Violence In Romeo And Juliet

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The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet is one of the most famous plays Shakespeare has ever written. It is well known throughout the world, and is considered one of the classics. However, some parts of it are not child-friendly. But it is possible to alter the Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet to fit a younger reading group. In order to be child friendly it must be altered by changing a few aspects of the play, such as the type language used, the amount of violence that is shown, and also simplify certain parts of the story. In Romeo and Juliet, it is true that it is not always what people say, it's how they say it. Children's books are filled with simple words, and rarely contain words like "jest" and "hath" which are commonly placed in Shakespeare…show more content…
Usually, violence is not something that children want to be reading. Tybalt is a violent person, and often directly threatens the lives of the Montagues. "TYBALT: This, by his voice, should be a Montague./ Fetch me my rapier, boy. /What dares the slave/ Come hither, cover'd with an antic face,/ To fleer and scorn at our solemnity?/ Now, by the stock and honour of my kin,/ To strike him dead, I hold it not a sin." (Shakespeare) In the children's version of Romeo and Juliet, it would be smart to dumb down the 'strike him dead' part of things. This violence that is constantly used throughout the play must be changed in order to make it child friendly. Instead of swordfights and battling each other, perhaps just state that there was a small fight, and finish it at that. If one were to go into more detail, it would become gruesome. In order to keep it child-friendly, all the violent parts must be made more general, and be less descriptive of the battles in order to get the idea across but not all the details. There is no good guy or bad guy that is specifically defined in the play Romeo and Juliet. The Montagues and Capulets both have good reasons to fight each other, but no definition of good or bad person. There is a lot areas in the play that aren’t cohesive. The article called Writing Children's Books for Dummies shows a bulleted list of things helpful for writing children's…show more content…
Due to some poor communication, Romeo ends up killing himself because he thinks Juliet is dead. When she awakens, she sees Romeo dead on the floor, and then kills herself. "JULIET: Oh, noise? Then I’ll be quick. Oh, good, a knife!/ My body will be your sheath./ Rust inside my body and let me die./ (she stabs herself with ROMEO’s dagger and dies)" (Shakespeare) This is not good in a kids book. Death in children's books is unacceptable, and has to be changed. In the end, you need to make things age-appropriate for the audience, especially if they are children. To have Juliet stab herself and die would not only be scarring to the children, but the bad people would have won which is a bad message to put out Instead, Romeo and Juliet need to either live happily ever after, or be separated by means other than death, such as distance. For example if Juliet were to live in New York and Romeo in California, they would be separated enough to have their romance end, but also keep everyone still alive. An article called Common Mistakes to Avoid When Writing Children's Books speaks of the appropriateness of characters' actions compared to the target audience's age. "It needs to be age-appropriate. How old is your main character? How old is your intended audience? To engage in a bit of hyperbole as you gauge the appropriate amount of trouble, picture young Lily atoning for her
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