Essay Example about Romeo and Juliet’s Wicked Religion

What is religion? Is it a person or place, something we believe in or just another human creation used to explain the unnatural? In Shakespeare’s famous story Romeo and Juliet, he tries to answer this age-old question by using religion as the main evil in his story. This is shown in his literature in a way that religion can blind a person’s thoughts as well as Shakespeare’s use of spirituality in his story. Another way Shakespeare portrays religion in a sinful manner is when faith causes agony to the characters in the story. Which Shakespeare uses religion to battle the normal of the Catholic church and raise the universal questions concerning spirituality in the natural world during the Chattelism period of the Elizabethan era. 

Frair Lawrence acts as a spiritual figure in the story of Romeo and Juliet, he is responsible for the marriage of Romeo and Juliet and the one who creates the plan for their failed escape. Shakespear uses the character Frair Lawrence to demonstrate how religion can blind a person's thoughts. The story portrays this narrative in the way that Frair Lawarence's religious mindset plagues the decisions he produces throughout the novel. When a naive Romeo comes to Frair Lawrence for permission to marry Juliet (even though it is forbidden and unacceptable), Frair Lawrence still says, “For this alliance may so happy prove To turn your households’ rancouver to pure love” (2.3.91-92). The line turn your household to pure love exhibits how faith and God’s mindset influences the Frair to make rash decisions that result in horrible outcomes such as the death of Romeo and Juliet. Which is a result of Frair Lawrence acting on religion without proper thinking.  

Shakespear lived in a time period where English subjects were legally obliged to attend church. This rule influenced his writing in the way his stories incorporated spirituality into the plots and main characters in them. In Romeo and Juliet, spirituality is used by Shakespear in the storyline when he mentions how God curses Romeo and Juliet. Shakespear revels this when Juliet finds out that she must get married to someone that is not Romeo, she says, “Alack, alack that heaven should practice stratagems upon a soft subject as myself God join’d my heart and Romeo’s” (3,4.5,1.209-210,55). The quote indicates how the people of Verona see God or spirituality as someone or thing of great power. Shakespear uses this image of God and redefines it as a hateful presence which has doomed the destiny or fate of Juliet. Therefore, constructing an image of God that has not been seen before and defying the rules of what spirituality is like during that time. 

In Romeo and Juliet there are a lot of characters, some more important than others. But one thing that they all have in common is that faith causes agony to all of them. The town of Verona is very religious and is separated by the two biggest families in the cities, Montague and Capulet. These two families are shown as divided in the tale because of faith and religion. In the narrative when Prince Escalas stops the two families from fighting he says, “Civil brawls/ By thee Capulet and Montague/ To wield old partisans in hands as old” (1.1.83-84,88). In the line in hands as old, the quote represents that their feud is as old as them and during that time some of the main arguments or disagreements were about different faiths, mainly Catholicism against Christianity. This suggests that the disagreement between the two families could have been between this argument, meaning this resulted in the idea that worship is the reason that there is a divide between the two families and agony amongst the people of Verona. 

Religion is a topic that is disputed all around the world for various reasons and in Shakespeare’s tale Romeo and Juliet it is described and told as the main villain of the story. Shakespear does this by demonstrating how religion can blind a person's thoughts and causes characters in the story to make bad decisions because of it. Furthermore, the bard’s utilization of spirituality in the story exhibits how God is shown as an evil in the tale. Finally, faith is portrayed in the story to agonize the characters, indicating the foul of the church. Shakespeare uses religion in this manner to defy the boundaries of culture and worship during that time and attempts to bring new meaning to religion in the plays he writes and to the people who enjoy his literature. It allows him to express his thoughts and emotions of faith and theology without being harmed by the Protestant and Catholic Church. In conclusion, Shakespear uses his writing to convey to us his meaning of religion which is not good or bad, but instead believing in something or someone without having evidence its true in the first place.