Thursday, October 18, 2007
Family Dynamics
Romeo and his cousin, Benvolio, differ in their views if life, love, and happiness. Similarly, Juliet and her mother have contrasting opinions of marriage, propriety, and the role of a woman in society. Which difference of opinion do you believe plays the most significant role in the workings of the play? Do you have any personal experience that is comparable to these misunderstandings?
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Honestly, i feel like none of these opinions is more significant in the play than the other because they are so greatly impacting on both sides.
The differing opinion on marraige effects Juliet immediatley and majorly because she is dealing with marraige right now with Romeo. It is a huge aspect in one's life to get married, and to not have the support of a mother can tear you apart and discourage you majorly. This makes the play more rebellious and exciting, because of the fact that seeing eachother is forbidden, but they take the risk anyway.
The contrasting opinion in propriety is greatly effecting as well because of the situation with Romeo. Obviously, Juliet sees nothing wrong with seeing Romeo, but the mother has an exactly opposite opinion. She believes in harsh punishment.
Also, the role in society for women has a great impact on the play. The opions of Juliet are more modern and the mother believes in a more old fashioned way of living. Juliet feels it is her life and her decisions, but clearly the mother still feels responsible (Juliet is still only a teenager) and that her decisions will be final.
These differences create tension in the play which may be a reason for the popularity. A valuable moral also comes out of all of these contrasting opinions. Even this play was written so long ago, these problems still exist, the morals are still useful, and the feelings are still up to date.
I believe that the difference between Juliet and her mother are more significant and have more impact on the plot than the difference between Benvolio and Romeo. While the two men are cousins and therefore like to tease and taunt each other, Juliet shares with her mother a generation gap that spawns rebellion and misunderstanding. Even though Benvolio makes fun of Romeo for his infatuation with Rosaline with the other young men, it can hardly be doubted that he had not felt such urges as he is well aware Romeo is feeling. It can also not be confirmed that Romeo did not take part in such "playing" when the other men had crushes.
It can be seen as a cycle: One of the group falls in love and it is the unspoken duty of the others to tease him, to rid him of his dreamy weakness and make him back into a man, hardening his melting heart with sharp, witty words.
The situation with Juliet and Lady Capulet is more strict than the aforementioned. Lady Capulet, as she says, was already Juliet's mother at Juliet's age; we can assume through her words and actions that she believe's it is a woman's greatest honor to strengthen the bond between two families through marriage; the bride can mearly hope she is wed to more than a pig. If we can understand this, it is easy to see thing's from Lady Capulet's view: Imagine, you are at the head of a thriving family, and a very well-to-do man has just placed his eye on your only daughter. And, he is no less than cousin to the Prince! You can almost start counting the enourmous dowry you will force from him. After all, Juliet is you're only daughter. Why shouldn't you put a price almost as pretty as she on her?
Juliet, however, has just fallen in love, and already feels exhilarated from being engaged to her family's enemy. Now, her mother has arranged a second marriage! You can only imagine how defiantly her heart beats now. This can only make her enjoy the company of her sweet Romeo all the more.
In a way, the difference between mother and daughter fuels more differences and makes Juliet more defiant. What has Benvolio done? Jested with Romeo in a way his friends have done many times before, and will do again to other victims of Cupid's arrows.
In my opinion, neither one of the relationships, Romeo and Benvolio or Juliet and Lady Capulet, is more significant over the other. They both have arguable very arguable sides, however they don't really compare because each pair has a different relationship. Romeo and Benvolio are cousins. Because they are so close in age, the can joke around with each other and mess around like friends. When it comes time for the serious buisness though, Benvolio sits up strait and tells the truth. Juliet and Lady Capulet are different. They have the mother daughter gap between them. All mothers have to be protective of their daughters, and that has to come before any sort of friendship they can have with their children. Juliet is still very young when this story is set, and Lady Capulet knows it. Both of Juliet's parents don't want her to make any big life-changing decisions before she is old enought to know what she is even doing. They are concerned for her protection over her feelings. That is why they are fine with Juliet marrying Paris. He went strait to them when he was interested in Juliet so they think they can trust him. Romeo on the other hand is not only a Montague, but a young rebel who steals Juliet's heart the minute they meet. Juliet knows that her mother will disapprove of Romeo, so she doesn't even bother to try and see what will happens if she tells her how she feels. If Lady Capulet and Juliet had a closer relationship, more like Romeo and Benvolio's, then Juliet may not have been so afraid to tell her parents what she was up to.
I have to completely agree with Apollo. I also believe that Juliet and her mothers feud plays a more significant role in the story of Romeo and Juliet than the differences between Romeo and Benvolio. Lady Capulet fails to fully understand Juliet and her emotions. She obviously makes decisions for Juliet based on the family's well being. Some could also say that Lady Capulet relentlessy attempted to get Juliet and Paris together for what she believd to be Juliets true desires. Regardless of the reason, the conflict between Juliet and Lady Capulet lead to the potential demise of the two lovers.
It is true that Romeo and Benvolio have different opinions, but most all friends do. I feel that their discrepancies do not majorly affect the plot. However, the age difference between Juliet and her mother put restraintes on Juliet and Romeo's love. Lady Capulets dissaproval of the Montagues is just another factor for Juliet hiding her love for Romeo.
Lady Capulet is also older than Juliet and grew up in a different time period. The age difference between the two causes much tension. Juliet wanted to marry for love and true commitment. Lady Capulet was taught that women were supposed to wed by arrangment and have kids. This feud between mother and daughter was an incredibly important aspect in Romeo and Juliet.
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