“Is She Not Proud?”
Reputation in Romeo and Juliet and Riverdale
What defines who you are? This is a question that has infinite possibilities of answers. However, In the play Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare and the TV show Riverdale, reputations play an overemphasized role in everyone’s lives. Protecting a name can be meant with best and worst intentions and both of these cases are exemplified in Romeo and Juliet and Riverdale. Like it says in the prologue of Romeo and Juliet, “A pair of star crossed lovers take their life.” One might never know specifically why this feud was so important that it resulted in so much death. However we can assume that tragedies in Romeo and Juliet and Riverdale occurred because of families being too proud and obsessed with their family reputation and brand.
In Romeo and Juliet, Capulet only cares that Juliet marries a good heir to the Capulet legacy. Instead of even giving Juliet a say, he decides when and who Juliet is going to marry. In act three, Capulet demands that Juliet marries Paris when just a few days ago he was okay with her waiting a couple of years. He changes his opinion not because he believes it is right for Juliet, but because is it best for himself. You can see this when he is speaking to Paris: “In all respects by me. Nay, more, I doubt it not.” (3.5.15). He is declaring that Juliet will want to marry Paris and he will not let Juliet say no. Then he proceeds to tell Juliet how ungrateful she is: “Is she not proud? Doth she not count her blessed, Unworthy as she is, that we have wrought So worthy a gentleman to be her bride?”(3.5.148–149) Here, Capulet is calling her ungrateful for not taking advantage of the chance to marry the great Paris. This shows that Capulet doesn’t really care if Juliet loves him or not, it is all about whether he will fit into the Capulet’s “family name.” Rather than marrying Juliet, it seems that Capulet is marrying Paris to the Capulet name. This point is also illustrated in act 4 when Capulet discovers Juliet’s death. At first, like any parent, he grieves for the loss of his daughter. However, when he realizes that Paris will no longer be his “son” and a Capulet it upsets him even more: “Death is my son-in-law. Death is my heir./ My daughter he hath wedded.” (4.5.44–45) In his lines, rather than starting with Juliet, he relates everything to Paris. By saying “Death is my son in-law” and “Death is my heir” he shows that he is not grieving because the death of his daughter but because of things that will happen because of her death. He is so obsessed with Paris becoming his homegrown “perfect Capulet” that he almost doesn’t even realize what a tragedy Juliet’s death is. And even though Capulet of course loves Juliet, doesn’t treasure her as much as keeping the Capulet name alive.
In Riverdale, each family has their own identity. Many are poor, many are rich but all share one thing in common, family pride. In a small town like Riverdale, this close mindedness made it easy for conflict and division to run rampant through the streets. In particular, one name comes to mind. The Blossoms, who own the drug business hidden by their cover of “maple syrup”, are obsessed with keeping their name and brand safe at all costs. The question is how far is “all costs”? In episode 11 we begin to see how crazed Mr. Blossom, in particular, is about his company. Here, he is talking to his daughter about her brother, Jason, who has been murdered. “You know, your brother rejected us. Our way of life, our business, everything. And after I had groomed him to take over the empire. When really, I should have been nurturing you. Jason never had the stomach for any of it but you, you’re a Blossom through and through.” You would think that a father who had just lost his son, would be thinking about him as a person and not about whether he was fit to run a company or not. However, here, when he says that “I should have been nurturing you. Jason never had the stomach for any of it but you, you’re a Blossom through and through” he almost implies it was good thing Jason died because now he could get a better candidate, in the form of his daughter, to take over the business. This lack of empathy and remorse for the loss of Jason shows how little he cares about anything but his name and company. This is a similar mindset that Capulet has after losing Juliet. Why was Mr. Blossom so numb to Jason’s death? This question is answered when we discover that he was the one who killed Jason because he had found out what the Blossoms real business was, drugs. When Jason discovered this he threatened to expose his father’s secret and so to stop him from doing so, he killed his own son. Probably the worst crime a human can commit; killing the very being that he had brought into the world. Mr. Blossom killed his son to protect his name. His brand and legitimacy was so important to him that he would do anything to protect it. That’s why when he was finally discovered, he still never relinquished his name and saved his confession by taking his own life. It’s ironic that he killed to protect his name which, along with him, ended up dying anyway. When Romeo and Juliet take their lives, they do it because they’re scared of what life would be like without the other. On the other hand, Mr. Blossom takes his life because he is scared of what life would be like with his perfect reputation. He was afraid of how people would judge and brand his name for not only for killing his son, but also for of the business he ran.
In both of these texts, the concept of protecting their reputation blinds them from what is going on and leads to many tragedies. Although Romeo and Juliet was written long before Riverdale, the theme in both are timeless. So, can you really blame Capulet for wanting to continue his family by deciding who the Capulet heir would be? No, however, his decisions did play a big part in Juliet’s final actions. Also, one can assume that Mr. Blossom never thought Jason’s lack of respect for his brand would lead to his murder. Although, when the time came, he was willing to do just that to make sure his name wouldn’t be touched. Protection is a concept that borders the line between selfish and selfless so closely that it becomes very difficult to differentiate between the two. In Romeo and Juliet and Riverdale people protect their name with the intentions of growing their respective families. However, the consequences that come because of their actions were much larger than the sacrifices they made.
