William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet

William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet

Shakespeare shapes our response in a variety of ways using a number of

techniques. To give you an answer to this question, I will comment on

a number of key areas ; character, language, themes, the plays

structure and dramatic devices. Shakespeare did not create this story

it was adapted from a well-known love story written by Author Brooke.

Shakespeare first produced the play in 1596.

At the start of the play we meet the Chorus not a character but a

dramatic device. The Chorus's comes on stage before the play starts,

his job was firstly to quieten down the rowdy Elizabethan audience.

Plays were really the only form of entertainment back then, so

Elizabethan audiences often got involved in what was happening and

often reacted badly to evil characters. The other role of the Chorus

was to inform the audience on what the plays about this was said in

the form of a sonnet. A sonnet was a fourteen-line long love poem

where every third line had to rhyme and the last two lines also had to

rhyme. This was one way Shakespeare shapes our response to the lovers

first meeting because he tells us about what will happen to them, when

he says, "A pair of star crossed lovers" and, "Misadventure".

In act 1 scene 1 there is a feud between the Capulet and the Montagues

in the streets of Verona. There was an intense atmosphere in this

brawl, swords were drawn and some highly offensive gestures were made.

These gestures (thumb between the fingers) would have shocked an

Elizabethan audience but a modern day audience would be totally

unaware of what they mean. This Scene is created to engage the

audience and get them involved, but also to inform an audience of the

extreme hatred the two families have for each other. This is also

another way Shakespeare shapes our response to the lovers first

meeting by showing how immense the rivalry was between the two

families which introduces us to the struggle Romeo and Juliet will