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- Romeo and Juliet: context
Romeo and Juliet: context
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Shakespeare's audience had strong ideas about marriage, honour and fate. Knowing them helps you explain the characters' choices.
Date and source
Romeo and Juliet was written around 1595. Shakespeare took the story from Arthur Brooke's long poem *The Tragicall Historye of Romeus and Juliet* (1562).
It is set in Verona, Italy, which English audiences imagined as hot-blooded and passionate.
It is set in Verona, Italy, which English audiences imagined as hot-blooded and passionate.
Family and marriage
Fathers had great power. Daughters were expected to obey and accept an arranged marriage, often for wealth or status.
Juliet's secret marriage was a serious act of disobedience.
Male honour mattered: refusing a fight could look cowardly, which is why Mercutio fights Tybalt.
Juliet's secret marriage was a serious act of disobedience.
Male honour mattered: refusing a fight could look cowardly, which is why Mercutio fights Tybalt.
Religion, fate and love poetry
Most people believed in God and many also believed the stars could shape lives, so a "star-cross'd" story made sense to them.
Suicide was considered a sin.
The Prologue is a sonnet, and Romeo and Juliet's first conversation forms a shared sonnet, linking them to love poetry.
Suicide was considered a sin.
The Prologue is a sonnet, and Romeo and Juliet's first conversation forms a shared sonnet, linking them to love poetry.
Why would Juliet's refusal to marry Paris shock Shakespeare's audience?
- Daughters were expected to obey their fathers.
- Fathers arranged marriages for status and money.
- So her refusal challenged the natural order of the family.
Answer: Because daughters were expected to obey their fathers in marriage.
Written about 1595 from Brooke's 1562 poem; set in Verona; patriarchal families, male honour, belief in fate, suicide as sin, and sonnet form.
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