context

• Verona - Catholic place
• England had separated from Catholic Church in 1534 - Henry VIII - Shakespeare wrote Romeo and Juliet in 1597 - tension between Protestants and Catholics - however, Shakespeare uses Friar Lawrence to show his view on Catholics
• courtly love


  unobtainable, obsessive want of each other
• average death age = 43
• women were seen as objects - when they were young they belonged to their fathers, when they were older and married they belonged to their husbands - this is because the were seen as the weaker gender and therefore relied on men to survive
• if women were too old to married they would have been called a spinster - they were undesirable to men as they weren't seen capable of having children and continuing the family name/bloodline
• plague 


  hit England extremely badly

  caused many deaths

  meant they had to shut down theatres and stop shows

  people thought it was God punishing their sins or the devil testing their faith

  when Mercutio says 'A plague on both your houses' - it shocks the audience and reminds them of the hard times they had just experienced - it also makes the conflict seem infectious, like a disease that no one wants
• only men were allowed to act in Elizabethan times - that is why there are so many males characters - live orchestra's for each plays
• wet nurse 


  a women who breastfeeds a baby until she has weened (eat solids) they were common among upper class families as they would employ working class women to feed the baby
• women's role


  stay at home

  clean

  cook

  have children

  shop and wear the latest fashion

  obey her husbands every command

  marry young
• men's role


  protect the family

  work

  provide money

  fight

  protect the family name

  marry

  have a lot of kids and carry on the bloodline
• children's role


  marry young and have children

  girl - marry a high profiled man (young)

  boy - marry young and have kids - 1st born = inherit all the family possessions
• apothecaries


  they would create potions that could 'heal you' to make you feel better

  they were like doctors

  didn't always work
• father's role


  work

  earn money

  be obeyed

  marry their daughters off to the person with the highest social status
• school


  only boys were allowed to go to school

  even they had to be upper class and had to pay

  this meant a lot of people were illiterate