England was a Christian country. All children were baptized, soon after they were born. They were taught the value of the Christian faith and instructed to their duty to God. Romeo and Juliet was set during a time of religious and political turmoil. Europe was a traditionally Catholic society with a strong belief in damnation for mortal sin. Suicide and bigamy were both considered to be mortal sins. Shakespeare was writing following ‘The Reformation’ and this was when England became a Protestant nation, having broken away from the control of the Catholic Church. In this Protestant society, life became more open and less oppressed.

Marriages were conducted only by licensed clergy and according to the Christian rites of tradition. In Elizabethan times, people got married much earlier than they do today. It would be common practice to get married at 13 years of age. Normally, parents would choose their child's partner and this would be based on wealth, potential titles and family ties.

Playwrights were normally paid in increments during the writing process, and if their play was accepted, they would also receive the proceeds from one day's performance. However, they had no ownership of the plays they wrote. Once a play was sold to a company, the company owned it, and the playwright had no control over casting, performance, revision, or publication.

Theatre performances slowly became mainstays of public entertainment in England during this period. Playwrights and actors, however, were not highly regarded and often had began writing plays simply to earn money. The audience were encouraged to show their appreciation for a performance through applause (if they liked it) or by booing or throwing things at the actors (if they didn’t like what they saw).

Aside from the scripts, plays were not written down. They were a performance which could be adjusted as the play went on, reflecting the reaction of the audience or the abilities of the actors. It was only many decades later that collected play scripts were published for the public to read again.

The building of playhouses (early style theatre) helped make plays a permanent form of public entertainment. But as the decades passed, many people objected to the raucous and irreligious attitude of the actors. Theatre began to change and become more refined, meaning prices increased and drama passed into the hands of the wealthy and privileged.

At the beginning of the Elizabethan era, plays were performed by groups of actors. These were all-male characters (boys acted the female roles) who travelled from town to town, performing in open spaces with the permission of the landowner. In 1576, the Theatre (imaginatively named) was constructed for performances to take place within. This was met with disapproval; theatres brought huge crowds together which resulted in fast spreading disease and dangerously, new ideas. The Puritans tried to close down the theatres as they were concerned that rules of behaviour were not as strict as they would prefer.

• Built by Shakespeare’s play company in 1599.

• It became a popular playhouse (early form of theatre) until it burned down in 1613.

• It was later rebuilt but was closed by order of Parliament in 1642 at the start of the English Civil War.

• Shakespeare’s New Globe was reconstructed to the original plans in 1997 only 250 feet from its original site. Today it is one of London’s top tourist attractions.

Shakespeare's plays are traditionally divided into the three primary categories:

Comedies: These plays are often full of fun, trickery, irony and wordplay. The often involve witty and intelligent characters, mistaken identities and disguise and a happy ending!

Tragedies: Tragedies may involve comedic moments, but tend towards more serious, dramatic plots with an ending that involves the death of main characters. There is usually a central figure who is noble but with a character flaw which leads them towards their eventual downfall. 

Histories: Shakespeare's Histories focus on English monarchs. They usually play upon Elizabethan propaganda, showing the dangers of civil war and glorifying the queen's Tudor ancestors. We must remember to not take Shakespeare’s histories as fact, many were depicted falsely to please the monarchy.

Among other things, Shakespeare was novel for his time because he was one of the first to blend genres, which was not traditionally done at the time. For instance, "Romeo and Juliet" is both a romance and a tragedy, and "Much Ado About Nothing" can be called a tragi-comedy. Although it has important elements of multiple genres, and it is up to the individual audience member to decide which outweighs the other.

Shakespeare’s purpose when writing the play was to explore the validity of true love. The basic story would have already been familiar to his audience as it was based on an Italian poem; Shakespeare’s aim was to produce an interesting variation on the theme of forbidden love.

A tragedy is a drama which traces the career and downfall of an individual. The ingredients of tragedy are:

• The tragic hero should be of high, but not perfect, worth or standing.

• A tragic flaw, weakness or excess of arrogant ambition (hubris) leads to downfall.

‘Romeo and Juliet’ is viewed as a tragedy because it is generally accepted that responsibility for their downfall lies outside the characters- in the workings of so-called Fate. It is the family feud rather than any moral weakness that leads to the deaths of the lovers.

The father was the head of the household in this patriarchal society and controlled his immediate and extended family depending upon his wealth and status. The law of primogeniture meant that all wealth and property was passed onto the nearest living male relative: women could not inherit a husband’s estate in its entirety.

Women had no rights or authority in law: they could not own property or money but could influence their husbands. Children were regarded as property and could be given in marriage to a suitable partner. This was often a political or financial transaction to secure and retain wealth. In high society, children were often raised by a ‘wet nurse’ and did not have a strong bond with their parents – children were assets to be traded and used.

Courtly love (like royalty) should be polite, ceremonious, restrained, intellectual, courteous and those involved should be in love with the idea of being in love: it was a performance of love rather than grounded in deep seated emotional attachment to a person. There was no contact between a courtly lover and the object of his attention: just an exchange of gifts, letters and poems. There were ‘rules’ around a courtly lover’s conduct and behaviour.

Family honour was important to the Elizabethans. There was a strong belief that the slightest wrong or insults must be avenged as a matter of personal pride or to protect reputation. Tempers were short and weapons easy to hand. The basic characteristics of the nobility, like those of the poor, were ferocity and childishness and lack of self-control. Calling someone a liar, or otherwise questioning his honour, his courage, or his name was a challenge in itself.

Most Elizabethans believed in the ideas of fate and astrology; rich people often paid for horoscopes for their children, and before major decisions such as marriage or travel, one would often consult an astrologer to see if the stars favoured it. Many people believed that they had no free will: that they had no choice to change their destiny because everything was already ‘predestined’.