William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet

William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet

In this essay I will be looking at each of the Romeo and Juliet

scripts and discussing how the audience would of reacted. I will be

looking at what was going on at the time, what was relevant to the

text and how the writer would of used pop culture from the time it was

made.

In Elizabethan play house there were many differences compared to

morden theatre. Woman were not able to act and men would dress up as

woman. In a play house there was limited lighting, little visual and

sound effects. In the 1500s there was little makeup so when men played

woman a lot was left to the imagination. Usually it would be a young

man or teen that would play the woman because their voices hadn't

broken.

During 1500s a lot was going on in America and England. The English

were going to war with Spain (Shakespeare may of used the concept of

England being at war with Spain in Romeo + Juliet with the Mountgue

England and Capulet Spain). Colonies were being set up in America and

many people were going over there looking for new lives. Sir Walter

Riley had recently returned with a new-found vegetable the potato. At

this time of 1592 Queen Elizabeth I was on the throne. Elizabeth was

one of the daughters of Henry VII; Queen Elizabeth was a popular Queen

who was dedicated to her country.

At the Globe where Romeo and Juliet was first performed would have

been set out in a certain way with each class separated. The poor

would be at the bottom all the poor would be at the foot of the stage

and had to stand. In the top in the box seat would be the well off

class who would have leather chairs and plenty of room to move around.

During Romeo and Juliet it's likely that the audience would have

joined in the play like in panto "He's behind you." For example when

Tybalt said, "I'll not inure him" the audience would have said, "GO on