Gender roles

• Gender roles


  An important theme in Romeo and Juliet that contributes to the characters and their development, though it can also be a source of conflict as the characters do not always adhere to the roles they are traditionally supposed to fulfil
• The play is set in a patriarchal society which was oppressive to women, but men also had their own social rules that they had to follow
• Masculinity


  A key theme in Romeo and Juliet that dictates the way in which the male characters behave towards each other and the female characters
• The feud between the Montagues and Capulets is based on male pride, with no side willing to back down to create peace
• Male conflict and violence


  Pervades the play, as shown in Act 1 Scene 1 where the men would rather fight than be perceived as cowards
• Hegemonic masculinity


  The idea that male dominance is established through the submission of women as well as the excursion of their aggression
• Sampson: '"women, being the weaker vessels, are ever thrust to the wall: therefore I will push Montague's men from the wall, and thrust his maids to the wall"'
• Sampson's crude language and sexual imagery is suggestive of rape, as he feels he has the right to do this because women are the "weaker vessels"
• Shakespeare uses this ironically as he has flipped the biblical verse upside down, where the Bible uses women's supposed weakness as a reason for men to be kind, Sampson uses it as a reason to take advantage
• Romeo's masculinity


  The audience never gets to see his natural disposition, only when he is suffering from being lovesick or madly in love, making him an effeminate character
• Shakespeare's portrayal of Romeo


  Juxtaposes the hypermasculinity of Tybalt and Sampson, feminising Romeo and subverting the masculinity created in the opening scene
• Petrarchan lover


  A man suffering from unrequited love, who is often melodramatic about their rejection and goes into a state of depression
• Romeo struggles with his masculinity throughout the play, influenced by external factors such as his relationships with women
• Friar: '"Hold thy desperate hand. Art thou a man? Thy form cries out thou art. Thy tears are womanish."'
• Romeo: '"O sweet Juliet,/Thy beauty hath made me effeminate,/And in my temper softened valor's steel!"'
• Romeo's transformation


  From a Petrarchan lover to someone who allows rage to guide his actions after Mercutio's death, refinding his masculinity through murder and revenge
• Mercutio's curse on both houses may be responsible for Romeo's transformation, or it could be that the death caused Romeo to recalculate what was important to him
• Anger, violence and aggression are just a part of what it meant to be a man in Elizabethan society
• While the male characters struggle to navigate masculinity, the women are also restricted by their role as women within society
• Marriage


  During the Elizabethan period, women had little choice in who they married and were expected to be obedient to their husbands
• Romeo's transformation


  Could be caused by the curse or by the death causing him to recalculate what was important to him
• Romeo: '"Thy (Juliet) beauty hath made me effeminate And in my temper softened valor's steel!"'
• Shakespeare may be trying to tell the audience that anger, violence and aggression are just a part of what it meant to be a man
• The male characters struggle to navigate what it is to be a man within the confines of Elizabethan's societal expectations surrounding masculinity
• The women are also restricted by their role as women within society
• Marriage in the Elizabethan period

  Often used by important families as a way of making new alliances and spreading their power and influence
• Daughters


  Often married off by their fathers who decided on a suitable man for them to marry
• Lord Capulet: '"But woo her, gentle Paris, get her heart. My will to her consent is but a part."'
• This implies that Juliet has a choice in who she marries and that if she doesn't like Paris then she won't have to marry him
• Lord Capulet's "decree"


  Connotations with law and royalty, showing he believes he is a king in his own home and so everything he says goes
• Lord Capulet's authoritarian demeanour is revealed when Juliet refuses to marry Paris
• Lord Capulet: '"Unworthy as she is, that we have wrought So worthy a gentleman to be her bride" saying that if she does not do as she is told he "will drag thee on a hurdle thither. Out, you green sickness, carrion! Out, you baggage!"'
• The listing of insults used encapsulates her father's lack of respect for his daughter
• The punctuation breaks up Lord Capulet's speech and suggests how emotional and outraged he was at this attempt of insolence
• In Act 1 Lady Capulet talks about how she fears her daughter, who is only 14, will die unmarried
• Juliet's mother even comments that she was Juliet's "mother much upon these years" which means that Lady Capulet was already wedded with a child by the time she was Juliet's age
• Women are not just seen as wives and mothers within the play but they are also perceived by men as sexual objects
• Mercutio: '"I conjure thee by Rosaline's bright eyes,/By her high forehead and her scarlet lip, /By her fine foot, straight leg, and quivering thigh,"'
• Mercutio is sexualising Rosaline's body and seeing her purely as an object for sexual gratification
• Friar: '"Young men's love lies not truly in their hearts, but in their eyes"'