Shakespear Present Day

Shakespeare in 2008

Based on my experience with the Romeo and Juliet activity, I think that Shakespeare is in most ways still relevant in today’s society. Although the story of   Romeo and Juliet is over 400 years old, Shakespeare wrote about things that haven’t changed much: young love and teenage rebellion.      
Teens today do face many of the same problems and similar situations that occur in Romeo and Juliet. In 2008 there is still disapproving parents to be dealt with. Romeo and Juliet didn’t know that they’re parents would disapprove of the other until after they had already fallen in love at first sight. Then, once they did know, they planned to keep their relationship secret. Many times today, although no feud may exist between two teens’ families, they fear that their parents will disapprove of their boyfriend/girlfriend and don’t ever manage to tell them about the relationship. And just as Juliet drifted away from her parents after meeting Romeo, teens of today can become more distanced from their families when they have a secret to keep. Moreover, teens do get into potentially life threatening fights, especially when they’re involved in gangs. This can defiantly be compared to the feuding of the two families. Although in Shakespeare’s time the weapons were different, pointless violence and murdering still exists. Not only are teens problems today similar to Shakespeare’s time so are many teens rebellious actions.
Teens today are not so different from teens of Shakespeare’s time. Similarities are easy to pick out, especially in the rebellious and often times dangerous actions of both time periods’ teens. For example, Mercutio convinces Romeo to crash the Capulet’s party. This isn’t an uncommon thing at all for today’s teens to do. Although Teens today don’t usually get married a couple days after meeting, they do often do dangerous and/or unacceptable things for their boyfriend/girlfriend. Like Romeo jumped over the wall of the Capulet property...