Theme of Pressure in Romeo and Juliet Essay Example

Romeo and Juliet, by WIlliam Shakespeare, is a play about two teenagers who are deeply in love and feel as if anything were to happen that would separate them it would be the end of the world. Both are new and inexperienced when it comes to love, yet they feel the pressure from their family and friends to soon settle down to get married, at an attempt from her parents to get Juliet to meet her suiter the two, Romeo and Juliet, bump into each other at the masked party. Before the young teens fell deeply in love at first glance they did not realize they were from rival families. After learning so the two continue to see each other which leads them to their early demise along with filling their family with sorrow. In “Critical Essay on Romeo and Juliet.”, Douglas Duper writes about how Romeo and Juliet are young and pressured by their families to do things they don't want to do but after the two are in love they make poor decisions against their earlier beliefs to be together and against society. I agree with his statements, He talks about how the love was shown to be mostly positive but if affected everyone negatively and the two were feeling lots of pressure from their families and friends about love and their future and that brought them together. 

Romeo and Juliet feel as if love will never work out for the two, Romeo has been rejected and Juliet is being married off to a man she doesn't know, this is all talked about in the following quotes. According to Duper, “At the same time Romeo is dejected about unfulfilled love, Juliet, not quite fourteen years of age, is being urged by her nurse and her mother to consider marrying Count Paris. For both of these older women in Juliet's life, what matters most is a socially advantageous marriage, and this marriage is being arranged before Juliet has even seen her suitor. Juliet, however, seems to intuit that this type of pairing will not sustain her; she promises her guardians that she will view, but may not like, her arranged suitor.” In other words, Romeo, still feeling defeated from his last chance at love, Juliet also feels the pressure from romance. Her family and nurse stress at the idea of Juliet marrying Count Paris, who she hasn't even met yet but they want her to marry him for the social aspect. Juliet is against the idea of arranged marriage but she agrees to meet Count Paris but she doesn't agree to marry him yet. I agree with Duper because he talks about how Romeo and Juliet both aren't having the best luck with love, Romeo's love of his life doesnt like him back and Juliet is being forced to marry a man she doesn't even know. He talked about how the mom and nurse were kinda pressuring her but I wish he brought up her dad who was the main person pressuring her. For example, 

“But fettle your fine joints 'gainst Thursday next,

To go with Paris to Saint Peter's Church,

Or I will drag thee on a hurdle either.” This shows that Capulet is very mad at Juliet for not being grateful for the opportunity to marry Paris that he got her, he calls her mean names and explains how he will disown her if she doesn't go through with the marriage. Romeo and Juliet were brought together accidentally, if Rosaline never rejected Romeo he probably would've never gone to the party and if he did he would be too in love with rosaline to even notice Juliet and if Juliet's parents weren't always pressuring her to find a man to marry and try to force her to marry paris for the social aspect then she probably wouldn't have to rush to find someone else to love and keep it from her parents. 

Romeo and Juliet form a very strong bond immediately and they want that to last forever, they get married in hope they will never be separated because being apart is worse than death to the “star-crossed lovers”. Duper states “Love, or the ‘religion of mine eye,’ as Romeo has called it earlier, creates powerful forces in each. Juliet acknowledges that ‘God joined my heart and Romeo's.’ When Romeo is banished from the city for killing Tybalt, he claims to the friar that banishment is worse than death because it would be banishment away from Juliet.” In other words, 

The two, Romeo and Juliet, believe death would be better than the two getting separated. After Romeo is kicked out for killing Tybalt they feel like they cant move on so they go back to their realiguous leader that will now marry them and help them find a way to be together.

I agree with Duper because he's saying how in the play they feel like separation from each other is worse than death and how the two feel as they wouldn't be able to carry on without the other and now romeos banished and they don't know how they're going to make it work between them with such a big gap between. For example;

JULIET

“O, bid me leap, rather than marry Paris,

From off the battlements of yonder tower;

Or walk in thievish ways; or bid me lurk

Where serpents are; chain me with roaring bears;

Or shut me nightly in a charnel-house,

O'er-cover'd quite with dead men's rattling bones,

With reeky shanks and yellow chapless skulls;

Or bid me go into a new-made grave

And hide me with a dead man in his shroud;”(act IV, scene i, 59)

This proves Juliet rather than die than be separated from Romeo, she wants to be with him and not Paris. She would think it was Torcher marrying anyone else but Romeo. Romeo and Juliet are very in love, Duper expresses how they believe it's a punishment to both of them being seperated.

Romeo and Juliet are feeling a weight on their back from their family, they tell them how they should settle down and get married and Juliet's parents have already found her a sutoir but the two aren't ready for someone else to decide their fate, Romeo wants roseline while juliet is not ready to get married but that changed very soon. Duper talks about this pressure throughout his article even making some points about what it did to the two. The takeaway is really just how family can pressure you to do things you wouldn't even think of yourself doing, your bigger supports can also be your biggest enemies at times. Overall without this additional family stress the two wouldn't have gotten to their sad lethal fate and might have been happily married.