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Assignment 4 : Adults and Teens

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Κατηγορία: Τελευταία Νέα

Δημοσιεύθηκε : Τετάρτη, 27 Απρίλιος 2016 02:07

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“Away from light steals home my heavy son, and private in his chamber pens himself, Shuts up his windows, locks fair daylight out, and makes himself an artificial night.”  Montague, Act I, scene i

Romeo and Juliet not only have a relationship with each other, they also have relationships to the adults in their lives. Though the play is several hundred years old, these relationships are very similar to those between adults and teens today. Youth vs age ?is a running thread, old and new.

Juliet observes that if the Nurse were young she would be “swift in motion as a ball,” but as it is she's old and slow. Change the word choice and it could be taken from a conversation heard in any high school hallway.

First are the parent/teen relationships. Romeo’s parents rarely talk to him. They seem as confused by his behaviour as many parents today are confused by their sullen teens who lock themselves in their room. Juliet's parents demand that she obey them in a “my house, my rules” kind of way.

Capulet initially seems protective of his daughter, but later his true nature comes out.

It's interesting how the parents react to their children's deaths – Lady Montague kills herself at Romeo's banishment, and the Capulets show intense sorrow at finding Juliet “dead.” But if they truly feel such grief when their children are gone, why aren't they more connected to them before this moment?

One aspect of the parent/teen relationship (perhaps not as prevalent today) is the surrogate parent. Juliet was not raised by her mother but by the Nurse to the point that the Nurse even breastfed Juliet when she was a baby. Juliet's mother is so detached from her daughter that when she has the big news at the beginning of the play about Paris, she asks the Nurse to stay and witness the conversation. The Nurse is Juliet's only confidante and friend.

It's clear that Romeo and the Friar have a bond, and this bond is stronger than with any of his friends. When Romeo is in trouble, he doesn't turn to his parents. He runs to the Friar.

Both sets of parents, real and surrogate, fail to be good parents. Lord and Lady Capulet would see Juliet disowned before disobedient. Romeo's parents are absent in his journey. Both the Friar and the Nurse put themselves ahead of their charges – the Nurse sides with her employers over Juliet and the Friar abandons Juliet in the tomb so he won't be caught. What message does this convey about whether or not the teens should trust adults?

Exercises

? Are the adults in your life trustworthy? Are they looking out for your best interests? Compare your relationships with adults to those of Romeo and Juliet.

? What do you share with the adults in your life? What do you keep secret? Is there an adult in your life you consider a friend? What do you think it means to be an adult?

? Sometimes adults don't want to know the truth, they just want a teen to “present” as a good person. Have you ever had to lie because an adult didn’t want to know the truth?

? In groups, discuss the idea of the good parent. Should we cut the parents in Romeo and Juliet some slack because they were only behaving as parents would in that time period? Are we thinking too much in 21st Century terms? Or should a good parent always put their children first?

? Compare and contrast Juliet's relationship with the Nurse with her relationship with her mother. Why does Lady Capulet not want to be alone with Juliet in Act I, scene iii? Why does the Nurse decide to tell Juliet to forget Romeo?

? Reflect on Romeo's relationship with his mother. We learn at the end of the play that she killed herself from grief at his banishment, but we have no text between them.

? Reflect on Youth vs Age in the play. Examine the first conversation between Romeo and the Friar (Act II, scene iii) and Juliet's conversation with the Nurse when she's waiting to hear news from Romeo. (Act II, scene v)

? Montague says that he has tried talking to Romeo to find out what's wrong with him with no success. In groups, discuss what it's like when parents try to get information from you.

? Using Act I, scene i as a guide, write a modern scene about a parent's concern for their teen’s behaviour. Have it take place outside the locked door of their son's bedroom. What do they do to try and get the son to come out? Are they clueless in how to talk to a teenager?

? Using Act III, scene iv as a guide, write a modern scene which explores the notion of “my house, my rules.” How would a modern set of parents embody this compared to Lord and Lady Capulet?

? In groups, examine Act III, scene iv and identify the words and images Capulet uses on Juliet. Mistress minion, for example. Would you like to have your father say those words to you? Choose a couple of words and create tableaux to visualize them. What impact do the words have visually?

? In Act IV scene iii, Juliet lies to her parents, saying that she's realized the error of her ways and will marry Paris. Write Juliet's inner monologue. What does she really want to say to her father?

? In groups, read and examine Act IV, scene v. After Capulet has threatened and screamed at his daughter, after Lady Capulet has told Juliet “go ahead and kill yourself,” they both seem to exhibit genuine despair at her death. Why is that? What are they going through in this scene? Is it genuine?