It is a common opinion that plays should either produce laughter or provoke tears. Playwrights strive to make it so that their plays trigger an emotional response from the audience because it keeps them engaged and captivated by the story being performed. Two works that demonstrate effective techniques for creating a heightened emotional response are Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead by Tom Stoppard and the well-known tragedy Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead is a humorous alternate version of Shakespeare’s Hamlet that follows the lives of two very minor characters from the original play as they try to make sense of the peculiar state of being their friend Hamlet seems to be in. Romeo and Juliet …show more content…
To be specific, the prologue clearly states to the audience that “a pair of star-crossed lovers take their life” (Shakespeare Prologue 6). Right from the beginning the audience is made aware that the story of Romeo and Juliet is not going to have a fairytale ending, which makes their love story an emotional rollercoaster for the audience. Typically people find themselves rooting for the lovers in a romantic story as they overcome the obstacles thrown in their way. However, because the audience already knows the tragic fate of the lovers, the audience is torn between feelings of adulation and frustration. For example, during the famous balcony scene, Romeo sweetly expresses his adoration for Juliet by saying, “I am no pilot, yet wet thou as far / As that vast shore washed with the farthest sea, / I should adventure for such merchandise” (Shakespeare 2.2.81-83). Although this is a sweet expression of love that has the capability to soften the hearts of those in the audience, they know that the kindling of love of Romeo and Juliet will not end happily. Thus, seeing their love begin to bloom confuses the audience’s emotions into a chaotic state of captivation and
The reader realizes this when the prologue states, “Two households, both alike in dignity/ In fair Verona, where we lay our scene, / From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,/ Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean./ From forth the fatal loins of these two foes/ A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life” (I 1-6). This translates to say two families have been rivals for many years. Romeo and Juliet are two from separate rivaling families that fall in love. The reader can acknowledge that these two individuals meet one another due to fate. However, they know that because of their parents’ hatred of each other, they can never be together. “My only love sprung from my only hate!/ Too early seen unknown, and known too late!/ Prodigious birth of love it is to me,/ That I must love a loathed enemy” (I v138-140). A decision is made that the only way to be happy is to take their lives. As soon as the play begins, the audience can foresee a tragic ending because of the language used.
In 1967, Tom Stoppard wrote his famous play, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead after getting the idea while watching a production of Hamlet. Four years later, Douglas Adams got the idea for his Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy while lying drunk in a field in Innsbruck, Austria. In 1978, he would use this idea to produce a BBC radio show, which would be published as a novel in 1979. How can these two works be compared in their use of satire and cynicism?
In Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, two star-crossed lovers betrayed their own family in order to be with each other. Given that both Romeo and Juliet are both young, they made endless sacrifices and decisions just for them to be together without considering the consequences. All of their sacrifices resulted in vain as their tragic conclusion was their own death. Although fate played a significant role in the star-crossed lovers' downfall, Romeo and Juliet paid the consequences of their dreadful decisions due to their reckless rebellion which eventually led to their catastrophic ending. In the first few events that happened in the play, the readers have already seen some poor choices Romeo and Juliet made that eventually led to their death.
In the very opening of the play the chorus is singing about Romeo and Juliet, and predicts their life together as having a star-crossed conclusion. By already knowing from the beginning that their life has an ill-fated conclusion, we can see how their choices brought them to their death. Romeo and Juliet could see that their life together was not going the way they wanted, because Romeo and Juliet wanted to marry each other but there were many barriers between them. Both Romeo and Juliet had many failed attempts in their efforts to trick fate out of what was ultimately going to happen to them both. Hold! Get you gone, be strong and prosperous in this resolve. I’ll send a friar with speed to Mantua, with my letters to thy lord. (IV, i, 122-124)
From the very first words of the play’s introduction, we are reminded of the lover’s fate in Romeo and Juliet and how it affects their world. The prologue in a work of literature is meant to introduce the story, as shakespeare so often does in his plays such as Romeo and Juliet. Shakespeare introduces Romeo and Juliet with the lines “From forth the fatal loins of two foes/A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life;Whose misadventured piteous overthrows/Do with their death bury their parents' strife.” (I.I.V-VIII) It may seem as if Shakespeare decided to spoil the end of his tragedy for his audience before it even started. In fact, some might have been angry at Shakesp...
The lover’s immediate connection is established at the Capulet feast, “Did my heart love till now? Forswear it sight / For I ne’er saw true beauty till this night.” Through doing this, it shows that Romeo is reckless and continues even though he recognizes that they come from different families, “o dear, my life is my foe’s debt”. Throughout the play, it establishes that Juliet allows herself to behave impulsively and be persuaded by Romeo into a impetuous and thoughtless marriage, “The exchange of thy love’s faithful vowel for mine” Juliet expresses her concern that it is too soon to promise to love Romeo when they have only just met, “It is too rash, too unadvised, too sudden / Too like the lightning” This simile is used to convey Juliet’s thought on their sudden love. Although Juliet has recognized how spontaneous they are acting, it does not prevent her from continuing her relationship with Romeo, proving that Juliet is just as impulsive as Romeo. Thus, Shakespeare has skillfully utilized the lovers to demonstrate that their own reckless actions is a reason for their untimely
Romeo is surprised at what he did because Juliet awakes as he dies. To see him dead causes Juliet to stab herself with his dagger, straight through the heart. It's a bittersweet ending to such a famous and timeless love story. The fact that they both died for each other is romantic. The fact that they could have been together makes it all seem a greater tragedy.
In Rosencrantz and Guildenstern by Tom Stoppard, the main characters Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are given a by Claudius. Within its contents, the King of Denmark states that Hamlet was to be murdered upon arrival in England. Unbeknownst to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, Hamlet switches the letter to one that states the people who are to be killed are Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. This is perhaps, due to the lack of action that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern took upon discovering the letter to have Hamlet executed. Both Rosencrantz and Guildenstern had the opportunity to prevent Hamlet’s death as well as their own deaths.
The first five lines of the prologue aren’t about love, but they are about hatred. As the prologue is in the form of a chorus and choruses generally repeat throughout the play, it signifies that hate will be an eminent theme during Romeo and Juliet. There are many death and war references in the prologue which could suggest that Shakespeare is trying to introduce an important theme in the play, which is hate. Romeo and Juliet are described as “star crossed lovers” and as having “death-marked love.” The image of a cross is negative and reminds us of death, as according to the Christian religion Jesus dies on a cross, also the phrase “death marked” also refers to death, these images can be linked with hate, this stresses that love and hate are undividable throughout Romeo and Juliet.
In Romeo and Juliet a significantly horrendous ending takes place, but with Shakespeare's use of foreshadowing he is able to keep the reader from being overly traumatized. For example, when Juliet and Romeo are discussing plans Juliet says, "O God, I have an ill-divining soul! / Methinks I see thee, now thou art so low, / As one dead in the bottom of the tomb"(lll,v,14-56). Juliet has mixed feelings about the arrangement devised by the Friar so that the two of them can be together. Juliet thinks disaster will come of previous tactics developed to allow Romeo and her to be together. In addition, when Romeo is speaking of his love for Juliet he says, "And but thou love me, let them find me here. / My life were better ended by there hate / Then death prorogued, wanting of thy love"(ll,ii,75-77). Romeo's immense love for Juliet will eventually lead to the fall of himself. Death lingers throughout the play between Romeo and his love, Juliet. In conclusion, when Juliet is thinking about Romeo she says, "Give me Romeo; and when he shall die / Take him and cut him out in little stars, / And he will make the face of heaven so fine / That all the world will be in love with night," (lll,ii,21-25). This suggests that in the play Romeo will end up dying and Juliet will be there to see it. Juliet prophesizes over many topics in the play and in the end they become true. Foreshadowing is used in this play to help the audience trounce the dreadful outcome.
...t on the spot, and are too immature. Romeo and Juliet’s spring of blind love quickly deepens and causes them to face situation that they have never faced before. They do not know how to handle their bizarre complications, as the story takes a quick, unpredicted turn and turns into a nightmare for them. Romeo and Juliet are forced to make rash decisions one after the other and do not consider the possible solutions other than suicide, causing them to look up to suicide as their only hope. Their bizarre complications are caused by their blind, immature, and excessive love and their act of taking their own lives is also caused by immaturity, idolatry for each other, and the shortness of time. Romeo and Juliet suicide at the end of the story, due to the shortness of time and the extremity of their love; they believe that they have no other options, other than suicide.
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.
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (R and G…) by Tom Stoppard is a transformation of Shakespeare’s Hamlet that has been greatly influenced due to an external contextual shift. The sixteenth century Elizabethan historical and social context, accentuating a time of questioning had specific values which are transformed and altered in Stoppard’s Existential, post two-world wars twentieth century historical and social context. The processes of transformation that are evident allow the shifts in ideas, values and external contexts to be clearly depicted. This demonstrates the significance of the transformation allowing new interpretations and ideas about reality as opposed to appearance, death and the afterlife and life’s purpose to be displayed, enabling further insight and understanding of both texts.
Romeo says, “Then love-devouring death do what he dare” (2.6.7). Romeo and Juliet make the decision to risk everything, however Shakespeare makes it evident that these decisions are influenced by fate. This is also revealed through Friar Lawrence as he says, “These violent delights have violent ends” (2.6.9). By foreshadowing further, Shakespeare reveals that a grim fate shall befall Romeo and Juliet. Although their love seems perfect, they know the trouble that it will cause their families, making it violent to everyone that is involved. He also reveals his stance through simile, “And in their triumph die like fire and powder” (2.6.10). By comparing their forbidden love to fire and gun powder, Shakespeare reveals that their acts will have consequences. Their love may be powerful, but it may just as well go up in flames for they are fated to die. Although Romeo seems to understand what is fated, he says “It is enough I may but call her mine”, revealing that he is blind to fate in that his only goal is to be with Juliet, no matter the grim cost (2.6.8). Through his use of foreshadowing and simile, Shakespeare reveals that our choices have consequences, but in the end our fate will be our
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, written in the 1960s by playwright Tom Stoppard, is a transforation of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Stoppard effectively relocates Shakespeare’s play to the 1960s by reassessing and revaluating the themes and characters of Hamlet and considering core values and attitudes of the 1960s- a time significantly different to that of Shakespeare. He relies on the audience’s already established knowledge of Hamlet and transforms a revenge tragedy into an Absurd drama, which shifts the focus from royalty to common man. Within Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, Stoppard uses a play within a play to blur the line that defines reality, and in doing so creates confusion both onstage- with his characters, and offstage- with the audience. Using these techniques, Stoppard is able make a statement about his society, creating a play that reflected the attitudes and circumstances of the 1960s, therefore making it more relevant and relatable to the audiences of that time.