Response to Romeo and Juliet

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Response to Shakespeare:

Romeo and Juliet

Quotes stated as (i.i.1) meaning (act 1, scene 1, line 1)

In this assignment, I am going to answer this question:

Given the circumstances of the play, could the deaths of Romeo and Juliet be avoided?

I will take several points of the play into account, such as: individual characterisation; attitudes to life and love; and the fate, destiny, coincidence and the star-crossed side of events. By the end of this assignment, I hope I will have answered this question.

To introduce the assignment, I am going to give my views on the play, before looking at each aspect of it in close detail:

My first impression was that I thought there were several reasons as to why this is a good play, including the way it makes us think about the plot, and so in turn, how it makes us think about the real world outside it. For example, we see two young people (Romeo and Juliet) fall in love. This may make us impose questions about our own lives, such as where our own love lives are going, and if the reader is in a relationship, whether it has potential (perhaps like Romeo and Juliet could have had), or if it will never work out given foreseeable or unforeseeable circumstances (such as Romeo, with his supposed fascination with Rosaline).

The second impression I got from it was from Rosaline, another character in the play, as she helped us to get an insight into the life of Romeo. I personally doubt that he really did love Rosaline, and that he actually wanted to fantasise over a woman who he knew he cold never (realistically) have a relationship with. This could be vital for my assignment, because the attitudes to love between Romeo and Juliet could have killed them, in the sense that Romeo felt that he needed to immediately commit suicide when he saw the person he loved, dead.

The final impression that I got was that the characters in the play seem as if they have their own different personalities. For example, Romeo is so easily led by his love life, but yet he never acts upon what he feels, by getting together with the woman – “Ay me, the sad hours seem long” (i.i.160) – in other words, he is depressed with his love and keeping it to himself, rather than telling the woman (Rosaline in this case). Juliet however is a lot different – ”Conceit, more rich in matter than in words” (ii.vi.30) – in other words, she thinks that people would be better off if you acted upon your dreams, and made them into reality. This shows that these two characters had different attitudes to the same thing – which shows that they had their own personalities.

Overall, I am expecting this play to be quite fascinating and enjoyable. Romeo and Juliet is world renowned, and is generally recognised as being a brilliant play, with its author being one of the most famous writers in world history. On the offset, the plot and characters seem to be integrated together very well, to produce a well balanced and easy to understand play. Overall, I have high expectations of this play.

To answer the question, I am firstly going to look at the fate, destiny, coincidence, and the ‘star-crossed’ (Prologue.6) aspect of the play. I personally feel that fate, destiny, coincidence, and the star-crossed aspect, do play an important part in the play.

Here is a list of quotes regarding the fate and destiny side of events:

  • “Give me my Romeo, and when I shall die,

  Take him and cut him out in little stars”

(iii.ii.20-21) Juliet here is saying that when she dies, she will take Romeo with him and they will be up with the stars together – and eventually that did happen.

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  • “Then love devouring death…”

(ii.vi.7) Romeo here is saying that their love will be departed because one, or both of them will die (like a vicar saying “’Till death us do part” during a marriage service, meaning hopefully you won’t part marriage until one of the couple die)

  • “Too like the lightning, which doth cease to be

  Ere one can say, ‘it lightens…”

(ii.ii.119-120) Here, Juliet is describing the love between her and Romeo as lightning, possibly because lightning will represent their powerful, and electric love. But also, lightning only lasts a few seconds, so ...

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