact that shakespere himself is much different from us, but more the era and this generation is what sets our thinking apart from his. His view on friendship is very much alike to how we may view friendship. These days’ people do act pretty similar to how the people in the play had acted towards each other. Lastly, fate, I feel like Shakespeare’s view on fate is very broad, the things he puts in his play about fate is very distinctive and I guess somewhat relevant in todays world.

  4. Saydee Aganus Says:

    Shakespeareʻs view toward love, loyalty, friendship and fate is somewhat relevant to life today. To me what is similar from today and Shakespeare’s story is the love between the parents and their child. The part of this story that showed love between the parents and children is when the father was yelling at Juliet. This may not seem like love but Juliets father is doing this for the love of his daughter. Every parent just wants whats best for their children and thats what I saw when he was yelling at Juliet for questioning him and not being “grateful”. What I see today thats also like the love that Shakespeare has in his play is him showing that Romeo and Juliet fall in love so fast. Some people actually do fall in love so fast and its not real love. I haven’t heard of much cases where they get married in three days but maybe in Vegas that happens. I also haven’t heard much cases of a couple killing themselves after their spouse dies, especially when they only met a few days ago. If I had to think of Loyalty i would think of the fight between Romeo and Tybalt. Romeo showed a huge sense of loyalty when he fought Tybalt because he killed Romeos best friend, Mercutio. Mercutio somehow showed loyalty towards his people and Romeo by fighting a Capulet. Tybalt showed no Loyalty to Lord Capulet when he said not to attack Romeo. Their loyalty is a different loyalty than what I am thinking. My loyalty is too god and too my family and friends. Their loyalties fall somewhere else. We have a loyalty to our friends, as Romeo had to Mercutio. I would fight someone if they tried to hurt my family or friends. Friendship lies with the loyalty factor. Romeo wasn’t being a good friend by sneaking around and not helping Mercutio so he wouldn’t die. Fate is a tricky subject to talk about. I would guess that Romeo and Juliet’s Fates were to die young because of love, but was that really their fate? I mean say they didn’t fall in love that wouldn’t be their fates. Fate now days depends on what religion or beliefs you have. I believe in one God, I believe that he controls my fate. I can control my own fate but ultimately he knows and planned the outcome.

  5. S Gleason Says:

    I think Shakespeare’s views on these human conditions (love, loyalty, friendship, and fate) are still very relevant today, because of the parts they play in human relationships. Being human conditions, they are things that every human should feel or have, at some point in their life and I surely do not know of any single person who hasn’t felt or had them. Anyways, Shakespeare shows in his play, Romeo and Juliet, many common ways of displaying these conditions. For example, in the beginning of the play, when the two groups of men (servants) got into a fight, I was instantly reminded of guys my age, how their taunting and tempers seem similar. Of course some variables would differ such as the way of which they fought, their settings, language, and motives for fighting (in the Renaissance, they used swords, fought in London’s dirty streets, spoke “old English” than we do, and fought over an ancient feud caused by some kind of reason that occurred then), but the emotions and thoughts are still the same. Other conditions, such as friendship were also shown in the play, which I again related to present day guys. The last and most obvious human condition in the play was, of course, love. Shown by Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare exhibited how you don’t get to choose who you fall in love with, love makes people do irrational things, love can happen to anyone at any age, among other things I probably won’t think of. Shakespeare also showed how fate is involved with the decisions we make, in how Romeo and Juliet decided to follow their love’s desires, then were fated to other decisions, where they decided to keep it hidden, which fated them to other decisions and consequences, leading to their deaths. This is possible during any time period, but some things would vary, being that the Renaissance is different from today’s world. In Romeo and Juliet’s case, she didn’t want to tell her parents about Romeo because they literally owned her, and arranged her marriage. Also, in the Renaissance, they were very religious, resulting in much of the hesitation and worry of Romeo and Juliet’s situation. Shakespeare’s views on love, loyalty, friendship and fate are surely still relevant today, and apply as they did back then, just as they do now, about 400 years later.

  6. Pomai Mendonca Says:

    The way Shakespeare grasped the ideas of love, loyalty, friendship, and fate is most definitely still pertinent in the world we live in today. Shakespeare was nothing short of brilliant, and his perceptions regarding those four ideas will forever be relatable to for generations to come. Even though Shakespeare’s storylines were over dramatic and obviously theatrical, the emotions of the characters correlate to the emotions we feel in our own lives whilst enduring hardships. Shakespeare greatly expressed the love that Romeo and Juliet had for each other. Shakespeare knew that the love he created between two of his characters was counterfeit love, a.k.a, teen love. Romeo and Juliet were so in love with each others appearances that they actually tricked themselves into believing that their love for each other was real. Shakespeare knew that the idea of love in the mind of a human will never alter, which is why his play is so spectacular. In regards to Shakespeare’s ideas on loyalty and friendship, his perceptions on these two things are still applicable to our lives in the society we live in today. For example, the Nurse backed up Juliet in her decision to be with Romeo since she found out what was going on between the two of them. Then, when Lord Capulet was pushing to have Juliet marry Paris, the Nurse tried to convince Juliet to do so. I feel like this is a perfect example of how loyalty and friendship can be broken so easily by betrayal. The Nurse completely double-crossed Juliet by advising her to just forget her happiness and well-being and just heed her advice so her father, Lord Capulet would be satisfied. I am positive that the person reading this has been betrayed by a close friend at some point in their lives. Whether you were born in the 1800ʻs or the 2000ʻs, the way both of those human beings distinguish the world and the people around them will forever be analogous.

  7. K. Paris Says:

    Shakespeare views on love, loyalty, friendship and fate in my opinion is suuuuper relevant because of the fact that time changes but people stay the same but I also feel that our mindset changes a bit from Shakespeare’s time for example in the Prologue and throughout the play “A pair of star-cross’d lovers take their life.” “O happy dagger!” and “let me have A dram of poison, such soon-speeding gear
    As will disperse itself through all the veins
    That the life-weary taker may fall dead” all implying death for love. Now in this time I’ve not seen the day that I’ve known someone who’d spare their life over a love they’d just met nor would even think about it, they’d think about other ways to consult the situation, even if their families would not allow it, trust me we sneaky teens will find a way that would 97% not lead to death. Whereas I feel that the loyalty we had during the renaissance was at a much higher level then it is now, I mean we basically see “trust no one” on every social media existing and we constantly get screwed over by every other person out there so id say that loyalty lacks compared to how Juliet put her life in Friar Lawrence’s hands… and who knows where she could’ve ended up? Not her. But she trusted him and Friar knew what Romeo wanted. On top of that Romeo and the Friar I think has an amazing friendship! When Romeo thought of killing himself the Friar took a stand as a friend and knocked some sense into him and making him realize what he does is and what he plans to do and that is something that happens today! We console eachother, help eachother out and give advice. Now fate, that’s a different topic back in the day I have the feeling that they were stronger believers in what happens in life for them that’s how its going to go and they cant change that but whereas now, we have this mindset where were almighty, we can change, nothing can define us and it’s the truth, we don’t preach it as much so I think that it isn’t as relevant today as it was during the renaissance.

  8. K. Kubojiri Says:

    Shakespeare’s view of love is not really love but lust. Romeo and Juliet decided to get married on the same day they met, with barely a conversation, which was only about each other’s physical beauty. They don’t even know each other, and are only attracted to each other by what they can physically see. Yes, lust lives on until this day, but no Shakespeare’s view of ‘love’ is not relevant to this day. For example, today, love is when someone is not only attracted to the physical features of another person, but who they are (i.e. qualities, personality, etc.). It was almost impossible for people of the renaissance era to be in love. Girls, as soon as they hit puberty, were married off to a much older man. The highly unlikely situation is that the 13 –year-old girl loves the 40-year-old guy, and vise versa, which includes being attracted to each other’s hearts. Now I say highly unlikely because there is a big age difference between a girl that has just gotten her period, and a full-grown man. They behave differently, have different experience levels of the world, may have different interests, and have different physical age features. Romeo was so in love with the thought of love he became desperate, and Juliet so innocent and having little experience of the world, so she became vulnerable. Today, people can be so desperate for love, or so inexperienced with love, that they go for the first person that is attracted to them. In this way, yes Shakespeare’s belief that love is so desirable by many that people go at every chance to experience love is relevant to today. Shakespeare’s view of friendships is relevant to today. Mercutio and Romeo were the best of friends, but when Tybalt stabbed Mercutio, Mercutio puts a curse on the Capulets AND the Montagues, the family of Romeo. Mercutio was sick of Romeo’s love sickness that he grew away from his friend. In friendships today, relationships are broken due to a friend being so completely self-absorbed in their sorrow, or self-absorbed in their relationship with someone else. Tybalt, Romeo, and Mercutio weren’t loyal to their lords because they all fought each other, knowing that the consequence would be the execution of their lord. Benvolio was loyal to Lord Montague by trying to prevent a fight with the Capulets, and by intervening Tybalt and Mercutio’s brawl. Both views of Shakespeare’s, that there are people who are loyal and some, who are not, are relevant to today because these types of people still exist. For example, a friend may have the strongest urge to tell someone a secret they’re not supposed to share, but are loyal to the beholder of the secret, and don’t share it. There are also the people that will tell the whole world a secret they weren’t supposed to disclose. Now, I’ll talk about fate. Shakespeare believed that our fate was already made for us before we were born. For example, Shakespeare made it so fate decided that the only time Friar John is stopped for quarantine is when he has to deliver the message to Romeo that Juliet still lives. It just so happened that a friend of Romeo’s reached Mantua, and told Romeo that Juliet was dead. What are the odds? Today, I believe that our whole life is planned for us by God, not by fate, though there must be others in the world that believe in fate, so yes, Shakespeare’s view that fate will decide your path as opposed to you is relevant to this time and era.

  9. C. Mortensen Says:

    I feel that Shakespeare hit the nail on the head when he made the plays that he made about love friends and even loyalty. The way Shakespeare captures everyone’s feelings and emotions when he writes makes the play seem even more real to us when he says them. It seems more real because I think we can all relate to what he says, we have all had a crush and we have all done drastic things to help other people with there loves. Even when our friends are down we will always try to cheer them up. Like Romeo, Benvolio, and Mercutio, they continued to try and cheer Romeo up while he was trying to get over the woman Rosaline. The tried even to the extent of going to their enemy’s banquet. They barely convinced Romeo to come with them to he party and if they didn’t convince him Romeo would still be lying on the ground adding to the clouds with his sighs. Romeo has fallen in love with Juliet the firs time he saw her at the banquet. If Romeo had never gone he might even be alive today because he might never had seen Juliet ever. He falls in love just as fast as we can today.

  10. I Andaya Says:

    Shakespeare’s views on love from before are much different yet still sort of the same, as now where when you were to be married in the Renaissance Era it would usually be fro power and whomever your father wishes for you to marry. Nowadays you have free range to marry anyone you want to, also you may marry the same gender which was looked down upon in the renaissance era. But love is love and when you fall in love thing happen and sparks fly. But today you can do majorly what makes you happy. Shakespeare’s views on friendship are the same and probably always will be the same. Friends are around to keep you out of trouble, to get you into trouble, but also to just be there for you when you need them most. Fate is fate, and will always be fate. There isn’t really much you can do about fate, it’ll always be the same no matter what. Some people may think that they can alter their fate, but I’m not sure it’s really possible due to the inevitability. Shakespeare`s views on loyalty persist to stay the same. For no matter what if you have a secret you will keep this secret even in dire situations. Friar Lawrence kept the star-crossed lovers secret until the day they had both died, when he told the prince of their tragic love. Though loyalty can sometimes fall f=through, it always will occur at least once like when the nurse had known that Juliet was already married to Romeo yet the nurse was pushing to marry Paris due to his status and his handsomeness. The nurse had at that moment broken her loyalty to Juliet for Juliet swore not to really trust anybody after that.

  11. A. Lee Says:

    Some of Shakespeares’ views are relavent today, but some are not. One of the things that are still relevant today is that love can be so intense that it causes people to do irrational things that can never be reversed. Romeo and Juliet killed themselves to be together in death because they couldnt be together in life. The things that they felt can still be felt today. Even though in the renaissance, love was basically non-existent and it was all based on lust. One thing that i think isnt relevant today is the view on how easy it is to kill someone and get away with it. In those times, they had rights to kill the people that they own, and not get in trouble. Today, it is more civilized, if you kill someone, you go to jail. In those times, the Capulets and Montagues could do what they want as long as they dont disturb the citizens of Verona. Another thing that is not relevant today is that the father owns the girls. They had the right to do whatever they wanted, but now, that is not the case, and that is a good thing. It was a very controlling time in the renaissance, females basically had no rights, and always belonged to someone.

  12. B Kaniho Says:

    Shakespeare’s views on love, loyalty, friendship, and fate are mostly relevant to the values today. The reason why I said “mostly” is because I feel that Shakespeare’s view on love is slightly different from ours. Although I can see that teenagers take love far and slightly exaggerate it, Shakespeare takes love to a whole new level. Romeo and Juliet were getting married a couple days just after they met. I can see that it is okay since they are the typical age to marry but even if I were of age to get married I probably wouldn’t marry a girl just after meeting her. Also, Shakespeare also shows how he thinks that love is everything when Romeo and Juliet commit suicide. Shakespeare’s view is that if Romeo can’t live with Juliet then his life is meaningless and vice versa for Juliet. Personally, I feel that love is powerful but it is not the only thing that we have to live for. We live to have fun, be surrounded by family and friends, and do the things we love. Overall, Shakespeare’s version of love is a little different from love today.
    As for loyalty and friendship, I feel that I can relate to Shakespeare’s view on these values. In the play, Romeo always has his friend Mercutio to talk to and Juliet had Nurse. Both Mercutio and Nurse were always there from Romeo and Juliet and was always trying to give them advice and helping them when they needed help. These traits are exactly what I think loyalty and friendship is and this is how it should be today. We all have friends that are loyal like Mercutio and Nurse.
    Lastly, I feel that Shakespeare’s view on fate is different from today. Today I don’t really believe in fate because we have the freedom to chose our own paths. In the Renaissance era, they didn’t have this freedom. Whether you are high class or low class you still really only have one path, and that would be doing whatever your parents do. They also don’t get to chose who to marry because it is chosen by your parents. Today we have many options and we are free to choose whichever path is right for us.

  13. D Duarte Says:

    Till today i feel that Shakespeareʻs perspective on love is loyal because he set Romeo and Juliet to be faithful and never played around with other people. Even though Romeo and Juliets love was rushed, they still felt passion for one another and thats all that matters. I think if they were together longer then they wouldn’t last because they only seen the good in each other and not the bad, plus, they didn’t even have there first fight and every relationship fights. They were too fast but I’m not saying that they weren’t in love because anyone can be in love and if you feel strong for another person then don’t feel different just because someone tells you you’re not in love. To me, i feel like my uncle and aunty have almost the same feeling such as “i love you so much id die for you” because when Romeo seen Juliet dead, he couldn’t function without her and vise versa for my aunty, when my uncle died in a car accident my aunty was heartbroken and didn’t know what to do without him. I think that Shakespeare’s goal is to show people that anyone can be in love at any moment and love is a powerful feeling. Shakespeare shows people that youʻre your own person and if you feel something for another person then donʻt let anyone stop you from loving them. Loyalty that I remember was when Mercutio was killed by Tybalt and in revenge, Romeo killed Tybalt for honor to Mercutio. I feel like that is loyalty because that shows how much respect he had for Mercutio. I also could feel friendship in Shakespeares writing because juliet and the nurse had a strong bond where they felt obligated to tell each other everything because they trusted each other with important news. To me, I see that Romeo and Juliet met for a reason and they were bound to fall in love just like how people today meet and fall in love instantly.

  14. C. Gomez Says:

    I would say that Shakespeare’s views on love, loyalty, friendship, and fate are still applicable in some situations. For example, it is common for a young man today to fall in love with another girl very quickly after they have just had their heart broken by another. It is also common for girls to rebel against their mother and father. Part of the reason Romeo and Juliet might have been so madly in love with one another is because it was risky. The whole idea of it was mad. Meet one night, get married the next. It was insane and dangerous. They knew little of love, yet they decided to cash in all of their chips. Romeo ended up getting exiled from Verona because of a murder he committed to avenge his friend’s death. They made plans to fake Juliet’s death so that they could secretly be together. However, due to the rashness of the plan and last-minute nature, it failed. It was absurd, and ended up in a miserable disaster. This stunt is the exact type of thing that teenagers today would love to pull off. The type of friendship that Benvolio shows to Romeo about his broken heart with Rosaline is also common today. Lot’s of kids today get their heart broken when they are rejected by a crush. There is usually always that one friend that they can go to to cry on their shoulder or vent about their feelings. These friends are the real MVPs. Shakespeare had a way of writing his plays that somehow kept them relatable even hundreds of years later. This is why even today they are still considered great pieces of work.

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