Contradictions in William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet
In the play "Romeo and Juliet", Shakespeare uses contradictions both
to involve his audience in the action and to highlight the important
themes and events. The play was written on several different levels of
understanding. It could be viewed as a simple, tragic love story but
the conflicts within and between the characters give us a fascinating
study of human nature. The contradictions within the text in the form
of oxymorons and puns counter this simplicity and lead us to examine
each line for its true purpose. The variety and interest capture and
entrance the audience. The twists and turns of the play change it from
just a conventional love story to one that deals with the major
opposing forces of life; light and dark, day and night, love and hate,
good and evil, life and death.
From the very beginning Shakespeare uses contradictions in the form of
antonyms. In the first quatrain of the prologue, Shakespeare prepares
the audience to see the longstanding hostility between the two equally
noble families, the Montagues and the Capulets, breaking out again.
"From ancient grudge break to new mutiny." The antonyms of ancient and
new stress the grudge and the forth coming tragedy.
The second quatrain foretells the healing of this feud through the
deaths of a pair of ill-fated lovers, children of these families,
Romeo and Juliet. " A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life".
This emphasises that their love faces an almost impossible task, and
that the play will result in a tragedy. What should have been a story
about love turns out to be a story about tragedy, loss and disast...
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...s a tragedy about love! It does not follow the
pattern of any other love story. It contradicts the audience's
expectations. The contradictions of the plot do not allow the audience
to predict what will happen next. Each sentence apparently
contradicting itself, a play on words much appreciated and expected by
the audience of the day. The audience would experience a conflict of
feelings between their sympathy for the irreproachable love between
Romeo and Juliet and the fact that the lovers were flouting the moral
conventions of the day and not dutifully following their parent's
wishes. Perhaps the biggest contradiction within the play is the way
in which it ends. It is not the love between Romeo and Juliet which
binds the feuding families together in marriage, but their deaths
which bring the families together in grief.
In every fairy tale, movie, story, and play there is always a ‘happily ever after’ but in not in this case. The star struck lovers, Romeo and Juliet, both from families who loathe each other, end up taking their lives because they rather die than live without one another. The play “Romeo and Juliet” written by, William Shakespeare, mainly focuses on how selfishness can lead to tragedy. The selfish personalities of the characters caused conflict, betrayal, and death.
Romeo and Juliet, written by William Shakespeare, is a story of two young lovers. These two hearts, Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet belong to feuding families. The family feud causes them to keep their love a secret and therefore only Romeo, Juliet, Benvolio, the Nurse and Friar Lawrence know of their love. Romeo and Juliet are able to look past the feud and let themselves fall in mad love with the other. They let themselves do almost anything for the other and at times it seems like too much to do, even for the one they love. Although fate and character traits play a key role in the play, ultimately Rome and Juliet’s personal choices lead to their downfall.Fate originates all of the conflicts in Romeo and Juliet, from when they met until they die.
William Shakespeare is really famous for his writings, especially Romeo and Juliet. A pair of two star crossed lovers take place, on their mission to unite two houses, Capulets and Montagues, once and for all. In the play Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare presents a lot of paradoxes. This provides a lot of contrast to the text and allows readers to think harder and better understand the intricacies of this writing. In this play, there are many paradoxical themes expressed through the text for example good versus evil, love versus hate, and many more. All these paradoxes are communicated through figurative language, characterization, sound devices, and literary foils. These are literary devices that authors use to help readers to visualize
William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet as a Play Of Opposites In the play Romeo & Juliet, William Shakespeare utilizes opposites in both the thoughts and actions of the characters in Romeo and Juliet. Outlined are contrasts of crime and violence versus peace and law, love versus hate, and young versus old. The uses of crime & violence versus peace and law are demonstrated in Act 3, Scene 1.
The students read Romeo and Juliet and do not see the love story that society would have them see. Instead they examine what lies beyond this. They see a story of secrecy, sex, murder, suicide, and disease. All of these things are found within the play, but are masked by poetry and romance. For example, these students see Romeo and Juliet as a story of "whispering, tiptoeing, making love, and (children) driven mad in the dark." To the "normal" reader this is romantic. It is viewed as a story about the most amazing kind of love imaginable - true love ending in tragedy.
The play Romeo and Juliet is a widely known tragedy written by Shakespeare. Romeo and Juliet features two rival families and their children. When a daughter of Capulet and son of Montague meet at a party, sparks immediately fly. However, because of their families rivalry, they marry in secret, and were happy. That is until things took a turn for the worst. After an unexpected accident, Romeo is forced to leave the city, and he may never return. Juliet’s not sure she’ll ever see him again and tries to plan a way to be with Romeo, but ends up making things worse. It is an extremely tragic story. Or that’s what everyone is led to believe. However, the play Romeo and Juliet is in actuality a comedy. Between the overabundance of hyperbole, Paris’
How Shakespeare Presents the Idea of Contrast in Romeo and Juliet Romeo and Juliet is one of the first tragedies Shakespeare wrote yet. of the most enjoyable plays. One of the reasons that it is so enjoyable is because Shakespeare uses so much contrast throughout the the whole play of the game. He contrasts themes, characters, language and structure. make the play exciting and keep the audience on their toes.
Shakespeare’s play, The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, depicts an ancient feud ended by a pair of star-crossed lovers’ deaths. A lord and lady from warring families seek a forbidden love with guidance from a friar and nurse. Due to a tragic course of mischances and fateful errors, their attempt of eloping led the lovers to a tragic end. Because of rash decisions, the four characters are torn apart by miscalculating events and misunderstandings. Ultimately, the four characters encounter a heartbreaking ending, as a result of their hastiness.
“Don’t waste your love on someone who doesn’t value it.” In the play Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare exposes the life of two young lovers in the Renaissance period fighting for something they cannot live without; each other. Although fate takes its toll, the everlasting feud between two families, conditional love by parents, and the irresponsibility’s of father and mother like figure are the main causes in the death of Romeo and Juliet. The idea of love is something that is valued in this play from many different aspects of characters, lines, and scenes. Shakespeare leaves the minds of readers soaring over not why it happened, but who was at fault.
The Different Interpretations of the Film Romeo and Juliet To prepare for this essay I have already seen two versions of Romeo + Juliet, one version was made in 1968 and directed by an Italian man called Franco Zefirelli. The other version was made in the late 1990's and was directed by an American called Baz Luhrman. Both versions are completely different from each other. I will analyse and give my own opinion on what I think about each play.
Love is a very powerful force which some believe has the capability to overpower hate. Within the play, Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare displays various events in which the characters convey the message that love can conquer all. The characters in this play continue to forgive the ones they love, even under harsh circumstances. Additionally, Shakespeare effectively demonstrates how Romeo and Juliet’s love for one another overpowers significant emotional scenes within the play, including the feuding between their two families. Furthermore, by the end of the play the reader sees how love defeats the shock of death and how Romeo and Juliet’s love ends the ancient feud between the Capulets and Montagues. Using these three events, the reader sees Shakespeare’s message of how love can conquer all. In the desperate battle between love and hate, Shakespeare believes love to be the more powerful force in the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet.
In Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, the views of love held by the character Romeo contrast sharply with the views of Mercutio. Romeo's character seems to suffer from a type of manic depression. He is in love with his sadness, quickly enraptured and easily crushed again on a passionate roller coaster of emotion. Mercutio, by contrast is much more practical and level headed. His perceptions are clear and quick, characterized by precise thought and careful evaluation. Romeo, true to his character begins his appearance in the play by wallowing in his depression over Rosaline who does not return his love:
Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy of an ancient feud where the children of two families at war fall deeply in love with each other. Set in the 16th century William Shakespeare’s play has many different themes running throughout it, which include love, hate, death and conflict. The play opens with a fight but ends with suicide that creates peace between both families who unite from their losses. The conflict, violence and aggression in the play happen from revenge and an ancient family grudge. An audience from the 16th century would have enjoyed Romeo and Juliet because of the real life drama and tragedy the play goes through. The patriarchal society gave women absolutely no rights and they had to obey their man’s ordering a patriarchal system. The theme of conflict is revealed as the characters argue over Juliet’s disobedience.
The feud between the Montagues and the Capulets causes the young couple to have to sneak around to one another. Broken family relationships in both families add stress since there are less people Romeo and Juliet can trust, and feel comfortable talking too. Miscommunication not only between Romeo and Juliet, but almost all the characters, affect the couple in a poor way because they are constantly being misinformed about one another. Romeo and Juliet may not like that they have been greatly impacted by all these factors but these actions are ultimately what shaped their lives, and affected how they lived them. This demonstrates how the influences around you can change the way you feel about certain things. If they had better family conditions, and ways to communicate, it is possible they could have lived their lives longer and
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.