The Middle Finger is the New Thumb

Romeo and Juliet

(Act One, Scene One)

In Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, the wordplay in the first scene of Act One sets the stage for the ongoing conflict and tension between the Montagues and the Capulets.  In the opening scene of Romeo and Juliet, servants of the Capulet family, Gregory and Sampson, instigate a fight with the servants of the Montagues.  Sampson “bites his thumb” at the rivals.  Biting your thumb in Shakespeare’s era is equivalent to giving someone the middle finger nowadays.  Shakespeare was able to include such edgy material in his writing because the plays were performed in Southwark.  This was a neighborhood filled with taverns, brothels, and bear baiting rings.  In order to fully understand the dialogue and events that take place throughout the story, the audience needs to have knowledge of both Shakespearean words and the cultural norms of the early seventeenth century.

“Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?”