DEVELOPMENT OF ROMEO AND JULIET’S CHARACTER
The way love influences Romeo and Juliet’s personalities to change and how their character develops throughout the play is very entertaining. Also how their life changes drastically in a matter of days after they are married is gripping to watch. Romeo at the beginning of the play is portrayed as a daydreamer who loves the idea of being in love.
“Young men’s love then lies not truly in their hearts”,
The priest says to Romeo he is not truly in love. Juliet was also at first very obedient towards her mother and submitted to her mother’s wishes of getting married to Paris. She says
“Then your strength gives it consent to fly”,
she will act into this relationship with Paris as much as she consents it. Juliet has not met or seen Paris to find out if he is attractive or does he have an appealing personality but she respects her mother’s choice so much that she is prepared to marry him. But after Romeo and Juliet fall in love and get married their personalities alter and their lives go down hill.
After the death of Tybalt Juliet goes against her on words and her mother’s wishes and refuses to marry Paris
“He shall not make me there a joyful bride”.
When Juliets father hears this he becomes hysterical and says very dreadful things to his daughter Juliet,
“I’ll give you to my friend; and you be not hang, beg, starve, die in the streets”.
Juliet is in a very awkward situation; if she does not attend the marriage ceremony and get married to Paris then her father would discard her into the streets. Juliet’s relationship with her family is deteriorating. At this particular moment when the nurses help and advice is vital to Juliet their own very close relationship breaks. When Juliet asks the nurse to “Comfort” her she expects the nurse to encourage her to be strong and also construct a plan that will set her free from this misery and bring her close to Romeo’s warm company. Instead the nurse shifts her loyalty away from Romeo to Paris and says, “I think it is best you married with the county” and also says “Romeo’s a dish clout” compared to Paris. At this very moment Juliet’s trust in the nurse is no longer existent, she ironically says
“Though has comforted me marvellous much”
This demonstrates how weak the nurse is, when things come down to the crunch she just tries to find the easy way out. The nurse is also being very inconsiderate not thinking about Juliet’s feelings and how heart breaking it would be for her to discard Romeo from her life after now that their love has grow intensely deep. Even without the nurse’s help Juliet remains strong and determined to be with Romeo and is prepared to do what ever it takes. This leads Juliet playing a crafty trick on her father and takes the sleep potion as advised by Friar Lawrence but tragically all does not go according to plan. We can see how Juliet’s life dramatically changes in a matter of days, from being a loved and happy child, her refusal to marry Paris makes her a neglected child. We also see how love influences Juliet’s personality to alter, because her love for Romeo is overwhelmingly strong she becomes defiant towards her family and increasingly devoted towards Romeo.
Romeo’s life also goes down hill after he kills Tybalt; he is exiled from Verona and is unable to see Juliet again,
“Immediately we do exile him hence”
Inevitably he visits Friar Lawrence for help. Friar Lawrence is his Christian father and spiritual advisor and is a very important person in Romeo’s life. Friar Lawrence is also the backbone of the relationship between Romeo and Juliet. When Romeo finds out he is exiled from Verona he does not know how he is going to cope with out seeing the beautiful land again
“There is no world without Verona Walls”
he just cannot believe how things have deteriorated so drastically in such a short space of time
“An hour but married, Tybalt murdered, doting like me and me banished”.
Romeo becomes so unstable and despaired that he nearly kills him self
“He draws his sword”.
This is when the priest stops Romeo and gives him words of encouragement and reassurance. Friar Lawrence tells him luck is on his side,
“Tybalt would kill thee, but though slew’st Tybalt; there art though happy. The law that threaten’d death becomes thy friend and turns it to exile”.
Friar Lawrence is saying how luck is playing a role in maintaining their relationship; Tybalt, the master swordsman could have killed Romeo but Romeo was victorious and killed Tybalt, and the Prince could have put him on execution and let his life pay the price of his crime but chose to be merciful and only gave him a mild punishment. Friar Lawrence is certain that the relationship will work and despite the circumstances, he still has faith in their relationship. So we see how Romeo’s life goes downhill after their marriage. Falling in love also has had an impact on Romeo’s personality. When Romeo thought he was in love with Rosaline, Romeo secluded him self from his friends and spent hours by himself probably thinking about her. And because Rosaline, his so-called love, did not love him back
“That feels no love in his”
He was always in deep sorrow and a very glum character
“Sad hours seem long”
Romeo’s own father became very worried by his behaviour and wished he knew what the cause of his sorrow was as much as he’d like to cure it
“Whence his sorrows grow, we would willingly give cure as know”
But after Romeo has fallen in love ith Juliet, one could say he has had found his cure because it made him a very merry person who was much more sociable, lively, took part in discussions with his friends and he was a more outgoing person.
THEMES
One reason why Romeo and Juliet would appeal to a wide range of audience is because of the variety of contrasting themes in the play.
Undoubtedly, the central theme in the play is romance. One of the most famous scenes in Romeo and Juliet is the balcony scene where they both express their love and vow to get married.
“Loves faithful vow for mine”
Conflict, vengeance, astrology, comedy are many of the other themes in the play. The different themes in the play would effectively evoke different emotions and feelings, it will make you laugh, sad, happy, cry some scenes would even leave at the edge of your seats. Romeo and Juliet is evidently a play that has it all in one, so whether some one enjoys romance, comedy, or fighting scenes, there is something in it for every one.
LANGUAGE
There are so many interesting aspects of language in Romeo and Juliet, but I will choose to focus on a few.
A very important and compelling aspect of the play that constantly captivates our interest is the intriguing and poetic language that is used effectively to convey Romeo and Juliets love for each other. Romeo frequently refers to light and bright stars to define Juliet’s beauty. The first time Romeo lays his eyes on Juliet, he uses a metaphor and refers to light to describe her radiant beauty
“O she doth teach the torches to burn bright”
He is implying that she is so brighter than the torches, she teaches the torches to burn.
Romeo also refers to the sun and moon to describe his affection for Juliet
“Juliet is the sun, arise … and kill the envious moon”.
He uses this metaphor and says that Juliet is the sun, incredibly beautiful, and he also says that the moon is so envious about the sun’s beauty it is “pale with grief”
This is quite amusing as the natural colour of a moon is pale.
Romeo also describes how she stands out from all the girls by creating contrast. He says that Juliet is like a
“Snowy dove amongst crows”,
Romeo by using this simile is referring to Juliet as a beautiful dove amongst crows- ugly girls. At the same time he is creating the contrast of colours; doves are white and crows are black. Romeo also says
“As a rich jewel in an Ethiop’s ear”
This conjures a very vivid image of a sparkling jewel on a dark persons skin creating a very powerful contrast. Particular words that are sometimes used put more beauty into the language
“My bounty is as boundless as the sea”,
The word boundless here is beautifully used, the sentence quoted just conjures a sea stretching far and wide with no boundaries, like their love with no limits. Personification is also used effectively. When Romeo startlingly finds Juliet’s body warm and her lips to be red and her skin faire he says
“Why art though yet so faire… shall I believe that unsubstantial death is amorous and that the lean abhorred monster keeps thee in the dark to be his paramour”
Romeo is giving human characteristics to death and imagining death as a monster that is preserving Juliet’s body so he can indulge and keep her his own. Most of the language is also written in some form of poetry
It is very obvious that Shakespeare has successfully used language in a variety of ways to convey the depth of their love.
Humorous language such as puns and playing with words are very effectively used in the play to sustain the viewers’ interest. Mercutio is very clever with words and he many times plays around with words. We all know that Benvolio is a very peaceful person who hates conflict, Mercutio funnily question this claim and says how Benvolio can be peaceful when he would quarrel with a man for
“Breaking nuts”,
As Benvolio does have
“Hazel eyes”.
Mercutio here is playing with the words hazel and nut. Even when Mercutio is just about to die, his funny side is well alive. He puns the word “Grave” and says
“Tomorrow you will find me a grave man”
The word “grave man” could be taken as a miserable man or a “Man” who will be in the “Grave” which is what Mercutio is really trying to imply, but because of Mercutio’s renowned reputation for being such a good joker, his friends assume it is a joke.
FILM VERSION (1968 and 1996
The film versions of 1968 and 1996 of Romeo and Juliet are completely different. The film is arranged in two ways, the first version is just the normal way which happened in shakespheare time. The second version is an urban style film but the both film have the same type of language. The first version is in the olden time the characters are very different at that time. Also the costume that they wear is different. The weapons that they use are a dagger or a sword. The second version is completely different from the way the film is set. This is because it is more like present then the olden time. The characters wear casual clothes. The weapon that they use is a gun. If you compare both of the films you can see that it is arranged in a very different way. There is one scene in both of the film that is different from each other it is the balcony scene if you look at the first version you can see that Romeo and Juliet were expressing their love. But on the second version instead of the balcony scene there is a swimming pool scene were Romeo and Juliet were expressing there love. So now you can see that there is a big change from the first version to the second version of the film. I think the best version is the second film this is because it has more action and has bigger scenes. It also makes me more interested throughout the film. This is because now the second version is more popular then the first version and it is much more interesting to watch.
Conclusion
The question at the beginning of the essay was ‘How does Shakespeare keep our interest in the play’? I have explained many ways which Shakespeare keeps our interest in the play. I think the main reason why Shakespeare keeps our interest in the play is by just the love, which Romeo and Juliet have for each other. It keeps our interest when Romeo and Juliet first fall in love you get interested because first of all they are from two different families and you know that something bad is going to happen. The other thing that happens with Romeo and Juliet is that when they wanted to kiss they used religious ways just to kiss and this made the scene quiet interesting. I think this play by shakesphere is so popular because the play is just like the present and it doesn’t look like it has been written long time ago. So if I conclude this essay I would say that the Keeps our interest is by the love, which Romeo and Juliet have for each other.
