Romeo And Juliet Compare And Contrast Essay

1201 Words3 Pages

Contrasts in William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet

“Romeo and Juliet” is a famous romantic drama written by William

Shakespeare containing many contrasts within it, portraying the

eponymous lovers’ everlasting love for one another. The conflict

between the two families; the Montagues and the Capulets makes it

almost impossible for them to be together. The play consists of

romance and humour building up to the climax of Romeo and Juliet’s

death.

In the play we are first introduced to the servants Sampson and

Gregory, from the Montague household, who have a similar lifestyle to

the servants in the Capulet household, who are trying to keep up the

reputation of the families. The Capulet household are holding a party

where the servants are busy getting food, drinks and decoration ready,

whereas Lord and Lady Capulet live the life of luxury where they

simply think about marriage, money and parties.

In the film we see that the servants are dressed down in black tatty

clothing while the upper class people; the masters are wearing bright

elaborate clothing. In Franco Zeffirelli and Baz Luhrmann’s

interpretations of the play, they show this because they wanted to

emphasise the status between higher and lower social people. The dark

clothes also represent the darker days and shows that the servants are

emotionally sad, but the masters are expressively happy.

The language of the servants compared to the masters is very

different. The servants are illiterate and not educated; however, the

masters are highly educated and very posh, they can afford schooling,

whereas the servants could not. Shakespeare shows this when the

servant spea...

... middle of paper ...

...her innocence, beauty and purity. Tybalt

is a devil because he is likes to fight, he is evil, seeking trouble

and devious. Paris is an astronaut who is rich, successful and out of

this planet representing why he is the right person for Juliet to get

married to. Lord and Lady Capulet are king and queen of Verona Beach

and dress up as Marc Anthony/Julius Caesar and Cleopatra who also die

in a similar way to Romeo and Juliet.

This play is full of many opposites and contrasts: love and hate,

peace and conflict, young and old. It is all mainly to do with

historical, cultural and social context. The play sadly ended with the

two star-crossed lovers having to give their life for their families

to end their fighting. Romeo and Juliet end with these words: “For

never was a story of more woe than this of Juliet and her Romeo”.

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