Gender Roles in Romeo and Juliet, by William Shakespeare Essay

throughout Romeo and Juliet, by William Shakespeare, there is an overlaying presence of the typical roles that manpower and women were supposed to play. During Elizabethan times there was a major difference mingled with the delegacy men and women were supposed to act. Men typically were supposed to be male and powerful, and defend the honor. Women, on the other hand, were supposed to be subservient to their men in their lives and do as ever they wished. In Romeo and Juliet the typical sexual activity roles that men and women were supposed to play had an influence on the fate of their lives. The line of Act one opens with a brawl in the street between the servants of the Capulets and the Montagues. The origin of the fight introduces the important theme of masculine honor. Sampson, one of Capulets servants, shows this masculinity by saying, Draw, if you be men. (I.i.64). Later on in the play in Act II, scene i. the display of honor and masculinity comes up once again during the fight between Mercutio and Tybault. As Mercutio lay slain Romeo says to him, Courage, man. The hurt cannot be much. (III.i.96). Even as his friend is dying the two men move and act masculine because they did not want to show their fears. But on the other side of this masculinity is love. For Elizabethan society believed that a man who loved too much lost his masculinity. Romeo clearly subscribes to that belief when he states that his love for Juliet made him effeminate. During Elizabethan times wo...