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Conflict Is a Primary Theme Within Romeo and Juliet and Merchant of Venice

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Conflict Is a Primary Theme Within Romeo and Juliet and Merchant of Venice
Conflict is a primary theme within Romeo and Juliet and merchant of Venice, Shakespeare conveys this theme through the characters to reinforce and emphasis the conflict between the father and daughter. Linking this to the historical/ social context, there is a fear of non-acceptance within the community, and due to the hierarchy of the Capulet family, there is more of a requirement for Juliet to be more dominated from her father than the average Elizabethan family. As the extent of dominance towards Juliet is stronger, Juliet has an underlying fear of her father as she is forced to be put into place; this not only links to the historical context but represents the relationship status- thus representing conflict. The conveying concept applies when looking at religion, there is a high demand in maintaining status in their own community to prevent shame. This reinforces daughters being male dominated by their fathers to prevent their loss of status and status is more significant than their offspring.
The desire of free will is overpowered by Capulet forcing her to abide his wish for her to get married (which is an asset to their social status within the community), however Juliet disobeys and upon this disobedience Capulet proceeds to degrade her by basing her emotions on her ‘conduit’ characteristics. Broken down, this can be perceived as many meanings to represent her. A conduit can be a fountain with a cement figure placed on it; it’s very much a water feature which can be a type of representation of Juliet’s emotion. For example, Juliet may just be a feature to the family, a figure to be looked upon yet trapped within cement from her desire of free will and this may link to the historical context of women being a voiceless asset to a family. As a conduit fountain links to a channel for liquid, this a representation of how her persistent crying, her crying is a cycle of a fountain and so recognisable like a garden feature, no one helps they just look- this links

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