Romeo And Juliet Gender Roles

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Throughout the course of human history the roles of both genders have been represented in various forms. In William Shakespeare's play, Romeo and Juliet, the idea of what it meant to be each gender and what roles went along with said gender have been represented. The play is about two star-crossed lovers from two feuding families in Verona. As the story develops the two titular character's romantic escapade leads them to an untimely demise as each of them take their own lives. They play was written during the Elizabethan era in England. During this time period the roles of both genders were different to what they are nowadays. Significantly William Shakespeare decided to go against that and make the two titular characters have traits commonly associated with that of …show more content…
This was the embodiment of what people associated with men at the time. It was the role of a male to display the aforementioned traits. Mercutio, one of Romeo's best friends, was a particularly vulgar character. He was killed during the play, but before he died he displayed what it meant to be a man. Mercutio talks to Romeo about love, telling him to "be rough with love"(I,4), "if love be rough with you"(I,4) and that he will "beat love down"(I,4) if he does so. Mercutio is essentially telling Romeo to be above love, to be better than the lesser emotions, to be better than what was not part of being a man. This is made clear through the use of personification. Tybalt also demonstrated what it meant to be a man. While confronting Benvolio, Tybalt says that he hates the word peace, going as far as to say "I hate the word, as I hate hell"(I,1). Accompanied with a simile, this line shows Tybalt's distate for peace and how he prefers violence. The actions, words and traits of Tybalt and Mercutio in particular are significant because they are the embodiment of what the role of a male was at the

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