...Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Romeo always goes to Friar Lawrence for confession and the Friar will help Romeo with the problems he is facing. Shakespeare shows this kind and helpful relationship through metaphors, foreshadowing, and personification. The friendly nature of Romeo and Friar Lawrence’s relationship was captured by Shakespeare through metaphors. The Friar says, “Is Rosaline, that thou didst love so dear, So soon forsaken? Young men’s love then lies, not truly in their hearts, but in their eyes. (2.2.68-70). The Friar is asking Romeo how he moved on from Rosaline so quickly, saying young men must love with their eyes and not with their hearts. This shows how the Friar is being protective to Romeo because, the Friar wants to be sure that Romeo is not making a rash decision to marry Juliet after only...
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...In the play Romeo and Juliet, there are several themes shown as well as forms of figurative language used to show them. When writing, Shakespeare uses figurative language in the form of metaphors, similes, personification, and imagery in order to advance the overall theme, the brutality of love. The brutality of love in this play is that a boy who may seem to be fully committed to one girl, can so easily turn to be in love with another when he is not given his way, as well as the fact that love may not always last forever when the fate of love is put in the hands of other people, and there are always outside forces urging the two of them to stay away from each other. All of this is seen occurring very early in Romeo and Juliet, and continues...
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...The play Romeo and Juliet written by William Shakespeare is a well known and very well liked story about two star-crossed lovers who end up killing themselves for love’s sake. During the entire play there are several genres flowing throughout the story. The obvious ones like love, conflict and drama are there, but there are also some not so well known ones like fate, tragedy, loyalty and authority. Tragedy’s definition is a play dealing with tragic events and having an unhappy ending, especially one concerning the downfall of the main character. This is Romeo and Juliet summarised in one line. Shakespeare has made tragedy evident in Act 1, Scene 5 where Romeo and Juliet find out who each other’s families are. Metaphor is used when Shakespeare...
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...argued that his sonnets (166 and 130) and the play Romeo and Juliet best represents his exploration of strong feelings and of love. Romeo and Juliet is a love story written by Shakespeare, it is the most famous tragic love play. It is about “two star-crossed lovers” in different households both alike in dignity which is where the scene begins. At the beginning of the play, there’s a feud going on between the Capulet and Montague families. People involved in the feud have to defend their families and friends, even if that means bloodshed. The main thing is that Shakespeare was trying to describe an exotic place where the audience could believe a tragic love story might happen. Romeo and Juliet are about two households in Verona which is where the scene begins. Throughout the play Romeo and Juliet Shakespeare presents love as a strong and passionate emotion. He generally links love and religion in his play. The prologue is a 14 line sonnet. This describes two families that are both ‘alike in dignity’ and live in Verona; this also tells us that from each household ‘a pair of star-cross’d’ lovers will appears. Their lives are taken to mend the hatred between their families. In Act 1 Scene V takes place at the Capulet’s party. At this point of the play the audience is aware of the fierce rivalry between the two households. In this scene Romeo and Juliet meet each other for the first time. Line 44 is the first extended metaphor relating to light and darkness. “O, she doth teach...
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...in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet In Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare uses metaphors and details through the characterization of Paris, Juliet, and Romeo in order to reveal the theme of how love is an addiction, it is an obsession and people make quick decisions without thinking because of love. Shakespeare incorporates many characters in his play in order to portray how love is so overpowering that it causes the characters apathy towards life to incline. For example, during act 5 scene 3, Paris is at Juliet’s grave morning when Romeo approaches and Paris says, “Nightly shall be to strew they grave and weep” (1136). This image invokes the idea that Paris is dismayed and feels depressed. Paris engages...
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...portrayed in William Shakespeare’s work, Romeo and Juliet, a tragic play that presents two youths, Juliet Capulet and Romeo Montague, that met and fell in love at first sight. However, they are forced to keep their relationship a secret for their families, the Capulets and Montagues are bitter enemies. Because of this secrecy, misunderstandings arise and reckless decisions, along with their irreversible consequences, are...
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...In this essay I will explain how Romeo shows the strength of his feelings by reading between Romeo’s lines, looking at the techniques that Shakespeare uses and by understanding the text. Extract one, act one, scene one, it is shown that Romeo does not like the feud that is going on and on between the Montagues and the Capulets and he thinks it is stupid. This impression is given to us when Romeo says: “Yet tell me not, for I have heard it all”. This quote makes us feel like he has better things to worry about than a stupid feud and it also shows he is not keen to talk about the feud either. He does not want to hear any more about the fight and he seems a little angry. When he says: “Here’s much to do with hate, but more to do with love” it shows that he thinks that the people feuding are stupid because they nearly love each other. He is saying that love and hate are very similar to each other and therefore the feud is useless. We know Romeo is feeling sad when he speaks of himself in the third person, “Tut, I have lost myself. I am not here. This is not Romeo: he’s some other where”, it shows how depressed Romeo is because his love was rejected by Rosaline. That tells us that Romeo is serious about his feelings and love. The use of oxymoron in Romeo’s speech makes him seem confused but wise, for example, “love is heavy and light” or “hot and cold”. “Love is heavy and light, bright and dark, hot and cold, sick and healthy, asleep and awake—it’s everything except what...
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...The song “Crazy for You,” written by John Bettis and performed by Madonna, is the perfect song for Romeo and Juliet’s first encounter in Act I, scene V. The song’s upbeat rhythm along with the lyrics follows Romeo’s perspective of seeing Juliet. With everyone in the room dancing to the music, Romeo makes his way to Juliet, like Madonna predicts “Strangers making the most of the dark” (Bettis, 2). They find each other in the swaying crowd by Romeo sweeping Juliet away and professing, “If I profane with my unworthiest hand / this holy shrine, the gentle sin is this,” in which Juliet responds with “Good Pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much” (Shakespeare I, v, 93-94, 97). Juliet’s intellect was able to pick up the metaphor of the religious...
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...Romeo and Juliet was written by Shakespeare between the years 1591-1595, it is and it was one of the most well-known and well-quoted piece of English literature. Audience during Shakespeare times would watch his plays for fun and entertainment because they don’t have anything to do or to play with. The prologue creates tension because it starts to build up the following scene. The main themes of the play are when Romeo and Juliet fall in love and die together, this shows that two enemies fall in love and die together. Their families’ hate each other which makes them fought their lives for each other. ‘A pair of star-crossed lovers takes their life.’ It is a romantic quote which shows they both love each other so badly. It is also a romantic play with a lot of action. Shakespeare wanted to mix these two themes together because he wanted the audience to see how good his plays were. We know that Romeo is a teenager who is trying to find a girl. He wants a girl called Rosaline but she wants to be a nun. He keeps going after her but she is hard to get and to love. Romeo is a keen person and he wants to know what is happening around him. He is quite young to get married. Romeo is only 16 years old. Romeo uses religious words to describe Juliet when he sees her. Juliet is only 14 years old. Romeo is invited to the Capulet’s party and sees Juliet and then he forgets about Rosaline and falls in love with Juliet. Shakespeare starts Act 1 Scene 1 with servants in the kitchen, because he...
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...Romeo and Juliet William Shakespeare Pre-reading 1. Vocabulary: Match word and definition. Words that may come in handy. Match the words in the left column with the explanations in the right column, and write the word over the definition. imagery | Word: Simile a comparison using “like” or “as” | soliloquy | Word: Run-on lines which the sense runs from one line to the next; lines which are not end-stopped. | blank verse | Word: Assonance the repetition of vowel sounds | tragic flaw | Word: Imagery language that produces pictures in the imaginations of people reading or listening | scene | Word: Blank verse unrhymed verse written in iambic pentameter | personification | Word: Dramatic irony difference between the situation as known to the audience and as supposed by some or all the characters of the play | stage | Word: Rhyming couplet two lines of verse of equal length that rhyme one after the other | assonance | Word: Dialogue verbal exchange between two or more characters on the stage | antithesis | Word: Iambic Pentameter a ten syllable line of verse with five stresses: di dum, di dum, di dum, di dum, di dum | metaphor | ...
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...It could be argued that Romeo and Juliet is the most popular of William Shakespeare’s thirty-seven plays. In Romeo and Juliet Shakespeare uses many different approaches to keep the whole audience interested. These assist in creating his ability to attract a wide audience and are a great contributor to Shakespeare’s success. Shakespeare uses foils to highlight various attributes of characters. Two foils in Romeo and Juliet are the Nurse and Lady Capulet, Juliet’s mother. The foils highlight certain traits of each other. Shakespeare uses the contrast between the Nurse and Lady Capulet to emphasize the difference between their relationships with Juliet, but it emphasizes other differences too. One significant difference between Juliet’s caregiver...
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...The Development of Juliet's Character Throughout William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet Juliet is first introduced to us in Act 1 Scene 3, where we learn about Juliet’s character. We know she is a polite, obedient girl. We can see this in the line where she says: “Madam, I am here. What is your will?” (Act 1 Scene 3 L78). This shows that Juliet is a well-mannered girl because she addresses her mother as Madam. This quotation also shows Juliet as obedient and always willing to help her mother because she says: “What is your will?” This scene also tells us that Juliet is thirteen and has never considered marriage, something which would have been common for girls her age at that time. She is still pure and innocent. “It is an honour I dream not of.” (Act 1 Scene 3 L66). From this scene we can observe that Juliet has a closer relationship with the nurse rather than with her own mother. “Faith, I can tell her age unto an hour.” This example shows how well the nurse knows Juliet. Shakespeare shows us that Juliet is still of the age where she does what her mother asks of her, without question. In the same scene again she says “Well, think of marriage now.” Which also shows us that Juliet does what her mother says. In Act 1 Scene 5 the first conversation between Romeo and Juliet is in the form of a sonnet (poem of sixteen lines). Romeo and Juliet take it in turns to speak; which shows how perfect they are for each other. A good example: If I profane with...
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...Assignment 1 Romeo and Juliet Contents: Page 1 – Contents page Page 2 – Essay: Romeo and Juliet Page 4 – Bibliography Essay: Romeo and Juliet In this essay I will look at and analyse lines 1 to 30 spoken by Friar Lawrence in Act 2 Scene 3 of the play Romeo and Juliet and prove the importance of these lines towards the plot and how it acts as a premonition of the tragedy to come. I believe these lines prove to be of great importance as they lead the audience to the tragedy that is to come. These lines give the audience an idea of the events that may come to pass as the words spoken act as a premonition of the course of tragic events to come. In lines one to four of this scene, Friar Lawrence begins by describing the beauty of the sunrise, which in turn contrasts with how Romeo and Juliet had viewed the sunrise in the preceding scene. The couple see the sunrise as a sign that their night together is over and that they must now say good bye, however the friar sees the sunrise optimistically, although we know that light is not always equated with good in the play, just as night is not always linked with evil, bad or other negative connotations. Therefore light could symbolise the dark tragedy that is looming ahead of them, as opposed to something good. The friar’s optimistic view of the sunrise as something good and positive is indicative of his naivety, which proves to be of great importance in the course of the play. These four opening lines of the scene direct the audience...
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...Romeo and Juliet was William Shakespeare’s last play, and quite possibly one of his most popular. There are many hidden themes and metaphors, one of which is fate. This play is about 2 teenages from feuding families that fall into a forbidden love, and the plot of this play describes the issues they run into and the hoops they jump through in order to be together. In this story, Shakespeare uses the age and timeline of the story to show the theme of fate through misdelivery of Friar Lawrence’s letter, the resolution between the Montagues and the Capulets, and the love between Romeo and Juliet that lead to suicide. One event that was prudent to the future of Romeo and Juliet was the delivery of Friar Lawrence’s letter, which was quite unforgiving when it came...
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...issues in The tragedy of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare is that of choice. The main question is do the characters have the ability to choose what they want, or are their fates simply left to destiny? There are many pieces of evidence of fate in the play, which greatly affect the plot and characters. Fate is the dominating force that foreshadows the ironic destinies of that protagonist, Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet. Fate is evident from the very beginning of the play. In the opening prologue it states that Romeo and Juliet “Are a pair of star-crossed lover/…Death marked/…[and] with their death bury their parents stifle”(6-9), which foreshadows their doom and ironically ends their parent’s feud. People say that when the stars are allied lovers meet and fall in love; however, with these two star crossed lovers their stars lined up and than crossed. Showing that the stars and universe are controlling the aspect of their life and are a metaphor for fate. The characters believe that their lives are controlled by destiny and luck, and Romeo is a prime example of this philosophy. When Romeo and his friends go to the Capulet’s ball, Romeo hesitates to go because he has had a bad dream: My mind misgives Some consequences, yet hanging in the sky Shall bitterly begin this fearful date With this night revels and expire the term Of a despised life closed, in my breast By some vile forfeit of untimely death (1, 4, 116-121). Romeo here states his fear...
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