16 and 13 were common marriage times back then in Italy, and in England. As for being young, Juliet seems far more precocious than Romeo;
As you can tell from the quote, Juliet shows a mature, almost unheard of sense of emotion that is not conceivable from most people, let alone a 13 year old girl. It is as if by giving such a powerful brain, so acute in observation, and refined to a sincere, and 'bountiless' and abundance, that Shakespeare really strikes home in showing us the disgusting nature of the world, in contrast to the innocence, and warmth that is represented with the feminine, the sense of womanhood, in contrast to the seen view as women as lesser in his society.Quote:
Romeo: O, wilt thou leave me so unsatisfied?
Juliet: What satisfaction canst thou have tonight?
Romeo: The exchange of thy love's faithful vow for mine.
Juliet: I gave thee mine before thou didst request it:
And yet I would it were to give again.
Romeo: Wouldst thou withdraw it? for what purpose, love?
Juliet: But to be frank, and give it thee again.
And yet I wish but for the thing I have;
My bounty is as boundless as the sea,
My love as deep; the more I give to thee,
The more I have, for both are infinite.
The fighting, and conflict is generally displayed as a masculine quality, as in Capulet and Montague being patriarchs of families, Tybalt and Romeo being opposing ends, and the prince being the bringer of punishment, in this case banishment. Romeo is portrayed as feminine except when he fights with Tybalt, in which he assumes a masculine role, and thereby brings forth the whole tragedy.
Juliet clearly is the more dominant, more beautiful, and perfect character, in the sense that Shakespeare goes beyond anything he had written before in delivering one of his supreme creations, as he does with Hamlet, Iago, Falstaff and Macbeth. It is really at this point in his tragedy writing career that he discovered the boundlessness of the tragic heroine, and of the young female's capacity for love.
I think that is why it still captures audiences in so many ways to this day. It is almost too perfect a creation, in terms of development. The only flaw with it is that Shakespeare was not at his highest point when writing the play, and the language lacks the depth and innovativeness of Macbeth, Hamlet, The Winter's Tale, and other late romances.
Of course, for about 20 of Shakespeare's plays you can write as much, them all being of superior quality to almost anything else that has been written. The reason however, that I believe the "popular", that is, the more studied, more staged plays of Shakespeare should not be voted for, is that they are more read, and more viewed by the discussion, and therefore a lesser known, but equally as fair play will go neglected.
As Virgil put it:
Quote:
Oh how many times have people read Macbeth. Let's try something different. Winter's Tale!!
