Love is often forbidden between two people of vastly different races or families. These people have to hide the love, and when it cannot be hidden there are disastrous consequences. In the novel “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee, this love is one-sided from Mayella Ewell to Tom Robinson. In the play “Romeo and Juliet” by William Shakespeare, the love is mutual between Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet. Both passages have a forbidden love that leads to bad things.
	In the novel “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee, Mayella Ewell is in love with Tom Robinson. However, she is white and he is black, which is socially forbidden in her community, the setting of the story. Tom Robinson does not return her feelings. One day, she comes on to him, but he refuses. This is witnessed by a passer-by, who believes that Robinson is trying to rape her. He is taken to jail under these false charges. Tom Robinson is characterized as a criminal because of his skin color.
	In the play “Romeo and Juliet” by William Shakespeare, the forbidden love is between Romeo and Juliet, two children of opposing families. In the setting of Verona, this love is frowned upon because the two families hate each other. The love is characterized as bad because it is unthinkable that a member from the two families would be in love with each other. As a result of this, both Romeo and Juliet die.
	Forbidden love is the cause of many problems in a story. It caused the incarceration of Tom Robinson, unfairly, in the novel “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee. It also caused the deaths of Romeo and Juliet in the play “Romeo and Juliet” by William Shakespeare.  This is evident in both passages.