Help with a project on Romeo & Juliet!! pleaseeee?

Question

i am working on a paper for Romeo & Juliet, and i need a few reasons why this statement is true:
The Reconciliation of the Montagues and the Capulets at the end of the story is unrealistic.
please please pleaseee help, best answer points go to the best idea.
and please, no stupid answers.
thanks!!

Answer 1

Use real world examples of revenge versus reconciliation. Can a blood-feud that goes back several generations simply end with the death of a member from each family?

Romeo and Juliet died for "true love" -- or so we're led to believe. But Romeo was just as deeply "in love" with Rosaline up until the moment before he met Juliet. Meanwhile, Lord Capulet wanted Juliet to marry Paris, a more suitable suitor as far as Capulet was concerned.

To add further complications to any sort of reconciliation, no one, aside from the Friar, knew about the secret marriage. So both Montague and Capulet would have to wonder what Romeo was doing in the tomb of his hated enemy.

Both families would accuse the other of being up to no good, and further bloodshed and revenge would result.

I mentioned real world examples. It wouldn't be far-fetched to use something like gang violence -- Bloods versus Crips -- to discuss the circular nature of revenge.

So, no, the end of the story is not realistic.

FYI... I honestly prefer to think the end of the story IS realistic, and I could make an even stronger case for that argument, but that isn't what you asked. Hope this is of some help when you go to shape your paper.

Answer 2

Well, it is unrealistic because a reconciliation following so closely on the death of two children would require each side to admit their own fault and responsibility for the atmosphere leading up to it. That just doesn't happen.

However, the device in the plot actually WAS realistic for Shakespeare, because the truth is that it was what the audience expected, and wouldn't have accepted any less.