English Lit Paper

Explore how Shakespeare presents relationships in Romeo and Juliet and Macbeth.

In this essay I will be exploring how Shakespeare presents the relationships between Juliet and Capulet and Lady Macbeth and Macbeth.

The play of Macbeth begins with the relationship between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth being loving, equal and happy. We know that Macbeth loves Lady Macbeth because he expresses these feelings for his wife when he addresses her as ‘my dearest partner of greatness’ and ‘my dearest love’. This shows that he does have affectionate feelings towards Lady Macbeth and sees them both as equals in their relationship. At this point in the play he is unaware of his wife’s plans to murder King Duncan so that Macbeth will become king.

During Macbeth, Macbeth shows his high levels of respect towards Lady Macbeth a few times. An example of this is when he tells her ‘bring forth men-children only’, which is a way of him telling her how strong and wonderful he thinks she is.

Similarly, at the start of Romeo and Juliet, Capulet shows his care towards his daughter when he is initially reluctant to allow Juliet to marry Paris, who is much older than 13 year old Juliet. Capulet’s reason for not allowing him to marry Juliet is because she is too young; however this changes when Capulet tells Paris he may marry Juliet when she is 16 years old. Capulet says to Paris that he can marry her when she reaches 16 but only if he ‘Woo’s her’ and ‘gets her heart’. This shows that although he is planning the marriage of his daughter to a much older man he still wishes for her to be treated well and to be happy in her married life. We are also shown Capulet’s care for Juliet when he makes it clear that he would not allow Juliet to marry any man and that he would limit her choice in the men she could marry. In many ways Capulet is showing the care he has for his daughter and that he wishes for her to be happy in later life with who she chooses to marry. But, in other ways it seems that...