'Romeo and Juliet' by William Shakespeare is a tragedy set in Verona, Italy, in the 15th century. The play concerns two families, which from the beginning show a bitter feudal tradition. The Capulets and Montagues persistently fight in the streets in full view of the public. When the prince comes to quell the "fight", he foretells the tragic events that will follow "if you ever disturb our streets again, your lives will pay the price of peace". Even though the prince refers to the accusation of death if the "argument" happens again, the audience can sense uncertainty and that someone will die before this happens. Ultimately the deaths of the "star-crossed lovers" ultimately unite their feuding families. The show is one that has universal themes such as love, forbidden love across cultures, hatred, violence, and the principle of fate and chance. "Romeo and Juliet" portrays the chaos and passion of falling in love by combining images of violence, death and above all family values. For example the idea that men owned their women “you be mine and I will give you to my friend”. Elizabethan women lived in an extremely patriarchal society, which may be the cause of Romeo and Juliet's death. Some critics argue that the male code of violence to make things right was responsible for the feud. We know that at the time the only power a woman like Juliet had was over her own death. Her refusal to marry Paris would have demonstrated disobedience, which was rare for an Elizabethan girl. The dramatic irony of all this is that the audience knows why she would do such a thing, they know that she is already married; if she entered into bigamy, the belief would be that she would be damned to hell. The sense of foreboding is present from… middle of paper… rifices necessary in every relationship and that if these are not present then the bond is not strong enough to be true love. I feel that the themes of intergenerational conflict, violence and love are universal themes that reach modern audiences in a way of understanding and empathy towards Juliet's refusal to marry, whereas audiences at the time would have thought otherwise: that she was a disobedient and ungrateful woman. 'wretched'. Romeo seems to see through the acts of violence and hatred in the very first scene "Here is much to do with hate, but more with love." The themes of "Romeo and Juliet" are relevant today because we see and hear about love across cultures and different social classes of people whose love is perfect, but first, parental disapproval that can shape a person's life young, usually for the worst the audience sees in the show.