Throughout The Two Gentlemen of Verona, scenes featuring Lance and his dog, Crab are juxtaposed with (and perhaps reference) interactions between the friends and lovers central to the plot. The primarily comic scenes in which Lance and Crab are present often illuminate problems in the relationships between the other characters in the play. Although Crab never speaks and is in fact a dog, his interactions with Lance as Lance explains them, mock the celebrated love between male friends and the much afflicting Petrarchan love that threatens it.
Much of the interaction between Lance and Crab throughout the play serve as referential to main plot, featuring the high-born lovers. They first appear together en route to board a vessel bearing Proteus to Milan. Upset by their approaching departure as well as by Crab’s apparent indifference, Lance claims;
I think Crab, my
dog, be the sourest-natured dog that lives. My mother weeping,
my father wailing, my sister crying, our maid howling, our cat
wringing her hands, and all our house in a great perplexity, yet
did not this cruel-hearted cur shed one tear. He is a stone, a
very pebble-stone, and has no more pity in him than a dog (2.3.4-9).
Lance’s excessive contrasting of Crab with each of the members of his house emphasizes Crab’s expressionless departure from them. Lance clearly does not seem to possess any misgivings about Crab’s indifference in relation to the fact that he is a dog, as Lance recounts the distress of his cat, who wrung her “hands” (2.3.7) which by her very nature, she cannot have done. Similarly, Crab likely does not weep because he cannot weep, a notion that Lance seems to overlook. Lance’s desire to see Crab weep is perhaps pertinent in that his speech occurs immediately following an exchange of vows between Proteus and Julia, before Proteus departs for Milan. Proteus remarks of the weeping (and now absent) Julia, “What, gone without a word? / Ay, so true love should do. It cannot speak” (2.2.16-7). That Proteus should make such a claim undermines his vows to Julia, as well as the Petrarchan mode of love, which aims to win the woman with words. Because of the proximity of the two scenes as well as a similar intent on weeping expressing true emotion, it is perhaps possible to read the interaction between man and dog as a mocking representation of the lovers and their separation. While neither Lance nor Crab seems to face detachment from a lover, Lance is nonetheless concerned with the manner in which one expresses a true emotion, such as sadness or regret.
The plays starts with the two friends together, Valentine is getting ready to leave for the court of Milan, and is chastening his friend Proteus to accompany him, and leave Julia the girl he loves, and the dull life of home "Than, living dully sluggardiz'd at home" (1.1.7). Proteus being love struck is willing at this point to stay at home, and let his friend leave alone. Showing at this point that love does outweigh friendship. After Valentine leaves, Proteus's father is persuaded to make his son seek out his future away from home also.
Romeo and Juliet is Shakespeare's first authentic tragedy. It is about two lovers who commit suicide when their feuding families prevent them from being together. The play has many characters, each with its own role in keeping the plot line. Some characters have very little to do with the plot; but some have the plot revolving around them. While the character of Friar Lawrence spends only a little time on stage, he is crucial to the development of the conclusion of the play. It is Friar Laurence’s good intentions, his willingness to take risks and his shortsightedness that lead to the deaths of Romeo and Juliet.
Love in William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet "Romeo and Juliet" is a love tragedy based on different kinds of loves. Romeo and Juliet become married in a forbidden relationship over the high tension brawl between their rival families which Shakespeare clearly shows in the play. Despite the family brawls, the pair decides to let their "perfect" love defeat all. Peoples ideas have changed in the space of 400 years, for example back then some loves featured in this play would produce different reactions to the audience, than today. Shakespeare opens the play with the chorus who speaks a sonnet, where love imagery is found; "Two Star-crossed lovers" =
tells us that the play is set in Verona, and that a couple take their
In the time of William Shakespeare where courtship and romance were often overshadowed by the need to marry for social betterment and to ensure inheritance, emerges a couple from Much Ado About Nothing, Hero and Claudio, who must not only grow as a couple, who faces deception and slander, but as individuals. Out of the couple, Claudio, a brave soldier respected by some of the highest ranked men during his time, Prince Don Pedro and the Governor of Messina, Leonato, has the most growing to do. Throughout the play, Claudio’s transformation from an immature, love-struck boy who believes gossip and allows himself to easily be manipulated is seen when he blossoms into a mature young man who admits to his mistakes and actually has the capacity to love the girl he has longed for.
Capulet and Romeo Montague, face a bigger problem; forbidden love. Taking place in Verona, an ignorant Romeo first meets a childish Juliet at the Capulet’s party. Romeo and his kinsman, Benvolio, attend the party masked, searching for his first love, Rosaline. Coincidentally, Romeo meets Juliet, a new beauty, and falls in love with her not knowing the fact that she is a Capulet. The feud continues, leading one mistake after another, until both families realize their selfishness at the last minute. The unfortunate tragedy of two “star-crossed lovers” is ironically caused by the impetuosity of Romeo and Juliet themselves (Shakespeare 7).
	The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare clearly demonstrates how tragedy can be caused when the rage of past generations is carried over to a younger generation. The key factor that demonstrates this theme is the constant feud between the Capulets and the Montagues. The rage between the two households directly relates to the tragic death of Romeo and Juliet.
Techniques and Devices Shakespeare Uses to Show the Power and Beauty of the Love Between Romeo and Juliet
the play is not solely about love but also a lot of hatred is involved
In the tremendous play of ‘Romeo & Juliet’, Shakespeare’s ways engages the audience straight away. The astounding methods he uses hooks the audience into the play and allows them to read on, wondering what will happen. The tragic love story of Romeo & Juliet, as mentioned in the prologue, sets a variety of themes throughout Act 1 Scene 5. Many of the recognisable themes are: youth and age, revenge, forbidden love, fate, action and hate. The main idea of the play is a feud that had been going on between two families, The ‘Montagues and Capulets’, the son of the Montagues and the daughter of the Capulets fall in love and the story tells us how tragic, death, happiness and revenge find them throughout the play.
Have you ever been in love before? Many would say that love is hard to come by, and even harder to maintain, while some would say the opposite. In Shakespeare’s play, The Tragedy of Romeo & Juliet, he explores similar concepts related to love and infatuation. Although the reader never directly hears from Shakespeare, one could infer that his own thoughts are similarly mirrored in his characters, with the play serving as a warning tale of sorts, and the various roles echoing different dangers when it comes to love, which of there are many. More specifically, Romeo Montague and his actions in the play are very intentional, as they help explain Shakespeare’s intentions and his own personal thoughts on the topic of love and its hazards, as well
With two drastically different relationships with their spouses, analysis of Portia and Calpurnia’s relationships and care for their husbands leads one to see that Portia is the more admirable and redeeming character. Although both couples equally loved each other, the ways in which they reacted and influenced each other differed greatly.
The epiphany of this however, is realized at the end of the play. Nearly every scene in the play, either intentionally or unintentionally, portrays a struggling relationship between a figure that possesses power and a figure that is suppressed by that power. The play explores the relationship between master and servant very dynamically. In the opening scene, the boatswain (servant) is very oppressive towards the noble men (master) due to their sophomoric attitude in a dangerous situation like that. This is especially visible when Antonio, the usurping Duke of Milan, asks the boatswain where the master is, to this, the boatswain replies, “Do you not hear him?
I aim to show how the “human” relationships in the play reflect real life relationships within Shakespeare’s own society (as well as his future audience), for which his plays were written and performed. Ferdinand and Miranda’s type of relationship shows Shakespeare’s ideas about true love, recognising not just the emotional side of love, but the physical nature too. Miranda promises Ferdinand “The jewel in my dower” which is her virginity, a prized thing in Jacobean times. This knowledge would have been known by Shakespeare’s audience, and knowing this helps us to understand Prospero’s protection of his daughter from Caliban. Ferdinand is asked not to have lustful thoughts about Miranda as “Sour-eyed disdain and discord shall bestrew the union of your bed with weeds so loathly that you shall hate it both” meaning that sex before marriage will poison the lovers’ marriage bed so that they will both grow to loathe it.
Love however, is the source of much confusion and complication in another of Shakespeare’s comedies, Twelfth Night. Men and women were seen as very different from each other at the time the play was written, they were therefore also treated in very different ways. Because of this Viola conceals her identity and adopts the role of a man, in order to better her safety whilst being alone on the island, and to get a job at Count Orsino’s court. In the play Shakespeare uses the gender confusion he has created from obscuring characters identities to explore the limits of female power and control within courtship, and their dominance within society. Violas frustration surrounding her inability to express her feelings to the Count because she is a woman is an example of the limiting rules of courtship which were upheld at the time. (Aside) ‘yet, a barful strife! Whoe'er I woo, myself would be his wife.’ Here she is already expressing her anxiety and emotion at being a woman, and having to keep her emotions hidden from those around her. She longs to be able to express her love as a man could, and in her disguise as Cesario she finds an opportunity to vent her feelings for the Count, but concealed as his words and towards Olivia. Viola is unaware of how her words may sound to Olivia because she is aware of their gender boundaries however Olivia isn’t and soon falls for Cesario. Because Olivia is a Lady and head of the household, and especially how she lacks a father figure, she has a lot more freedom in courtship. Duisinberre comments on this saying, ‘...Viola and Beatrice are women set free from their fathers, and their voice is that of the adult world.’ This is seen when Olivia immediately takes the dominant role in her and Cesarios relat...