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Assignment 1 : Blinding passions that override logic
- Πληροφοριακά Στοιχεία
- Κατηγορία: Τελευταία Νέα
- Δημοσιεύθηκε : Κυριακή, 13 Μάρτιος 2016 19:36
- Γράφτηκε από τον/την Super User
- Εμφανίσεις: 206
Love versus hate/feud
A. Love
Before young William Shakespeare wrote his play about two teenagers who defy their families' long-standing feud and risk everything to be together.
In the most famous love story in the English literary tradition, love is naturally the play’s dominant and most important theme. The play focuses on romantic love, specifically the intense passion that springs up at first sight between Romeo and Juliet. In “Romeo and Juliet”, love is a violent, ecstatic, overpowering force that supersedes all other values, loyalties, and emotions.
It is not a corny kind of love, though, or just a silly romantic love story as one would often think, if we consider the obstacles the two lovers had to overcome, the risks they chose to take by defying the rules of the time and society they lived in, the clash between private love (you and your honey) and public interest (family loyalty and obedience, convenient set-up marriages, or paying bills, or raising a family). We may not have quite the same roadblocks that Romeo and Juliet have, but intense, passionate love can be just as antisocial in the 21st century as it was back then in the 15th century. In the world of “Romeo and Juliet”, marriage for love, rather than money or social position, is a radical and dangerous choice—particularly for kids from wealthy and influential families. (Poor people could pretty much marry whoever they wanted, since they didn't have much to gain—or lose.)
B. Hate
Two great noble families, the Montagues and Capulets in the city of Verona hold an “ancient grudge” (Prologue) against each other that remains a source of violent and bloody conflict. We have no idea how this feud started, as it is never explained throughout the whole play but it happened almost every day. Even the family servants hated each other and (in the opening scene of Act I) they try to find a way to provoke their enemies into a fight without being accused of starting the fight, without breaking the law and without being punished. Samson begins a brawl between the Montagues and Capulets by biting his thumb, a gesture which was considered highly insulting at the time.
-Τον 15ο αιώνα η προσωπική έχθρα Μοντέγκων και Καπουλέτων διαταράσσει τη δημόσια γαλήνη στην πόλη της Βερόνας. Με ανάλογο τρόπο στην εποχή μας τα ιδιωτικά πάθη διαταράσσουν τη δημόσια γαλήνη, είτε στο χώρο του σχολείου, είτε σε άλλους χώρους. Με ποιούς τρόπους θα μπορούσε να γίνει πιο αποτελεσματική και αναίμακτη διαχείριση μιας τόσο εκρηκτικής κατάστασης;
