The Thematic Framework of Romeo and Juliet

Abstract

Although Romeo and Juliet is one of the most popular and best-loved of all Shakespeare's plays, rivaled only by Hamlet, those best qualified to evaluate Shakespeare's works usually speak of it condescendingly as a nice but immature play on the theme of young love. The apologetic attitude of these critics is based upon two incorrect assumptions. Perceiving within the tragedy no intellectual framework, they have concluded that it has no central unifying theme; disturbed by the presence of various apparently discordant elements, especially in technique, they have sought to account for (or excuse) these on the basis of the author's immaturity at the time the play was written. Dowden calls this play “the work of the artist's adolescence”, and Grant White, going far in this direction, attributes certain of the most controversial passages to a period earlier by several years than the rest of the play.