Three Major Themes
(A discussion of the three major themes in R&J prologue)
Shakespeare is known for his remarkable play-writing ability, even though most of his plays he wrote as a way to earn money from people constantly paying to watch and re-watch his plays. He wrote many historical plays along with comedies and tragedies. A few tragedies that he wrote are, Romeo and Juliet, The Hamlet, and Macbeth. In Romeo and Juliet, he shows several messages to those who read or watch his play. The three major themes in the play, Romeo and Juliet are two feuding families, two kids that commit suicide for love, and politics.
Feuding households are common even in today’s society, in the play, Romeo and Juliet, the feuding households are the Capulets
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The lovers are Romeo, a Montague, and Juliet, a Capulet. Romeo meets Juliet while chasing after another girl named Rosaline who has no interest in Romeo whatsoever. “From forth the fatal loins of these two foes a pair of star-crossed lovers take their life;” page 807 lines 5-6. As if by fate, Romeo meets Juliet and immediately forgets about Rosaline and Juliet immediately falls in love with Romeo. Although they fall in love, they must keep their love secret because in the period in time when they lived, the 1600’s, parents arranged marriages and children were required to marry whomever they were told to. Juliet’s father wanted her to marry Paris, but she wanted to marry Romeo so she did everything in her control to postpone the wedding. Later in the play, Juliet drinks a potion that makes her appear dead for a certain amount of time and Romeo thinks she is actually dead so he kills himself. After Romeo died, Juliet wakes up and finds him dead from poison, not being able to live without him, Juliet commits suicide by stabbing a dagger into her chest. Once the two children are dead, the two households become at peace with each other and the suicides end the feud between the two …show more content…
The two deaths are a mark of love shown by both of them, Romeo for not wanting to live without Juliet and Juliet for not wanting to live without Romeo. “The fearful passage of their death-marked love, And the continuance of their parents’ rage,” page 807 lines 9-10. The quote is saying that the two young lovers had to give up their lives too prove too their parents that they don’t need to fight and that names are no reason to judge a person. Shakespeare also writes directly at the audience telling them that they need to have patience and watch the entire play to see know all of the details. “The which if you with patient ears attend, What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.” page 807 lines 13-14. The point Shakespeare is trying to get across is that what you don’t understand from the prologue, will only make sense if you are patient and watch the whole play. Shakespeare wants people to attend and watch the entire show so that he makes money and has free advertising because if someone enjoys the play it’s no doubt they will recommend the play to other
Did you know that Romeo and Juliet was one of the biggest love story of all time. Romeo and Juliet is a story of two star-crossed lovers from two families the Capulets and the Montagues. The Capulets and the Montague had a big fight that made the families very angry at each other. Romeo and Juliet decide to get married. The two couple marry and run away. In the process both of them will die. When it comes to Romeo and Juliet who are the top three people that caused the two to die. The two people that are chosen are Friar Lawrence and Lady Capulet. Friar was chosen because he is the one that married Romeo and Juliet. Lady Capulet was chosen because she is forcing Juliet to marry Paris which is making Juliet want Romeo even more. The third thing
The reader realizes this when the prologue states, “Two households, both alike in dignity/ In fair Verona, where we lay our scene, / From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,/ Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean./ From forth the fatal loins of these two foes/ A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life” (I 1-6). This translates to say two families have been rivals for many years. Romeo and Juliet are two from separate rivaling families that fall in love. The reader can acknowledge that these two individuals meet one another due to fate. However, they know that because of their parents’ hatred of each other, they can never be together. “My only love sprung from my only hate!/ Too early seen unknown, and known too late!/ Prodigious birth of love it is to me,/ That I must love a loathed enemy” (I v138-140). A decision is made that the only way to be happy is to take their lives. As soon as the play begins, the audience can foresee a tragic ending because of the language used.
William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is the classic story of two families, the Montague’s and Capulet’s, who have an age old feud. Two children of the family, Juliet Capulet and Romeo Montague, meet and fall in love. The feud between their families encourages them to keep their relationship secret. They get married without telling anyone, but their family feud gets in the way. Juliet’s cousin, Tybalt, and Romeo’s friend, Mercutio, get into a sword fight and Mercutio is killed.
Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy written by english playwright and poet William Shakespeare. It is about “a pair of star crossed lovers” from feuding families that end up dying for each other. In the prologue of the play, it states they take their lives, revealing the ending. Structurally, Shakespeare revealing this tragic end at the start would make it more suspenseful for the audience as they don’t know when they die, who or in what order anyone dies. It would also make the audience feel more sympathy for Romeo and Juliet when they are together because the audience know that they are two of the people that will die. Throughout Romeo and Juliet, there is a theme of opposing forces, such as love and hate. This is shown in the prologue when it is stated “from ancient grudge break mutiny”. The opposition of the families
Romeo and Juliet is a play written by William Shakespeare, where a boy and a girl fall in love with each other during a party hosted by Juliet’s father, Lord Capulet. The two teenager decide to get marry, despite their family's hate for each other and only meeting each other a few hours ago. However, the Montagues (Romeo’s Parents) and the Capulets end their feud after they discover that their children killed themselves. Romeo and Juliet’s death was caused by Juliet’s parents, Juliet, and Friar Lawrence.
To be specific, the prologue clearly states to the audience that “a pair of star-crossed lovers take their life” (Shakespeare Prologue 6). Right from the beginning the audience is made aware that the story of Romeo and Juliet is not going to have a fairytale ending, which makes their love story an emotional rollercoaster for the audience. Typically people find themselves rooting for the lovers in a romantic story as they overcome the obstacles thrown in their way. However, because the audience already knows the tragic fate of the lovers, the audience is torn between feelings of adulation and frustration. For example, during the famous balcony scene, Romeo sweetly expresses his adoration for Juliet by saying, “I am no pilot, yet wet thou as far / As that vast shore washed with the farthest sea, / I should adventure for such merchandise” (Shakespeare 2.2.81-83). Although this is a sweet expression of love that has the capability to soften the hearts of those in the audience, they know that the kindling of love of Romeo and Juliet will not end happily. Thus, seeing their love begin to bloom confuses the audience’s emotions into a chaotic state of captivation and
The idea of Romeo and Juliet being in true love or not is an important one as the entirety of the play written by William Shakespeare revolves around it. The lines within this play at first look make it seem as though they are in love, but upon a closer look, it reveals something much different. Romeo and Juliet are not truly in love based on Bradstreet’s definition of love. One requirement of true love is time to allow it to form, something that Romeo and Juliet ran out of. They also have a love based on physical attraction shown on Romeo’s side, something true love is not based upon. Since the relationship of Romeo and Juliet are based upon such concepts, it cannot be true love between them, but
This story of “Romeo and juliet” have a mixed ending of both happy and sad.
When I heard about the death of Romeo and Juliet, I was shocked. As an expert in cognitive and computational neuroscience, I could not resist myself from trying to find what their minds were undergoing prior to their death. After continuous research and analyzing Romeo’s and Juliet’s actions, I found that their deaths may actually have been caused by a psychogenic factor. Up until this point in time, your fellow Montagues, Capulets, and yourself as well have thought that the reason the two lovers died was for their unconditional love for each other. However, being adolescents, Romeo and Juliet were influenced by their immature minds to make impulsive decisions.
“A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life”. In the prologue Shakespeare gave us a hint that the two lovers will take their life to death because of the misadventures in their relationship and life. Because of the feud between their families, they faced all the responsibilities and problems but still at the end they both died. But Romeo did all the sacrifices just to make their love successful. 4
Background- In Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, there is a long feud between two houses, Montague and Capulet. Fate brought the two star crossed lovers together. After going many conflicts with their families, the two lovers committed suicide, ending their family feud.
An adolescent boy and a practically 14 year old girl fall in love at first sight which
Should Mr. Thoma bring back Romeo and Juliet next year or not. Learning about Romeo and juliet this year was a good experience for me and it taught me a lot about how not to hurt yourself just because of a person. During the book I learned how people can be inspired to do different things. Lastly, Romeo and Juliet was an eye opener for me because it taught me that just because you think you're in love with someone you don't have to harm yourself to be with the.
Perhaps the biggest dispute in Verona, the fight is made obvious at the beginning of the play when the servants of each house instigate a fight. From then on Romeo and Juliet fall in love; however, due to the two families arguing and both families not knowing of the affair between Romeo and Juliet, their destined fate is fulfilled, and the two lovers end up dead. Both families arrive to the Capulet tomb, only to witness the gruesome sight of their only children deceased. Prince Escalus, who is also present proclaims, "Capulet! Montague! / See what a scourge is laid upon your hate. / That heaven finds means to kill your joys with love! / And I, for winking at your discords, too / have lost a brace of kinsmen" (5.3.290-294). In this instance, the Prince is stating that God had provided a possible solution for the two families' feud through the love of Romeo and Juliet, but both their selfishness and striving to be the better house had ruined their chance at making peace. Because of the feud and both families' failures to make peace, the fate of Romeo and Juliet was ultimately fulfilled when Romeo and Juliet were
Shakespeare wrote plays that captured true human emotion and conflicts in life. He grew fame from writing these plays. His plays had different genres such as tragedies, comedies, history and tragic comedies. His most famous plays were Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet. Many proclaim