Names In Romeo And Juliet

Once upon a time, in one of Shakespeare’s most famous plays, Romeo and Juliet, an endearingly sweet, yet ever so hopelessly naive girl named Juliet, while speaking aloud to herself about her despairing love predicament, made the claim, “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other word would smell as sweet.” Certainly, Juliet, theoretically, this is true; names themselves do not possess any special powers and are virtually only useless labels utilized to identify the seemingly infinite quantity of items, people, places, and ideas in our lives. But in reality, names do matter; if you do not believe me, ask almost any expecting parent. Names like Cleopatra instill a sensation of power in a person, whereas names like Aristotle instill …show more content…
You see, names are powerful, valuable tools simply because society has assigned them this powerful role and has placed such great value on them. Nonetheless, although names are only precious due to the significant emphasis placed on them by society, they still do matter a great deal. For example, a child who is given a humiliatingly embarrassing name by his or her parents may be bullied by other children for having such a name. Eventually, the child may grow to foster many insecurities about himself or herself as a result of the endless torment and might foster a perpetual resentment against his or her parents. The way that the child’s whole life plays out could be entirely affected by his or her name. Juliet, I do understand the reasoning behind your words. However, I believe that the reasoning behind your words is rather based on a lack thereof. In an ideal setting, names would be meaningless words holding no value whatsoever, and all of the complication that arises from names would be expunged off the face of the planet. But we do not live in an ideal setting. Dearest Juliet, you above all others must know this. So what’s in a name? Unfortunately, a great deal of power and