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Jorie Langston

Mr. Knight

Humanities

28 September 2021

Romeo and Juliet Versus Reality

Although the story of Romeo and Juliet may seem pointless and cliche, it brings up a lot of

themes that are still present in today's society. The cheesy lovers of this story are over-dramatic,

however their dramatics have a purpose. Throughout the story of Romeo and Juliet, there are

many themes. Two that stand out the most include, “emotions cloud judgment” and “masculinity

can be dangerous”; Both of which relate to serious issues. Emotions clouding your judgment is

the direct cause of the extremely high suicide rates, and the dangers of masculinity started the

outrageous amounts of human trafficking.

In the story of Romeo and Juliet, love and hate seem to be the most common emotions shown.

Whether it be the hate between the Capulets and Montagues or the love between Romeo and

Juliet. The overwhelming sense of hate between the Capulets and the Montagues led to the

murder of Mercutio in act 3, scene 1. Shakspere wrote “a plague o’both your houses,” this is

what a Capulet said to a Montague after he killed the Montague. This just goes to show what

happens when emotions control actions, and how the outcome sometimes leads to death. Another

example of this occurring in this story is the death of Romeo and Juliet. In act 5, both Romeo and

Juliet commit suicide due to the thought of the other being dead. In this death scene, Shakspere

wrote “I defy you stars.” That is what Romeo says right before he drank the poison, and all of
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this was because his wife of 3 or 4 days had passed away. This is another prime example of just

how overwhelming and clouding emotions can be.

Suicide is not only caused by emotion, but it is also the main story point throughout Romeo

and Juliet. When emotions cloud judgment, things such as the story of Romeo and Juliet occur.

Suicide has an incredibly high mortality rate, and all of this is caused by emotions. Emotions can

become too overwhelming and cause many people to make horrible decisions. The amount of

suicide attempts per year is 13.42 of 100,000 individuals per year. This means that on average

there are 132 attempts per day. All of this may seem pointless to some people, but these numbers

are very high. Some truly understand the severity of this theme from Shakespeare's Romeo and

Juliet.

Another theme that heavily influences this story is the danger of masculinity. The two main

characters that truly show this throughout the play were the two families known as the

Montagues and the Capulets. Their feud was the cause of at least five deaths throughout the

story. The death of Tybalt in act 3 scene 1, and the death of Mercutio in act 3 scene 1. Those

were the deaths that set the tone for the downfall of Romeo and Juliet. Both of these deaths were

completely unnecessary, however, they still happened because the self-esteem of these men was

too low to admit defeat and make a truce. Another death caused by this unnecessary feud was the

death of Paris in act 5 scene 3. Had the feud never existed, Romeo and Juliet would have been

able to get married and Paris would have never been dragged into it. The last two deaths caused

by this testosterone-fueled feud were Romeo and Juliet. If they had gotten married and been

allowed to see each other, they would have never committed suicide for each other. Many horrid
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events in this story would have never occurred if the Montagues and the Capulets swallowed

their pride and made peace with each other.

Men have been known to be dangerous when their masculinity is at stake. Whether it be a

useless feud or even enslaving people to feel better about themselves. A modern-day event that

relates to this theme is human trafficking. There is not one specific event that could describe how

terrible human trafficking is, but there are a few stories from survivors that help put it in

perspective. The first survivor’s name was Kalei Grant, who had been purchased by military

members in Hawaii. She stated, “We would be driven to military bases and nearby bars where

[our trafficker] would force us to look for the drunk military soldiers and proposition them. The

transactions would happen everywhere--in barracks, in homes and apartments, on military bases

in warehouses, in military personnel vehicles, in personal cars, and while service members were

on and off duty.” Another survivor, Tina Frundt, shares her story about being trafficked at age 13.

It had been an older man in her neighborhood, and her mother had tried to keep her trauma a

secret from everyone. A quote from Tina Frundt stated, “ What happened to me was a secret she

kept, maybe because of the shame and guilt, maybe because she feared for her clearances. We

create an environment where people need help, but everyone's scared to talk about it.” The last

story that provides evidence of the relevance of the theme is from a former child soldier. His

name was Carlos Dimas, and he had been told that he had been recruited in El Salvador with his

best friend at age 14. There had been death squads, and one of them had killed his best friend.

Carlos Dimas was able to escape, he ended up living his life in the United States with his family.

All of these stories are sad tragedies of men trafficking kids but sadly relate to the theme of

Romeo and Juliet.

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The two themes of Romeo and Juliet that have significant relevance to many modern-day

events are that emotions cloud judgment and that masculinity can be dangerous. Since these

themes describe both Romeo and Juliet but also the real world, many people can learn from these

events. Due to how relevant these themes are, it is sad to think how little our society has grown

since Shakespeare's time. Hopefully, today's current society can understand the importance of

change and growth. There are countless examples available to compare these two themes, but in

the end, these prove how these two themes are relevant in the modern-day.