Romeo and Juliet Gender Quotes

Thought: Sampson and Gregory assert their manliness through physical and sexual violence.

Thought: Physical violence is equated with forceful sexuality, and both are proof of manliness.

Thought: Manly honor in Verona means never putting up with any insult against you.

Thought: Status is very important to the men of Verona – and a claim that one person's employer is a "better man" than another is enough to start a fight.

Thought: When Paris first proposes the idea of marrying 13-year-old Juliet, Lord Capulet says he wants Juliet to marry a man that she loves and would choose for herself. He also says she's too young, although, as we know, the legal age for marriage in Shakespeare's day was 12 for girls and 14 for boys. While it seems strange to us that Paris would talk to Capulet about marriage without even consulting Juliet (they've never even formally met), marriages were typically brokered between men (a girl's father and her potential husband).

Thought: Tybalt believes that the "honor" of his family depends on him revenging even the smallest insult from a Montague.

Thought: Mercutio is glad that Romeo has stopped moping around and going on and on about his love for Rosaline; he feels like he has his friend back again. Mercutio's seeming jealousy reminds us of the relationship between Bassanio and Antonio in The Merchant of Venice. Antonio is just a smidge jealous when Bassanio pursues Portia.

Thought: Romeo believes that his love for Juliet has made him less manly. Here, he says that he dishonored himself as a man by choosing not to fight with Tybalt for Juliet's sake.

Thought: Romeo reasserts his masculinity by fighting Tybalt. He also avenges the death of his best friend, which makes us wonder whether or not Juliet is the most important person in Romeo's life.

Thought: According to the Nurse, Romeo's excessive emotion is unmanly.

Thought: In Romeo and Juliet, boys don't cry. Here, the Friar calls Romeo a "womanish" wimp for crying and threatening suicide. We hear something similar in Hamlet, when Hamlet's step-father calls him a sissy for grieving over the death of his father.

Thought: Juliet's father flips out and becomes verbally abusive when Juliet refuses to marry Paris. What the heck happened to his earlier stance that Juliet should marry for love, when she's ready? Here, Lord Capulet treats his daughter like a piece of property that he can just give away to another man (Paris).