Romeo and Juliet - review.

The first 200 words of this essay...

Romeo and Juliet

Romeo and Juliet is one of Shakespeare's best known and best loved plays. It is the story of two 'star-crossed lovers' caught in the middle of a feud between their two families and destined to not be together. It is set in 'fair Verona' which is very appropriate for this tragedy as it is seen as a very wealthy country with a history of family feuds and a society full of father domination.

Although Shakespeare's version of "Romeo and Juliet" is the most famous, he did not entirely come up with this play. One of the main sources of Shakespeare's play was written by Massucio Saternitano's as early as 1476. The main source though was that of Arthur Brookes who bought his poem version "The Tragicall Historge of Romeus and Juliet" to England.

The main differences between these two plays are that the time span is different. Brookes' play is set over a 9month period, while Shakespeare's version takes only four days. Shakespeare has compressed his version to make it more intense. Also Shakespeare has changed the age of Juliet from 16 to 14 in order to make the swift romance