The main characters of this play are of course Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet. Juliet starts off in the play as a 13 year old that is naïve and sheltered to the world around her. She quickly matures and becomes arguably the main character of the play since Shakespeare gave her the most soliloquy’s and she undergoes the most change within the time frame of the play. Her journey to becoming a witty, driven woman is staggering from the vulnerable young girl she once was. Romeo in contrast, is in love with the idea of love as seen in the being of the play with Rosaline. He is rash and impulsive leading to multiple consequences in the play. He has a Dionysian approach to life often acting from his emotions, whether that be love or anger in terms …show more content…
In Act 2, scene 2, the Friar remarks how plants, herbs can be used for good or bad. Poison is initially the cause of Romeo and Juliet’s death. When Romeo takes the poison, it is a symbol of the depth to which he loves Juliet unable to live without her in turn taking his own life. The poison as well represents the Montagues and the Capulets deadly feud and how their feud is the catalysis for their children’s death. It shows how society tends to tarnish or ruin the good thing and turn them fatal. The symbol of light and darkness is also plays a key role symbolically. During the day the men fight and prone to violence and the night protects them. Romeo and Juliet often refer to each other as some sort of light source in the darkness. Possibly love is the brightest spot, amidst the chaotic feud of their families. Night time in the play occurs during the key moments for Romeo and Juliet. This is the time where they meet, pledge their love, elope and commit suicide. Night serves as a liberator as well as a sense of foreboding danger, in the darkness Romeo and Juliet are freed from societal rules. Archetypes: An obvious archetype is that of star-crossed lovers. Romeo and Juliet_are tragic lovers that paid the price for their parents’ feud. Romeo is that of a tragic hero. Friar Lawerence is the mentor to Romeo and Juliet giving them advice throughout the play. Mercutio and Benvolio are Romeo’s archetypal sidekicks. The innocents represent Romeo and Juliet since they paid the price of their parents’
Romeo and Juliet was a classic romance novel about passion, love and tragedy, written and first acted in 1595. According to Alan Durband, many versions of Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet all relate to Shakespeare's understanding of early life in Verona. Romeo, a Montague, falls in love with Juliet, a Capulet, because he is romantically inclined. The Capulets and Montagues are feuding households His impulsivity caused a lot of people to die and experience emotional pain. Falling in love with Juliet was the event that started a chain reaction.
Romeo, throughout the story, demonstrates his impulsive and passionate character by his unplanned acts of love. Shakespeare shows Impulsivity and passion in Romeo through his inner thoughts and feelings. Shakespeare uses Romeo’s inner
In the play Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare develops Juliet Capulet as a religious and obedient young girl that flourishes into a confident and self-assured woman. In order to thoroughly portray her personality, Shakespeare uses literary elements such as shortened syntax as well as repetition and paradox throughout the play. To begin, Shakespeare’s use of shortened syntax illustrates Juliet as an obedient and holy individual. An example of this is shown when Shakespeare writes, “It’s an honor that I dream of not” (1.3.68). In comparison to the elongated speech of Lady Capulet, Juliet speaks in very short and straightforward sentences to signify her obedience towards her mother and her inferiority to her.
which are shown constantly throughout a text. The night is the most prominent motif in the play, in the night Romeo and Juliet’s relationship flourishes, protects them and then ends with their deaths. ‘For now, these hot days, is the mad blood stirring’ compared to the endless violence in the day scenes and the arguing that goes on between the lovers the night scenes are often peaceful, hopeful and hide their relationship from their families disapproving eyes. The night is often represented as calming and peaceful which it is until the last scene where in the tomb the true tragedy of the play is shown, as night can also mean danger, the plan which was meant to bring peace to the lovers instead brought only
This is particularly apparent as he continuously and secretly visits Juliet late at night at her house, despite the dangers. His actions help prove that his only desire is to be with Juliet. He wishes for a life that “in it [Juliet] might I love, you honour, serve and please.” ( Line 513). However, their situation holds them back from truly expressing their love for one another. They are star crossed lovers with families that disapprove of their love to the extent that they are described as each other’s “deadly foes.” Overall, these characters help illustrate the main theme: romantic love. As a result of their actions and dialogue, they depict the passion and yearning that characterizes young love. Additionally, they prove that love is an overpowering force that transcends rational thinking and other emotions or values. I believe that as an effect of external forces, their love may be will be impaired which would further the
In Act 2, Scene, 2 Romeo’s attitude to love shifts from an infatuated love towards Rosaline to more true and youthful love he feels for Juliet. When Romeo sets his eyes on Juliet for the first time, he uses light imagery to express his feelings ‘Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon’. For Romeo, Juliet is the sun who has brought brightness into his life like the sun that brought brightness to people’s lives. This beautifully romantic imagery highlights the purity of Romeo’s feelings and underscores to the reader the powerful force of love that Romeo is now entangled in.
Romeo is a very tempered person; his character starts to develop throughout the play in numerous ways. In this essay I will be focusing on Romeos character and how he changes through the play and how develops his humor. To sum it up Romeo is a sneaky , impulsive , lovesick , and static character who is married to Juliet and go through times of sadness and anger. Romeo And Juliet by William Shakespeare.
The play of Romeo and Juliet is different from William Shakespeare’s other tragedies in that there is not a clear distinction of individual heroes. The two protagonists are more passive than active; both are naïve and lacking understanding. The hero is often thought to be the romantic, yet often hysterical, Romeo. But Romeo’s immoral background, emotional outbursts, mishap murders, and foolish actions make him a poor candidate for a hero. Juliet proves to be more innocent than Romeo because she possesses more rigorous moral ethics. Juliet is also more successful in overcoming the obstacles that she is faced with throughout the play. While both characters
Throughout the works of William Shakespeare, the main character is complemented with another character that acts or serves as the protagonist's foil. In Romeo & Juliet, the protagonist, Romeo, is fickle, idealistic, impractical and naïve. To balance Romeo as a character, Shakespeare creates Mercutio; a good friend of Romeo's who acts as his conscience. While Romeo has an idealistic perspective of the world and more specifically of love, Mercutio balances Romeo's weak points as a dreamer. Mercutio is pragmatic, sensible, and clever and a master on word play. Throughout the play, Mercutio mocks Romeo's naïve and ridiculous fascination with love. Early in the play, Romeo goes on and on about his deep infatuation with the beautiful Rosaline.
Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare is a tragic love story. The story concerns the love between two young people, Romeo and Juliet. This is set against a feud between their two families: the Montagues and the Capulets. This feud develops the themes of conflict, deception and dignity in the play. The play includes a lot of themes, love, family, hate, deception and revenge.
Romeo and Juliet is a play about decisions, and more importantly, about action which comes after the decisions. The play demonstrates how love and hate can impair the decision making process, which in turn creates foolish actions. The main characters make decisions based on hate or love, and the actions cause unforeseeable consequences. For all actions, there are consequences - and the more important the action is, the more serious the consequence. The actions in Romeo and Juliet were fuelled by hate.
In the beginning both Romeo and Juliet are in a symbolic darkness. As soon as Romeo sees Juliet he compares her to the torches in the Capulet’s hall: “O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright! (I.II.26)” Later Juliet compares Romeo to a lightening flash, which also ties into the symbolic speed of their love. Lightening is short and sudden, it does not last forever; as is their romance, the darkness will triumph. The duality comes in when they actually start to be together. The light starts to become an enemy because they have to part at dawn. They soon become friendly with the dark again and then forever will be in the dark because they commit suicide. This also brings up another type of duality, the duality of their love. Both Romeo and Juliet are enemies and lovers. As Juliet says, "My only love sprung from my only hate! / Too early seen unknown, and known too late! / Prodigious birth of love it is to me, / That I must love a loathed enemy. (I.V.139-142)” The Nurse and Friar Lawrence both try to help the two of them, but in the end the lovers suffer. Although their deaths are tragic, they are extremely important examples of duality. Without the suicides, the Capulets and Montagues would not have been able to begin fixing old
Shakespeare's famous play of the two star crossed lovers Romeo and Juliet arouses many debates in the literary world; among them belongs the question of who Shakespeare portrays as the culprit responsible for the couples death: foolish young love, societal norms and customs or simply fate?The plot of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare unfolds in Verona, where the protagonists, Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet, each belong to powerful feuding Verona families. Juliet, who is only 14 years of age, has been promised by her father to a man named Paris without her consent, as was common for women at the time. In Verona, expectations and societal norms for men and women diverge. Men are portrayed as sexual, violent, strong characters who fight for honor while women are portrayed as inferior, weaker and represent possessions and conquests of men. Although, Juliet does not conform to these expectations and defies them throughout the play by her actions and behavior until she meets a tragic and untimely death with her lover Romeo. William Shakespeare uses Juliet, an unconventional protagonist compared to the society’s gender roles, and her tragic downfall to criticize the patriarchal society he lived in during the Elizabethan era.
The play, Romeo and Juliet, can be considered to be part of the romance genre because of the plot line of two teenagers falling in love, and the choices they make because of their desire to be with one another. The balcony scene, one of the most famous examples of the raw emotions between two lovers, shows the romantic perspective of Romeo and Juliet. When Romeo sneaks into the Capulet’s house to meet Juliet, she warns him that coming to see her puts him at great risk. Moreover, if her kinsmen find Romeo, they may even murder him. However, Romeo is so in love with Juliet that he declares to her, “And, but thou love me, let them find me here. My life were better ended by their hate than death proroguèd, wanting of thy love.” (Act II
Romeo and Juliet, one of William’s Shakespeare most famous classic works, is a heart-wrenching tale which is composed of passionate love and anger. It is a timeless piece of literature that has lasted to this century. The beautiful story is set in the remote town of Verona. This play recounts a tale of two star-crossed lovers, forbidden to pursue their inescapable love due to the long history of a violent family feud. Passion is strongly represented in Romeo and Juliet’s undying romance. As the story continues, passionate and uncontrolled anger is clearly expressed, fuelled by the noxious hatred of the family’s feud, intensifying as the plot progresses.