Romeo & Juliet: Context (Edexcel GCSE English Literature)

Understanding the influences of Renaissance culture and the values inherent in 16th Century Elizabethan life will allow insightful interpretation of Shakespeare’s ideas. A perceptive and conceptualised response considers how Elizabethan audiences are challenged while noting the popularity of the play, and how this may suggest themes which are timeless. 

Each of the below topics links directly to Shakespeare’s ideas in Romeo and Juliet:

• Love and marriage
• Gender roles
• Religion and the Great Chain of Being
• Elizabethan life

• Courtly love (romance occurring in the Elizabethan court) was intense, melodramatic and often fleeting
• Romeo’s obsessive, impulsive attitude to love is presented as his fatal flaw", suggesting Shakespeare’s criticism of fickle love
• Within the culture of courtly love and arranged marriages,  Unrequited Love  was common 
• Romeo’s melodramatic grief over his unrequited love for Rosaline would be familiar and entertaining for  Elizabethan audiences
• Shakespeare shows courtly love as superficial and fleeting when Romeo falls instantly in love with Juliet on the same day
• Within the culture of courtly love, secret and forbidden affairs were common 
• It is said that  Queen Elizabeth I had a secret affair with the Earl of Leicester
• Romeo and Juliet is a play predominantly about a forbidden and secret love
• As the play was written for Queen Elizabeth I, Shakespeare could be mirroring her own challenges within forbidden relationships  
•  The marriage occurred at a much younger age in the Elizabethan era
• The average age of death was 40 years old and marriage would occur at around 13
• Wealthy fathers would arrange marriage once a daughter was able to bear children
• Lord Capulet tells Paris to wait two more summers, until Juliet is “ripe to be a bride”, suggesting her duty to become a mother and bear fruit (have children)
• A daughter like Juliet would function to provide an heir for the family, a crucial part of progressing bloodlines
• Shakespeare shows Lord Capulet referring to the importance of Juliet’s marriage when he calls her the “hopeful lady of my earth”
• Renaissance marriages were arranged by the father to improve the family’s Social mobility
• For many daughters like Juliet, marriage would be a duty, a diplomatic exchange
• Shakespeare shows a daughter, Juliet, disobeying these wishes with tragic consequences
• When Juliet is disowned for defying the social norms, Shakespeare shows the impact of family conflict in Renaissance culture 
• The final scene instructs audiences to consider the role societal pressures played in the  tragedy
• Renaissance aristocrats believed it foolish to marry for love 
• Romeo and Juliet challenge this idea, defying their families and duties for love
• Juliet tells audiences she would rather die than be forced to marry Paris, presenting the strength of her emotions to marry on her own terms
• Shakespeare’s work often advocates for pure and lasting love
• His use of religious imagery  in the shared sonnet between Romeo and Juliet suggests a purity in their love which challenges social norms
• This tragic ending, the pair choosing to die together, symbolises everlasting love
• The play has been very popular, since its production in 1597, for its themes of pure and infinite love

• In the patriarchal system of Elizabethan England, women’s status and security depended on the status of their fathers or husbands
• Women had no right to own property or wealth, even in marriage 
• Single women and relationships outside of marriage were harshly judged
• Elizabethan audiences would understand the sacrifice Juliet makes when she denies a secure and honourable future with Paris 
• Shakespeare presents her decision to defy her father as fatal for her
• Shakespeare criticises the patriarchal system, showing audiences Juliet’s limited  autonomy when she claims death is her only choice
• Within marriage, Elizabethan women were expected to obey their husbands
• Shakespeare depicts the obedience of Lady Capulet to her husband as negatively impacting Juliet 
• Shakespeare presents a daughter, Juliet, who defies her father
• Shakespeare shows how Juliet’s isolation leads to drastic reactions and, ultimately, her death 
• His play criticises traditional gender roles in Elizabethan families
• Conventional Elizabethan males were expected to be strong, aggressive and loyal to their family
• The first scene presents Lord Montague and Lord Capulet, heads of the feuding families, eager to fight
• Shakespeare suggests the  feud  is encouraged by those in power
• Benvolio raises this issue when he says the battle is between “our masters”
• In the first scene, male servants of the two families begin a petty fight for sheer amusement, suggesting the prevalence of male conflict in Elizabethan life
• Shakespeare symbolises masculine aggression through Tybalt Capulet, who is violent and passionately loyal to his family
• Shakespeare punishes Tybalt for his traditional attitudes: he is killed by Romeo

• Shakespeare’s  tragic hero , Romeo, does not conform to male stereotypes

• • Mercutio criticises Romeo’s peaceful behaviour as dishonourable and  submissive
  • Romeo recognises his love for Juliet as making him “effeminate” and weak
  • Romeo’s later reckless and vengeful violence leads to his downfall and death, as well as Juliet’s
  • Shakespeare’s tragedy challenges traditional gender roles and societal pressures
  • Mercutio acknowledges the meaningless violence of the feud upon his death 
  • Shakespeare depicts society’s expectations of Elizabethan males as dangerous 
  • Shakespeare shows the tragic consequences of young men caught up in the feud to challenge social norms

• Elizabethan society was patriarchal; it expected women to be obedient and submissive
• Women were viewed as emotionally and mentally  frail and their opinions were invalid
• The servants discuss women as “weaker vessels” in the first scene, alluding to their low status in Elizabethan society
• Juliet’s strength of will and  autonomous actions oppose traditional gender norms
• Juliet is dominant, not submissive: she proposes to Romeo, insisting he take the marriage seriously
• Juliet is rational and sensible: she questions the  discrimination inherent in the feud  
• Juliet defies patriarchal attitudes: she refuses to do her duty as a daughter
• Shakespeare’s presentation of Juliet suggests her tragic death is the result of   societal norms and gender expectations which limit autonomy

Religion

• Religion was a dominant part of Elizabethan life
• The vast majority of Elizabethans would have been Christian, and the Church played a central role in a family’s life
• For Shakespeare’s young  protagonist , religion plays an important role
• Friar Laurence is Romeo’s father figure and comfort, presenting the dominance of religion in Elizabethan life
• Romeo and Juliet’s love is supported by the friar, prioritising love over hate
• The friar sees the alliance as a way to end the feud, suggesting links between religion and peace
• Shakespeare could be criticising conflict based on religious differences, and instead promoting peace 
• In the absence of scientific knowledge, many Elizabethans believed in astrology and  fate
• A predominant belief was that human lives were predetermined and affected by decisions made by the gods, stars and planets
• The  Prologue  dooms the “star-cross’d lovers”, asking audiences to watch events unfold and question the role of fate in the tragedy
• Romeo and Juliet rely on fate at first, but by the end, the pair choose death on their own terms
• Shakespeare’s plays often question audiences about attitudes to fate and whether people determine their own futures by their actions

The Great Chain of Being

• The  Great Chain of Being was a  Hierarchical system in the 16th Century which organised society into a fixed order of worth and power  
• This system placed God at the top, followed by angels, noble-men, men, women and then animals and plants
• Shakespeare  subverts this system with his characterisation of Friar Laurence
• He presents the religious friar’s character as connected closely to nature, possessing deep respect for plants and herbs
• The friar’s dialogue refers to nature as opposing forces present in all things: good and evil, light and dark, love and hate, religion and magic, old and young
• This suggests the hierarchical system is flawed
• The hierarchical system is challenged further as the children, Romeo and Juliet, defy their parents and authorities
• The play’s tragic ending could suggest the children are punished for disrupting the Great Chain of Being
• In the final scene, the Prince declares that all of the towns is punished: “See what a scourge is laid upon your hate”
• Lord Capulet mourns the young deaths as a sacrifice for their feud
• Shakespeare challenges the hierarchical system presenting the older generation as acknowledging their mistakes

• Queen Elizabeth I was the monarch at the time Romeo and Juliet was written in 1597
• She reigned during a bloody religious war, which divided the country
• The feud brought violent conflict between Catholics and Protestants for many years
• In the Prologue, the  chorus describes a feud, where “civil blood makes civil hands unclean”, connoting the impurity of violence
• Romeo and Juliet would have been performed for Queen Elizabeth I during the wars between the Catholic and Protestant religions
• Shakespeare’s presentation of a petty feud could be controversial and dangerous
• The controversial ideas are veiled carefully in a tragic tale of young love
• Shakespeare sets his play in Verona, Italy, perhaps to create Ambiguity and distance between the parallels of the Capulet and Montague feud and the one raging in England between Catholics and Protestants
• Shakespeare challenges his audience to consider the impact of violence in the name of love and honour
• Wealthy Elizabethans often employed nurses who would raise the family’s children until the age of marriage  
• A  Wet nurse would often be employed to breastfeed babies, forming close bonds between the nurse and child, closer even than the mother
• The nurse serves as comedic relief in the play as a  bawdy and unsophisticated character, representing the class divisions of the time 
• Lady Capulet is shown as alienated from her daughter in her traditional role as a mother
• Juliet’s nurse represents this bond as she is Juliet’s first source of advice and comfort rather than her mother
• Shakespeare presents the isolation Juliet faces due to Renaissance family traditions