ROMEO AND JULIET CONTEXT

Romeo and Juliet - Context

Romeo and Juliet is thought to have been first performed around 1596.

Whilst stories involving tragic couples like Romeo and Juliet have been around for thousands of years, Shakespeare may well have got the idea for his play from Arthur Brooke's 1562 narrative poem 'The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet'. There are some key differences between Brooke's version and Shakespeare's. For example, in Brooke's version, the story takes place over nine months, Juliet is 16 and some characters, such as Mercutio, are not so well developed.

There are several contextual factors worth considering when studying the play, such as the tradition of courtly love and attitudes to gender and marriage in Shakespeare's time.

Courtly love was part of the code of conduct for Knights in traditional stories from the middle ages. Typically, the knight would fall in love with a lady who would appear cold, distant or who was somehow out of reach or distant. He would then try to prove himself through heroic deeds but would often find the unrequited nature of his love unbearable to the point of illness or death. Often the lady's beauty would be associated with her eyes.

During the period in which Shakespeare wrote Romeo and Juliet, there were distinct societal expectations about the roles of men and women. For example, society expected women to be submissive to their husbands.

The concept of equality between the sexes would have seemed very foreign to most in Shakespeare's day: Adam was created first, and Eve from his body; she was created specifically to give him comfort, and was to be subordinate to him, to obey him and to accept her lesser status. A dominant woman was unnatural, a symptom of disorder.

Marriage was often considered more of a business transaction. This is because women were not allowed to have their own money. So, a father would be passing on his wealth to the man who married his daughter rather than his daughter. The richer the family, the more important it was that the father chose the husband!