Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy, by William Shakespeare, based on the theme of love. This love is presented in many different manifestations such as infatuation and unrequited love. This play is carefully written to show desires, emotions and family life. To the start of the play Romeo is talking of how his love has been 'vexed' he describes love as being a 'wise madness' a 'deadly poison' and a 'healing medicine'. This type of love he is describing in unrequited love, a love that is not returned, in this case it is not returned by Rosaline whom Romeo believes he is in love with. This love is contrasting to a situation coming about in the Capulet family, Paris'loves' Juliet but his love is not returned. William Shakespeare uses his language and words carefully. Sampson and Gregory talk of sex in a crude nature and speak of women as subordinate. The feuding has turned their minds so much that they would even rape the Montague women. They now do not know what true love is anymore. When in 'love' with Rosaline, Romeo tries to express the fact that love has a fatal power, he talks of two conflicting sides 'is love a tender thing….and it pricks like a thorn'. Benvolio also feels that the cure to solve Romeo's love is to love another: "Tut, man, one fire burns out another's burning". Romeo is the stereotypical Courtly lover who pines for the love of a woman who is unobtainable. Romeo illustrates what was expected of a courtly lover: He stays in sycamore groves," Where underneath the grove of sycamore". He shuts himself away banished from society, preferring night to day, "Shuts up windows…. himself an artificial night", from this we seem to get the impression that Romeo is in love with the idea of being in love. The overuse of these oxymoron's in his speech makes the effect become artificial. "Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health and still-waking sleep'. Romeo wants to be a courtly lover so
Romeo realizes this after he kills Tybalt, Juliet’s cousin, in a brawl. At first, Romeo does not want to fight because Romeo and Juliet are already married at this time and he knows that they are cousins. Tybalt asks for a brawl from Romeo, but Mercutio fights instead. Mercutio gets killed by Tybalt and that is what makes Romeo mad and fights Tybalt. At the end of the fight when Romeo kills Tybalt and then realizes what he has done he yells out, “O, I am Fortune’s fool!”
In the fair city of Verona, two rival families, the Montagues and Capulets were involved in a nasty family feud that goes back years before any of the members were born. Even the townspeople were involved in the dispute, because the families were always fighting in the streets and causing disturbances. They disrupted the streets of Verona and even Prince Escalus tried to break up the fighting. They were given a warning, by him that another public fight would result in death. While this was occurring, Romeo, (a Montague) the main character, was getting over his last love, Rosaline, and was very upset. Juliet of the Capulet household had just been introduced to a wealthy young man, Paris, whom her parents wished her to marry. Yet she did not love him. Romeo goes to a party in an effort to forget about Rosaline. At this party he met Juliet, and immediately fell in love with her. He later finds out that she is a Capulet, the rival family of the Montagues. He decides that he loves her anyway and they confess their love for each other during the very famous "balcony scene" in which they agreed to secretly marry the next day. Friar Lawrence agreed to marry them in an effort to end the feuding between the families. Unfortunately, the fighting gets worse and Mercutio (Montague) a good friend of Romeo ends up in a fight with Tybalt (Capulet), Juliet's cousin. Tybalt killed Mercutio, which caused Romeo to kill Tybalt in an angry rage. For this, Romeo is banished from Verona. At the same time, the Capulet's were planning Juliet's marriage to Paris. Juliet didn't want to marry this man so she arranges with Friar Lawrence to fake her own death with a sleeping potion that would make everyone think that she was dead. Friar Lawrence promised to send word to Romeo to meet her when the potion wears off and to rescue her to Mantua, where Romeo was currently staying. There they would live happily ever after. Unfortunately, Romeo didn't receive the message on time and upon hearing of her "death" went to Juliet's tomb where he drinks poison and dies. When Juliet's potion wears off, she wakes to find her lover's dead corpse. She then proceeds to stab herself with Romeo's dagger. The two families find the bodies and with their shared sorrow, finally make peace with each other.
Fate or choice? Choice or fate? How does one separate these ideals? Can one? Shakespeare could not. Nor can we. Fate and choice are so intertwined that our choices determine our fate, and our fate determines our choices. William Shakespeare trusts the audience to scrutinize whether it is fate or choice that rules our human life. Shakespeare aptly conveys this oxymoron (with which people have been dealing for ages) through the evidence and structure of his play, Romeo and Juliet.
wither in their pride/ Ere we may think her ripe to be a bride.” From
“He who falls in love meets a worse fate than he who falls from a
some that I shall show, and I will make thee think thy swan a crow.”
Rosalyn who is going to become a nun. Romeo is upset by this and his
Throughout the entirety of Romeo & Juliet, Shakespeare is hinting at the “star crossed” deadly fate of the lovers spoken of by the chorus in the prologue. Romeo and Juliet are also constantly mentioning their uneasy feelings and how they can sense that something bad will happen, which confirm the aforementioned conclusion. This foreshadowing not only tells us this tragedy planned, but there must be pawns of fate that have to drive Romeo and Juliet together, while at the same time leading them to their death. In Romeo and Juliet, their deadly destiny was written by the universe and characters along the way, such as Capulet, Montague, Nurse, Friar Lawrence, Friar John, and Mercutio.
A young girl, like Juliet can be mesmerized by the idea of love and have the thought in her head that love is all that matters. The intensity of love in both of these texts becomes a dangerous and violent thing. Juliet goes through physical pain stabbing herself so she could be with Romeo after his death. Juliet looks at death as a positive thing because it allows her to be with Romeo again. Before she kills herself she says, “O, happy dagger, this is thy sheath. There rust, and let me die” (Shakespeare V.iii.174-175). In most romantic tales, violence is the last thing you would think of when it comes to love, but it would be different in this play. In both of these texts we see love destroy people mentally and physically; instead of bring happiness to their lives. When Juliet notices that Romeo drank poison and had killed himself, she was not only upset about his death but also seemed more upset that he “left no friendly drop to help me after! I will kiss thy lips. Haply some poison yet doth hang on them” (Shakespeare V.iii.168-170). This bond that seems to be unbreakable between them causes more harm than it would have if they were not together like society would want them to be. During this time period in the 16th century, the parents usually arranged marriages, so this goes completely against societal
of a fight "let us take the law of our side let them begin" Sampson
Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare Romeo and Juliet is one of the best stage plays that Shakespeare has written with a lot of tragedy involved in it and to balance the tragedy Shakespeare has introduced comedy into the play. He achieved this by doing such things as adding comical figures such as nurse or odd behaviour of a character which seems amusing to the audience. The main comedy in the play is introduced when Romeo enters the stage in act one scène one as love sicken person who is over infatuating his love for Rosaline. "Out of her favour where I am in love." (Act1, Scene 1).
Love at initial sight is a broadly debated belief. Some believe that true love that only has physical attraction without a deeper understanding of an individual doesn’t exist. Although, others argue that someone may be able to identify true love instantly. In fact, Shakespeare dedicates part of his play to this matter. In addition, he refers to Romeo and Juliet as "star-crossed lovers". To put it in another way, the two lovers are dissatisfied by fate from the very beginning. They may not have fallen in love like normal young people, but they still truly love one another.
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.
Throughout the years, William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet has been celebrated as one of the great tragedies of all time. William Shakespeare is an English playwright born in Stratford upon Avon during the 1500’s. Two innocent young hearts are caught in the middle of an everlasting conflict. How is the most romantic love story of all time also the most tragic? Is it the burning passion that the two lovers share? Or is it the pure hatred that their families have for each other? A force more powerful than love is expressed in this timeless tale. That force is chaos.
goes to the party held by Lord Capulet in order to see Rosaline. He is