Romeo and Juliet Themes

(Click the themes infographic to download.) Romeo and Juliet might as well be a litmus test for your level of cynicism: are these crazy kids the two most romantic lovers in all of history—Bella...

(Click the themes infographic to download.) If you've ever had a bad breakup, you know how quickly love can turn into something a lot less warm and fuzzy. In Romeo and Juliet, love and hate are ju...

(Click the themes infographic to download.) Let's talk about sex. No, really: in the hormone-charged atmosphere of Romeo and Juliet, it seems that pretty much everything is about sex. Everything's...

(Click the themes infographic to download.) Kids these days. They don't respect their parents, they have no morals, and they just run around having sex and fighting. Sound familiar? Sure. It also...

(Click the themes infographic to download.) When the characters in Romeo and Juliet aren't making dirty jokes, they're speaking in perfect love sonnets.The famous balcony scene? Well, it's full of...

(Click the themes infographic to download.) Talk about a whirlwind romance: Romeo and thirteen-year-old Juliet fall in love at first sight, marry within twenty-four hours, and die in each others'...

(Click the themes infographic to download.) There's nothing sexier than contemplating your own mortality, right? Well, for Romeo and Juliet, the answer is … actually, yes. Death is never far in...

(Click the themes infographic to download.) There's more machismo in Romeo and Juliet than the worst stereotype of a football locker room. Romeo and Juliet uses malehonor—and male sexual posturi...

(Click the themes infographic to download.) We don't need to bother with a spoiler alert, because Shakespeare wants us to be spoiled. It goes out of its way to tells us that Romeo and Juliet are d...

(Click the themes infographic to download.) Romeo and Juliet marry for love. Duh, right? Not so much. In the world of Romeo and Juliet, marriage for love, rather than money or social position, is...

(Click the themes infographic to download.) In Romeo and Juliet, family means a lot more than a husband, wife, and 2.5 kids. "Family" means everyone from the head of the household down to the lowl...

(Click the themes infographic to download.) Friar Laurence might warn Romeo to move "Wisely and slow—they stumble that run fast" (2.4.94), but nobody (including Friar Laurence) spends much time...

(Click the themes infographic to download.) In Romeo and Juliet, exile is a personal matter that becomes political: Romeo is banished for a private affair (revenge-killing Tybalt), in order to kee...