SOURCE: Moisan, Thomas. “‘Now Art Thou What Thou Art’; or, Being Sociable in Verona: Teaching Gender and Desire in Romeo and Juliet.” In Approaches to Teaching Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, edited by Maurice Hunt, pp. 47-58. New York: The Modern Language Association of America, 2000.

In the following essay, Moisan examines gender issues in the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet.

That gender has a good deal to do with the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, that Romeo and Juliet derives its tragedy in no small measure from the relation between the love of the eponymous protagonists and what is expected of them, or what they expect of themselves, as a male and female in Verona, has been a thesis often and in various forms compellingly rehearsed in recent criticism of the play. To heed such criticism and teach Romeo and Juliet with an ear for what gender can tell...