In my essay I will be discussing the many ways in which Shakespeare causes us to feel sympathy towards Romeo and Juliet in the final scene of the play, after a brief summary of the events previous. In the beginning, Romeo and Juliet meet each other for the first time at a party. They fall in love and eventually decide to get married. As a result of Romeo killing Tybalt for revenge, he is banished from Verona. Juliet is being forced to marry Count Paris. A plan comes about that Juliet is to be drugged which would cause her to appear dead and therefore preventing her from having to marry Paris. However Romeo fails to receive the details of the plan and thinks that she is dead. He therefore returns to Verona to pay his last respects and end his own life. This brings us to the final scene of the play. Firstly, the setting in which Shakespeare chose to act out the final scene of the play is effective in making the atmosphere extremely tense and foreboding. Churchyards are portrayed as dark and eerie places, and from the prologue, we are thinking that something unfortunate will take place due to fate, we therefore feel sorry for Romeo as he is going to be the victim of this greater power. “I am afraid to stand alone”, this shows us how the graveyard has a petrifying affect on the characters present. This causes us to feel increased sympathy as Romeo is horribly afraid as well as in a terrible suicidal state. Romeo’s language in Act V scene III is one of the main factors as to why we feel so much sympathy for the two lovers: “Do not interrupt me in my course”, from Romeo’s emotive language we feel sorry for him as we are made aware of his determination to resign to fate and end his own life. “Why I descend into this bed of death... ... middle of paper ... ...r sacrifices of our enmity” this tells us how they realise that their actions have caused death and can no longer continue. “I will raise her statue in pure gold”, the word “gold” resembles how precious she was to those who loved her as gold is an extremely valuable metal. “Pure” reminds us of her innocence and youth which makes her death even more tragic. To conclude my essay, I think that the main way Shakespeare makes us feel sympathy for the couple in the last scene is by constantly reminding us of how much Romeo loves Juliet and how he wants to commit suicide. He also makes us sympathise by showing how helpless Romeo is over his destiny, he can’t prevent their deaths. Romeo shows confusion as to why it had to be that way. Finally we are made aware of how much the couple were loved by others; this is how Shakespeare causes us to feel sympathy in the last scene.
In an attempt to push away from medieval love conventions and her father's authority, Shakespeare's Juliet asserts sovereignty over her sexuality. She removes it from her father's domain and uses it to capture Romeo's love. Critic Mary Bly argues that sexual puns color Juliet's language. These innuendoes were common in Renaissance literature and would have been recognized by an Elizabethan audience. Arguably, Juliet uses sexual terms when speaking to Romeo in order to make him aware of her sexuality. When he comes to her balcony, she asks him, "What satisfaction canst thou have tonight?" (2.1.167). Bly asserts that "satisfaction in her hands, becomes a demure play on the sating of desire" (108). Following this pun, Juliet proposes marriage. She teases Romeo with sexual thoughts and then stipulates that marriage must precede the consummation of their love. Juliet uses "death" in a similar sense. She asks night to "Give me my Romeo, and when I shall die / Take him and cut him out in little stars" (3.2.21-22). Death holds a double meaning in these lines. It connotes both "ceasing to be and erotic ecstasy" (Bly 98). Based upon this double meaning, one can infer that "she sweetly asks 'civil night' to teach her how to lose the game of love she is about to play for her virginity" (Wells 921). She tells her nurse, "I'll to my wedding bed, / And death, not Romeo, take my maidenhead!" (3.2.136-137). Placing death opposite Romeo highlights the irony of the situation; both death and Romeo should claim her maidenhead together. These sexual puns reveal Juliet's awareness of her sexuality. She entices Romeo, forcing her sexuality to act as emotional currency.
Love, what a small word for being one of the most powerful and complicated emotion someone can receive. Love grants people an experience of other emotions such as, sadness, happiness, jealousy, hatred and many more. It is because of those characteristics that love creates that make it so difficult to define the emotion in a few words. In the play, “Romeo and Juliet” by William Shakespeare, two star-crossed lovers, Romeo and Juliet, defy their parents in hopes of being able to be together and live a happy life. The characters in “Romeo and Juliet” show the characteristics of love through their words and actions throughout the play. The attributes the characters illustrate throughout the play are rage, loyalty, and sorrow.
There are many forces in the tragic play of Romeo and Juliet that are keeping the two young, passionate lovers apart, all emanating from one main reason. In this essay I will discuss these as well as how love, in the end, may have been the cause that led to the tragic deaths of Romeo and Juliet. Their strong attraction to each other, which some call fate, determines where their forbidden love will take them.
“From forth the fatal loins of these two foes a pair of star crossed lovers take their life” (I prologue 5-6). Romeo and Juliet is known by many as a love story, but what if it’s not a love story but a story of obsession and desperation. Romeo is from the Montague family, and Juliet is from the Capulet family. The two families have been feuding for many, many years. In this story, Romeo and Juliet become obsessed with the feeling of being in love. They will go to extremes to be together, such extremes as death.
The Way Juliet Feels in Act 3 Scene 2 of William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet
One of William Shakespeare's most famous plays is "Romeo and Juliet." I believe the reason for this is its sense of reality and idealism. This paper will present images of human emotions in "Romeo and Juliet," which make this tragedy so believable.
In the first four lines, Shakespeare conveys a foreshadow of death that affects the way Romeo thinks about love. Shakespeare starts with the singular letter “O” (1), connoting dreamlike thoughts and wishes. It could also be a sigh in which Romeo, who is a dreamer and gets easily attracted to women, understands that he will never be with his true love forever. Furthermore, the “she” (1) in the same line, hints that Romeo has taken a liking to a particular girl, and that he will
Juliet’s weakness to be controlled by love leads her to make unadvised and irresponsible decisions that contribute to her choice of ending her life. Characterized as a young and rash teenager, with no interest in love and marriage at first, Juliet wants to be independent. However, after she first lays eyes on Romeo, Juliet’s perception of love is quick to change. Their strong love easily manipulates and clouds her judgment. Even if she is cautious and realizes their love is too fast, the rush of feelings from having a first love overcomes her. Her soft-spoken words symbolically foreshadow the journey of Romeo and Juliet’s love. “Well, do not swear. Although I joy in thee, / I have no joy of this contract tonight. / It is too rash, too unadvised, too sudden;…/ This bud of love, by summer’s ripening breath, / May prove to be a beauteous flower when next we meet” (2.2. 117-123). The blooming flower is indicative of their growing love, especially Juliet. Being her first experience of true love, her actions become more rash the deeper she falls in, even ...
Romeo and Juliet is arguably the most famous story about love in literature. This is in part because of the tension caused by the look the different characters have towards what love means and its role in life. These views were very important for the progression of the story. Their different views collided and caused much grief and sorrow for the characters throughout play. Many important events that propelled the story forward would not have happened without the various feelings towards love the characters have and how they felt of and reacted to the other characters’ view on love.
In the course of the play, Romeo and Juliet immediately fall in love. Also, they know they are meant for each other and therefore decide to get married. After this marriage, there was a brief moment in time where everything was perfect. They are married, in love and there is nothing stopping them from being together. This however quickly changes after a fight that leads to death. Once Romeo is banished from Verona for the penalty of murder, love grows tremendously between the couple and drives the need to be together. The marriage between Romeo and Juliet is hidden from their parents, so Montague decides to arrange a marriage between her and Paris. With all the conflict arising between Juliet’s family, Friar Lawrence creates a plan that unfortunately does not succeed. His plan for Juliet is to tell her father she will marry Paris then go to bed with no one, not even the nurse. After, she will drink a potion to make her seem dead for forty two hours and then have a messenger tell Romeo about it. He will have her put in a vault to wait for Friar to bring her out so she and Romeo can elope. The plan was perfect until tragedy occurs, Benvolio had seen Juliet dead and immediately tells Romeo about it. The result is Romeo and Juliet murdering themselves and the play had a tragic ending. Overall, young, innocent lovers die, through no fault of their own but a simple mistake. “How oft when men are at the
The Shakespearean tragedy “Romeo and Juliet” represents the idea that love incurs a price through a range of dramatic techniques. In this play, it becomes very clear that intense and sudden passionate love brings hurt and pain to the lovers involved, as well as their family and friends.
Just as the Friar says in the beginning of the Shakespeare play, Romeo and Juliet, “Wisely and slowly, they stumble that run fast.” (II.iii.94). this was a sign of foreshadowing for for the death of the lovers, Romeo and Juliet. Even though fate was a factor that had contributed to a tragic end, there was also personal choice involved, and ultimately, the story may have had a different ending if it weren’t for the flaws of the lovers and their inability to have a grip on reality in dire circumstances. Over the course of the play, the lovers from the conflicting households have not matured and remain rather static in development. Furthermore, in this tragedy, the only son of the montages remains rather childlike, Juliet still seems immature and their relationship over all seems more like a play act on lover rather then something mature and sustainable. Overall, from start to finish, Romeo and Juliet were living in the moment, being absurd and silly rather then focusing on the future and trying to work problems out effectively.
First, because death is one of Shakespeare’s most common motif. Using such a tragic ending portrayed the loving and strong bond between the two lovers. Romeo and Juliet had such an inseparable bond that by not having the other, they had to take their life. Both lovers were from different feuding families. Knowing that Romeo and Juliet both were not allowed to be together and still managed to find a way to figure out how to be together showed how much they loved each other. Then later killing themselves to be together, showed how much they cared for eachother. Shakespeare also wrote such a tragic ending to show that Romeo and Juliet had fate. They were both meant to be together even if it meant in their present life or in the afterlife. This play was categorized as a tragedy, so there had to be some type of death and or tragedy that had to do with the main characters. Lastly, the ending also showed the readers how Romeo use to have a self conceited and saucy life before meeting the love of his
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.
...t life. Suicide is the most extreme manifestation of this fear of life. A more moderate manifestation of this fear is depression. Early in the play, Romeo is described as having depression like symptoms. As the love affair progresses, it becomes increasingly clear that Romeo can not handle life without Juliet. By the end of the play, he kills himself because he can no longer have Juliet. Romeo’s final act of suicide is not completely based on the death of Juliet. The depression he exhibits at the onset of the play is already exhibiting his desire to escape life.