How does Shakespeare shift our sympathies throughout the course of the play and who is to blame for the tragedy.

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Ollie Manning                 

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How does Shakespeare shift our sympathies throughout the course of the play and who is to blame for the tragedy.

In this essay I shall explain what Shakespeare has done to shift our sympathies in this very emotional story and see who is to blame for the sad ending of Romeo and Juliet’s deaths in the town of Verona.

At the start of the play the Montague’s and Capulet’s are in a market in Verona and the Capulet’s pick a fight with the Montague's, I have sympathies for the Montague’s in this stage of the play because a fight breaks out and the prince is forced to split it up, the Capulet’s and Montague’s each get the same punishment despite the fact that the Capulet’s started it, I do not like the Capulet’s for this.

In the next scene Romeo is depressed about a girl called Rosaline, our sympathies are with him as he is so depressed, Romeo is also a Montague so we feel for the Montague's a lot in the first part of the play, this begins to suggest that the Montague's are the “good citizens” and the Capulet are trouble makers. It could give us the impression that someone from the Capulet household will be to blame for the tragic deaths.

Romeo discovers that there is a party at the Capulet household and Rosaline is going so he goes. Tybalt sees him there and is furious but is not allowed to do anything about him. Our feelings go towards Tybalt in this scene because for him, Romeo has spoiled the party. On the other hand you could argue that he is just being silly and he should try and get along with the Montague's and still have a good time at the party. My feelings are with the Montague's again because Tybalt makes assumptions that they will cause trouble when the Montague's mean no harm.

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At the party Romeo and Juliet talk together and start to like each other, Romeo has seemingly forgotten about Rosaline completely, do we have a false impression of Romeo? And if so the Montague's? Romeo changed very quickly from saying he loved Rosaline to completely forgetting her this suggests that things change very fast in the play and that it isn’t a good idea to make assumptions on things, just as Tybalt did.

Romeo and Juliet have fallen in love, being the children of each household it’s as if the houses have fallen in love, this is the ...

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