Reasons that Romeo and Juliet is NOT relevant for a modern day audience?

Question

Just stuck on my English Lit. coursework, I can't be having a one-sided argument now, can I? =P

All help much appreciated x

Answer 1

The most obvious answer is Paris. In the context of the play, it was expected that Juliet could be forced to marry Paris. Everybody in the play accepts it as a basic fact of life, and doesn't treat it as wrong. When you stage the play in a modern context, you have to work around that.

Another important answer concerns violence. It's hard to imagine polite people today running around with weapons so openly and obviously displayed, in particular as a sign of class. Tybalt is known as a skilled sword fighter, and it was expected of all of them to use violence as a way to defend the family honor.

That still happens today, but not among rich people, and even in most gang-related violence the display of weapons isn't quite so bald. Today people hide their weapons and only bring them out when it's time to actually kill somebody, and rich people generally have somebody else do it for them unless it's a crime of passion. When you do a modern staging, you have to fudge that point, too.

Class issues are somewhat different today than they were then. The Capulets and Montagues were upper-crust and rich. When they restaged the play as West Side Story, the families were lower class and poor, because that better presents how pervasive violence is in the society.

There's also the text of the play. R&J was restaged as West Side Story because the Jacobean/Elizabethan text is hard to understand. Partly that's because the language has changed, and partly that's because we have very different expectations of theater. Shakespeare's play was designed to be heard rather than seen, and used simple costumes and props. Today people have much more naturalistic ideas of what a performance should look like, and that means showing rather than telling.

Mind you, I'm mostly playing devil's advocate here. I think that the play IS extremely relevant, for all of the reasons you already know: people had the same passions 400 years ago as today. I find that with a bit of editing you can put on the play in a way modern audiences can relate to.

(Shakespeare tended to be redundant because he was telling rather than showing, and his audiences enjoyed listening to an eloquent speaker more than ours do. So I trim, but I don't alter.)

Be careful making these arguments in your coursework. The teacher already knows the objections and is well prepared to refute them. You'd better be prepared to show that you're not just doing it because you don't like the play and don't want to learn why the teacher does.

Answer 2

Romeo and Juliet is superficially a love story, which is always relevant. It also fairly superficially speaks to problems with parents getting in the way of youths, which would appeal to a teenage audience. Naturally, these parents also feud, which interferes with Romeo and Juliet's romance. The love despite the fued can be seen in many lights by a modern audience, such as the transcendance of specifically love over any familiar conflict, or more generally the importance of ideals over politics. Of course, the tragedy at the end is also relevant as a criticism of conflicts as destroying whatever they cherished. Yeah, the traditional Romeo and Juliet may be couched in stuffy wordplay and in an archiac setting, but the spirit is ever important, and if the modern audience can get past the Shakespearean atmosphere and understand what's going on, they could really enjoy what's being said.

Answer 3

It's a great play, but there are some aspects of it that make it hard for a modern audience to relate to. Most of it is all about morals and values. Nowadays, if there were teenagers in Romeo and juliet's situation, do you think that they would even wait to get married before haing their "wedding night"? Sadly, they probably wouldn't. Can you see 16 year olds you know getting married? It's also illegal to get married without parental permission, which they also did not have. The deaths of Tybalt and so on would also be a bigger deal than the threat the Prince gave them. There would be court days and lawsuits and all this legal stuff would be involved. For these and many other reasons, it makes it harder for a modern-day audience to relate to the events in Romeo and Juliet because modern society has morphed what morals and values they had then to shrink, to fit what is deemed "acceptable" for today. Just a few for you.

Answer 4

Romeo and Juliet was written for a Jacobean audience, and therefore social and personal morals for the time were completely different to now.
In Jacobean times sex with an unmarried woman was a hang-able offence, and therefore Romeo and Juliet's romance would have been socially unacceptable and regarded with great suspicion.
Family values have also changed, and it is not widely known or accepted for parents to forbid romance or marriage, something that was controlled by family in Jacobean times.
Shakespeares works all fall into various genres, and R & J is a tragedy; suicide went against the christian AND catholic faith, and therefore burial within a church graveyard were dis allowed; something that is unheard of today.
Social ettiquate has changed considerably today, and therefore much of what was written by Shakespeare for his Jacobean audience is 'Out of date' in modern context.
This isn't to say that Shakespeare wasn't one of the greatest play wrights of all time.
Quite a difficult Question to answer as I studied Hamlet and Macbeth but I hope that helps?

Answer 5

In addition to the family unit not being as cohesive as previously mentioned, there is the fact that at 15&16 most kids are not getting married.

Very few family feuds any more.

Certain characters have no present day counterparts. Very few families have nurses for their children of 15. Also no present day priest would collude to marry R&J and then help stage a "death"

Not that I don't think it is still relevant but you asked the right question to get me to look for stuff.

Good luck!

Answer 6

Hmmmm, Maybe from an English LIt stand point it isn't relevant. The themes are out of date, the families are inappropriate, the lack of consistancy of the characters, the freedoms of the children and the overall language can be difficult. BUT! as I said from the English Lit stand point. From a Dramatic standpoint, Shakespeare is needed all the more in this day and age. His prose is something that all actors need to experience from the performers standpoint. The subtext, the flow, the interactions, and most importantly just the overall wonder of his prose. He isn't called 'the Bard' for nothing you know.
*S*

Answer 7

young people now have much more independence from their parents -back in the day it was natural and expected that the parents would choose husbandsfor their daughters.
Also, obviosly people don't tend to get married within days of meeting each other.
you can guarantee that if R and J were living in england today, juliet would get tired of Romeos flirtatious nature and wandering eye and they'd be at each others throats on jeremy kyle the end of a month!!

Answer 8

The conflicts arising from Romeo & Juliets relationship are primarily due to feudal issues which don't apply to most modern societies.

Answer 9

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Answer 10

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