William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet (1599) is a celebrated play which has influenced many individuals over the world for hundreds of years. Romeo and Juliet, although written so long ago is still alive, and taught in schools to modern audiences where its themes are deeply explored. The play is a tragic story of two young lovers who cannot be together because of a family rivalry and die in order to be together. The reason for why Shakespeare’s work is still investigated today is not just because of the beautiful literature, touching characters or tragic ending, and although these are vitally instrumental in producing the play as a whole, the reason for why Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is still with us today is the use of ubiquitous and pertinent emotional, familial and physical conflict.
Emotional conflict is a relevant conflict for modern audiences. Through emotional conflict, an individual may experience his or her most heart-wrenching moments. In Romeo and Juliet, as Juliet discovers the horrific news of Tybalt’s death and Romeo’s banishment, she rhetorically asks, ‘What devil art thou that dost torment me thus?’ The emotive ‘torment’ reveals that she was torn, and so full of pain, she was experiencing such a traumatic moment, and was beginning to realise the twisted reality of her pitiful world.
This continues to be relevant today because every day people experience tragedies that affect them forever. Another example of emotional conflict occurs when Romeo learns the news of Juliet’s ‘death’, and exclaims, ‘Is it e’en so? Then I defy you, stars!’ displaying Romeo’s devastation and how he will defy the personified ‘stars’, or metaphorical fate to be with Juliet. This moment was moving because the excruciating agony of losing a lover is a heartbreak nearly every person of every race, gender, culture and sexuality has suffered, and because of this, Shakespeare’s use of emotional conflict was incredibly relevant to modern audiences.
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Familial conflict had a reoccurring appearance in Romeo and Juliet, and frequently takes place in everyday modern life. Familial conflict can alter an individual’s perceptions of his or her relatives. In the modern world, there are commonly family altercations. Often, a parent will disapprove of their child’s partner for reasons such as race, wealth, gender, religion or age, and could change their attitude towards their child as a result. In return, the child could change their opinion of their parent to a narrow-minded, controlling jerk.
In Romeo and Juliet, a situation like this arose between Juliet and her father when he tried to marry her to Paris. Juliet refused the marriage, crying in high modality, ‘I will not marry yet, and when I do, I swear it will be Romeo!’ This defiant tone displays how Juliet will not do anything else and it cannot be misinterpreted. Following this, Capulet said, ‘How, will she none? Doth she not give us thanks?… Out, you green-sickness carrion! Out, you baggage!’ The rhetorical question ‘Doth she not give us thanks?’ and derogatory ‘carrion’ metaphor exhibited how Capulet changed his opinion of his daughter from a loveable, obedient girl to a rebellious, ungrateful brat, and Juliet realised that her father was not the man she thought him to be; his love was conditional. The relevance of this to today’s audiences is a conflict that many people endure in their life.
Physical conflict had a ubiquitous presence in Romeo and Juliet, depicting the complexity of a civilised society and the recklessness of people. Physical conflict can be sudden and influence people to make impetuous decisions which can lead to catastrophic consequences that are irreversible. Physical conflict is seen in all corners of the world today in the form of violence, in everyday life, books and movies, which creates a relevance to Shakespeare’s play. In Romeo and Juliet, violent cases occurred many times.
When the Prince finds the families brawling in the streets, he exclaimed, ‘What ho, you men, you beasts!’ This bestial imagery portrays how uncivilised they were acting; they were practically animals. Later, when Mercutio is slain by Tybalt, Romeo exclaimed in emotive imagery, ‘Away to heaven, respective lenity / And fire-eyed fury be my conduct now!’ before he killed Tybalt. This exhibits the impetuous choice Romeo made which he promptly regrets, and how violence begets to violence. Shakespeare’s physical conflict is so relevant to modern audiences because it because it can help teach the cataclysmic outcomes of impulsive choices, such as the recent New Zealand massacre.
The tragic love story of Romeo and Juliet is one of the most beautiful pieces of literary work seen ever, with its magnificent language techniques, from metaphors to dramatic irony, to the heart-warming characters and the unforgettable ending. Shakespeare has managed to create a play so touching and thought-provoking, that through the exploration of conflict it has had a continued relevance to modern audiences, 400 years later.
