EMOTION, CONFLICT AND SOCIAL PRESSURE: A POLITENESS STUDY OF FAMILY INTERACTIONS IN ROMEO AND JULIET BY SHAKESPEARE

Abstract

While William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is traditionally interpreted through the thematic lens of fate, this study argues that the tragic outcome is fundamentally driven by systematic failures in familial and social communication. Grounded in Brown and Levinson’s (1987) Politeness Theory, this paper investigates how intense emotion, deeply entrenched feuds, and systemic social pressures shape the dialogue patterns that precipitate the tragedy. Employing a qualitative textual analysis of the linguistic interactions within and between the Capulet and Montague households, the study examines how characters navigate "positive face" (the desire for approval) and "negative face" (the desire for autonomy). The findings reveal that under acute psychological and social stress, adolescent characters prioritize immediate emotional relief over established conversational norms. This pressure triggers a abrupt linguistic shift from polite strategies such as hedging and indirection to overt, highly impolite Face-Threatening Acts (FTAs), typified by Lord Capulet’s authoritarian reprimands. Furthermore, the analysis demonstrates how pervasive familial suspicion fosters an insular "gang system" mentality rather than rational discourse. By examining these dynamics through the "social network effect," this study illuminates how parental intervention paradoxically destabilizes familial relationships, translating a private romance into a public catastrophe. Ultimately, this article offers a novel sociolinguistic framework for re-evaluating classical dramatic structures through the mechanics of communicative dysfunction.