gging causes Laura to retreat into a fragile, broken world while Tom abandons his mother and sister for his own ambitions. In The Little Foxes, Alexandra is able to escape the evil influence of her mother, but only because of the love and support of other family members like her father and aunt.
In Romeo and Juliet, the young lovers fall in love but a family feud keeps them apart. We see this distresses Juliet when she is visited by Romeo at her window after a party thrown by her parents, the Capulet's. Juliet laments that because of a name, something arbitrarily applied to a person, she cannot be with Romeo. She maintains "Thou art thyself, though not a Montague" (Shakespeare, II.ii). If Romeo were not called "Romeo," Juliet maintains he would still "Retain that dear perfection which he owns / Without that title" (Shakespeare, II.ii). In other words, the behavior of their parents, including Juliet's father's desire to see her wed Paris, causes depression in Romeo and Juliet that soon turns tragic.
Since he cannot turn to his family to gain support for his love of Juliet as she cannot turn to hers, Romeo enlists the aid of Friar Lawrence. When Friar Lawrence tells him he must go into hiding, we see Romeo is distraught he must part from his beloved, "More light and light: more dark and dark our woes" (Shakespeare, III.v). Likewise, we see that Romeo's unexplained absence makes Juliet distraught. She hops fate is fickle so maybe he will return, "O fortune, fortune, all men call thee fickle; / If thou art fickle, what doest thou with him / That is renowned for faith? Be fickle, fortune; / For then I hope thou wilt not keep him long, / But send him back" (Shakespeare, III.v). When the plan concocted by Friar Lawrence to pretend Juliet is dead goes awry, Romeo ends up drinking poison when he believes she is truly dead upon his return. Juliet, waking, sees her dead lover and thrusts a dagger into her own br...