Society affects every aspect of our life. It puts limitations on the things we can and cannot say or things we can and cannot do. This in turn affects our judgment, making the forbidden seem much more appealing and irresistible. For instance, telling a toddler it may not touch a certain object will only make the child want it more. In Romeo and Juliet it is well known that a Capulet and Montague dare to even hold a 'normal' conversation let alone fall in love with one another. In the play, the impact society had on the young lovers lead to a great tragedy.
             In Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare uses many fixed social structures who help to bring about the catastrophic ending of the play. He presents a nurse, who has a specific role to perform during the time of the play. Their role is to help nurture and care for the child and in this certain tragedy the nurse was more of a mother than Juliet's own. Because of this, naturally the nurse wants to help the girl out in any way possible and plans to meet with Romeo and help organize the marriage of them both. Another character Shakespeare introduces to the audience is Friar Laurence. His position is a priest-type figure in society throughout the play. Because the two families are notorious rivals he agrees to marry the two in hopes to end the feud. Unfortunately, he later causes the flipside of his theory to come into play: the plan involving a sleep-inducing potion, which results in both of the adolescents' deaths. In the character of the apothecary, Shakespeare provides another example of social forces at work in the play. The apothecary does not want to sell the poison to Romeo because it is banned by society, however it is the same society which causes him to be a poor man. Romeo says: "The world is not thy friend, nor the world's law; The world affords no law to make thee rich; Then be not poor, but break it and take this" (5.1.75-77). Since the apothecary is too poor to refuse the sale ...