Shakespeares Romeo and Juliet Essays

Shakespeares Romeo and Juliet Essays Shakespeares Romeo and Juliet Paper Shakespeares Romeo and Juliet Paper In this play Romeo and Juliet I am going to be analysing the way in which the key themes of love and hate are used within the play; focus in particular on the way they are used in Act 3 Scene 1 with reference to events, language and staging.The background of the play Romeo and Juliet is set in one of the romantic places in the world, Verona in Italy. This setting is brilliant as it is based on an earlier romantic poem from Italy written in the 14th century. Also Verona like many places has a violent part to it where the Capulets and the Montagues fight. William Shakespeare also uses a lot of sexual references in the play which might indicate that most of our swear words and sexual references came from William Shakespeares plays.The summary of the play Romeo and Juliet is that in the play the Capulets and the Montagues have yet another fight in an ongoing feud, which ends up with blood spilt in the street. Prince Escalus tries to prevent further conflicts betwe en the families by decreeing death for any individual who disturbs the peace. Meanwhile Romeo who doesnt really know what love is, thinks he is in love with this woman called Rosaline who doesnt return his affections.Lady Capulet on the other hand is trying to persuade Juliet to marry Paris a nobleman but all Juliet says is that she will have a look at him at the party. Mercutio, Romeo and his other friends arrive at the Capulets party and all of a sudden Romeo forgets about Rosaline as he sees a beautiful lady (Juliet)and falls in love with her. Meanwhile Tybalt, Juliets blood thirsty cousin sees Romeo and is enraged and plans revenge after the party. Romeo and Juliet kiss not even knowing each others names. Not long after Romeo asks Juliet to marry him and she agrees. They marry secretly because if anyone found out Juliet could be harmed. But Rome is drawn back into the feud when his best friend is killed. He kills Tybalt and is banished from Verona. He meets Juliet for one night of love but then leaves for Mantua.Juliet then faces a forced marriage to Count Paris. Feeling alone and abandoned she threatens to kill herself rather than betray Romeo. She goes to the priest who persuades her instead to take a potion that will make her seem dead in fortunately Romeo doesnt get the message explaining this and hears only that she has died. He returns and takes poison. When Juliet awakes she realises he is dead and cant face the world without him. She stabs herself. These deaths finally bring peace between the two families whos fighting has caused their childrens death.The main themes that run through the play Romeo and Juliet are: Love, hate and fate. The theme love is used all the way through the play, the Capulets and the Montagues really dislike each other and love is the cause of more violence. Romeo kills Tybalt out of love and guilt for his best friend Mercutio. Romeo says in the play that love has made him more of a girl than a man. In Juliets relationship w ith her parents love is not really shown as it should be, there is more cruelty and resentment than love which links their relationship closer to hate than love.The other theme that runs through the play is hate, this is probably the major theme. The Montagues and the Capulets absolutely hate each other, every time they come face to face with each other there is violence and Tybalt is mainly the one that stirs thing up. Hate is closely linked in Juliets relationship with her parents for example, Juliets mother Lady Capulet says to JulietI would the fool were in your grave.You can tell from this statement that Lady Capulets relationship with her daughter is not good. They also say to her.If you were mine I give you to my friend, if not die in the street.You can tell from this statement that the Capulets hate their daughter at this point, because that is not something that you would say to your own daughter.The final theme that is used a lot in the play is fate. We are told in the pro logue that Romeo and Juliet take their lives. William Shakespeares idea in the play is that fate uses Romeo and Juliet to punish their parents. In our key scene Act 3 Scene 1 Romeo calls on fate are killing Tybalt and says,I am fortunes fool.That statement tells the audience that fate is in control of the events.Love and hate run through the story. These themes are inter-related and this is shown in events such as the opening scene. The Capulets and the Montagues servants meet each other and fighting shows hatred but they also show love for their masters.The quarrel in between our masters and us their men.This shows that both the servants love their master and will do anything for them. They all most like football hooligans who fight because they love their team.Romeo is obsessed with love but doesnt really know what it is. He has a crush on a lady called Rosaline but when we listen to him describing his feeling they are very shallow.Shes fair I love.This shows that Romeo links love to looks more than to personality. He also says,She wont ope her lap to saint inducing gold.This quote show he links love with money instead of personality. Until he meets Juliet and talks to her that he falls for her personality as well as her looks.Act 3 Scene 1 is a important scene, it is a climatic scene of violence where love is the confronted by hate and afterwards things go wrong for the lovers. It also forms a climax in the structure. Up to this point Romeo and Juliet have being learning about what love is and now that they have found true love they think they can over come the hate between their families through their marriage, but from this point things go terribly wrong for the lover. They become, Fortunes fools and love turns to violence and hate. This scene begins the run to death the prologue had said.The opening scene Act 3 Scene 1 is used to create atmosphere for the audience. The audience knows Romeo and Juliet have got married but the other actors dont. This shows that dramatic irony is being used as love is suddenly changed to hate.For these hot days is the mad blood stirring. Benvolio warns the audience that blood will be spilt.The stage setting would probably be bright, all the characters would be acting nervous and sweating, the atmosphere would be full of tension and excitement because the audience knows that there is violent coming up in the performance.Mercutio is once again chatting, he is a character who is full of nervous energy, he is also very bright and entertaining, but Romeos best friend is supposed to make the audience feel uneasy because of the lack of control he has. Shakespeare would have probably get Mercutio this name because it is like mercury an unstable metal. He talks a lot about violence, death and fighting so that the audience knows that there is going to be violence coming up in the performance. Benvolio, Romeos peace making cousin tells us that Mercutio is apt to quarrel and that his life will not last very long if he keeps going on the way he is. That is ironic as Mercutio dies.When Tybalt arrives looking for Romeo who he has challenged. The tension in the atmosphere dramatically increases mostly because Mercutio is wanting to provoke Tybalt.Make it a word and a blow. he says to Tybalt when he asks if he could have a word with one of them. Mercutio might be looking to fight Tybalt but he might be acting his way out of love for his best friend Romeo. He thinks Romeo will not survive the fight with Tybalt. Mercutio has said that Romeo is already dead.Stabbed.his heart cleft with the blind bow boys butt shaft. This means that he has already been shot with an arrow of love and is not fit to fight. Ironically Mercutio has no idea that love for Juliet will kill Romeo in the end.Mercutio is at the point of duelling with Tybalt when Romeo arrives. Tybalt challenges Romeo not knowing that Romeo is now his cousin but Romeo refuses to fight, he controls his temper showing that as the Capulets said he is a well governed youth.Tybalt tries to insult Romeo by calling him a Villain and a Boy but he doesnt get the response he wanted of Romeo. He still refuses to fight and acts like a good loving friend. Romeo hints about his marriage to Juliet but doesnt speak to openly just in case he put Juliet at risk by sayingGood Capulet, whose l name I love to tender as dearly as my ownTybalt is fuming and frustrated in the Luhrmann film version of the play. He attacks Romeo who does absolutely nothing to defend himself. The other characters dont know Romeo motives. Mercutio is angry at what he is seeingVile submission Mercutio challenges Tybalt to defend his best friends honour, which was important in them days. Romeo tries his very best to stop the fight but as a result of that Mercutio dies.I was killed under your arm. Mercutio tells RomeoRomeo realises he bares the guilt of Mercutios death. Love hath made me effeminate.He is saying that love has made him more or a girl than a man and it ha s took this pride and courage away. He ceases to be well governed and as the priest warned in his speech about plants he lets rude will or hate take control. Romeo challenges Tybalt and ends up killing him but immediately knew that he had made the wrong decision.I am fortunes fool. he says dramatically, he realises fate had played a trick on him. If he had not acted out of hate Tybalt would had been executed because the Capulets wouldnt have been able to afford the blood price for the princes cousin. Romeo now realises that bringing peace back between the two families is now pretty impossible, this is prove when Juliets mother acting in the most unfeminine way, demanding his blood.Shakespeares plays are written mainly in blank verse. Blank verse has a regular rhythm but does not rhyme it is a very flexible medium, which is capable like the human speaking voice of a wide range of tones.Shakespeare used a particular form of blank verse called Iambic Pentameter.In Iambic Pentameter th e lines are ten syllables long. Each line is divided into pairs of syllables or feet. Each foot has one stressed and one unstressed syllable a pattern which often appears in normal English speech, for example;TybaltWhat, (rt thou dr(wn am(ng these h(artless hinds?T(rn thee, Benv(lio, lo(k up(n thy d(ath.BenvolioI d( but ke(p the p(ace. Put (p thy sw(rdOr m(nage it to p(rt these m(n with m(TybaltWhat, dr(wn, and t(lk of p(ace? I h(te the w(rdAs I hate h(ll, all M(ntagues, and the(Have (t thee, c(ward.Here the Pentameter accommodates a variety of speech tones Tybalts angry challenges, Benvolios steady calm, and the acorn and hatred with which Tybalt renews his attackMost of Act 3 Scene 1 is written n blank verse however towards the end this changes to rhyming coupletsI beg for justice, which thou, Prince, must give:Romeo slew Tybalt, Romeo must not live.This is effective because it is far more dramatic and shows depth of emotionIn Act 3 Scene 1 there is a lot of opportunity to inter pret stage direction, particularly in the two fight scenes.They fight Shakespeare says.The fights are very different. To help make the audience feel involved, i would stage the play outside so it makes the audience feel part of the cast as well. Mercutio and Tybalts fight is very different to Romeo and Tybalts. Mercutio and Tybalt are very skilled swords men and their fight is less violent and more like a dance. It becomes violent only when Mercutio died because Romeo interferes. On the other hand Romeo and Tybalts fight is extremely violent. Romeo is not a very skilled swords man so during the fight he uses props to protect himself rather than fight back. But both plan to kill not just wound, this is meant to frighten and horrify the audience.Even though Romeo and Juliet is over 400 years old. I think It is still valid to a modern audience because of the themes. The story of the two lovers from opposing families is used again and again. Rosie and Craig are examples of characters li ke Romeo and Juliet who appear in a soap called Coronation Street. Daz and Zoe a book read at school dealt with the same issues but set in Northern Ireland. In our modern multi-cultural society we can easily imagine the Romeo and Juliet story happening in real life. Children also often feel under pressure from t heir parents to line up to their wishes and ideals so we can still relate to the story Romeo and Juliet.The two versions of the play I have seen were on film, they were different: One was traditional (Franco Zefferlis) set in the 14th century, Italy. I liked the costumes they were beautiful and it helped me understand the historical context of the play. The other one was Baz Luhrmenns, it is set in modern day times in east coast America. The swords have been changed to guns but the language is the same. I enjoyed the modern version more because of the setting. I also understood the language better and the themes which had seem unfamiliar, I could suddenly relate it to parent s who want you to do something you dont want to .