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Romeo and juliet william shakespeare analysis
Romeo and juliet william shakespeare analysis
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Romeo and Juliet: A tragic confusion.
“Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health, still-waking sleep, that is not what this is” (Shakespeare 1.1. 179-180). A string of contradictions explain the love story of Romeo and Juliet, a contradiction. Some critics consider this story a tragedy because Shakespeare once wrote; “the fault is not in our stars but in ourselves”. While others say it does not follow the standard Aristotelian form of tragedy (Krims 1). Romeo and Juliet can not be a tragedy because no flaw causes them to fall, the lovers, could not have controlled fate, and family and friends assisted them to their deaths.
Shakespeare emphasizes Juliet’s age, fourteen, many times through out the play. She, like many fourteen-year-olds, is very susceptible to getting caught up in the temptation of a forbidden passion (Asimov 479). Now some might consider these fantasies as a flaw, since she gives into them, but since it is so heavily emphasized, it is not likely.
Walter Kerr says that Romeo’s flaw is furry (84). To argue human emotion as a flaw is ridiculous. If we consider these characters as real people, most people in love do not think logically. Romeo avoided confrontation, not encouraged it. Romeo and Juliet, blinded by love at first sight, reacted to their emotions for each other, unable to see any harm in their love.
Fate determined the lover’s outcome in more than one instance. Romeo and Juliet’s fate is determined before you even get into the story “A pair of star-crossed lovers take their lives” (Shakespeare 1.1.6). An illiterate servant delivers the guest list for the ball and asks Romeo to read the list, coincidence…probably not (Asimov 480). Towards the end, the Friar sends someone else to deliver the message to Romeo but an infectious pestilence occurs and a quarantine of the city ordered that prevent the message from ever arriving. Also, at the very end the friar arrives two minutes too late to save Romeo from committing suicide (497). No matter how hard anyone might have tried fate would still ultimately win.
Not only fate helped Romeo and Juliet to their deathbeds, their family and their friends pushed the already delicate situation. When Romeo tells his friend he does not want to go to the party and speaks of a dream he had of his death, Mercutio turns his dream into nonsense and drags Romeo to the party.
Someone once said "An individual can never escape their fate." Fate causes events in a person's life that are only controlled by a higher power. This is evident in the play "Romeo and Juliet" written by William Shakespeare because after reading his play, the reader learns that Romeo and Juliet's fate ultimately leads to their death. In the movie adaptation of "Romeo and Juliet" directed by Franco Zeffirelli, Zeffirelli does not include some of the significant fateful events that occur in the play. However, the events that do appear in the movie makes the viewer understand that the play’s lesson is fate leads to Romeo and Juliet’s deaths.
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.
Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is a play commonly viewed and known as a true love story; however, after analyzing several hints portrayed by the protagonists, it is evident that Shakespeare did not intend to make Romeo and Juliet seem like a true love story but a criticism of how superficial society’s view on love is.
Choices determine every outcome, A better way to put it is “What we do in life, echoes in eternity”, essentially every single decision one makes , no matter how minuscule, will always have an impact in one’s life. Fate isn’t real; Fate is a term commonly used by those that refuse to accept that they control their own future. Teenagers ever since the beginning of time were and still are expected to make poor choices due to their age. But once they learn to take responsibility for their actions they become adults. Both Romeo and Juliet make multiple decisions such as marrying, killing and suicide without stepping back and thinking about the consequences. In the play Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare all the choices made by the star crossed lovers have consequences. The two lovers blame fate for their misfortune. They refuse to believe that fate does not determine the end result, only they can do that.
The play Romeo and Juliet written by William Shakespeare tells the story of two very young lovers who die. It just appears that fate controlled the outcome of the story. But if you really study and interpret the story you will realize it is a series of a few simple coincidences, which made the outcome so tragic.
William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. In the age of Rome and Juliet’s creation, many values of society were. different from those we observe in modern day life. Women did not have equal rights, fathers had a lot more authority over their children and arranged marriages were still practiced.
Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet – popularly considered by many to be the quintessential love story of all time – is a play that we are all familiar with in one way or another. Whether it be through the plethora of portrayals, adaptations and performances that exist or through your own reading of the play, chances are you have been acquainted with this tale of “tragic love” at some point in your life. Through this universal familiarity an odd occurrence can be noted, one of almost canonical reverence for the themes commonly believed to be central to the plot. The most widely believed theme of Romeo and Juliet is that of the ideal love unable to exist under the harsh social and political strains of this world. Out of this idea emerge two characters who, throughout history, have been heralded as the world’s greatest lovers and who have been set up as yardsticks against which future lovers must be measured. The tragic courtship between Romeo and Juliet has become so idealized and revered that even the Oxford English Dictionary lists this definition under the word ‘Romeo’:
The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy mainly because of the downfall of the main characters through weakness or misfortune, which lead to their deaths but these flaws are not the only reasons for this tragedy, it is possible that their fate was “written in the stars” as there are many references made about these stars. Fate (the fact that life is already planned out and is out of human control) must be one of the key factors in causing the tragedy of the “star-crossed lovers” Romeo and Juliet. It is possible that there was “some consequence yet hanging in the stars”(I iv) that already had their lives scripted down and no matter how much Romeo wanted to defy them “I defy you stars”(I, vi) he could not. This must mean that Romeo’s life was already planned out. But fate was not only interpreted in the stars, somehow it seemed that some of the characters foreshadowed their own fate, like Friar Lawrence foreshadowed “love so gentle in [Romeo’s] view, should be so tyrannous in proof”(I, I), this meaning that Romeo may see the love he has now, as wonderful, but as it continues it causes trouble.
says this to threaten Juliet as if to say if you do not do this then
Romeo's inclination to fall in love easily was first shown in his love for Rosaline. It was illustrated perfectly when he first met Juliet. "Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight. For I ne'er saw true beauty till this night". (Lines 50-51, Scene 5, Act 1) He say this but he seemed to have forgotten Rosaline like old news, even though he speaks of Juliet as he spoke of Rosaline only a few short hours before. "One fairer than my love! The all-seeing sun ne'er saw her match, since first the world begun" (Lines 94-95, Scene 2, Act 1). Romeo immaturity was further shown by the way he handled Tybalt's slaying of Mercutio.
Being one of the most debated texts in history, Shakespeare’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’, has the power and ability to divide audiences. Throughout the play, it is seen that Shakespeare has left the audience to contemplate the underlying cause of the Romeo and Juliet tragedy. Shakespeare begins by showing the reckless actions and choices of the lovers, illustrating one of the main contributing factors to their deaths. Friar Lawrence plays a large role in the deaths of the lovers as he is the main instigator, greatly contributing to the deaths. Also, demonstrated through the play is that the lover’s destiny is written in the stars. Without
Shakespeare’s play, The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, depicts an ancient feud ended by a pair of star-crossed lovers’ deaths. A lord and lady from warring families seek a forbidden love with guidance from a friar and nurse. Due to a tragic course of mischances and fateful errors, their attempt of eloping led the lovers to a tragic end. Because of rash decisions, the four characters are torn apart by miscalculating events and misunderstandings. Ultimately, the four characters encounter a heartbreaking ending, as a result of their hastiness.
Unlike Romeo’s adolescents Juliet once again breaks free from that stereotype right before she is going to drink the potion that makes her look dead. She is worried about if she “wake[s] before the time that Romeo comes to redeem [her]” (4.3,35-end). By this she means that she fears that Romeo will not be there by the time she wakes up and she will be stuck in the tomb with all the dead bodies which will inturn make her go crazy. Juliet though she is not as bad as Romeo still makes some adolescent choices that really affect he life like marrying Romeo and also killing herself.
Fate manipulates events such as dreams and visions to bring about the death of Romeo and Juliet. Romeo is sent a prophetic dream by fate, telling him that, “Some consequence yet hanging in the stars, shall bitterly begin his fearful date, with this night’s revels and expire the term, of a despised life closed in my breast, by some vile forfeit of untimely death.” (I. iv. 107-111) Translated into moder...
Although Romeo is immature, it’s unexcused since he’s well onto being an adult by society’s standards, however, Juliet is 14, so for her to be acting like a child is to be expected.