Conflict In Romeo And Juliet

     One of the main conflicts in the play that stood out to me was the internal conflict both that both Romeo and Juliet face. Both of the protagonists have internal conflict as they are faced with choosing between each other and their families, and the proceedings in act III serve to complicate matters. In acts I and II there was conflict in the story, but it comes to a climax after the deaths of Tybalt and Mercutio. Before this point, despite the longstanding feud between the two families, neither Romeo or Juliet had been been directly harmed as a result of the rivalry. After Tybalt and Mercutio died, the feud became more personal for both parties as they were forced to choose between each other and their families. Although the internal conflict in both characters is very similar, it shows up more in Juliet, for her husband killed her cousin, whereas the connection between Tybalt, who killed Mercutio, and Romeo is much less personal, creating less internal conflict (or at least the conflict within Romeo doesn't get as well developed within the story). The scene that best illustrates the conflict within Juliet is when Nurse first breaks the news of Tybalt's death to her. Her first reaction is to verbally lash out at Romeo, but after all, the play is a romance, and so she soon changes her mind and decides that she is just as devoted to him as ever.
     It is very easy for me to relate this type of internal conflict to my own life, because as it happens, I am a 13 year old girl, and just last week, my husband killed my cousin, and I was forced to choose between him, and my family, all while being as melodramatic as possible of course. But really, this type of conflict shows up in everyones life, granted not to the extremes of the play. I don't have a specific example, but it is relatively common common for someone we love to do something that makes us angry or sad, and we have to make a choice between forgiving them, or letting ourselves stay mad. The choice we make depends on what they do, and our relation to the person

Modern Parallels To Romeo And Juliet

     After deciding to not write about the most obvious parallels (Avatar, Twilight, West Side Story) I was going through my bookshelf looking for something that I might be able to relate to Romeo And Juliet, not matter how stretched that comparison is. What I came up with is one of my favorite books, People Of The Deer, by one of my favorite authors, Farley Mowat. The book, which takes place in the 1940's is about the remaining few people from a group of people indigenous to one of the harshest and most remote parts of the Canadian interior. Known as the Ihalmiut, first came into contact with settlers in the last years of the 19th century. In many ways, it was love at first sight for these two profoundly different cultures. The trappers realized that they could convince the Ihalmiut to hunt small game for their pelts, instead of their traditional food source, caribou. The Ihalmiut traded furs for guns, ammunition and western food staples, like flour and sugar. For several decades, both sides benefited from this arrangement, but inevitably, a problem arose: the fur market crashed. By this time, the art of making traditional weapons had been lost, and the Ihalmiut were left without ammunition, no way to hunt the animals they needed to survive, and were plagued with smallpox. By the 1950's the tragic story was practically over. A combination of disease and starvation reduced what had once been several thousand people to less than a dozen survivors. People Of The Deer is a fascinating insight into the dark side western-indigenous relations, and holds several (very, very faint) parallels to Romeo And Juliet.