The Presentation of Conflict In William Shakespeare's Romeo And Juliet

The Presentation of Conflict In William Shakespeare's Romeo And Juliet

Romeo and Juliet is a play written by William Shakespeare, the

greatest playwright, most probably in 1594 or 1595. It is thought to

be produced more than any other Shakespeare’s play except Hamlet.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) rose in the Elizabethan era or

Renaissance period (1550-1660) where people started questioning

everything around them from religion to arts and many discoveries were

made. His first published works were poem during1591-1593 when the

plague and other troubles closed London theatres. He joined the Lord

Chambelian’s Men in 1594 as actor and playwright. For the next five

years, he wrote the history plays: comedies and the tragedy Romeo and

Juliet. At the end of the period he moved with the company to the new

Globe Theatre that opened in about 1599.

We don’t have a complete description of the Globe or of any

Elizabethan public theatre. However, it is generally agreed that the

outer shape was roughly circular, open to the sky, and that there was

a very large stage, which stuck out into the yard. Two great posts

(which could be used as columns of a palace, trees in a forest, or

masts of a ship) held up the heavens or shadows, a roof, which

protected the rear of the stage. In this there was a trapdoor through

which thrones, clouds, or comets could be let down, and firecrackers

slid down cords to represent lightning. The stage itself had trapdoors

through which magic trees, devils and apparitions could rise or

characters descend to caves, cellars and, as in medieval mystery

plays, to hell. At the back there was some sort of recess, which could
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...Is now the two hours' traffic of our stage”. There were no

intervals in Elizabethan public theatres.

After the solemn and elevated poetic Prologue, the running battle

between the two families establishes the notion of the family feud.

The play explodes in civil strife- the followers of the Capulets and

the Montagues brawl in the street the words of Gregory show us that

the antagonism is long established. It has no cause; they quarrel

because they quarrel!

Shakespeare makes the insults bawdy, and this gives a lively, youthful

quality to the dialogue. When Sampson say “Draw, if you be men”

(1.1.59), we know that street fighting is a test of manhood; the

aggressive wordplay blends sex and violence. Two great themes-love and

war- are acted out before us. We see war and we hear it spoken about

in terms of sexuality.