Context

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Context

Set in Verona- Elizabethan audience

Was written in 1594–96

  • Children were taught to respect their parents- obedience showed their higher status 
  • Rich women did not want to breastfeed, employed wet nurses 
  • People believed fate controlled their life 
  • Class system was very important in Elizabethan era- women not allowed to act in theatres
  • Strategical marriages were made between a young girl and man  
  • Sword was Elizabethan's gentlemen elaborate dress 
  • Weapons more a sign of status then defence
  • Lots of movement& banishment in the play to reflect Shakespear's movement from Stratford to London 
  • Punished priests under irregular circumstances of a wedding. Romeo, Juliet and Friar broke the law 
  • Male-dominated society- only men could vote, go to uni or be a doctor 
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Context

Elizabethans had complicated ideas on love

  • Loving someone too much was a disease 
  • Unrequited love= disease 
  • Love sickness= disease 

Death and tragedy was a popular topic 

Suicide- most people thought it was a sin, some thought it was noble 

  • Connations of shame and horror
  • Left family in poverty 

Shakespeare thought it was a controversial issue 

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