The tragic play of Romeo and Juliet is a tale of two lovers who ignored their families’ ancient strife. First, Juliet defied her father’s command to marry the wealthy bachelor, Paris; nonetheless, she chose the Montague, Romeo. Thus they do not follow the standards of their society. That is to say, Romeo was raised to hate a Capulet, and Juliet was raised to hate a Montague. This disobedient act was a formula for disaster. Therefore, the traditional women’s roles, women empowerment, and romantic Renaissance poetry lead to the strong theme of blinding love.
Moreover, according to Shakespeare, Paris was the ideal husband for a single woman in the Renaissance era. As interpreted by Shakespeare, daughter’s would be forced to marry whomever their parent pleased; yet Shakespeare made Juliet a renegade to these traditions. Even Juliet’s nurse thought, “No less? Nay, bigger. Women grow by men. “(1. 4 101), meaning a woman’s status depends on who she marries. Going back to the empowerment of women in this play, again Juliet was given a choice from her father Capulet when he told Paris, “And too soon marred are those so early made. Earth hath swallowed all my hopes but she;/ She’s the hopeful lady of my earth. / But woo her, gentle Paris, get her heart;/ My will to her consent is but a part. / And she agreed, within her scope of choice. / Lies my consent and fair according to voice. “(1. 2 13-20), meaning that Juliet is important and so young.
Hence he would approve this marriage if he won her love. But with a new altered mood, he agreed, “Sir Paris, I will make a desperate tender of my child’s love. /I think she will be ruled/ In all respects by me. / Nay, more, I doubt it not. Wife, go you to her ere you got to bed. / Acquaint her here of my son Paris’ love”( 3. 4 15-17), here Juliet lost her privileges. As an ongoing aficionado of Shakespeare plays, Queen Elizabeth was a formal attendant of these plays, “Queen Elizabeth also recognized the importance of the arts to the life and legacy of her nation.
She was fond of the theater, and many of England’s greatest playwrights were active during her reign, including Christopher Marlowe, Ben Jonson, and William Shakespeare. ” (www. shakespeareinamericancommunities. rg), so Juliet’s paucity of freedom was created to appease women of her stature. It is easy to tell that Queen Elizabeth was a strong, and intelligent leader, to clarify, “During her reign, England defeated the Spanish Armada. Because the Spanish navy was thought to be better than the British navy, this victory raised the status of England in Europe. ” (http://www. folger. edu/queenelizabeth-i). This is the reason behind empowering Juliet, and its contribution to blinding love. Now her lover, Romeo used a copious amount of charm in his poetic lines, which were effective in winning the heart of Juliet.
Formerly, this character was portrayed as extremely naive because of his deep depression, over the thought of being in love with fair Rosaline. His father, Montague, oblivious to the fact, became curious of what caused such woe, explaining to Benvolio, “But all so soon as the all-cheering sun/ Should in the farthest east begin to draw/ The shady curtains from aurora’s bed,/ Away from light steals home heavy son/Shuts up his windows, locks fair daylight out makes himself an artificial night. “( 1. 1 137-134). This quote illustrates how Romeo locked himself away to write about this depression.
Later, Romeo reveals to Benvolio, “Out of her favor where I am in love. “(Shakespeare 1. 1 173), therefore he said that he was in love with Rosaline, but she didn’t love him back, which is why he was so depressed. Nonetheless, after falling for Juliet, he forgot about Rosaline. Henceforth, Romeo started to mature, and profess his love through poetic dialect to someone who actually loved him back. There are some rumors that this poetic dialect was inspired by a poet named Francesco Petrarca, commonly recognized as Petrarch.
He was an Italian scholar and poet in Renaissance Italy, where the play takes place. He also wrote love letters to his lover Laura, like Romeo spoke romantic poetry to Juliet. According to an article by Macquarie Matrix: Vol. 3, “The play ensures that the lover, Romeo, and his beloved, Juliet, transcend the limitations of Petrarchan narrative while crediting Petrarchism role in highlighting the unique and transformative nature of love and desire. “, which means that Shakespeare may rise as his own poet, but the Petrarchism nature of love and desire is still relevant in Romeo.
Here is one example to illustrate the style of Petrarchan poetry, “What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why,/I have forgotten, and what arms have lain/ Under my head till morning; but the rain/ Is full of ghosts tonight, that tap and sigh”(http://www. worldclass-poetry. com), in comparison to Romeo, “When the devout of mine eye/ Maintains such falsehood, then turn tears to fire;/ And these who often drowned, could never die,/ Transparent heretics, be burnt for liars. / One fairer than my love? The allseeing sun/ Ne’er saw her match since first the world begun. (1. 3 95-100).
These two poems resemblance the pain of heartbreak. Also, Petrarch was from Italy, where the play did take place. The only difference between the two poets was their rhyme scheme. The Petrarchan sonnet has a rhyme scheme of ABBAABBA. In contrast to Shakespearean sonnets, where he uses a differentiating scheme of ABABCDCDEFEFGG, that end with a rhyming couplet. It is hard to think that Shakespeare would deny such an instinctive similarity between Romeo and Petrarch, but then again Shakespeare was notorious for writing many love letters and poems himself.
But for the most part, such poetry and romance contributed to blinding love because it hooked Juliet into such a dangerous and uncertain relationship. As a result, she denied Paris’ marriage proposal. That is to say, both Romeo and Juliet performed compelling decision after their meeting. Before such a dangerous step, Juliet was always more rational than Romeo about the consequences, but finally, the blindness of love caused her to snap. This compelling decision was joining through holy matrimony, to rephrase it Romeo says, “Th’ exchange of thy love’s faithful vow for mine. ” (77 2. 134), which is relative to exchanging vows through marriage.
Juliet answered, “I gave thee mine before though didst request it,” ( 2. 2 135), implying she already agreed on such an outlandish idea. From there on, tragic events commenced. First Tybalt challenged Romeo to a duel after he saw Romeo present at the Capulet party. Then Mercutio was killed by Tybalt on account of Romeo refusing duel his cousin-in-law. Therefore, out of revenge for the murder of his best friend, Romeo killed Tybalt. Therefore Romeo was banished from Verona for committing murder. Shortly after, Capulet commanded Juliet to marry Paris.
Hence, if she denied this command, her father would disown her. Accordingly, she devised a plan with friar Lawrence. In this plan, she would drink something that would make her fall asleep for forty-eight hours, acting as if she was dead. Since she was thought of as dead, she was placed in the Capulet tomb, waiting for Romeo to be there as she awakened from her long sleep. Consequently, Romeo heard the news of her death, but blindly missed the part about her plan. Following, Romeo went to visit her, confronting Paris. Confused about the arranged marriage among Juliet and Paris, Romeo killed him.
Afterward, he realized all the death his marriage caused. Then he examined Juliet’s body and realized she looked alive, “Thou art not conquered. Beauty’s ensign yet/ Is crimson in thy lips and in thy cheeks,/ And death’s pale flag is not advanced there. “(5. 3 94-96), but his broken heart caused him to blindly ignore the fact. As a result, he drank a poison, given to him by an apothecary. When Juliet woke from her long sleep, she found Romeo dead, so she stabbed herself with a dagger. The only good outcome, which friar Lawrence foresaw, was that the families realized the harm and sadness that their ancient strife caused, so they put aside ll hate and became friends.
These were the unfortunate events that were caused by their marriage. Finally, Juliet breaks free from traditional women’s roles of the Renaissance, and Romeo’s charm through such romantic poetry of the Renaissance era brought up on a blind side among Romeo and Juliet. When they were happily married, the didn’t realize the innumerable amount of consequences. Marrying each other was like committing suicide. But the love filling their hearts directed them to each other like a magnet. This is why women’s traditional roles, women empowerment, and Renaissance poetry substantiated a strong theme of blinding love.
