The Empowerment Of Women In Shakespeare's Romeo And Juliet

The tragic play of Romeo and Juliet is a tale of two lovers who ignored their families' ancient strife. First, Juliet defied her father’s command to marry the wealthy bachelor, Paris; nonetheless, she chose the Montague, Romeo. Thus they do not follow the standards of their society. That is to say, Romeo was raised to hate a Capulet, and Juliet was raised to hate a Montague. This disobedient act was a formula for disaster. Therefore, the traditional women's roles, women empowerment, and romantic Renaissance poetry lead to the strong theme of blinding love. Moreover, according to Shakespeare, Paris was the ideal husband for a single woman in the Renaissance era. As interpreted by Shakespeare, daughter's would be forced to marry whomever their parent pleased; yet Shakespeare made Juliet a renegade to these traditions. Even Juliet’s nurse thought, “No less? Nay, bigger. Women grow by men.”(1.4 101), meaning a woman’s status depends on who she marries.
Going back to the empowerment of women in this play, again Juliet was given a choice from her father Capulet when he told Paris, “And too soon marred are those so early made./ Earth hath swallowed all my hopes but she;/ She’s the hopeful lady of my earth./ But woo her, gentle Paris, get her heart;/ My will to her
Also, Petrarch was from Italy, where the play did take place. The only difference between the two poets was their rhyme scheme. The Petrarchan sonnet has a rhyme scheme of ABBAABBA. In contrast to Shakespearean sonnets, where he uses a differentiating scheme of ABABCDCDEFEFGG, that end with a rhyming couplet. It is hard to think that Shakespeare would deny such an instinctive similarity between Romeo and Petrarch, but then again Shakespeare was notorious for writing many love letters and poems himself. But for the most part, such poetry and romance contributed to blinding love because it hooked Juliet into such a dangerous and uncertain