Romeo and Juliet
In 1597 William Shakespeare wrote the play Romeo and Juliet. The play Romeo and Juliet is a love story that ends in tragedy. The play was set in Verona, Italy. The play involves two families, the Capulets and the Montagues. The two families have been feuding for centurys the feud had been passed from one generation to another, yet no-one knew what the feud was about. These two families were always fighting in the central places where most people meet. Even the servants from both families hate each other and keep fighting between each other. One day the Prince of Verona heard complaints from the public about the fight between the Montagues and Capulet servants, and the Prince warned them that if they continue disturbing the public he would banish them from the city of Verona.
At the beginning of the play, Romeo is in love with a girl called Rosaline but Romeo did not know that Rosaline was not as much in love with him has he was with her, but after a while he noticed that Rosaline was not returning the love he was giving her. Romeos friends received an invitation to the Capulet ball which he showed Romeo. Romeo then decided to attend the ball with his friends as he knew that Rosaline was going to be there, because Romeo knew he wasnt going to be able to go in without being caught, he decided to sneak in wearing a mask which was a mask ball, as he was there searching for his lover Rosaline. He then spotted a wonderful looking young lady by the name Juliet, who belonged to the Capulet, the moment he set his eyes on Juliet he fell in love with her. They started seeing each other but no one else knew about there relationship except for Juliets nurse and Friar Lawrence John, Romeo and Juliet were both very in love with each other they decided to get married without anyone knowing except for the two servants who knew about their relationship. After they got married they spent one night together as Romeo was being searched for because he had killed Tybalt. Tybalt who was the cousin of Juliet, nephew of Lady Capulet.
Romeo and Juliet was set in the 16th century, at the time of Queen Elizabeth the first, who ruled England; most of her time was spent watching plays. She started enjoying the plays, she thought of hiring Shakespeare to write and get people to perform the plays for her. In the 16th century, people enjoyed plays as it was a form of entertainment. Some of the plays were performed for the higher society such as the queen and king. Shakespeare always tried to produce the very best plays that would be enjoyed by the audience.
Although, the play Romeo and Juliet is a love story, the play opens with violence between two families: the Montagues and the Capulets. Shakespeare begins with aggressive and negative language. He sets the scene by using destructive language such as a dog of that house In my opinion, Shakespeare is suggesting that the play wont only be about love and romance between two teenagers, but the play will also involve violence and problems between the two families.
Act 3 Scene 1; Shakespeare portrays violence and conflict throughout the scene. This is shown by a character called Benvilo, trying to keep the peace between the Capulets and the Montagues. However, Mercutio is in a quarrelsome mood, so this would be hard for Benvilo to sort out. Mercutio and Benvilo are out in town of Verona, whilst they are unwinding. Suddenly Benvilo spots the Capulets and mentions to Mercutio;
I pray thee, good Mercutio, lets retire: The day is hot, the Capels are abroad. And if we meet will we not scape a brawl
This language that Shakespeare used was the language of the day during Shakespeares time, which is different from the language it would mean of the 21st century. Translating the 16th century quote to the 21st century language it would mean lets go home for we will meet the Capulets and will be involved in a fight.
In Act 3 Scene 5, we learn about the relationship between Juliet and her father. Their relationship is built in verbal violence. Capulet wants his daughter to marry a gallant young noble man. What he does not know is that Juliet wants to get to Romeo. The type of their relationship might be caused by the communication break down, not revealing feelings like daughter and father or not showing enough love. Capulet says a lot of unkind, quarrel words to Juliet. He says:
Hang thee, young baggage, disobedient wretch!
This kind of words to a daughter makes the reader feel sympathy over Juliet and it also tells the reader that the father does not care about his daughters feelings. Juliet wanted to answer her father back but, in the Elizabethan times you were not allowed to answer back to any-one who is older than you, even if you knew you were right. Instead Juliet disrespected her father and answered back. Capulet could not believe that his daughter disrespected him. He replied saying:
my fingers itch
by this it is meant that he is very angry and he is going to slap or hit her. During the Shakespearean time womens views were not taken into consideration. Their opinions and views were never regarded. From Shakespeares writing we may say that Capulet and Juliets relationship is based on verbal violence.
In conclusion, Romeo and Juliet is a love story that ends in tragedy. The play involves two families who have been feuding for centuries. The theme in Romeo and Juliet is about two teenagers falling in love. On the other hand, the play is a love story we see a lot of violent scenes all the way through the play. Even though, the play involved scenes of violence, emotions, love and death, it made it different from all other plays. Also, the play gave a hint of what the 16th century life was like. Personally, l enjoyed the play because of the scenes between the two families, the Capulets and the Montagues, about their lifestyle. I realised that the life of the 16th century is fairly the same as the 21st century. The play is similar to current times. Nowadays people have secret relationships. This might be because of religion, race, and wealth, the way people are brought up or because of the society. And in the play, people spend most of their time fighting, even in the 21st century teenagers are surrounded by feuds that involve families, which are left for the next generation to solve and they have to unravel the truth by fighting, as it is seen in the gun crimes across the societies of today.
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