Romeo and Juliet is Relavent Today

Introduction

Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare is my favorite novel. Growing up, we all studied Shakespeare in high school and college. Our generation believed he educated and enlightened us as he entertained us. We believed he taught us a great deal about life, and he was certainly worth our time and effort. The next generation challenged this view, and Shakespeare and many of the other great writers were called "Dead White Men." So I choose to write this article to help determine if the novel had something to teach us and if it is relevant to our era.

Still Relevant

This is a love story with a great deal to teach us and is still very relevant even today. The story is much more than a love story, it is a story about judging people on the basis of race, gender, or religion, or in the case of Romeo and Juliet, family ties. Family feuds and judging people on the basis of their family ties is the precursor to the racial, ethnic, and religious prejudice we have today. For the families to reject Romeo and Juliet on the basis of their family background. is just as ridiculous as when we reject people today based on their racial or ethnic background. As Shakespeare, said, "A rose by any other name would still be a rose."

The story teaches us a great deal about arranged marriages, which are still practiced in many countries today.. Juliet' s father wants her to marry Paris, and tries to force her to do so. Juliet goes to see her spiritual leader Friar Laurence who advises her to go through with it. The story demonstrates how strong this tradition was and still is. Friar Lawrence resorts to chicanery to try to overcome the arranged marriage. On her wedding day he gives her a potent to make her appear dead for about 42 hours. Romeo is supposed to rescue her in her grave but never gets the word. The story ends tragically as Romeo thinks Juliet is dead and kills himself, then Juliet awakens and thinks Romeo is dead so she kills herself.