Context

• Elizabethan play
• Verona - distancing device

  Allows Shakespeare to be subversive to be critical - anti-catholic sentiment was high at this time
• Tragedy

  Catharsis, hamartia, moral potential
• Patriarchy

  Women were seen as property - stereotypes
• Honour code
• Great chain of being
• Courtly love

  Exaggerated romance
• Fate vs Free will
• Catharsis

  Experience of belief at the end of the play - this is a purge of emotions