Romeo and Juliet Essay
Literature: The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet
Background: Romeo and Juliet are two lovers, separated by the ongoing feud between their families. They become so infatuated with each other, that they have Friar Laurence secretly marry them. The two meet in secret until Romeo is banished from the city of Verona after he slays Juliet’s cousin, Tybalt. Juliet’s parents, who know nothing of her affairs, ‘encourage’ her (rather violently) to marry her suitor, Paris. Juliet is distraught, and the Friar helps her fake her death to avoid marrying Paris. Romeo does not receive the message that Juliet’s death is a sham, and he takes his life out grief. Upon Juliet’s awakening, she finds her husband dead and proceeds to take her own
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The nurse seems to almost think of Juliet as a child and aggressively indicates that SHE, not Lady Capulet, was the one who raised Juliet. This bond may be an explanation for the Nurse’s mercurial and maternal persona throughout the story. The Nurse starts her role as Romeo and Juliet’s matchmaker in the end of Act one, Scene five when she hints to Romeo how virtuous Juliet is, and how the man who marries her will become quite wealthy. The reader also sees this behavior in Act two, Scene four, when The Nurse tells Romeo what a good heart he has, and hints that Juliet wants a proposal. This is a crucial reason that the Nurse is at fault here. She has evoked the idea of marriage to Romeo and had she not, maybe this infatuation would’ve worn out like most infatuations do, and both characters would still be alive. The reader can see the Nurse show another aspect of motherhood in Act 3, Scene 5 when she suddenly decides she knows what is best for Juliet. After standing up for her at first, the Nurse quickly changes her mind and tells Juliet that Romeo is as good as dead, and marrying Paris won’t be as bad as she thinks. This is another justification for the fact that the Nurse is partially responsible for the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet. Yes, Lord and Lady Capulet do not better Juliet’s condition, but being betrayed by the Nurse, who was even closer to Juliet than her parents, caused Juliet to be even …show more content…
While his intentions are good, he struggles to practice what he preaches, and he doesn't know when to stop. In Act two, Scene six, Friar Laurence warns Romeo of the danger of sudden joys, and how they usually do not last long. He advises him to love moderately. This would be good advice if it weren’t for the fact that he contradicts himself moments later when he marries Romeo and Juliet. This is obviously an issue, because if he wouldn’t have been so spontaneous, the marriage could’ve been prevented, therefore preventing the tragedy (or at least making it less austere) He is too optimistic, and while he aims to unite the families, that can’t happen if the families don’t even know what is happening. In Act four, Scene five, when the Friar is at the Capulet house, grieving over Juliet’s “death” (which he knows is not the real deal,) he passes up the golden opportunity to tell everyone what’s happening. If the Capulets were to learn their daughter was not actually dead, they would conceivably be overcome with joy, and therefore much more receptive to Juliet’s marriage. This is a major blunder on the part of the
The Nurse has a stronger relationship with Juliet over her own mother, Lady Capulet. The nurse really cares for Juliet and loves her like a daughter because she lost her daughter Susan. “Susan and she-God rest all Christian souls!-/Were of an age: well, Susan is with God…”(Ⅰ,ⅲ,20-21). The Nurse lost her daughter, Susan, and she was born on the same day as Juliet. This leads me to believe that the Nurse must be replacing her own loss with the life of Juliet. The Nurse did do many things that only mothers do. “She was wean’d,-I never shall forget it…”(Ⅰ,ⅲ,26). This quote says that the nurse will never forget the day that Juliet was weaned off of her breast milk. Breastfeeding is something
Juliet's Nurse is first introduced to the play in Act I Scene 3. It is
but then again she is like a surrogate mother. The nurse is still a servant and she is n no position to argue against him, because she is sticking up for Juliet would have made Lord Capulet more angry. Although Lord Capulet should not speak to the nurse like he does he should ask her to leave, but this shows how angry and violent Lord Capulet
Friar Lawrence plays a very important role in the play between Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare has presented Friar Lawrence much to blame for the horrific ending of their lives. Not only was Friar Lawrence the brains behind the plan of getting them together after his banishment he was also the man who agreed to the marriage in the first place. ‘for doting, not loving, pupil mine’ Romeo holds a lot of respect for Friar Lawrence and he is a father figure towards him in the play. Friar Lawrence’s opinions therefore are considered by Romeo so therefore he should have been more careful in his decisions of marriage. Before agreeing to marry them both Lawrence had his suspicions that Romeo did not love Rosaline it was just lust, he therefore thought that this was the same case with Juliet. Shakespeare holds him to blame by allowing him to marry Juliet which causes all the problems and betrayal by easily believing that he loves Juliet.
Love is dependent upon the slightest change, but it can cause the utmost drastic consequences. This is the truth of two lovers in William Shakespeare’s furthermost celebrated play, The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet. In the case of Romeo and Juliet, love is inimical. Romeo comes from the family of Montague while Juliet comes from the family of Capulet. For reasons unknown, these two families are sworn enemies. However, Romeo and Juliet are not. In fact, they are in a secret relationship that only two others know about. The only two that Romeo and Juliet trust, the Nurse and the Friar. While the Nurse, Friar, and Juliet’s father, Lord Capulet, all have good intentions, they are all responsible for the suicides of Romeo and Juliet in the
Someone once said, "All literature shows us the power of emotion. It is emotion, not reason that motivates characters in literature." This means that all literature is an expression of emotion and it is the emotion that is the main character, and often the setting and theme as well. It is not the reasoning within the story that draws you in, but rather how the story deals with the emotions we all have felt. It provides us with a possible scenario of the impact of focusing only on emotion and losing focus on reason. The power of emotion driving literary characters to see their emotions through, make us wish we could feel so strongly about something or someone and the way we would all like to think we would see our emotions through. Atticus Finch, from the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, and Romeo Montague from Shakespeare's drama, The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, both are driven only by their emotions. Both are so driven to see their powerful emotions, no matter what might happen to them, that their emotion and the opposite emotions of everyone else around them becomes the main character, setting and theme in these stories. You are drawn in to the emotion by asking would I have the courage to stand up to my home town full of racism to seek justice for a black person as Atticus did in To Kill A Mockingbird? Could I be so in love, as Romeo was, that I would be willing to give up everything I had, my family, my position in society, even my own life, for the love of another person?
The Nurse was also responsible for the tragic ending of the play. When Romeo and Juliet met, the Nurse became their messenger. She helped them be together even though she knew Romeo was a Montague and that Juliet's family would disapprove. The Nurse brought news to Juliet from Romeo telling her to sneak out so they could get married. She helped Juliet get out of her house by bringing her a rope ladder to climb off her balcony with and telling her parents that she went to shrift. The Nurse kept Romeo and Juliet's marriage a secret from the families. When Juliet's parents said she should marry Paris, the Nurse agreed and said that Juliet should forget about Romeo because he was in Mantua. With the Nurse no longer on her side she had no one to help her and back her up but the Friar. In this way she had a large impact on the terrible ending of Romeo and Juliet.
Through the flaws in the characterization of his characters, Shakespeare allows their weakness to manipulate and cloud their judgment. This fundamentally leads to the outcome of Romeo and Juliet, with each weakness presenting a conflict that alters the characters fate. Being especially true with the star-crossed lovers, William Shakespeare leads their perfect love into tragedy with these conflicts. In Romeo and Juliet, Juliet, Friar Lawrence, and Tybalt all contribute to conflicts that enhance the plot. From destructive flaws in their characterizations, Juliet, Friar Lawrence, and Tybalt are all consequently controlled by their weakness, therefore affecting the outcome of the play.
Nurse has betrayed Juliet, she and Friar Lawrence were the two who knew and believed in Romeo and Juliet's love, and Nurse abandons Juliet in a way in this scene, telling her to marry Paris, and forget Romeo. I think that when she is saying this that she is thinking of herself, and of what she could lose if they were discovered, but at the same time she was thinking of Juliet's well-being, and that she would be safe in Verona, with Paris: "I think that you are happy in this second match, For it excels your first; or, if it did not, Your first is dead, or 'twere as good he were As living here and you no use of him. " Lady Capulet shows a very different love for her daughter to the love which Nurse shows her, she has hardly looked after Juliet for much of her life, and is distanced from her. Around the period of time when the play was set there was a social tradition for the upper classes to have a 'wet nurse'. It would not have been accepted in soc... ...
Romantic love stories are often ended with a tragedy, because of loss of passion or a loved one. These tragedies are often the result of one person’s actions that ended someone’s life or love. In the Romeo and Juliet play written by William Shakespeare, two citizens of Verona come together and fall deeply in love. Unfortunately their love comes to an end, along with their lives, because of a misunderstanding and a persistent feud between their families. Although there are many characters in this play that have contributed to Romeo and Juliet’s death, Friar Laurence is the person most to blame.
blaming Romeo and feeling sad he had to go. She feels the pain of his
In Romeo and Juliet, to what extent is the Nurse to blame for the tragedy? In Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, the Nurse, by her thoughtless support of the affair between the lovers and fickle counsel, is partly to blame for the tragedy. However, it is not one factor alone that brings about the death of Romeo and Juliet, but a combination of significant actions and underlying forces. In spite of this, is certain that the Nurse played a serious role in encouraging the lovers?
The Nurse is at fault for the death of Romeo and Juliet. The Nurse could have stopped the death at the end of the tragedy if she stopped the love from the beginning. The Nurse knew that the family was at feud with the Montague’s,
Shakespeare presents her in direct contrast to Romeo in the first scene who is lovesick and quiet. Again, this technique grabs the audience's attention because of the change in mood. The Nurse is a very garrulous character and is often tactless and disrespectful towards Lady Capulet in this scene. When Lady Capulet is talking to Juliet about marriage the Nurse repeats with relish her husbands joke when the baby Juliet falls down 'A was a merry man - took up the child. 'Yea,' quoth he, 'dost thou fall upon thy face?
Because of the Friar’s yearning to end the Montague-Capulet feud, the ultimatum imposed by Capulet to his daughter and their superficial relationship, and the Nurse’s support and betrayal, Romeo and Juliet chose to end their lives. The Friar’s desire to end the feud by marrying the star-crossed lovers, and his full confidence in his plans, were unwise and indirectly caused the deaths of Romeo and Juliet. Capulet’s disconnection from Juliet and his ultimatum causes Juliet to consider suicide as a way out of her situation. The Nurse supporting Romeo and Juliet’s marriage, only to betray her later, also contributed to their deaths.