R&J historical context

Question 1

Elizabethan England (1558-1603)

Answer 1

Queen Elizabeth I ruled

Question 2

Setting

Answer 2

The play is based on a real Italian love story from the 3rd century. Many people had retold this story. Shakespeare set it in catholic Italy so he could make the characters more passionate and physical, without getting in trouble with the strict, protestant English authorities.

Question 3

Courtly love

Answer 3

There was a particular fashion about how to fall in love in court (the royal palace) at the time. Called ‘courtly love’, it sees love as ideal, not real. Rather than meeting their loved one, lovers exchanged letters and poems comparing their lover to beautiful, exaggerated ideas like angles or goddesses.

Question 4

Real love

Answer 4

Real love was seen as more passionate and physical, and based on real contact with the lover. It could transform a person’s life but also be violent and destructive.

Question 5

Fate and destiny

Answer 5

Many people believed the higher powers such as God or fate controlled their lives. The prologue about ‘star-crossed lovers’ makes this clear from the start.

Question 6

Religion

Answer 6

The Italy in which the play is set was a catholic society, which believed that suicide was a mortal sin, punished by an eternity in hell. Elizabethan England was protestant rather than catholic but was still strictly religious.

Question 7

The Honour Code

Answer 7

A sense of honour at the time meant that any small insult could be repaid with revenge. This could lead to death, violence and civil unrest.

Question 8

Family structure

Answer 8

At the time the father was the ruler of the household, and women had no rights in law. Children were regarded as property and and often married off very young as a way to join wealthy and powerful families. It was most common they had a nurse.