Although Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy of two young lovers caught in the whirlpool of their own youthful passion, it is also a tragedy of two young people at the mercy of a feud not of their making and of fateful events over which they have no control. Regardless of our individual response to this play, we have a common response of deep sadness over the senseless deaths of the two young lovers. Regardless of the cause of the tragic events, we are on their side.
There are several ways to think about Romeo and Juliet, but recent discussions of the play look at the form and language of love that Shakespeare uses and how his use of one particular form, the sonnet, enhances our sense of the play. By directing our
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Shakespeare himself became a master of the sonnet, having written a total of 154. Like Petrarch, his subject matter was love, but Shakespeare was an innovative with the sonnet as he was with his plays. He wrote of the relationship between the intensity of love and its emphemerality, as in Sonnet 73, quoted above, and of the reality rather than the the reality of the sonnet lady, as in Sonnet 130: "My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun." Clearly, then, his decision to evoke the sonnet and then actually to embed one within the action of Romeo and Juliet was a conscious one, intended to draw attention to the way those conventions were at work in the play.
Romeo and Juliet begins with a choral sonnet that announces the fate of the "two star-cross'd lovers" (prologue.6; all line numbers are from The Riverside Shakespeare [Boston: Houghton-Mifflin], 1974). After the opening scenes that establish the rowdiness and ribaldness of Verona's youth, Romeo enters. He is in many ways a stark contrast to his companions, especially Mercutio, who have displayed all the energy and crassness associated with adolescent boys. Above all, Romeo is a Petrarchan lover languishing over the unattainable Rosaline: "O, she is rich in beauty, only poor / That, when she dies, with beauty dies her store . . . / She is too fair, too wise, wisely too fair / To merit bliss by making me despair / She hath forsworn to love, and in that vow / Do I live dead that live to
Romeo and Juliet, a tragic love play written by William Shakespeare, is worldwide topic of discussion. Opinions on whom or what is to blame for the death of these two star-crossed lovers varies depending on the viewpoint. Because they put their children in that difficult stance of hatred, the families face accusations. While the families face blame, Friar Lawrence receives the same for not acting appropriately and in a timely manner. But, at the end of the day, the curse of youthful impulsiveness is the primary cause of this heartbreaking story.
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
William Shakespeare is the world’s pre-eminent dramatist whose plays range from tragedies to tragic comedies, etc. His general style of writing is often comparable to several of his contemporaries, like Romeo and Juliet is based on Arthur Brooke’s narrative poem, “The tragical history of Romeo and Juliet”. But Shakespeare’s works express a different range of human experience where his characters command the sympathy of audiences and also are complex as well as human in nature. Shakespeare makes the protagonist’s character development central to the plot.
Love is an important theme in most of Shakespeare’s play, including in Romeo and Juliet because love is a stronger force than all the animosity and forces of fate in Romeo and Juliet. In Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare’s play, Shakespeare explores Romeo’s change in attitude to love between Rosaline and Juliet. In Act 1 Scene 1 Shakespeare introduces us to Romeo’s passionate desire towards Rosaline through the use of oxymoron, monologues and vivid imagery. In contrast, in Act 2 Scene 2, when Romeo is addressing Juliet, his language shifts through the use of light, religious and mythical imagery to reflect his newly found romantic love to Juliet.
William Shakespeare was a playwright and author in the 16th and 17th centuries, with at least 37 plays and 154 sonnets to his name. His many works span in genre and form, from the tragedy of ‘Romeo and Juliet’ to the poem of a father’s unconditional love and eventual acceptance of a loved one’s death. Through a vast variety of linguistic and structural techniques, he is able to promote, develop and explain his personal ideology of love. Evidence of this is seen through the character of ‘Romeo’ in ‘Romeo and Juliet’ and the narrative voice in a selection of sonnets.
Approximately four hundred years ago, in 1597, the famous playwright, English poet and actor, William Shakespeare, wrote the well-known play, Romeo and Juliet. This dramatic, romantic story is set in the town of Verona, and is about ‘a pair of star-crossed lovers,’ who express their undying love for each other. In the end, their undying love for each other ends tragically, but it does have one good outcome – it puts an end to the family’s ancient feud. Furthermore, Romeo and Juliet’s tragic ending is not to be blamed upon completely themselves, as Friar Laurence, Tybalt and Lord Capulet were all somewhat involved in the deaths of Romeo and Juliet.
In William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, many characters meet their tragic end as a result of a plethora of factors, from old rivalries to new love. It is a tragic story of two lovers, destined to complete each other, but also to end a bitter feud through their deaths (Prologue.3-6). However, if the blame had to be ascribed to one person in particular, that person would be Romeo Montague. Throughout the play, Shakespeare showcases Romeo’s irrationality and poor decision making, leading to the gruesome deaths of his loved ones. Romeo is most to blame for the tragic slew of deaths because he is oblivious, quick to act, and too urgent in his relationship.
Romeo and Juliet is a fictional love story written by William Shakespeare in 1597. The book is about two star crossed lovers who fall in love, but in the end they are both met with death along with many of the other characters in the story. Many people have different views on who Is responsible for the death of Romeo and Juliet. The story has many controversial scenes and the characters can be portrayed differently depending on how you look at them. In this essay I will be explaining who is responsible for the death of Romeo and Juliet. I will be choosing three characters out of the book and will be going into their perspective on whose fault it was.
Shakespeare thus portrays Romeo and his love as an infatuation. This infatuation is evident in how instantaneously Romeo falls out of love with Rosaline and into love with Juliet. At one stage, Rosaline was the “precious treasure of his eyesight”, yet Romeo’s embodiment of perfection was, a few scenes later, his notion of defectiveness. This therefore reveals to the audience the instantaneous and reckless path of the two lovers, as well as the fickleness of adolescent “love”, diminishing at the sight of
William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is a tragic love story of a star-crossed pair of feuding families. Their love is forbidden therefore they cannot be together publicly, leading to a string of events that ultimately result in the death of both Romeo and Juliet. The exceptional tragedy that takes place is partly a result of Romeo’s impulsive behaviour towards love and conflict. The pressure Romeo instills on others, his emotional grief and self-pity, and his judgment-clouding rage are examples of Romeo’s impulsive nature that contributes to great tragedy.
The ending of Shakespeare’s famous play Romeo & Juliet, is devastating yet expected, as the “pair of star-cross’d lovers” (Prologue.9) dramatically kill themselves, leaving their friends and family in pure shock and sadness. In the play, the situations leading up to this dreadful incident should be blamed on the lovers themselves, as well as their secrecy with the absurd relationship that was caused by the couple’s family feud which definitely takes the blame for the double suicide. A long string of events that happened which lead to these deaths, were triggered by these three situations.
Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy that involves young lovers, their “untimely death,” and a feud between their two families. The Capulets and the Montagues war against each other. The feud continues to escalate and provides the background for the story of these “two star-crossed lovers.” This literary masterpiece is still relevant today since it involves parental ambition, family fighting, and young love.
In the play of Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare, many characters and situations have been blamed by its tragic ending. Therefore, the young ‘star crossed’ lovers action’s were the responsible for this unexpected incident. Romeo’s and Juliet’s acts of disobedience, and impulsivity carried them to their death gradually.
Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is the tragic tale of a “pair of star-cross’d lovers” whose double-suicide reconciles their quarreling families. Though Romeo and Juliet took their own lives, it is difficult to determine who is to blame for their death: Nurse, Friar Laurence, or the dearly departed couple themselves?
Shakespeare, who wrote the sonnets in 1609, expresses his own feelings through his greatest work of literature. The theme of love in the poems reflect thoughts from the Renaissance period. Love is one of many components of Shakespeare’s life shown in the sonnets. Love can be defined in many ways other than a strong affection for a lover. In Shakespeare’s sonnets, the concept of love can be seen through many uncommon means such as the love of life before death in “Sonnet 73,” love in marriage in “Sonnet 116,” love through sexual desire in “Sonnet 129,” and love through nature in “Sonnet 130,” proving that love can be expressed through many different feelings and emotions.