Paper Example. Influence of Romeo and Juliet on Modern Youth Culture

Romeo and Juliet is a play by Shakespeare that portrays two lover's lives and all the events as they hide their love feelings from their parents. The emotions, personalities, and attitudes of Romeo and Juliet mirror those of present teenagers. The similarities come as a result of their actions. To begin, the first similarity revolves around the choice of words that they all use. In the play, Juliet carefully selects her words when talking to Paris who always behaves presumptuously towards her, acting as though they are already married. The caution in the choice of words emanates from the fact that she does not want to commit herself to Paris or even say that she does not want to be his wife. In the 21st century, teenagers often make use of wordplay meant to be deceiving in all aspects. The deceiving wordplay enables them to entangle themselves from tough situations, deceive and mislead their parents and teachers. The best word to describe what they say is equivocal, thus making whatever they say be open to many interpretations. Additionally, the second influence stems from the actions of the present teens and Romeo and Juliet. The impulsive nature of Romeo and Juliet's actions is quite similar to that of present teenagers. For instance, when Tybalt killed Mercutio, Romeo made an impulsive and hasty decision to run after Tybalt with the aim of fighting to the death. The consequence of this action was that Tybalt ended up dead while Romeo got banished. The hasty actions of Romeo compelled him to abandon his wife. In today's world teenagers engage in impulsive behaviors like doing drugs for social acceptance without thinking of the consequences of their actions. They end up being addicted and engaging in immoral acts (Deats, 2000). In most cases, consequences of impulsive actions are usually bad due to the risky nature of their stunts as seen in Romeo and Juliet play. Another similarity encompasses the pride that Romeo and Juliet and present-day teenagers share. During Romeo and Juliet's time, everything they did and said came as a result of pride and honor (Callaghan, 2001). Whenever anyone executed something or anything, it contributed negatively or positively to their pride and honor. In the present time, this remains the same, especially for teenagers. Teenagers avoid backing down from any challenge so that their reputation does not get affected. Thus, the influence of Romeo and Juliet on the youth comes from all the shared similarities.

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Additionally, the contribution comes to modern youth results from the best pick-up lines, which are still being used today. Shakespeare knew what true romance contained, thus composing pick-up lines that could melt down cold hearts. Young women still perceive romance in the context of Romeo and Juliet. Even though the ending seems negative, today's youth can relate to being in love with someone who does not have the approval of the family. Romeo and Juliet greatly relate to the culture of today's youth. Additionally, the play has helped in shaping books, modern movies, and the reading and writing skills of the youth. Romeo and Juliet remain so famous that today's youth keep recreating them and reading the scripts in class. The play also connects to the diverse things the youth do and offers a platform of how they act towards each other. Moreover, the themes in Romeo and Juliet can be compared to the issues they youth face today like acceptance, equal rights, and murder. The play is full of playful utilization of words like combining and merging two words to form one word, including changing verbs into adjectives. Thus, it has created a lasting impact on how the youth talk or converse about their world. Even after 400 years, the youth keep making use of the linguistic innovations created by Shakespeare. The play also contributes to the current understanding of the present youth culture because it remains associated with youthfulness and their immaturity. Romeo and Juliet provide an elaborate model of the character of present youths. Such characters include drugs, suicide, impulsive decisions, and peer pressure.

References

Callaghan, D. C. (2001). The Ideology of Romantic Love: The Case of Romeo and Juliet." Romeo and Juliet. Ed. R. S. White, 85-115.

Deats, S. M. (2000). Teaching Romeo and Juliet as a Tragedy of the Generation Gap and Teenage Suicide; Approaches to Teaching Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. The Modern Language Association, 108-114.