What I learned from reading the play about myself and society in general is that in society today, there isn’t that stigma between being in love or associating yourselves with people of a lower class. In Romeo and Juliet, their love was forbidden, it was shameful that a Capulet and a Montague were in love, they were not allowed to associate themselves together, with each other, in their town of Verona. Romeo was a Montague, of the poorer class, and Juliet a Capulet, of the upper rich class. Their different classes separated their ability to be truly together, to live ‘happily ever after.’ Even though Romeo and Juliet were in love and wanted to be together, they had to sneak around and keep their relationship a secret from the public because if anyone found out they were seeing each other, a penalty or consequence would occur. In society now, there is not that stigma or the rule of different classes of people associating with each other or being in love. Today, there is so much more freedom to be yourself or being with whoever, you want. Money is not such a factor, and lesser worries about society status and discrimination.
In reflecting back on the play, I feel Shakespeare wanted us to learn that love can take people to extreme levels, perform unexpected actions. Romeo and Juliet were madly in love, a romantic love, it became even more extreme when Romeo got banished from Verona, Juliet then became so distraught, not wanting to live anymore, wanting to kill herself. Ultimately at the end of the play, both Romeo and Juliet killed themselves because of their distraught emotions of losing each other, and the inability to be together. Their actions showed how connected they were as well as the sadness that encompassed them both knowing they could not be together, all which lead to the self-inflicted death of Romeo and Juliet.
One should never have to ever go to this level for love; people in love should be allowed to show emotions and be together. This is how society is today, vastly different from Shakespearean times, which is a good thing!
Overall, the play of Romeo and Juliet taught us about the discrimination between classes back then versus now in society. The play also taught us many lessons and many of these lessons were about love. The feeling of love is a warm and joyous feeling every person wants to feel and experience in their lifetime with another human. In no way should it be taken to the extreme that one’s feeling of love is so high that one would take their life for the other.