How Are Relationships Presented In “Romeo And Juli

How are relationships presented in “Romeo and Juliet” and in “My last Duchess”?

In the 16th century, society was very different being mainly patriarchal. The text “My last Duchess” and the play “Romeo and Juliet “both reflect the time period despite having almost 250 years between their creation. The poem in also set in the same era as the play. They both are set in Italy, both feature noble families with both powerful male characters and both show how women were treated. The significance of the Italian renaissance helped Shakespeare and browning on how to pose their religious idea’s and themes in play/poem as the Italian scene was harsh and very keen to keep the patriarchal society as it should be but whoever went against would having been casted as an outsider. This then helps the poet and play writer on how to make their plays and poem different to society and to have a different impact on the audience.
Shakespeare’s treatment of love in the play is complex and multifaceted. He uses love in its guises to thread together the key relationships in the play. Some characters fall in and out of love very quickly in Romeo and Juliet. For example Romeo is in love with Rosaline at the start of the play, which is presented as an immature infatuation. Today we might use the term “puppy love”, to describe this. Romeo’s love for Rosaline is shallow and nobody really believes that it will last. Similarly Paris’ love for Juliet is borne out of tradition, not passion. He has identified her good candidate for a wife and approaches her father to arrange the marriage. Although this was the tradition at the time, it also says something about Paris’ staid attitude towards love. Our classic idea of romantic love is embodied in Romeo and Juliet. Shakespeare presents this as a force of nature. This idea is established in the plays prologue with the line “pair of star crossed lovers