Romeo & Juliet - bad influence ton young people? (1 Viewer)

[purpleprincess]

Romeo & Juliet - bad influence on young people?

I've just read the book Romeo and Juliet in class and today during class my english teacher talkin about the book in the negative way. She said that it was also a bad influence because it had-
- violence
- suicidal
- encourage family fights
- sexism
- rebellious
- stereotypes

and that it was a negative influence on modern youth. what do you guys think? i have a feeling i might be needed to write an essay about this too. so people opinions?

 

[ur_inner_child]

you're right. and they were fourteen by the way, so they got married pretty young, and underaged sex.

but generally its meant to show that love conquers all, beyond death, or some shit like that? i dunno. i forget

and the poetry ain't half bad?

someone wrote me a love poem once

wasn't really good....

*off tangent*

 

[Benny_]

What a strange thing to teach your class.. unless he/she was joking of course. If not they're an absolute retard. On the English side.. talk a lot about love and fate, R+J isn't really a very moralistic play.

 

[Abbeygale]

My English teacher last year hated Romeo and Juliet. On our first lesson she went into this rant about just about everything she could think of, concluding with-
'Romeo and Juliet? Don't get me started on Romeo and Juliet. Bloody twits the both of them. Juliet meets Romeo, at a party when he's completely wasted, sees him twice, gets laid by him then offs herself. Get a life girl..."

I don't know about how bad an influence it is. I was thirteen when I read it, and I'm not particularly violent or suicidal. Isn't the jury still out on whether tv shows/games/books have a negative impact on kids?

That English teacher was pretty cool, really. Then she got into a car accident and won't be able to teach again until long after I've graduated. A real shame.

 

[rific]

It has 'stereotypes'? lol, why do you think they're stereotypes today?

Personally I liked reading Romeo and Juliet, and if you must say it's a bad influence on people, say it's a bad influence on impatient people, considering the play takes place in 4 days, compared to something like Macbeth, which spans nearly a decade, with comparable amounts of death etc.

On another note, it's a good play to study because unlike most Shakespearian tragedies, it takes the action away from the nation/political level and brings it to the family and civil reconciliation, which can be a popular way of reading it, not just about a couple of impatient young idiots that want to have sex, er I mean, a pair of young people that fall in love...

As for the rest of that list, good luck finding a play/story that doesn't have some/most/all/more of those things and is still meant to be interesting,

 

[Frigid]

it was also a bad influence because it had-
- violence
- suicidal
- encourage family fights
- sexism
- rebellious
- stereotypes

yes, but so does television and the internet (maybe we should be draconian and ban them all)...

one more violent, sexual, rebellious books aren't going to deprave any more kiddies...

 

[Atticus.]

I've just read the book Romeo and Juliet in class and today during class my english teacher talkin about the book in the negative way. She said that it was also a bad influence because it had-
- violence
- suicidal
- encourage family fights
- sexism
- rebellious
- stereotypes

and that it was a negative influence on modern youth. what do you guys think? i have a feeling i might be needed to write an essay about this too. so people opinions?

man i hate how people have this desire to protect youth from media...
so arrogant

 

[walrusbear]

it's only an influence on stupid people, presumably

i'm worried for your education if your english teachers focussed on that

 

[rumour]

I haven't read it. What kind of stereotypes does it have?
It was written a very long time ago, so you can't really compare them to the young people of today....

 

[modelzsuck]

I love Romeo and Juliet, the only reason that Shakespeare wrote about these things are because they happened when he was alive

 

[samuelblayden]

I hated the book and the old movie but the new movie out now is really good

 

[Pierotte]

Bad Influence...

I seriously do not believe in that term.

As humans are we really so mindless and easily led?? Come on!!

I quite liked romeo and juliet .... Well just Mercutio

 

[purpleprincess]

lol. i so dont know whats on my teachers mind! and like i guessed she did make it an essay. i cant really find problems to write about it either. well i do but maybe a few lines? if not i'll have to consider making those few lines longer. into paragraphs and blab on about teh same things. oh wells instead of opinions now. can anyone help me? lol like give me some points to talk about? i read the book but didnt really undertand it properly. luckily it was those cambridge ones with the little summary of the page at the time. i need help!

 

[Benny_]

What's the question?

 

[rific]

I haven't read it. What kind of stereotypes does it have?
It was written a very long time ago, so you can't really compare them to the young people of today....

It has quite a few 'stereotypes', some of the more obvious ones are about the idiocy of youth (perhaps not the best phrase ) - especially in terms of what young people consider 'love' is, which leads into the modern stereotypes of the lovesick adolescent etc. Also stereotypes of male/youth violence/civil disobedience, and if you read newspaper editorials or watch those fantastic programs like A Current Affair, you'll see that those images are still prevalent.

They're just two obvious ones, but you can see how they do translate fairly easily into modern society.

purpleprincess, without actually knowing the question, remember that you can always disagree or argue against most essay questions, so long as you can justify your position and sound reasonably intelligent, you shouldn't fail - unless your teacher really is very dodgy.

 

[purpleprincess]

to rific - i'll have to say my teacher is VERY dodgy. not to mention weird to! a few students asked her to help us on the essay. like how to write it and give some points. and from my perspective it seemed like she wanted us to write an essay saying it IS a negative influence. through out the lesson she gave us the few points [mentioned in my first post] but the problem i have right now is to elaborate on it.

the Essay task was:
"Shakspeare's characters, Romeo & Juliet are a negative influence on modern youth.

so yeah i guess that i do have to say it is negative. i just need help on elaboratin my points? i've decided to pick 3 points.
- violence
- rebellious
and sexism

i've already kind of elaborated on sexism. saying that romeo had few restristions on him where as ladies during that time had to be "locked up" and was expected to remain as a virgin until her father selects her husband.

as for violence. i dont really know how to elaborate it more? just that most fights/arguments they had were pointless

rebellious would be the disobedience of parents, and uncaring of others?

im not really sure. hmm.. any1 wanna give me a helping hand?

 

[Benny_]

Also stereotypes of male/youth violence/civil disobedience, and if you read newspaper editorials or watch those fantastic programs like A Current Affair, you'll see that those images are still prevalent.

Eh? Wot?

Princess- What I don't see is how any of this has anything to do with English. At all. If I had this teacher I'd have to go and complain about them to the head teacher of the English department.I have serious doubts about this person's qualifications, i hope he/she doesn't teach HSC English. I'm not kidding, this essay question is a farce.

Edit: Sorry, but I really can't give you any real help on this. This probably sounds stupid to you but to even attempt to argue that R&J is a 'negative' influence on modern youth goes against my very moral and intellectual fibre. It's sick.

 

[rific]

jim_green, sorry mate, but I'm not sure which part you'd like me to explain unless you're questioning my use of 'fantastic' in the same sentence as 'a current affair', in which case I wasn't entirely serious... I'd be happy to back my point up, I'm just not sure where it needs it. Oh, I also disagree with you calling the essay question a farce, a lot of teachers like to use 'provocative' questioning to raise a response, again, I say this without actually knowing the teacher in question, but I will admit she does sound a little dubious. lol, saying that, I do agree with your moral stance

purpleprincess, while I, to an extent, agree with your sexism point, it should be said that Juliet is the only one of the pair that shows some restraint, at least holding out for a wedding etc. in which case Shakespeare depicts the female as the source of domesic intelligence, I don't actually follow this theory very closely, but you should always note that there is a different side to the argument (if the word limit permits and you can find sufficient justification of course).

I'll give a quick pointer for the others, enough to help you thinking along the right sort of roads anyway. In terms of violence, consider how the play starts - servants of the houses fight, their masters enter and fight, then the citizens enter and fight (I think that's what happens anyway, its been a while and I could be wrong), but this shows how a simple feud has infected the entire city state, how violence is socially permissive, which COULD be seen as a 'bad influence', even though it isn't. As for rebellion, remember that they disobey not only their parents but also the Prince in some instances, who represents the State-as-authority.

Just a couple points, and certainly not exhaustive, but I hope I helped a little.

 

[malkin86]

I'd say that it can show teens that hey, being desperately in love when you're 14 and 18 can lead you to do some really stupid things... like kill yourself.

On the negative side:
There is also some imagry which could be construed as necrophiliac... That whole speech where Juliet's dad is talking about Death sleeping with his daughter.. ew.

The play also rocks the boat when it comes to arranged marriages (and by extension, the opinions and advice of modern parents) ... Paris is her father's choice, but Juliet falls in love with, and marries, someone else.

 

[persephone]

i have a problem with romeo and juliet. when i was younger i thought it was romantic but now it looks a bit irrational. there was no other way to solve their problems except by eloping and killing themselves. i'm pretty sure there could have been a better way. and they only knew each other for a week, which is nothing. they were most probably not in love, rather infatuated with each other....