Contrasts in Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
"O brawling love, O loving hate", conventionally Romeo and Juliet is a
tragedy, but like most of Shakespeare's plays it contains other
elements such as: comedy, love, hatred, conflict and also symbolism,
however Shakespeare's use of contrast to capture the audience's
interest and to create a multitude of other effects is the only method
of creating interest that is consistently apparent throughout the
diverse themes and concepts within the play. Shakespeare uses contrast
in a variety of ways: to draw attention to or to illustrate specific
points he is trying to make, to grasp the audience's attention and to
add drama to key events or ideas in the play.
One of the main contrasts in Romeo and Juliet is that between love and
hate. Those two opposites contrast against each other and also within
themselves; different types of love and hate present themselves within
different situations and within different characters. In the case of
Romeo when Mercutio is killed by Tybalt he avenges his death by
killing Tybalt. His love for Mercutio or, Loyalty is what drives him
to this.
The loyalty and somewhat toughened love between family members can
also sprout hatred towards the other family so much so that through
loyalty "gentle Romeo" was driven to kill Tybalt, "here's much to do
with hate, but more with love" shows how love in Romeo and Juliet
often transformed to hate, and hate is sometimes not far detached from
love.
This type of loyalty contrasts against the idea of sexual love
illustrated by Mercutio who is far more subtle and suggestive "I
conjure thee by Rosaline's bright ey...
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...between the hatred of the Montagues and the
Capulets. When Romeo and Juliet fell in love their differences fade
away; their love was a metaphor for the combining of two households at
the end of the play.
All of the contrast used in the play is used to create one main effect
which is to illuminate how two seemingly different entities despite
their surrounding can become one. It does this by contrasting many
ideas, people and things to eventually create a similarity between
them all. At the end of the play families are united, everything
changes, contrast fades away as the play reaches its climax, although
many things that before seemed so far separated now are joined, it
ends with one stark contrast: between the horror of Romeo and Juliet's
wasted life, wasted love, and the birth of the union between the
families.
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.
The use of lights throughout the play did not vary often. Throughout most of the play, bright overhead lights portrayed the play’s main set room: a small town beauty salon. The lights created an atmosphere that was not only cheerful, but also warm and inviting. On each side of the stage, warm, more natural lighting was used to make the small outdoor areas more realistic. Lights were also used to convey
In a Shakespearian theatre, the actors and directors would have had fairly small budgets and minimal technology to present the enchantment that Shakespeare employed in the formation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. This deficit of technology could be mitigated, however, with the use of a color, a technê that was fairly easy to manipulate. I intend for my production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream to maintain the integrity Shakespeare wrote with. Because of this, I envision the play occurring at The Globe Theatre in London. The production will be staged with as many staging pieces that would have been available in Shakespeare’s time as possible. Because of the modern importance placed on color as a technology, I envision this play being performed to modern
this scene and the end of Act 1 Scene 4. The last scene ended on a
“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.
Displayed in many other works, contrasting imagery, or perhaps simply contrast in general, is present in my excerpt from Othello. For example, Emilia calls Desdemona an angel, while designating Othello a devil. Also, Othello says Desdemona was "as false as water" while, in the subsequent line Emilia accuses Othello as being "as rash as fire." By including these contrasts, Shakespeare heightened the intensity of the moment as well as expressed the mood and thoughts of the characters.
How Shakespeare Presents the Idea of Contrast in Romeo and Juliet Romeo and Juliet is one of the first tragedies Shakespeare wrote yet. of the most enjoyable plays. One of the reasons that it is so enjoyable is because Shakespeare uses so much contrast throughout the the whole play of the game. He contrasts themes, characters, language and structure. make the play exciting and keep the audience on their toes.
In Act One of William Shakespeare’s play, Romeo and Juliet, we meet Romeo, Mercutio, and Tybalt. Right away, we get an idea of who these characters are and what kind of role they will play throughout the story. Romeo, Mercutio, and Tybalt share many distinctive characteristics and personalities in the story. We learn that Romeo is the romantic and handsome son of the Montagues. In the beginning of the story, he was depressed, but his mood quickly changed as the story went on. We also learn that Mercutio is Romeo’s closest and good friend who tries to make Romeo forget about his first love, Rosaline. He is a great entertainer and he’s very sarcastic too. Instantly, we learn that Tybalt is a Capulet and Juliet’s cousin. He is very hot-headed, aggressive, and violent. He loathes the Montagues very much. Finally, in Act One of William Shakespeare’s play, Romeo and Juliet, we meet three characters, Romeo, Mercutio, and Tybalt and we directly get an idea of what the characters are like.
He acts as if he doesn't have a care in the world. He then starts to
Romeo and Juliet, written by William Shakespeare, is a tragic love story about two young lovers who are forced to be estranged as a result of their feuding families. The play is about their struggle to contravene fate and create a future together. As such, it was only a matter of time before Hollywood would try and emulate Shakespeare’s masterpiece. This had been done before in many films. Prominent among them were, Franco Zeffirelli’s 1968 “Romeo and Juliet” and Baz Luhrmann’s 1996 “William Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet.” Both films stay true to the themes of Shakespeare’s original play. However, the modernised Luhrmann film not only maintains the essence of Shakespeare’s writings, Luhrmann makes it relevant to a teenage audience. This is done through the renewal of props and costumes, the reconstruction of the prologue and the upgrading of the setting, whilst preserving the original Shakespearean language. Out of the two, it is Luhrmann who targets Romeo & Juliet to a younger audience to a much larger extent than Zeffirelli.
The lighting played a major role in setting the tone for both the theatre performance and the movie. In both the film and play, the lighting was dimmed and the non-important elements, such as background elements, were often hidden in the shadows. In the film the murky lighting also hid Todd in the shadows, in order to increase the suspense and further emphasize his intimidating demeanor. In the play,
Taymor’s use of color throughout this film works to develop Shakespeare’s characters and symbolizes the most important aspects of the play. Whether it be the inferiority of a character, purity, or vengeance, each color is representative of something major. Although Taymor’s film is simply her interpretation of the characters and the story, the colors that she uses in her adaptation allow the viewers to see a more clear image of the mood, tone, and characterization of the play. While Shakespeare does use some color in his play, Taymor takes the context of the writing and makes a more visual image of what is being said in order to further develop Shakespeare’s characters.
The theme of conflict plays as big a part as that of love. Although it
In King Lear. Shakespeare uses imagery of great imaginative depth and resonance to convey his major themes and to heighten the readers experience of the play. There are some predominant image patterns.
The concept of contrast plays an important role throughout Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Shakespeare provides many examples of contrast signifying it as a motif. He groups the ideas of contrast together into those of some of the most important roles in the play. Helena is portrayed as tall and Hermia is short. Titania is a beautiful fairy who falls in love with Bottom, who is portrayed as graceless. Moreover, the main sets of characters even have differences. Fairies are graceful and magical creatures, yet tradesmen are clumsy and mortal. Additionally, the tradesmen are always overjoyed while the lovers are always serious with their emotions. Contrast layers throughout the whole play, as examples are shown in nearly every scene. Contrast becomes a constant, important motif to Shakespeare’s playwrite.