Essay Sample: Is Romeo and Juliet Still Relevant Today?

Romeo and Juliet is a play about a feud between two families Romeo on the side of the montague and Juliet on the capulet side. The two fall in love at a party and try to secretly get married after getting married Romeo kills Juliet's cousin and gets banished out of verona. Juliet fakes her death to get to be with Romeo but Romeo's assistant thinks that Juliet is dead and reports it to Romeo, Romeo kills himself and Juliet wakes up to see Romeo dead near her and kills herself too. Romeo and Juliet is over 426 years old. The story and the plot itself is very outdated from our modern opinions and views. Romeo and Juliet is not relevant today because most of the topics he has written about are not agreed with at this day in age and should not be considered a true love story. It excludes other cultures and is difficult to understand when just reading when it is meant to be performed. 

The first reason why Romeo and Juliet is not relevant today is because in Romeo and Juliet it is mostly about social class. Juliet's father wanted to marry her to Count Pairs because he was the prince's cousin and is higher up in the social hierarchy. In Romeo and Juliet their parents wanted to marry them off to a higher class which would have been better for their family wealthy and credibility wise. At this day in age it doesn’t matter to anyone who is dating or married by social class there are no counts and countesses or princes and princesses. Another example is that in the article “Where art thou” a teacher talks about how outdated and how it doesn't include many different cultures and races. No one thinks the same way they did in 1595 compared to 2022. Teachings and opinions are all much different and while Shakespeare is used commonly in the English language his stories are meant to be performed not read; it makes it difficult to understand and doesn’t show what he was going for in the story. Shakespeare, like many other very successful writers, is an old white man. While it does not mean he wasn’t talented in what he did it doesn’t leave room to show students that anyone can be talented and successful in something but the only things we teach about are discovered or done by white men. Anyone of any race or gender can accomplish great things but we need to show it more in classrooms. 

My second reason why Romeo and Juliet is not still relevant is because it isn’t truly a love story and doesn’t express emotions in the same way we do today. For example, in the West Side Story Tony falls “in love” with Maria at the dance but it seems more like he liked her face than her as a person, he had never talked to her before so how would he even know if he likes her. Same with Romeo and Juliet, Romeo takes one look at 13 year old Juliet and says that he loves her. Instead of love it is closer to Eros in an unromantic way. Another example is in present day high school couples that are realistic to Romeo and Juliet. Instead of it being love, it is more of one person wanting bragging rights or someone to be possessive of. In Romeo and Juliet it’s quite obvious that Romeo wasn’t extremely interested in Juliet in a romantic way but more of a sex debribed way. Just like Tony was with Maria in West Side Story. Also just like Romeo, Juliet, Tony, and Maria high school couples don’t last very long together.