Similarities Between Romeo And Juliet And A Raisin In The Sun

Is life worth living or is it better to give up and leave life all behind. This was the theme of Romeo and Juliet and A Raisin in the Sun. Both plays were set in a different setting, time periods, and have a different style of presenting, but they both give information on how housing was different in those time periods. Lorraine Hansberry wrote her play to give the audience an insight of how segregated housing as in the U.S. and Shakespeare's ideas of his play still remain relevant today. Lorraine Hansberry’s drama A Raisin in the Sun demonstrates the hardships and disagreements of a family more effectively than William Shakespeare's, The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet because of Hansberry’s use of tone, dialogue, and character interaction.

Throughout Romeo and Juliet and A Raisin in the Sun, tone is used to express the hardships that both families faced. With dialogue and their type of voice, the character revealed the downfalls and rises. In Romeo and Juliet, the Prince explains his frustration towards the Montagues and Capulets. “Rebellious subjects, enemies to peace,/ Profaners of this neighbor-stainèd steel!—/ Will they not hear?—What, ho! You men, you beasts,/ That quench the fire of your pernicious rage With purple fountains issuing from your veins,/ On pain of torture, from those bloody hands/ Throw your mistempered weapons to the ground,/ And hear the sentence of your movèd prince.” (A1, S1, L 14-81).

This evidence piece expresses the Prince's tone of anger and frustration because of the two families continuous rivalry that led onto street fighting. Another example that

illustrates a tone of anger and frustration is by Lord Capulet.

“Hang thee, young baggage! Disobedient wretch!/ I tell thee what: get thee to church o' Thursday,/ Or never after look me in the face./ Speak not. Reply not. Do not answer me./ My fingers itch.” (A3, S5, L 160-164). The Capulets family is falling apart and Lord Capulet’s tone changed from the beginning of the play to the end. He was first very happy and easy going, but now, he’s gotten more violent and angrily. He’s calling his daughter a burden upon him just because she won’t marry the person of his choice which really illustrates the family drama. In the play Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare expressed a lot of different types of tone such as romantic, passionate, anger, violent, etc. Apart from Shakespeare’s plays, Lorraine Hansberry also describes tone in her play in a different matter. One of the characters was Walter who expressed rage in his tone. “DAMN MY EGGS DAMN ALL THE EGGS THAT EVER WAS!...See I’m trying to talk to you ‘bout myself and all you can say is eat them eggs and go to work.” (Hansberry 5). Walter is in full rage and frustration towards his wife. The family’s shortage of money has taken over their lives and is eating up their personal lives. The tone of Walter’s voice is so serious and

loud that you can actually feel his anger. Another character that displays tone is Ruth. “I guess I might as well go to bed...I don’t know where we lost it...but we have...I’m sorry about this new baby, Walter. I guess maybe I better go on and do what I started...I guess I just didn’t realize how bad things was with us...I guess I just didn’t realize.” (Hanberry 27). In his piece, Ruth has a very sad and somber tone. After her husband exclaimed to her that nobody cares about her in full rage, Ruth really got quiet. Her tone really captured the pain that she was in and how it felt as if she was backstabbed. A Raisin in the Sun really captures the misery of the Youngster family and the tone really defines the inner feeling of the characters.
Lorraine Hansberry’s drama A Raisin in the Sun, uses tone, dialogue, and character interaction to demonstrate the hardships and disagreements of a family more efficiently than William Shakespeare's The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet. Both of these plays display a negative tone to the audience by illustrating both families dramas. For instance, in Romeo and Juliet, Lord Capulet played an important role showing the irritation he had towards Juliet and this showed how the family drama kept going. And in A Raisin in the Sun, there’s a lot of examples of negative and positive tone. When Walter talks to his family, he’s always in anger because of the stress he has and his tone reflects the character he is. There’s also positive tone when Lena tells the family that she bought a house and Ruth shows happiness which shows a rise of their family drama. Both plays show how families go through ups and downs in life and that you shouldn’t really hold on to anger or grudges for too long.