Romeo and Juliet analysis, thesis help

[ShokuMasterLord]

So basically, I have this project in Language Arts to write a research paper analyzing Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. I decided my thesis would be Romeo and Juliet's historical context in terms of the influence by Roman and Greek culture as well as the Renaissance and its effects on the elements of the play. My teacher, however, says that it would have to be an argument, ie. there would be two sides of the idea of historical influence on Romeo and Juliet and I would have to argue one of them. Do any of you intelligent people have any idea how I could do this? I asked her if saying something like "history influenced it positively" would be acceptable. She said no. Some ideas that I have include "most noticeable influence in the language rather than themes" and some might argue that "themes were influenced by history more than the language."

Thank you all.

[gmalivuk]

This isn't a linguistics question.

[PAstrychef]

So basically you're writing a To What Extent paper (as opposed to a compare and contrast paper). You want to show to what extent did older cultures influence the writing of Romeo and Juliet.
First find some examples of this influence. If you can't, then you paper is- I looked, but I couldn't find it, sorry. If you can, outline them and explicate why/how they fit the question.
Show each example, show its origin in older culture, show where it fits into R&J.
Come to a conclusion about how this influence shows itself in R&J and what it has to say about Shakespeare's writing in general.
Each of these steps can be expanded until it's as long as you need it to be.
Have Fun!

[ShokuMasterLord]

This isn't a linguistics question.

But it's a language question.

[gmalivuk]

It's a literature question, and the rules of the language/linguistics forum explicitly say that literature and writing questions don't belong in that forum.

[ShokuMasterLord]

If you want to move the thread or get someone to move it, you can; I don't care.

Thanks, PAstrychef.

[gmalivuk]

That post was to explain why I was already moving it from Linguistics to Books...

[RabbitWho]

Is Romeo and Juliet made less accessible in todays society through the presence of... blah blah blah Roman influence or whatever you said... ?