Romeo and Juliet/Headscratchers: Difference between revisions

** Those were servants, not family. I find it helps to use the (flawed but reasonable) analogy of a bunch of freshmen getting into a spat for a school rivalry that the older grades always talked about but never bothered with, beyond the occasional "harmless" prank.

*** But the second that both Lord Montague and Lord Capulet arrive, they personally demand swords and try to kill each other.

MONTAGUE:Thou villain Capulet,--Hold me not, let me go. }}

* If you want to find rational and cool-headed, both of their wives demand the fight end, but the men? They HATE each other. Lord Capulet says later to Paris that it is not hard for old men like he and Montague to keep the peace, but twenty minutes before they were going to stab each other to death.

** The men were probably spending most of their free time fighting each other in their youth, before they had to take command and hold the feud to get on with important business. They probably can't wait to have some fun trying to kill each other again. And Tybalt seems borderline [[Ax Crazy]].

* If I recall correctly, one family was Guelf and the other Ghibelline. They were on opposite sides of a power struggle between the pope and the holy Roman emperor.

* Many people cite the fact that Lord Capulet restrains Tybalt from attacking the masked Montagues during the party as evidence that Lord Capulet doesn't care about the feud. [[This Troper]] refutes that: Lord Capulet had just been told ''that very afternoon,'' in no uncertain terms, that another brawl would result in his execution. He's got every reason to lay low. Besides, it's a party, the Montagues aren't stirring up trouble ''yet'', no need to make a pre-emptive strike and ruin the evening. Even at the end, when they're leaving, his reaction is basically a very unenthusiastic "Oh, you're going? [[Sarcasm Mode|No. Please. Stay.]] [[Sincerity Mode|Okay, bye]]!!" whereas before he had been a marvelously gracious host.

** He doesn't simply restrain Tybalt, he goes out of his way to praise Romeo's reputation and say that he seems to be a good boy:

Here in my house do him disparagement: }}

** The (subtle, but present) implication is that the feud is actually taken ''much'' more seriously by the hotblooded younger generation than by their elders, and that the elders (while not immune to it) are looking for a way to bring it to a close.

* ...huh? I don't remember that happening.

** Act V scene 3:

''Exit Friar Laurence'' }}

** This troper always took that as the Friar saying "Um, Juliet, there's been a change of plans. People will be here and they will be ''angry'', Romeo's not going to be here, and you should probably come with me ''without looking in that direction''! ''Hurry''!" and Juliet telling him "Screw you, if I don't get rescued by Romeo, I don't get rescued at all," and Friar Laurence assuming either that she was being thickheaded and would be kept care of by her family while he would be killed, or she had already seen the body and wasn't going to be helped

 

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[[Category:Romeo and Juliet]]

[[Category:Headscratchers]]

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