Violence In R&j Flashcards
Violence due to honour paragraph
-‘ancient grudge’ the audience do not know the source of the conflict and in fact it seems that the characters do not, rather its a matter of masculine pride and either sides unwillingness to back down, with Shakespeare blaming tragic fates on the “mutiny” of the families.
- All men act in an intense manner of pride that results in bloodshed
- Mercutio is damming and insympathetic to his friends petrachan views and adides to typical masculine stereotypes. Upon his untimely murder his wish of a ‘plauge on both your houses’ can be seen as an act of foreshadowing and a call out to the horrors of vioelcnce, but just as easily it could be interpretted as masculine cowardice as he has such high pride that he cannot accept his wrongs for perpectuating the fight even whilst on his death bed- we see this backed throguh his diminishing manner of the serverity of his injuries, brushing it off as a ‘scratch’ as any outward expression of pain wouldve been deemed effeminate, indeed the idea of backing down would be seen as “calm dishonersble vile submission”- this listing of verbs in an oxymoronic tone show how unfathomable it is for a man to not choose vioence in the face of conflict
-The first scene sets the tone for the extremity men are willing to go to defend their honour and how they would rather battle then be deemed cowards by society, even other something as unimportant as a gesture can lead to a deathly duel. sets the tone of how conflict and pride dictates the autonomy of the characters and will throughout the play
- men are alike to women in that they have a need to adhere to the concept of masculinity, whilst women bend to mans needs men need to become a hyper masculine type
- ‘i will push montagues men from the wall and thrust his maids to the wall.’ ‘weaker vessels’- sampson is a vehicle in the first act for the crude perception of women that men held, often men lacking in true masculinity used their patriarchal status as a way to gain control over their inferior. this is crude langauge and has an innuendo of rape, asserting his dominence as a man
this is a biblical allusion to when peter tells his followers to honour the women as they are weaker vessels, which shakespear flips here to show how the biblical sexist teachings of women have been misconstrued in persuit of power, in the same way the ancient grudge is now lost to the drive of pride and agresssion, treating women as lesser but with respect has been loss to bearing power
HEGEMONIC
his as an ownership pronoun shows how women do not ever have their own autonomy
- indeed scene one shows how quickly the warped views of veronas males shift the proceedings of the city from comedy to vioence- with the catalyst being only the smallest of insults that need to be defended in “do you bite your thumb at us sir” the tension is humerous as the sevents take small jibes at one another with the formality of “sir” and shows how quickly vioence is initiated throughout the play
Vioence due to honour thesis
In his play, Shakespeare presents vioence as a very easily volatile subject that can be catalysed by any threat to man’s honour, showing how easily it can begin and how fragile the pride of the Elizabethan men were due to their obession with maintaining pride regardless of consequences or reason that resulted in vioence
Juliet and violence thesis
Julliet is presented throughout the play as an antithesis to vioence whos logicality and modernised viewing of herself as a woman with autonomy and desires as well as a figure for human love cures romeo and later Verona of a need for feud
Juliet and vioence paragraph
- “thy beauty hath made me effeminate” romeo reflects on how the figure of his loved one in juliet has served as an antidote for his desire to partake in dueling regardless of the direct threat on his honour, something all other men are helplessly tied to protecting.
- sword fighting was a sport entirely reserved for men and perhaps shakespear is highlighting that a femenine input into the flawed structure of these forms of battle and indeed the needless conflict is necessary to see its flawed nature
- at the end of the play juliet opts to take her own life with a knife, similar to how men kill using swords a very similar weapon, suicide is also a cardinal sin in the time and so shows the desparation and how vioence is soemtimes the only option- however in doing so she cured the families of their feud proving her to be an antidote to the vioence
Internal conflict in houses thesis
Shakespeare shows the complexity of human relations by including conflict not jsut between the two loosing houses but internally inside them particularly in the tensions and brawls inside the capulet family
Internal conflict in houses paragraph
-the need to enforce his plan on to juliet manifests itself in an incredibly abusive manner, with the lord wishing death and disowning on his daughter rather than deal with the disobedience of women
- “disobedient wench” during her attempt to avoid marriage, the epithet created through the usage of the word disobedient highlights the cruelty and sees her as property which is furthered when he repeatedly refers to her as “baggage” making her seem like a weight dragging him down . wench itself is an insult which proves the lord to be very volatile and willing to insult his own bloodline to a high eztent.
- he threatens his own daughter with abandonment, telling her she will “hang, beg, die on the streets” if she stops conforming to his societal ideals of how women should comply to the predetermined ideals of men. Here the asyndetic listing empathises the erratic and panicked nature of the lords character and also the intensity of what a futute looks like for a woman if she does not have men to depend on, something he is wholey aware of. Together the list creates a semantic field of death which reinforces how capulet views his own honour as far more important than the very life of his sole child. particularly the term hang refers to a rather shocking elizabethan death which was usually only used to end the lives of criminals, shakespear is insinuating here that juliet’s actions in disobedience make her punishable by death.
- he says his “fingers itch” alluding to slapping his daughter, this shows how domenstic vioence is normalised in the era and his body itself indeed his primal instinct is asking for vioence
- similarly the lord treats not just women in this manner but tybult his nephew, whom is actively seeking to defend the family. The lord reaffirms his place asking “am I the lord here or you” this rhetorical question both cements his place as a leader and diminishes any power tybalt felt he had, showing an internal vioence in the household.
-He then continuously patronises tybalt calling him. A “saucy boy”- saucy means silly and a troublemaker whilst boy infantilises the strength and masculinity tybalt posseses by likening him to a child
