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Themes in romeo and juliet prolouge
Themes in romeo and juliet prolouge
Themes found in Romeo and Juliet
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Romeo Montague is desperately heart sick over Rosaline when he suddenly sees Juliet and falls madly in love. This is an example of his tragic flaw. A tragic flaw is what causes a downfall or bad thing to happen. This is usually also considered a character trait. In the play Romeo and Juliet, written by William Shakespeare, Romeo is impulsive. This could simply be fixed by him thinking before he speaks or does. Although it is not something he does purposefully, it is what causes most of the tragedies in the play. This causes him to make poor decisions for himself and those around him like kiss Juliet, kill Tybalt, and then kill himself.
With that being said, our first example of this that Shakespeare gives us in the play is Romeo kissing Juliet in the party scene (page 1016). This shows that he is impulsive because not only was he at the party for the sole purpose of seeing Rosaline, but he is in the Capulet house! The Capulet’s are his family's sworn enemy. Little does he know, he is kissing the Capulet’s daughter, but he will soon find out. This makes the situation a lot more dangerous because they already know he is there. If they were to find out that he was kissing her, then he could be killed. Thus far, this the example Shakespeare gives us first.
Secondly, it was very risky for
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This is him being impulsive because he did not take the time to think this through. He was not aware that Juliet had just taken a potion to fake her death so they could be together. If Romeo would have checked Juliet’s pulse or breath then he would have realized that she was not actually dead. For some reason, he notices the color in her skin and warmth in her body but just assumes she is actually dead (page 1094). If he would have checked then he most likely would not have killed himself. Not only is this the last we see of Romeo not being cautious, it is the last time we see him in
There are many tragedies to be found in literature, but only a few are like Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. It is a story of forbidden love in which a young couple are torn apart by their families’ feud in Renaissance Italy; the play’s tragic ending has both main characters die. Many aspects of this play have sparked a heated debate: is Romeo and Juliet a tragedy or is it simply tragic? Some critics claim that the play lacks elements that are necessary for a tragedy. Yet Aristotle explicitly states the essential components of a tragedy in his Poetics, and Romeo and Juliet meets those requirements. Romeo and Juliet can be considered an Aristotelian tragedy because of Romeo’s impetuousness, Juliet’s loyalty to Romeo, and the play’s peripeteia.
The first impulsive behaviour from Romeo doesn’t take long to come. Romeo is talking with his cousin, Benvolio, to whether crash into the masquerade feast at the Capulet’s house. Even though Romeo is a bit hesitant at the beginning, thinking that is dangerous and inappropriate to get into the Capulet’s house with Benvolio and Mercutio as they are Montagues “And we mean well in going to this mask, / But ’tis no wit to go.” (Romeo), eventually he has a change of heart and ends up going. This clearly shows that Romeo being young and immature, can’t make right decisions and lets the spark of the moment take over him without clearly thinking the consequences of his actions. He even states that in a dream, he learned that going to the feast was a bad idea, which Shakespeare foreshadows Romeo’s dea...
A tragedy imitates the emotional events of life by showing instead of telling. It does not have to be an exact replication of life, but instead have some realistic aspects to it. This type of play is special because an event in the plot is caused by a preceding choice or action performed by the character. Therefore, unlike a story where occurrences are caused by coincidences, a tragedy must have events that inescapably connect to one another as a result of the characters’ choices. Consequently, this idea of cause and effect must direct the plot of the play until the protagonists have an unfortunate end. Thus, the audience watching the tragedy will experience fear and pity for the characters since their actions will lead to their dramatic downfall. Similarily, William Shakespeare’s, Romeo and Juliet, conveys these fundamental ideas, but it mainly emphasizes on certain tragic concepts. These components, explained by Aristotle, certainly make this play a quintessence of tragedy. They support the chain of events in Romeo and Juliet by using character traits and majors events to connect the plot and illustrate how the characters create their own ending. For this reason, Romeo and Juliet is a genuine tragedy because of its use of significant, tragic elements; tragically-flawed protagonists; and inevitable fate.
In Romeo and Juliet, the tragic love story, emotion is also surrounded with both the protagonists and brought themselves a tragic ending. Early in the story, Romeo and Juliet made an unacceptable forbidden decision which created a path towards their graves. After knowing themselves as the enemy of their household, the two teenagers yet fall in love with each other. Their idiotic actions of love have brought themselves a road to death at the end. Is unworthy to cost your life by your foolish decision. Furthermore, Romeo made another decision out of momentary anger and caused himself a disastrous problem. After Mercutio's death, out of anger Romeo duel with Tybalt and demands to slay him. After his revenge, he brought a death sentence on himself if he is ever found within the city again.
"For never was a story of more woe/ Than this of Juliet and her Romeo." (5.3.315-316) Though many critics would argue that the woe is due only to the theme of fate, but many other factors significantly contributed to this tragedy. The theme of love does not exist only between the play's namesakes, but it extends to the love that many other characters share for this couple. Often, personal flaws interfere with love, and ultimately cause the downfall of another person. Such is the case with Juliet. Though they had good intentions, the individual flaws of the Nurse and the Capulets lead to her downfall at the end of the play.
Particularly, Lord Capulet is a prime example of impulsiveness in the play. Originally, when Paris asked for Juliet’s hand in marriage, Capulet turned him down because he believed she was too young and should marry for love. After the unfortunate death of Tybalt, Juliet’s Cousin, Capulet believed that the only way to make Juliet radiant again was to marry her off. When Paris came asking for Juliet’s hand in marriage, again, Lord Capulet states,” Sir Paris, I will make a desperate tender / of my child’s love I think that she will be ruled / in all respects by me; nay more, I doubt it not.” (3.4.12-14.). However, when Juliet heard word of Capulet’s decision, Juliet refuses. Juliet refusing to marry Paris lead to an argument, in which Capulet threatened to disown Juliet if she refused to marry Paris. This was just one complication in the play, however. Capulet made another rash decision by pushing forward the date Juliet and Paris were to be wed. In fact, this led to the complication of Juliet rushing to Friar Lawrence to plan a fake death so she could be with Romeo. Specifically, Romeo and Juliet meeting was a mistake made by Lord Capulet’s hasty decision. Capulet had to send out invitations to his party, upon which Romeo and Juliet originally met. Too lazy to find a literate ser...
"The essence of being human is that one does not seek perfection," states the British author, George Orwell. Every individual grows to understand that perfection is unachievable, therefore, human beings embody dramatic flaws. Many people tend to be unkempt or have poor manners, while others have behavioral difficulties such as quick temperament, dishonesty, or intentional rudeness. These perplexities can bring about hardships throughout an individual's life. William Shakespeare demonstrates some of these hardships in his puissant drama about The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, that portrays a protagonist, Romeo, who acquires the unfortunate flaw of rashness which later develops into the major downfall of his death.
...te pilot, now at once run on / The dashing rocks thy seasick, weary bark. / Here’s to my love! / O true apothecary, / Thy drugs are quick. Thus with a kiss I die.” Romeo says that its miserable be alive while his love is dying. He takes the poison just to die, thinking Juliet’s also dead. This was the poorest choice he has ever made because if he had waited a little longer, then he would have seen that Juliet is alive. Romeo’s impulse got the best of him.
As the leading characters, Romeo and Juliet both portray the flaw that ultimately leads to the resolution: impulsiveness. Portrayed as emotional throughout the play, Romeo’s hamartia came to play in his vengeful state: “And fire-eyed fury be my conduct now...Either thou or I, or both, must go with him.” (3.1.117-122). Shakespeare’s characterization of Romeo as
“We met, we woo'd and made exchange of vow, I'll tell thee as we pass; but this I pray, That thou consent to marry us to-day.” (Shakespeare II.III. 60). Romeo’s impulsiveness is clearly shown through this quote that he states. The reason for Romeo’s impulsiveness is because he just recently met Juliet and he decides to marry her very quickly. Also this quote reveals to the audience Romeo’s hamartia. Since he is too quick and rash it will inevitably lead him to his fatal death; and through this quote you could see where Romeo went wrong and how it will greatly affect him. Furthermore Romeo leads the audience to believe that he is just infatuated by Juliet’s looks; due to the fact he was strongly in love with Rosaline and then all of sudden falls in love with Juliet and forgets about Rosaline which he claimed to be his one and only love. “Young men’s love then lies Not truly in their hearts, but in their eyes.”(II.III.65). This quote that Friar Lawrence states planted into the readers mind that Romeo might not be truly in love but rather infatuated. This tragic play takes place in fair Verona where a quarrel between two families takes place due to an ancient grudge. Both families, Montague and Capulet hate each other with a great passion. Two lovers named Romeo and Juliet are both from the two opposing families and they love and marry each other in secret without their families knowing. Because of their impulsiveness and rash decisions it causes them to lead themselves to die a tragic death. Foil characters aid to heighten or highlight an attribute in another character which furthers the plot. Romeo is heightened and influenced by secondary characters that eventually brings out his hamartia, peripeteia, and anagnorisis. These chara...
Romeo fights and kills Tybalt just because Tybalt slays Mercutio, despite knowing the consequence of fighting -death- he still takes it upon himself as a way to seek repentance for Mercutio’s death. He is able to restrain himself before the death of Mercutio but after his death Romeo falls to his impulsiveness and fights Tybalt. After killing Tybalt and getting banishment instead of a death sentence, Romeo refuses to look on the bright side and goes to Friar Lawrence where he says “Ha, banishment! Be merciful, say ‘death’.” (Act 3, Scene 3 line 12), this shows that he deems life without Juliet life not worth living. He then continues weep then decides to take his own life, the Friar stopped him but had Romeo stopped being so quick to make decisions he would have realised banishment is much better than death and would be rejoicing instead of weeping. Romeo hears about Juliet's “death” from his servant Balthasar he instantly decides to kill himself, he doesn't mourn his loss or even cry, he simply buys poison, rides to Verona and kills himself. Had he spoken to anyone and taken any advice he would realize that suicide is not the answer but he had his mind made in a minute, he wanted to be dead with his wife. Romeo impulsiveness to make decisions is a very important characteristic for him to have and for the rest of the
Upon receiving news from Balthasar about the death of Juliet, Romeo was devastated and immediately reacted in an impulsive way to the situation before even taking the time to confirm with people such as the friar to make sure that the information he was given was, in fact, accurate. Instead, Romeo rushed off to purchase poison so that he could kill himself and be with Juliet after declaring “Well, Juliet, I will lie with thee tonight” (5.1.37). Had Romeo taken the time to contact the friar rather than acting so hastily and impulsively, he would have known that Juliet was still alive, and that her death-like sleep was nothing more than a part of a deception developed by the friar. Unfortunately for Romeo, because of his haste, he killed himself only minutes before Juliet awoke, and had he waited a few minutes to revise and analyze his decision, he would have lived to see Juliet’s awakening and the two lovers could have been reunited. Romeo’s own death was not all the consequence that resulted from his hasty decision. When Juliet awakened, all that was left of Romeo was his dead body as pointed out by the friar when to Juliet he sated “Thy husband in thy bosom there lies dead” (5.1.160). The sight of Romeo’s dead body had horrified Juliet, which led her to stab herself with Romeo’s dagger, committing suicide. Therefore Romeo’s
One of Romeo’s acts that shows his rashness is his marrying Juliet. After Juliet says that she does not want to marry Romeo, he persists and says that he wants “Th’ exchange of thy love’s faithful vow for mine” (2.2.134). Romeo does not consider the consequences of their marriage. He simply wants his wish fulfilled. He is rash because he wants to rush into a marriage for which he is not ready. Romeo’s rashness persists throughout the play and leads to his downfall.
Romeo’s numerous rash decisions demonstrates his great impulsiveness. Romeo at first grieves over his unreciprocated love for Rosaline, but after he sees Juliet; he forgets about Rosaline entirely. His hastiness leads him to make decisions that are not intelligent or to his benefit. Shortly after meeting Juliet, he asks her to “exchange [her] faithful vow” for his ( 2.2.132). Romeo’s recklessness is evident that he does not think before he makes important decisions; prompting him to propose to Juliet just hours after their first meeting. Yet the morning before, Romeo was suffering from depression because he could never have his Rosaline. After what seems like a lifetime of loving Rosaline and promising to never love anyone but her, Romeo sees Juliet and instantaneously all his thoughts of Rosaline vanish. Romeo becomes infatuated with Juliet, with whom he exchanges less then fifty words before “falling in love.” The next morning he begs Friar L...
Romeo, at the beginning of the play, is a love-struck, immature, and impulsive young man. In the beginning of the play, Romeo believes that he has found the person and place “where I am in love” speaking of Rosaline, a girl who he barely knows (I.i). Romeo is love-struck and impulsive, saying that about Rosaline after just meeting her. Romeo doesn’t know what real love is, he is just an immature young man who doesn’t see reality as it is. Towards the end of the scene, Romeo sees a new girl named Juliet and questions if his “heart {has} loved till now” (I.v). Romeo forgets and moves on from girls he “loved” very quickly making him immature and an impulsive lover. He “loves” the prettiest girl he see without even meeting her. Overall, Romeo says and does actions without thinking and moves on very quickly.