Misguided Literature is a Bad Precedent to the Society: Based on the Play Romeo and Juliet with the Special Preference of English Medium Private School Students in the Eastern Province, Sri Lanka

Abstract

A literature is not only a past history of the memory but norms, beliefs, behaviors, feelings and emotions of the particular society in a particular period. The literature expresses the mindset of the writer or the literary artist directly, or it may be a representative of whole society. The literature would entertain and provide the pleasure to mind of the audience as refreshment and relaxation whereas it is prime that the literature should be a good example to the society and it should not be a bad precedent at all, especially for the school students. In short, the play Romeo and Juliet is a kind of literature which is a play written by the famous playwright William Shakespeare during the Elizabethan era and it is portrayed and concluded with the death of Romeo and Juliet by committing suicide. Therefore, the present study was conducted with an aim to analyze that “Is the play Romeo and Juliet a good precedent to learn as a lesson in the school syllabus?” with the special preference of the English medium private schools’ students in the Eastern province, Sri Lanka. For this purpose, 30 private school teachers, 60 government school teachers and 20 parents were randomly selected, to collect the data, as the participants of the current study. This study employed a qualitative approach in order to accomplish the research objectives. A questionnaire was utilized for teachers and an interview was used as the second instrument for collecting the primary data particularly from the parents. The study sheds light on the misleading factors of unfaithfulness to parents, thought of enmity, revenge and conflict, negativity on Christianity and committing suicide