Skip to main content

What are some examples of forced love in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet?

The answer to this might depend on how we interpret the phrase "forced love." If we consider this phrase literally, then the most prominent example of forced love within the text would be the arranged marriage between Juliet and Paris. When Lady Capulet enters Juliet's chambers and asks her if she would like to be married, Juliet responds, "it is an honour that I dream not of." Lady Capulet immediately dismisses this, stating:



Well, think of marriage now; younger than you,


Here in Verona, ladies of esteem, 


Are made already mothers: by my count,


I was your mother much upon these years


That you are now a maid...



Juliet is not even fourteen years-old yet, and her mother is already trying to convince her to marry. This pressure only increases as the play progresses, with her mother and father moving from gentle encouragement to absolute force. When Lady Capulet informs Lord Capulet that Juliet has declined to marry Paris, Lord Capulet exclaims:



...doth she not give us thanks?


Is she not proud? doth she not count her blest,


Unworthy as she is, that we have wrought


So worthy a gentleman to be her bridegroom? 



These insults escalate until Lord Capulet finally presents Juliet with an ultimatum: marry Paris on Thursday afternoon or "hang, beg, starve, die in / the streets..." Given the options, Juliet has no agency left here; she is a mere object, a pawn in her father's designs to create a profitable union. She must marry Paris in order to stay within the financial and physical safety of her family's household, despite the emotional trauma it may inflict upon herself and the inevitable dissolution of her secret marriage to Romeo. 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Is there a word/phrase for "unperformant"?

As a software engineer, I need to sometimes describe a piece of code as something that lacks performance or was not written with performance in mind. Example: This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. Based on my Google searches, this isn't a real word. What is the correct way to describe this? EDIT My usage of "performance" here is in regard to speed and efficiency. For example, the better the performance of code the faster the application runs. My question and example target the negative definition, which is in reference to preventing inefficient coding practices. Answer This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. In my opinion, reads more easily as: This coding style leads to unmaintainable and poorly performing code. The key to well-written documentation and reports lies in ease of understanding. Adding poorly understood words such as performant decreases that ease. In addressing the use of such a poorly ...

Is 'efficate' a word in English?

I routinely hear the word "efficate" being used. For example, "The most powerful way to efficate a change in the system is to participate." I do not find entries for this word in common English dictionaries, but I do not have an unabridged dictionary. I have checked the OED (I'm not sure if it is considered unabridged), and it has no entry for "efficate". It does have an entry for "efficiate", which is used in the same way. Wordnik has an entry for "efficate" with over 1800 hits, thus providing some evidence for the frequency of use. I personally like the word and find the meaning very clear and obvious when others use it. If it's not currently an "officially documented" word, perhaps its continued use will result in it being better documented.