Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Reaction to Romeo and Juliet
Romantic tragedy romeo and juliet
Romeo and Juliet attitudes to relationships
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Reaction to Romeo and Juliet
One of the most beautiful gifts of life is the ability to love. Love has the power to completely change someone for better or worse; nonetheless, it always brings a beautiful feeling along with itself. A feeling that upholds a different meaning for everyone and like everyone else it had a unique meaning for William Shakespeare, who is well known for writing the tragic love story of Romeo and Juliet along with other plays centered on love. However, his perspective on love in his plays contradict each other. In the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare works to convince his audience that love is a joyful and overpowering force that subsides all other values and loyalties of a person, and it is usually accompanied by violence of some sort. …show more content…
The tragic love story of Romeo and Juliet is among the first plays ever written in the English language. Written by William Shakespeare in the 16th century in the city of London, it is one of the few works of art that have survived centuries of war and change. One of the biggest reasons for its survival is that this play of two young lovers, Romeo and Juliet touches its audience’s hearts in a way most love stories/plays couldn’t.
Born to two feuding families in Verona where their love is forbidden, Romeo and Juliet are willing to throw away and defy everyone and everything they have ever known if it means they could have the jubilation of being with each other. Their strong desire to be together is what leads them to be ignorant to the social norms of the time, which is evident from the very first moment they laid their eyes upon each other. In the instant Romeo sees Juliet he goes by her and she lets him lead her away, which at the time wasn't considered appropriate for highly respected nobles like Romeo
…show more content…
When Juliet hears of Romeo’s banishment from Verona, her entire world falls apart. Romeo being banished from Verona and Tybalt’s death takes away any possibility of them living together like any other married couple and to Juliet no life is better than a life without Romeo. This mentality leads her to Friar Lawrence’s cell begging for any remedy he might have to offer. At Lawrence's cell, Juliet makes her wishes clear saying, “ I long to die, If what thou speak’st speak not of remedy” (4.1.67-68). Overwhelmed by the grief and sorrow of her true love’s banishment, Juliet condones the misery Friar Lawrence's remedy will put her family through. She didn’t think twice before agreeing to the Friar’s plan, which involved, Juliet tricking everyone into thinking that she had died when really she was just asleep. The only part of the plan that mattered to Juliet was when afterwards she will be able to run away with Romeo and have her ‘happily ever after.’ However, unfortunately, the plan begins to fall apart when Friar Lawrence is unable to inform Romeo of the plan. Soon enough, Romeo hears what had supposedly happened to Juliet back in Verona from his servant Balthasar. Shook from the news, Romeo runs back to Verona disregarding the Prince’s statement about him being executed if ever seen in Verona again. Seeing Juliet in the tomb, Romeo falls
The attempt that Friar Lawrence had made to fix up his wrong doings was a mistake and took a huge role in leading up to the two deaths. He had a second chance to come clean and tell the families the truth, but he chose to ignore that opportunity and came up with a plan that resulted in the deaths of Romeo and Juliet. After Romeo had been banished, the plan that the Friar conjured up was for Juliet to take a potion which would make her appear dead.
At first Juliet is quite shocked, as her love for Romeo is destined and without him she believes
Juliet strategizes her disastrous plan and worries, “How if, when I am laid into the tomb, I wake before the time that Romeo come to redeem me?” (Lines 30-32 of Act Four, Scene Three). Juliet is desperate to see Romeo, ergo she plans to fake her death. Her thoughts of Romeo finding her lifeless foreshadows their future. Romeo is deprived of the news of Juliet’s real state of health, therefore he says, “Well, Juliet, I will lie with thee tonight. O mischief, thou art swift to enter the thoughts of desperate men!” (Lines 34-36 of Act Five, Scene One). Once again, Romeo’s perception is only focused on Juliet. His mental instability leads him to think Paris is in the way obtaining true happiness, thus he slays him. Romeo acquires poison, stands beside Juliet, and states, “Here’s to my love! (Drinks.) O true apothecary! Thy drugs are quick. Thus with a kiss I die.” (Lines 119-120 of Act Five, Scene Three). Romeo observes Juliet’s body and determines that he should die beside her. Juliet wakes to his lifeless body, and determines she should commit suicide, as well. Romeo’s foolish decisions lead to the death of himself and
Failing to uphold his end of the plan, causing the plan to fail and resulting with both Romeo and Juliet dying. Friar Laurence admits to being responsible for the deaths of Romeo and Juliet. Friar Lawrence made a huge mistake that he could have avoided himself, if only he had thought out his plan better. He trusted Juliet an unstable fourteen-year-old with a potion to make her appear dead just so she would not have to marry Paris. Resulting in the death of herself, Friar Lawrence had even said, "If…thou hast the strength of will to slay thyself…take thou this vial…no warmth, no breath shall testify the livest." He should have been more careful, Friar Laurence's idea for Juliet was very risky and because of his own ignorance has ended up in tragedy. He also admits that he left the tomb and left Juliet there. The Friar knew that Juliet had previously threatened to kill herself, yet he still abandoned her with Romeo's knife. If the Friar truly cared about her safety, he would have forced her to come with him or stayed to prevent her from making any irresponsible
Days following, Juliet will awaken and Romeo will be there to help her run away. The Friar hopes for the best in the situation, but does not consider the drawbacks that could and will suddenly occur in his plan. He continuously tells Juliet what she wants to hear in this situation because she sees him as a fatherly figure and he sees her as his daughter. Before Juliet leaves the Friar, he tells her, “ ‘Thou hast the strength of will to sly thyself,/ Then is it likely thou wilt undertake/ A thing like death to chide away this shame,’ ” (Mackenzie 1).
Despite his conscience, Friar Lawrence reveals a potion that will put Juliet to a false death, in the “Potion Plan” scene. His motivation was caused by the weeping and tears of Juliet who was in the hands of a twisted marriage against her will. She had already been married to her love, but now that promise was in danger of being broken. From the few lines that the friar speaks, the audience realizes that this friar is certainly not the stereotype friar that goes around trying to live an impossible life of perfection.
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 sees Juliet dead and immediately tells Romeo about it.
Romeo goes to see Juliet but has to flee, Juliet is told she has to
He also tells Juliet that "Shall Romeo by my letters know our drift, and hither shall hem come; and he and I shall watch thy waking, and that very night shall Romeo bear thee to Mantua" (Act 4, Scene 1.) Unforeseen to neither the Friar nor Juliet that an error such as the one of Friar John’s would prove to be deadly. Poor Romeo was not able to receive the letter. Friar Lawrence plays a significant role in the plan for Juliet to "sleep."Friar Lawrence plays an important rule in the actual deaths of Romeo, Juliet, And Paris. Friar Lawrence is unable to reach Romeo with the news of Juliet’s "death." Romeo, thinking Juliet is dead rushes to Verona, but not before buying some fast poison.
Juliet receives a vial containing a potion from Friar Lawrence, who has a plan that will make Juliet appear as if she is dead, so that when she awakens, she will unite with Romeo. Juliet considers several consequences before drinking the potion, such as losing her sanity or being buried alive. Despite her reasoning, she summons the courage to drink the potion, exclaiming “Romeo, Romeo, Romeo! Here’s to a drink.
Romeo and Juliet were soon married and later that afternoon Juliet's cousin Tybalt kills Mercutio during a small fight in the street. Romeo sees this injustice and upon impulse kills Tybalt in revenge. Under the advice of his friends he flees the scene of the murder. Soon the prince finds out and he banishes Romeo from Verona. That same day Juliet finds out that her lover Romeo has been banished for killing her beloved cousin and she threatens to kill herself. She goes to friar Lawrence's cell and he gives her a strong sleeping potion. This strong potion will put her to sleep for a few hours so then she will appear dead; and not have to marry Paris like her father had arranged for her.
Juliet begins to speak of Romeo and we learn that the fact Romeo is a
Upon receiving news from Balthasar about the death of Juliet, Romeo was devastated and immediately reacted in an impulsive way to the situation before even taking the time to confirm with people such as the friar to make sure that the information he was given was, in fact, accurate. Instead, Romeo rushed off to purchase poison so that he could kill himself and be with Juliet after declaring “Well, Juliet, I will lie with thee tonight” (5.1.37). Had Romeo taken the time to contact the friar rather than acting so hastily and impulsively, he would have known that Juliet was still alive, and that her death-like sleep was nothing more than a part of a deception developed by the friar. Unfortunately for Romeo, because of his haste, he killed himself only minutes before Juliet awoke, and had he waited a few minutes to revise and analyze his decision, he would have lived to see Juliet’s awakening and the two lovers could have been reunited. Romeo’s own death was not all the consequence that resulted from his hasty decision. When Juliet awakened, all that was left of Romeo was his dead body as pointed out by the friar when to Juliet he sated “Thy husband in thy bosom there lies dead” (5.1.160). The sight of Romeo’s dead body had horrified Juliet, which led her to stab herself with Romeo’s dagger, committing suicide. Therefore Romeo’s
When the friar hears of this, he devises a plan so that the two lovers can be together. The major climax of the play comes when the friar gives Juliet a potion that will make it seem as though she has died, when in fact she is alive the whole time. While in Mantua, Romeo mistakenly hears that Juliet has actually died and he goes to lay by her side. Just as he takes a vile poison and dies, Juliet awakens to find her love lying dead at her side. She cannot fathom living in a world without Romeo, so she takes his sword and ends her own life.
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) was a Renaissance poet and playwright who wrote and published the original versions of 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and several other poems. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language, and often called England’s national poet. Several of his works became extremely well known, thoroughly studied, and enjoyed all over the world. One of Shakespeare’s most prominent plays is titled The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet. In this tragedy, the concept that is discussed and portrayed through the characters is love, as they are recognized as being “in love”. The general umbrella of love encompasses various kinds of love such as romantic love, the love of a parent for a child, love of one’s country, and several others. What is common to all love is this: Your own well-being is tied up with that of someone (or something) you love… When love is not present, changes in other people’s well being do not, in general, change your own… Being ‘in love’ infatuation is an intense state that displays similar features: … and finding everyone charming and nice, and thinking they all must sense one’s happiness. At first glance it seems as though Shakespeare advocates the hasty, hormone-driven passion portrayed by the protagonists, Romeo and Juliet; however, when viewed from a more modern, North-American perspective, it seems as though Shakespeare was not in fact endorsing it, but mocking the public’s superficial perception of love. Shakespeare’s criticism of the teens’ young and hasty love is portrayed in various instances of the play, including Romeo’s shallow, flip-flop love for Rosaline then Juliet, and his fights with Juliet’s family. Also, the conseque...