Passions and Drama in William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet

Passions and Drama in William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet

As the title suggests, Shakespeare's famous play "Romeo and Juliet",

centres around the protagonists, Romeo and Juliet. The story is set in

beautiful Verona in Italy. Two families of equal, noble rank (the

Montagues and the Capulets); have a long standing vendetta, which has

recently flared up: their followers have killed each other 'in single

strife'. The children of these mortal enemies were fated to fall in

love; their tragic deaths ended their parent's feud.

Passion is one of the central themes in Shakespeare's tragedy "Romeo

and Juliet". Through Shakespeare's characterisation and narrative, the

audience learns about different kinds of passion. For example I have

chosen 3 scenes to discuss and show how the passion evolved, I will

also look at the story and how it add tension with passion.

Act 1 scene 5

I have chosen the first meeting of Romeo and Juliet in Act one, Scene

five in which Romeo goes to the Capulet party and first sees Juliet.

When Romeo sees Juliet for the first time he is infatuated and finally

realises that this is his first and true love. Shakespeare shows this

by having Romeo and Juliet take it in turns to speak the lines of a

sonnet, this shows how in tune they are with each other. Romeos words

when he first sees Juliet are a complete contrast to the chatter and

noise of the rest of the party. He speaks in poetry, using rhyming

couplets. Within Romeo's speech he uses a lot of soft letters and

sounds which has the effect of slowing down and softening the lines.

Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet was set over a period of five days

which m...

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...re only punishing them.

Romeo and Juliet thought that they new better than their parents, but

after realizing the wrong they caused when both committing suicide.

Romeo was too young to realize that he had to take responsibility for

his actions and he had to accept the consequences. This is one of the

pitfalls that Shakespeare portrayed in his play for young love. Romeo

did not understand the outcomes of his actions. He never realized this

until the damage was done. He was too involved in and self obsessed

with his love for Juliet that he didn't devote himself to any other

circumstances. Young love is often an ever-changing emotion that

enthrals adolescents. When a boy sees a beautiful girl, he often

thinks that he is in love. That is similar to the emotion Romeo

experienced: 'To call hers, exquisite, in question more'.