Balance is the timeless key to life. One does not typically consider the concept of balance before each decision made and after every repercussion, but balance does indeed play a large role in everyday life, whether we choose to see it or not. In the play Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare is able to weave the theme of balance into the story with beautifully intricate, layered detail that one may say nearly reaches perfection. Shakespeare highlights the theme of balance through the presenting it as opposites or foils, embodying balance in Friar Lawrence, Romeo and Juliet’s extremes, as well as within the way the play was crafted to incorporate elements of both comedy and tragedy. Through this exploration, Shakespeare is able to allow the …show more content…
By far, the biggest extremes in the play are the extents of Romeo and Juliet’s love. The two meet for the first time on Sunday evening, and by midday Monday, they have been married. “With love’s light wings did I o’erperch these walls, / For stony limits cannot hold love out,” (2:2:66-7) On their 2nd encounter, before the marriage, Romeo has already gone to the extreme of stating that he is so in love that not even the highest walls could discourage him from getting to Juliet. Both Romeo and Juliet, though at different times throughout the story, threaten to kill themselves so that their suffering might end and so they can be together once more. “In what vile part of this anatomy / Doth my name lodge? Tell me, that I may sack / The hateful mansion” (3:3:106-8) Romeo is asking he Friar where the name Montague sits within himself so that he may cut it out in order to be with Juliet without having to hide it due to the feud. Later, Juliet has a similar idea. “‘Twixt my extremes and me this bloody knife / Shall play the umpire…/ Be not so long to speak, I long to die,” (4:1:62, 66) Juliet, like Romeo is with Friar Lawrence, and is threatening to end her own life if he cannot produce a better idea. This is because Juliet does not want to be forced to marry Paris, but also does not want to be abandoned by her family for not doing so and she cannot tell them about her marriage to Romeo, a Montague. …show more content…
This was done as Shakespeare was able to successfully piece together element of both comedy and tragedy into the play without the play fully fitting into either category. One of the major components of a comedy in the Elizabethan times was that a comedy would end in marriage whereas a tragedy would end in death. Though Romeo and Juliet does technically end in death, it also has a wedding that takes place and therefore abides by both of these rules. All scenes from the beginning of the play until the marriage are comedy, and after the marriage, the true tragedy begins. This is best shown through the reflection scenes, especially those involving communication problems with the Nurse and Juliet. Before the marriage, the scene opens with a soliloquy by Juliet about time and then the nurse brings news. There are communication problems between Juliet and the nurse “But all this did I know before. / What says he of our marriage, what of that?” (2:5:46-7) This is a comic scene as the nurse is rambling about trivial things while the young Juliet anxiously awaits potentially life changing news. This scene is later reflected in act 3, after the marriage, opening with yet another soliloquy by Juliet. The nurse enters in an almost hysterical state and communication problems arise again.
Did you know that Romeo and Juliet was one of the biggest love story of all time. Romeo and Juliet is a story of two star-crossed lovers from two families the Capulets and the Montagues. The Capulets and the Montague had a big fight that made the families very angry at each other. Romeo and Juliet decide to get married. The two couple marry and run away. In the process both of them will die. When it comes to Romeo and Juliet who are the top three people that caused the two to die. The two people that are chosen are Friar Lawrence and Lady Capulet. Friar was chosen because he is the one that married Romeo and Juliet. Lady Capulet was chosen because she is forcing Juliet to marry Paris which is making Juliet want Romeo even more. The third thing
Who would be willing to die for their loved ones? Romeo and Juliet would and did. Romeo and Juliet’s love and death brought two families together who could not even remember the origin of their hate. When the parents saw what their children's love for each other, they realized that their fighting had only led to suffering and insoluble conflict. Romeo and Juliet loved each other to an extent that they killed themselves rather than live apart. They did it with no hiatus. Juliet says before she kills herself, “O happy dagger, This is thy sheath. There rust and let me die.”( 5, 3, 182-183) demonstrating how she would rather die than not be with him.
Romeo and Juliet is Shakespeare's first authentic tragedy. It is about two lovers who commit suicide when their feuding families prevent them from being together. The play has many characters, each with its own role in keeping the plot line. Some characters have very little to do with the plot; but some have the plot revolving around them. While the character of Friar Lawrence spends only a little time on stage, he is crucial to the development of the conclusion of the play. It is Friar Laurence’s good intentions, his willingness to take risks and his shortsightedness that lead to the deaths of Romeo and Juliet.
Romeo, son of Montague and Lady Montague, is introduced into the story as a depressed, upset young man, moping over a girl who will never love him back. As he says to Benvolio, “She’ll not be hit with Cupid’s arrow. She hath Dian’s wit, and, in strong proof of chastity well-armed, from Love’s weak childish bow she lives uncharmed” (Romeo and Juliet I i 203-206). Romeo states that his true love will not love him as he thinks of her, as she intends to stay chaste and turn into a nun, thus upsetting Romeo and putting him in a depressed state of mind. He is a very extreme person, and in a way, that contributes to the hastiness of the whole play, as Romeo is always at either of his two extremes; his mood either quite happy or relatively dismal. He shows that in his thoughts, as he is at first convinced he should never love another woman, but then he meets Juliet only days afterward and forgets about his previous love. His encounter with Juliet is hasty, but he claims he “never saw true beauty till this night” (Rom I v 52). Romeo reveals his personality, and how quickly he is able to get over someone whom he thought he was in love with. However, after encountering Juliet and falling in love once more, Romeo develops an obsession of sorts w...
One of the biggest meanings was that time was running out before them. After they meet, they are on the run for the clock when they only have a couple of days to be together. Another theme is the generation gap. Juliet is only 14 but Romeo is a few years older. This was not a big theme but this is still important for today’s generation. Another major theme is Romeo and Juliet’s love compared to the society around them. They seem so peaceful when they are together but the community around them is violent and chaotic, especially with the feud with the Montagues and Capulets. The families fought over many things including religion, the position of the power that the father should’ve been placed in, and the law and the desire for public honor. There were many horrible things happening to their society. Their love and their untimely deaths were the cause to bring the Montagues and Capulets together. One more important theme that is vital to the plot is the fate between these characters and their futures. The playwright says that the lovers are star-crossed meaning that their fates are controlling them. They see omens throughout the play and when Romeo says “Then I defy you, stars,” it completes the idea that their relationship is in opposition to the decrees of destiny. The horrible events after Friar Laurence’s plans and the lovers deaths are manifestations of death that bring about the end of the lives of these young
“O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo? Deny thy father and refuse thy name;” (Shakespeare, 536). In the book, ‘Romeo and Juliet”, by William Shakespeare there is a deeper meaning that Shakespeare is trying to portray other than parents cannot control their children’s hearts. He is trying to portray that a name is only a name and it doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things and that even with a different name that person will still be the same person they have always been. Shakespeare is using the characters: Juliet, Romeo, Lord Capulet, Friar Lawrence, and the Nurse to get this message across to the reader or the viewer.
of a book a person may want to know what’s the basic outline of the
Many people think that society has changed so much over the years. That the way that children act, has taken a turn for the worst, but in reality children are learning from their ancestors. Children are lying to their parents, they are sneaking out at night to be with a boy that is “the one”, children are going back into the age of Shakespeare. In the play “Romeo and Juliet” which was written by William Shakespeare in 1597, there are two teenagers, Romeo and Juliet, who fall in love with each other. These two teenagers try to do everything that they can to live the rest of their lives together, except their families despise each other, so there is no way that they can live the rest of their lives together. So, many people believe that the way that our children are growing up today is taking away the fun parts of their childhood. However in this play Juliet did many of the things that teenagers are trying to do now. Children and sometimes adults now need to realize how your actions not only affect you but also the people around you, you also need to think about the consequences of the actions you make. At first Juliet falls in love at first sight with Romeo, then she takes a potion, which causes her family to think she is dead, and then how Friar Lawrence helps Juliet with the scheming, which shows how adults have to think about others as well.
Albert Camus points out that for some people, it is easier for them to take their own life, than it is to continue living an empty one. This is the case for the star-crossed lovers, Romeo, and Juliet, in William Shakespeare’s play, Romeo and Juliet. Although there were multiple contributing factors to the suicides of Romeo and Juliet, Friar Laurence is directly responsible for their deaths. He is responsible because he trusted someone other than himself to deliver the letter to Romeo, he gave Juliet the potion, and left when Romeo and Juliet were in danger at the tomb.
...solation much further as she then really had no one to turn to. Despite the ongoing conflict with her parents and their obvious lack of understanding, this was not as hurtful to Juliet because it was what she expected from them. I think that Shakespeare used dramatic irony in this play very cleverly because keeping the marriage a secret would have been hard for Juliet and would have made her feel isolated because she wasn’t even able to tell her parents about it. I think Juliet’s main part in the play was to rebel, and the reasons for this would have originated from her sense of isolation and the bad relationship she had with her parents. I think Romeo and Juliet is a very tragic play. Had there not have been rivalry between the families, Romeo and Juliet would have been a happy couple together and so this play just shows the extent of how terrible hatred can be.
Teenagers that are in love tend to be impulsive and bad at making decisions. In the play Romeo and Juliet, by William Shakespeare, two star-crossed lovers from families that don’t get along have to go against their parents, so they can be together. The language that Shakespeare uses depicts the characters and shows that they are impulsive, which affects the outcome of the play.
Just as the Friar says in the beginning of the Shakespeare play, Romeo and Juliet, “Wisely and slowly, they stumble that run fast.” (II.iii.94). this was a sign of foreshadowing for for the death of the lovers, Romeo and Juliet. Even though fate was a factor that had contributed to a tragic end, there was also personal choice involved, and ultimately, the story may have had a different ending if it weren’t for the flaws of the lovers and their inability to have a grip on reality in dire circumstances. Over the course of the play, the lovers from the conflicting households have not matured and remain rather static in development. Furthermore, in this tragedy, the only son of the montages remains rather childlike, Juliet still seems immature and their relationship over all seems more like a play act on lover rather then something mature and sustainable. Overall, from start to finish, Romeo and Juliet were living in the moment, being absurd and silly rather then focusing on the future and trying to work problems out effectively.
In the tremendous play of ‘Romeo & Juliet’, Shakespeare’s ways engages the audience straight away. The astounding methods he uses hooks the audience into the play and allows them to read on, wondering what will happen. The tragic love story of Romeo & Juliet, as mentioned in the prologue, sets a variety of themes throughout Act 1 Scene 5. Many of the recognisable themes are: youth and age, revenge, forbidden love, fate, action and hate. The main idea of the play is a feud that had been going on between two families, The ‘Montagues and Capulets’, the son of the Montagues and the daughter of the Capulets fall in love and the story tells us how tragic, death, happiness and revenge find them throughout the play.
Romeo and Juliet is a romantic love story about a young lad named Romeo who has fallen in love with Lady Juliet, but is unable to marry her because of a long-lasting family feud. The play ends in the death of both these characters and the reunion of the friendship between the families. Romeo is in love with Juliet, and this is a true, passionate love (unlike the love Paris has for her or the love Romeo had for Rosaline) that nothing can overcome, not even the hatred between their two families that is the reason for the death of their two children. Throughout the play, Shakespeare thoroughly explores the themes of both true love and false love and hatred. Without either of these themes, the play would loose its romantic touch and probably would not be as famous as it is today.
Romeo has a passion for love that is unbreakable, and he will do anything to get who he wants, no matter the consequences that might follow. An example of this is when Romeo goes to Juliet’s balcony and confesses his love for her, but what he does not understand is that “if they do see thee, they will murder thee” (Shakespeare II.ii.75). Romeo has trouble accepting the reality that it will not work out for him or her because of family differences. The intensity of love in both of these texts becomes a dangerous and violent thing.