History Theatre / RomeoAndJuliet

Note: The play's [[LongTitle full title]] is ''The Most Excellent and Lamentable Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet''. No one uses it, though.

* ForgottenFallenFriend: Romeo is heartbroken about Mercutio's death . . . for as long as it takes him to kill Tybalt in a revenge-fueled rage. After Tybalt dies, Mercutio is forgotten, and Romeo expresses far more grief over Tybalt's death than Mercutio's. However, its been theorized that in the original production of the play the roles of Tybalt and the Nurse were played by the same actor, as were Mercutio and the Prince. If this is true then Tybalt and Mercutio would still have been present in the play through the action and dialogue of the Prince and Nurse, and thus not really forgotten.

* ForgottenFallenFriend: Romeo is heartbroken about Mercutio's death . . . for as long as it takes him to kill Tybalt in a revenge-fueled rage. After Tybalt dies, Mercutio is forgotten, and Romeo expresses far more grief over Tybalt's death than Mercutio's.

* TheFriendsWhoNeverHang: Juliet reacts to the news of Tybalt's death with heartbreak and tears over her beloved cousin. The Nurse exclaims that Tybalt was her best friend. Tybalt never spent time on stage with either of them.

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Where the hell does Benvolio go after Mercutio dies?

** While it's true that wealthy girls were generally married off young, the marriages were largely not consummated until they were older. "Younger than she are happy mothers made" is the way the play puts it. Having children that young was widely seen as detrimental to the girl's health and that it could render her infertile, especially since girls started menstruating a lot later than they do (at least in the developed world) today. The most famous aversion of this was Queen Elizabeth's great-grandmother, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Margaret_Beaufort Lady Margaret Beaufort]], who was still fresh in the populace's memory. She gave birth two months shy of her fourteenth birthday and was never able to have another child. Even at the time, this caused a huge outrage and was generally avoided from there on out.

* DeliberateValuesDissonance: It can be hard to tell, but yes, some of the talk about Juliet's marriage is meant to come off as a sign of how far gone the Veronans are. For someone as rich and influential as a Capulet, thirteen would have been a normal age for betrothal or marriage. "Younger than she are happy mothers made", however, was ''not'' normal -- while such things certainly happened, it was not looked on as a good thing, being seen as short-sighted and rather cruel at ''best'' (people knew it could either kill the girl or render her infertile, as in the case of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Margaret_Beaufort#Second_marriage Margaret Beaufort]], Elizabeth I's great-grandmother).

* ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTGWNHa1wIQ Romeo and Juliet]]'', a 2013 film by Carlo Carlei, and the first traditional retelling to hit screens in quite a while, starring Creator/HaileeSteinfeld and Douglas Booth in the lead roles. The dialogue was heavily rewritten, although the new dialogue was still in the Shakespearean style. The rewrites were...not well received.

** Additionally, marriage of teenagers was '''''not''''' the norm in Elizabethan England; popular health manuals and observations of family life (Elizabethan English folk generally lived in nuclear family homes rather than in multigenerational homes) led to the common belief that motherhood before age 16 was dangerous and that early marriage and its consummation permanently damaged a young woman's health, stunted a young man's mental and physical development, and thus created stunted children. Few Elizabethan noblewomen were married younger than 16. The common English people were usually at least 20 when they first married, with 25-26 as the most common age of for grooms (around the time that apprenticeships ended) and about 23 as the most common age for brides, almost a decade older than Romeo and Juliet. A couple could only marry without parental consent if both the bride and groom were aged 21 and older. The idea of an underage female secretly marrying without her family's consent was scandalous to Elizabethans, who pressed for very public engagements and weddings because of fear of clandestine weddings. Apprenticeships and service jobs were a way to keep young people from marriage and setting up house before they could properly support themselves.

** Additionally, marriage of teenagers was '''''not''''' the norm in Elizabethan England; popular health manuals and observations of family life (Elizabethan English folk generally lived in nuclear family homes rather than in multigenerational homes) led to the common belief that motherhood before age 16 was dangerous and that early marriage and its consummation permanently damaged a young woman's health, stunted a young man's mental and physical development, and thus created stunted children. Few Elizabethan noblewomen were married younger than 16. The common English people were usually at least 20 when they first married, with 25-26 as the most common age of for grooms (around the time that apprenticeships ended) and about 23 as the most common age for brides, almost a decade older than Romeo and Juliet. A couple could only marry without parental consent if both the bride and groom were aged 21 and older. The idea of an underage female secretly marrying without her family's consent was scandalous to Elizabethans, who pressed for very public engagements and weddings because of fear of clandestine weddings. Apprenticeships and service jobs were a way to prevent young people from hasty marriage and setting up house without any means to support themselves.

** Additionally, marriage of teenagers was '''''not''''' the norm in Elizabethan England; popular health manuals and observations of family life (Elizabethan English folk generally lived in nuclear family homes rather than in multigenerational homes) led to the common belief that motherhood before age 16 was dangerous and that early marriage and its consummation permanently damaged a young woman's health, stunted a young man's mental and physical development, and thus created stunted children. Few Elizabethan noblewomen were married younger than 16. The common English people were usually at least 20 when they first married, with 25-26 as the most common age of for grooms and about 23 as the most common age for brides, almost a decade older than Romeo and Juliet. A couple could only marry without parental consent if both the bride and groom were aged 21 and older. The idea of an underage female secretly marrying without her family's consent was scandalous to Elizabethans, who pressed for very public engagements and weddings because of fear of clandestine weddings.

* CompositeCharacter: Many adaptations have Benvolio take the roles that random Montagues take in the final acts since otherwise, he disappears without explanation.

** Additionally, marriage of teenagers was '''''not''''' the norm in Elizabethan England; popular health manuals and observations of family life (Elizabethan English folk generally lived in nuclear family homes rather than in multigenerational homes) led to the common belief that motherhood before age 16 was dangerous and that early marriage and its consummation permanently damaged a young woman's health, stunted a young man's mental and physical development, and thus created stunted children. Few Elizabethan noblewomen were married younger than 16. The common English people were usually at least 20 when they first married, with 25-26 as the most common age of for grooms and about 23 as the most common age for brides, almost a decade older than Romeo and Juliet A couple could only marry without parental consent if both the bride and groom were aged 21 and older. The idea of an underage female secretly marrying without her family's consent was scandalous to Elizabethans, who pressed for very public engagements and weddings because of fear of clandestine weddings.

** Additionally, marriage of teenagers was '''''not''''' the norm in Elizabethan England; popular health manuals and observations of family life (Elizabethan English folk generally lived in nuclear family homes rather than in multigenerational homes) led to the common belief that motherhood before age 16 was dangerous and that early marriage and its consummation permanently damaged a young woman's health, stunted a young man's mental and physical development, and thus created stunted children. Few Elizabethan noblewomen were married younger than 16. The common English people were usually at least 20 when they first married, with 25-26 as the most common age of for grooms and about 23 as the most common age for brides, almost a decade older than Romeo and Juliet. And clandestine (secret) marriages were generally met with horror by the couple's parents.

** Additionally, marriage of teenagers was '''''not''''' the norm in Elizabethan England; popular health manuals and observations of family life (Elizabethan English folk generally lived in nuclear family homes rather than in multigenerational homes) led to the common belief that motherhood before age 16 was dangerous and that early marriage and its consummation permanently damaged a young woman's health, stunted a young man's mental and physical development, and thus created stunted children. The common English people were usually at least 20 when they first married, with 25-26 as the most common age of for grooms and about 23 as the most common age for brides. And clandestine (secret) marriages were generally met with horror by the couple's parents.
** Shakespeare might have lowered Juliet's age to just short of 14 as a kind of joke to emphasize the ridiculousness as well as the danger of marriage at such an early age, like he is arguing that ''"Young people can't be trusted to make wise decisions in matters like this!"''

** Shakespeare might have lowered Juliet's age to just short of 14 as a kind of joke to emphasize the ridiculousness as well as the danger of marriage at such an early age, like he is arguing that '''"Young people can't be trusted to make wise decisions in matters like this!"'''

** Additionally, marriage of teenagers was '''''not''''' the norm in Elizabethan England; popular health manuals and observations of family life (Elizabethan English folk generally lived in nuclear family homes rather than in multigenerational homes) led to the common belief that motherhood before age 16 was dangerous and that early marriage and its consummation permanently damaged a young woman's health, stunted a young man's mental and physical development, and thus created stunted children. The common English people were usually at least 20 when they first married, with 25-26 as the most common age of for grooms and about 23 as the most common age for brides. And clandestine (secret) marriages were forbidden.
** Shakespeare, who married Anne Hathaway when she was 26 and pregnant and he was just 18, and their own daughter was 12 at the time of the play's composition, might have lowered Juliet's age to just short of 14 as a warning (and a kind of joke) to emphasize the ridiculous danger of marriage at such an early age; Elizabethans would have agreed.

** Additionally, marriage of teenagers was <b><i>not</i></b> the norm in Elizabethan England; popular health manuals and observations of family life (Elizabethan English folk generally lived in nuclear family homes rather than in multigenerational homes) led to the common belief that motherhood before age 16 was dangerous and that early marriage and its consummation permanently damaged a young woman's health, stunted a young man's mental and physical development, and thus created stunted children. The common English people were usually at least 20 when they first married, with 25-26 as the most common age of for grooms and about 23 as the most common age for brides. And clandestine (secret) marriages were forbidden.

* BarefootSage: Friar Lawrence is often portrayed as this (justified, since Franciscan friars often went barefoot). However, as "sagey" as he is, he still makes a fatal mistake.

* AntiVillain: Paris is Romeo's rival for Juliet's hand but is a good man who likely would have been a decent husband for Juliet.

* {{Hypocrite}}

'''Lady Montague:''' A crutch, a crutch! Why call you for a sword?\\

* DatingWhatDaddyHates: [[SubvertedTrope Subverted,]] since Capulet is openly fond of Romeo, and never finds out that Romeo and Juliet are an item until after their deaths. However, the only person he says this to is Tybalt, who couldn't care less about this, and Romeo is a Montague, so the lovers - and Friar Laurence, one of the few people who knows about them - assume this trope is in play.

* DownerEnding: There is a glimpse of a BittersweetEnding, as the rival families finally reconcile their differences, but two statues raised in pure gold above Verona are poor compensation for the loss of their children, and everyone knows this. Some adaptations do away with the reconciliation altogether and end with both families simply feeling guilt over the tragedy without actually ending their feud.

* DatingWhatDaddyHates: [[SubvertedTrope Subverted,]] since Capulet is openly fond of Romeo, and never finds out that Romeo and Juliet are an item until after their deaths.