In the story of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet the couple in the title are young people who live in the same town in Italy. Unfortunately, their families do not like one another. Romeo belongs to the ‘Montague’ family and Juliet, the ‘Capulets’. The story Shakespeare used for this play made Juliet Capulet 16 years old. But Shakespeare made her younger at the beginning of the play – 13 years old. Why did he do that? By the end of the play, when she realises she loves Romeo so much she cannot live without him, she may have been 14 years old. It is a very sad story about disagreement, ‘peer-group pressure’, violence, and true love caught in the middle. Both beautiful young people die because their families do not like one another and because they love one another so much they realise they cannot live without one another. The words “disagreement”, “violence” and “love” are all terms you may know. But what about “peer-group pressure”? This is when the group you are in or a group of friends around and about you might get so carried away with a way of behaving or seeing things that they start to encourage one another to do something dangerous. Eventually this can lead to bullying, fighting or death. To stay ‘in the group’ and not be judged by anyone else in the group, you do what you think the rest of the group would like you to do instead of the thing you know is right. If one friend smokes, and then another, you might start smoking just to keep those people as friends. This is unfortunate as smoking can kill you! ‘Knife crime’ can have a lot to do with peer-group pressure. The play Romeo and Juliet has several fights between the young men of the two opposing families and two boys die during them.
Romeo and Juliet may have been based on a true story about something that happened in the town of Verona, Italy. The Diary of Anne Frank is certainly a true story about tragic events in Europe during the Second World War of 1939-45. Anne was a Jewish schoolgirl living in Holland who had to go into hiding when members of the political party called the Nazis were in power and had decided they did not like Jews. A leader called Adolf Hitler made powerful speeches, and Germany, the country he led, fell under the belief that he was right. If you did not believe what Hitler and the people around him believed, you were not part of the group, and might be arrested or killed. Anne Frank kept a diary during her time in a secret set of rooms in Amsterdam during this time, while she was hiding with her family there – away from the Nazis. Unfortunately, the people hiding there were discovered – including Anne – and they were taken and put into ‘concentration camps’. These were cruel and unhealthy places where Anne and her sister died. Anne was 14 when she died, the same age as Shakespeare’s Juliet.
I have pointed out where ‘peer-group pressure’ came into the story of Romeo and Juliet. Can you see where it might ‘play its part’ in the story of Anne Frank?
After the war, Anne’s father was given her diary by his secretary, Miep Gies. Can you imagine how Mr. Frank felt? He had lost his whole family because of the war and then he was given the diary of his daughter. Here he found how she vividly brought to life what it was like to be ‘in hiding’. He must have been very proud – am I not right? Or what do you think? Write down an imaginary speech for Mr. Frank about what had happened and how you think he felt.
When he read the diary, he saw that it was so good he decided to get it published. This was so people could buy the diary as a book, read it and know what it was like to be together, apart from everyone, and frightened about being caught. He had, however, one dilemma or difficulty. Part of the story that Anne told was very similar to Juliet’s. While she was in hiding, she fell in love, briefly, with a boy who was there, and she wrote about it. Mr. Frank must have wondered about this. It was very true to how human beings are, even young human beings. In the end Mr. Frank decided to keep some of her diary describing Peter, the boy, but ‘cut’ some parts where his daughter, Anne, described personal feelings.
In Shakespeare’s play, Romeo and Juliet, Juliet is very ‘vocal’ or expressive about her feelings of love:
“Oh Romeo, Romeo,” she says to the night sky, thinking she is alone (but Romeo is listening secretly in the garden below) “wherefore art thou Romeo?” (meaning “why are you Romeo?” because she wishes he did not have that name because it is the name of her father’s enemy!) She also describes her love to him, describing it as if it is as big as the sea: “My bounty is as boundless as the sea, my love as deep. The more I have, the more I give to thee, for both are infinite.” Much of Romeo and Juliet is about when it is ‘safe’ to express your feelings and when it is not so safe.
Romeo and Juliet’s families were certainly mistaken in being argumentative or ‘feuding’ families as they ended up with the deaths of their two children. They regretted what happened very much. Mr. Frank was a very good man, but was he right to cut how Anne Frank felt about personal things? What do you think?
Whether you are a boy or a girl, imagine you have written a diary with your most private thoughts included. Imagine your parent, or someone who looks after you, deciding to publish your diary when you died. Would you be angry or pleased if they had taken something away? Write down what you would say to that person and draw a picture of how you would feel about it (the picture could be of people or a pattern expressing how you would feel).
Write down and draw a picture of anything that you have felt while reading about Romeo, Juliet and/or Anne Frank either here or elsewhere.