Romeo And Juliet Compare And Contrast Essay

1201 Words3 Pages

Contrasts in William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet

“Romeo and Juliet” is a famous romantic drama written by William

Shakespeare containing many contrasts within it, portraying the

eponymous lovers’ everlasting love for one another. The conflict

between the two families; the Montagues and the Capulets makes it

almost impossible for them to be together. The play consists of

romance and humour building up to the climax of Romeo and Juliet’s

death.

In the play we are first introduced to the servants Sampson and

Gregory, from the Montague household, who have a similar lifestyle to

the servants in the Capulet household, who are trying to keep up the

reputation of the families. The Capulet household are holding a party

where the servants are busy getting food, drinks and decoration ready,

whereas Lord and Lady Capulet live the life of luxury where they

simply think about marriage, money and parties.

In the film we see that the servants are dressed down in black tatty

clothing while the upper class people; the masters are wearing bright

elaborate clothing. In Franco Zeffirelli and Baz Luhrmann’s

interpretations of the play, they show this because they wanted to

emphasise the status between higher and lower social people. The dark

clothes also represent the darker days and shows that the servants are

emotionally sad, but the masters are expressively happy.

The language of the servants compared to the masters is very

different. The servants are illiterate and not educated; however, the

masters are highly educated and very posh, they can afford schooling,

whereas the servants could not. Shakespeare shows this when the

servant spea...

... middle of paper ...

...her innocence, beauty and purity. Tybalt

is a devil because he is likes to fight, he is evil, seeking trouble

and devious. Paris is an astronaut who is rich, successful and out of

this planet representing why he is the right person for Juliet to get

married to. Lord and Lady Capulet are king and queen of Verona Beach

and dress up as Marc Anthony/Julius Caesar and Cleopatra who also die

in a similar way to Romeo and Juliet.

This play is full of many opposites and contrasts: love and hate,

peace and conflict, young and old. It is all mainly to do with

historical, cultural and social context. The play sadly ended with the

two star-crossed lovers having to give their life for their families

to end their fighting. Romeo and Juliet end with these words: “For

never was a story of more woe than this of Juliet and her Romeo”.

Show More
Related

  • Romeo And Juliet Dbq Essay

    677 Words  | 2 Pages

    Did you know that Romeo and Juliet was one of the biggest love story of all time. Romeo and Juliet is a story of two star-crossed lovers from two families the Capulets and the Montagues. The Capulets and the Montague had a big fight that made the families very angry at each other. Romeo and Juliet decide to get married. The two couple marry and run away. In the process both of them will die. When it comes to Romeo and Juliet who are the top three people that caused the two to die. The two people that are chosen are Friar Lawrence and Lady Capulet. Friar was chosen because he is the one that married Romeo and Juliet. Lady Capulet was chosen because she is forcing Juliet to marry Paris which is making Juliet want Romeo even more. The third thing

    Read More

  • Breaking The Rules in Rostand's Cyrano de Bergerac

    437 Words  | 1 Pages

    Style of dress was a significant factor in Cyrano de Bergerac. Men wore frills, ribbons, lace, and gloves. Women wore dresses with petticoats and jewels. Cyrano was a poor man, therefore, he didn’t have the fancy attire like the other men. In Act One, he claimed that he clothed himself in independence and security, and that what shining gems he owned, he wore inside (20).

    Read More

  • Dark Imagery In Romeo And Juliet

    768 Words  | 2 Pages

    Romeo and Juliet, a play by William Shakespeare, is about the tragedy of two lovers. The two lovers are from families that hate each other. Romeo is a Montague, whilst Juliet is a Capulet. Romeo had loved another girl, only to find she was to become a nun. He then went to a party hosted by the Capulets, and fell in love with Juliet. He met up with her, as she also liked him, and they eventually got married. Their happiness did not last long, however, as Tybalt, a man from Juliet’s house, killed Mercutio, a relative to the prince and Romeo’s friend. Romeo then proceeded to kill Tybalt, which lead to his banishment. Juliet put herself in a death-like state to be with Romeo, who found out and actually killed himself. Juliet

    Read More

  • Examining Shakespeare's Use of Act 1 Scene 5 to Set Up the Rest of the Play, Romeo and Juliet

    2987 Words  | 6 Pages

    Romeo and Juliet is the tragic story of two young, “star-crossed” lovers from feuding families, destined for disaster. The Capulets and the Montagues have an ancient grudge on one another that has been passed down over generations. Unfortunately, Romeo and Juliet end up victims of their families’ vicious loathing. Romeo and Juliet’s story has several intertwining themes such as the aforementioned hatred between the Capulets and Montagues and the revenge Romeo strives for after his friend Mercutio’s death. Also, the love and passion between Romeo and Juliet and the loyalty of Romeo and his friends. Honour and revenge also feature frquently throughout the play including Juliet’s pressure to honour her family, and the revenge Romeo sees as his duty when Tybalt kills Mercutio.

    Read More

  • Baz Luhman and a More Accessible Romeo and Juliet to a Modern Teenage Audience

    906 Words  | 2 Pages

    However, in some parts, I felt that the way. in which Luhrmann distinguished between the Capulet and the Montague's was too extreme, as their styles were very different. thought that the music was not necessary when they were already easily identified. The sym I felt that the first scene was very appealing towards teenagers.

    Read More

  • Romeo and Juliet: Tragedy of Love and Hatred

    875 Words  | 2 Pages

    Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy. It tells the tale of two lovers from rival households and the tragic journey that leads to their destruction. The play shows all the events over the course of four days in Romeo and Juliet’s home town of Verona. Monday through Thursday is all we have to see of the Montague and Capulet families to acknowledge their hatred for each other. The play shows the struggle of Romeo and Juliet in their efforts to stop the hatred between their families and live happily ever after. But despite their efforts, they end up digging their own graves, showing how different actions have different consequences.

    Read More

  • Agony Play Analysis

    738 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the scene, “Agony” (Into the Woods) and even the “Agony (reprise)” (Into the Woods) was probably the best scene in the play. The characters were two princes, played by Kevin Williams and Jacks Key, who were chasing their princesses. The two actors complimented each other so well, they made their performance look like it was real life and not actually acting. If Williams was singing about finding his princesses, Key would be reacting, doing gestures and facials. It made the audience feel as if they were out there with the two princes talking about their dream to find the princesses. The performers listened and responded naturally to one another. When one was speaking, the gestures they would add to it made the scene more memorable. The tone of their voice when they sang or spoke, gave the “idealistic” character for being a price. It was funny when the two actors would make jokes about the princesses, like about brushing her hair. During the “Find Your Grail” (Spamalot) the ensemble would use the set design affectively. One member of the ensemble stood out the most from the others. She was leaning her back against the stair case and portrayed the look of defeat and depressed. Being a part of the audience, her developed use of gesture and most of all her

    Read More

  • The Giant Peach

    969 Words  | 2 Pages

    The changing of the set was signified by the use of lighting. The set did fit in with the performance as it allowed a swift and smooth run through of the play without any interruptions and benefitted the actors as they had some sort of momentum going into the next scene instead of having no momentum. The object utilised in most of the scenes was the Giant Peach and was a key in the escaping of the characters from a horrible and degrading life therefore, it was in the majority of the scenes. The pantomime-like features took away the realistic feel of the play: however, the lighting used helped restore some sort of the down-to-earthiness in the play. The costumes worn by the characters, especially by the two aunts, added some humour to the play and they were very intriguing and showed innovation in the performance.

    Read More

  • Musical Comedy Murder Of 1940 Case Study

    701 Words  | 2 Pages

    It was good setting to get the attention from the audience and also a way to move around or change settings of the play. Although I love this play my small critic for this play was the players. Some others actors had understandable accents but others didn’t. For example, the brother of the servant his accent was confusing because he kept switching his accent from different country languages. This play was really nice it had a little of bit of everything drama, comedy, romance, betrayal. What like about this play it was how they used the dramatic structure the inciting incident and the climax. The inciting incident for this play of musical comedy murders of 1940 was guessing who the killer of the play was because there was tension building up not knowing who the murder was. The climax for this play would be for me finding out who was the murder and just being in shock how everything had change into a new scenario. Overall it was amazing show how it developed and how well an organized transition the play

    Read More

  • Steel Magnolias Play Analysis

    795 Words  | 2 Pages

    From the scene set up to the clothes each actor wore it was all very impressing. The scene set up was a beauty shop and was extremely accurate and realistic. The play had four scenes and each scene was a different season. For each season the “beauty shop” was filled with props. In December it was filled with Christmas trees and ornaments. The clothes each actor wore fit each character’s personality. For example, Annelle was seen as very quirky and always would wear “dorky” clothes. The use of spectacle in this play left no room for imagination because they had everything layer out for

    Read More

  • Romeo and Juliet Comparative Essay

    770 Words  | 2 Pages

    Romeo and Juliet, written by William Shakespeare, is a tragic love story about two young lovers who are forced to be estranged as a result of their feuding families. The play is about their struggle to contravene fate and create a future together. As such, it was only a matter of time before Hollywood would try and emulate Shakespeare’s masterpiece. This had been done before in many films. Prominent among them were, Franco Zeffirelli’s 1968 “Romeo and Juliet” and Baz Luhrmann’s 1996 “William Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet.” Both films stay true to the themes of Shakespeare’s original play. However, the modernised Luhrmann film not only maintains the essence of Shakespeare’s writings, Luhrmann makes it relevant to a teenage audience. This is done through the renewal of props and costumes, the reconstruction of the prologue and the upgrading of the setting, whilst preserving the original Shakespearean language. Out of the two, it is Luhrmann who targets Romeo & Juliet to a younger audience to a much larger extent than Zeffirelli.

    Read More

  • Love in Romeo and Juliet

    2127 Words  | 5 Pages

    Romeo and Juliet is set during the Elizabethan period when women had to acquiesce to men. This was known as a patriatical society. It was the time when fathers decided whom their daughters should marry. In the Elizabethan period events such as marriage were more traditional and were taken very seriously as well as the fact that men were more powerful than women. The Elizabethan period was a period of internal peace between the English Reformation and the battles between Protestants and Catholics as well the battles between the Parliament and the Monarchy that repulsed the seventeenth century which relates to the Period that Shakespeare wrote the play because it creates this contrast that people were fighting over reputation for example, Capulet wanting to give his daughter Juliet to a rich and respectable man like Paris rather than someone like Romeo who does not have a reputation in the society. However, In the Elizabethan society men were the ''head of the household'' so the women of the Elizabethan society had no say in anything or anyone as well as not being able to know what the men had been up to because the men were seen as the dominant sex but on the other hand, in the twenty first century the women are mostly controlling the men such as a wife of a footballer. Men that were married were able to masquerade (sleep with another women or cheat) on their own wife's and even if the wife of the husband found out about the situation, she could not have done anything about it. She would either accept the situation or leave the husband but rarely women of the Elizabethan period did that because most of the men in the Elizabethan society were rich. As soon as the play starts, Shakespeare wants the audience to know that there is goin...

    Read More

  • Romeo And Juliet Literary Analysis Essay

    598 Words  | 2 Pages

    Literary Analysis of Romeo and Juliet “What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet. (The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet). ” This quote from Act II explains how Juliet feels about marrying someone for their status instead of who they really are.

    Read More

  • Gender Roles in Romeo and Juliet, by William Shakespeare

    849 Words  | 2 Pages

    The beginning of Act one opens with a brawl in the street between the servants of the Capulets and the Montagues. The origin of the fight introduces the important theme of masculine honor. Sampson, one of Capulets servants, shows this masculinity by saying, “Draw, if you be men.” (I.i.64).

    Read More

  • True Love in Romeo and Juliet

    798 Words  | 2 Pages

    Romeo and Juliet is a romantic love story about a young lad named Romeo who has fallen in love with Lady Juliet, but is unable to marry her because of a long-lasting family feud. The play ends in the death of both these characters and the reunion of the friendship between the families. Romeo is in love with Juliet, and this is a true, passionate love (unlike the love Paris has for her or the love Romeo had for Rosaline) that nothing can overcome, not even the hatred between their two families that is the reason for the death of their two children. Throughout the play, Shakespeare thoroughly explores the themes of both true love and false love and hatred. Without either of these themes, the play would loose its romantic touch and probably would not be as famous as it is today.

    Read More

More about Romeo And Juliet Compare And Contrast Essay

Open Document