Romeo & Juliet
Romeo and Juliet is true story written as a play, by William Shakespeare in the Elizabethan time in the 17th Century. This was the period when young girls which was classed as young women and the roles of women was limited, especially those that were rich was never seen outdoors, when venturing outside it was a lot more limited, had private tutoring, educating them to a very high standard and everything would be brought to them, as Juliet in the play is to confined to protect her virginity. This was when woman were ‘owned’ by fathers then ‘suitable’ husbands, which were expected to accept. The tradition was ‘Courtney Love’, when a man, often a knight, had to woo (gently persuade) a lady to be his love. This sometimes meant singing to her beneath her balcony. She was supposed to play it very cool for a while, as Juliet says she ought to in this scene. It was all sort of a game. The play is about a boy and a girl who fall in love, but remains to keep it secret of their family feud.
There is a lot of use of imagery language in the play, one of the example is the balcony scene, where Romeo comes to find Juliet after the party and find her in her balcony. This is at night, where the darkness makes them feel safe, somewhere they can truly be alone. At the balcony scene where Romeo meets Juliet for the second time, he talks about how Juliet is so pretty she is and how she is beautiful than the moon itself ‘the envious moon’, this is a simile because he is saying the moon is jealous as it is a symbol of chastity. By saying that it gives us an image of Juliet more beautiful than the moon, so Juliet must seem to be glowing making the night light and bright. The balcony scene is when the audience is shown that the live is real and eternal. Another image of light and darkness is ‘Juliet’s sun’, people can’t live without the sun so Romeo can’t live without Juliet , so metaphorically Romeo is saying she lightens up the world for Romeo. I think the two images are very powerful, but to be used after only knowing each other after somewhat of couple hours is rather extreme and exaggeration, so at this point I don’t find this convincing at all towards the idea of the two are in love.
