Audience's Reaction to William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet

1164 Words3 Pages

Audience's Reaction to William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet

Shakespeare is a famous writer who wrote many famous plays, probably

his most famous being Romeo and Juliet. Romeo and Juliet is about a

couple who fall in love and get married, despite their families feud

which has been going on for generations. Shakespeare cleverly didn't

write what the feud was about, because it helps get his theme of

unresolved conflict leads to tragedy across. Shakespeare also uses

fate as a theme and gets this across by writing that fate conspires

against them; 'star-crossed lovers.' This fate conspires so much

against Romeo and Juliet that it is unrealistic to a modern day

(contemporary) audience, but in a Shakespearean audience it didn't

matter because as long as it was entertaining it was accepted. This

essay is about the reaction of a Shakespearean audience and a

contemporary audience would have towards Romeo throughout the play.

Throughout Romeo and Juliet Shakespeare presents Romeo as a young man

overcoming his adolescence. Romeo is seventeen years old and is

infatuated with Rosaline. This is shown by the flowery and insincere

language (poetry love) Romeo uses when speaking about Rosaline.

Rosaline has sworn to be a virgin and not to love or marry any man.

The audience knowing that Romeo is not truly in love with Rosaline and

is a petrarchan lover, may find it quite amusing, as this can be

related to a typical teenager of today. Romeo's friends dislike Romeo

being in love with Rosaline, because he is not his true self, which he

admits:

"Tut I have lost myself; I am not here.

This is not Romeo, he's gone some other where."

Romeo...

... middle of paper ...

.... This is due to the two different

audiences having different cultures. Today's audiences are more

realistic then a Shakespearean audience. A Shakespearean audience

would be very religious, making certain parts of the play more

meaningful to them. Today's audience would not be so religiously

influenced. The opinions on the reactions of Romeo throughout the

essay may be completely different to what the majority of

Shakespearean and contemporary audiences, because the two different

audiences would react depending upon the individuals in the audiences.

Shakespeare's themes of 'unresolved conflict leads to tragedy' and

'fate' are got across to us because of all the unrealistic bad luck

Romeo and Juliet have. Due to the conflict, Mercutio, Tybalt, Paris,

Romeo and Juliet are all dead, as the Prince says; 'all are punished.'

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