Romeo and Juliet

Authors Avatar

                                  Rome and Juliet essay

Introduction

Romeo and Juliet is a romantic tragedy by playwright William Shakespeare.

 It concerns the fatal attraction of two young star-crossed lovers.

The love is complicated by their families’ intense feud. Romeo is a Montague and Juliet is a Capulet.

 They first meet at the Capulet ball. Romeo and his entourage decide to gate crash it, because he was still mourning over his first love Juliet’s cousin. Tybalt, Juliet elder cousin who despises all Montague’s, notices Romeo and his actions. This hatred possessed by Tybalt soon becomes the demise of the young lovers.

 The rivalry between the two families is so severe that even the servants are caught fighting in the streets of Verona in the opening scene of the play.

     

The play fits into the tragedy genre as the romance in play is overshadowed by the horrific deaths of the Teenagers in the play. The numerous deaths leave both families mourning.

 General themes of the play are hastiness; both main characters are thoughtless about the consequences of their love. Selfishness is also a general theme of the play. Every one except from Benvolio is self-centred. For example Romeo doesn’t think of Juliet when he kills Tybalt. Juliet never thought of her parents when she faked her death. The Capulet family were selfish in forcing Juliet to marry Paris.

 Act 3 scene 1 is a major turning point of the play as it is marked with crises such as the death of Tybalt and Mercutio.

  The mood of the play swiftly varies, as even though Romeo and Juliet get married, he is unable to stay with her in Verona. This puts the fate of the two lovers in jeopardy and contributes greatly to their eventual deaths.

Main Parts

Shakespeare creates an atmosphere of tension and violence from the start of the scene in a public place and we already know that if the Capulet and Montague’s are caught fighting in the streets, the prince will punish them with the death penalty.

 Mercutios aims throughout this conversation is to anger Benvolio and put him in a violent mood, because he says things to Benvolio like ‘Thou will Quarrel with a man that hath a hair or more or a hair less than thou hast’ and ‘Thou wilt quarrel with a man for cracking nuts having no reason but no reason but because though hast hazel eyes.’ Mercutio tries tries to anger Benvolio, by portraying him as petty and violent.

 Benvolio’s aim at the start of the play was to convince Mercutio to leave the premises at which they are at, so they don’t get into a fight with the Capulet’s. We know this because he says ‘ I pray the good Mercutio, lets retire. The day is warm and the Capulets are abroad and if we meet we shall not scape a brawl’

The whole coverstion prepares us for the violent and drastic events that follow because Mercutio and Benvolio’s light hearted word play prepare us for the physical conflict.

The atmosphere between Mercutio and Benvolio seem very lighthearted and almost amusing as they are joking and laughing about the whole idea.

Benvolio’s expressive language in the first lines is very important because he uses imagery ehich linksto the weather and how it affects people’s moods. For example he comments on the hot weather in Verona ‘For now these hot days is the mad blood stirring.’  This links to aggression and violence because another meaning of the not is being ‘hot tempered and aggressive.’ Also the people at Verona are at civil war at the time. The other examples of violent words are ‘Brawl’ and ‘Mad blood stirring’ these are associated with violence, fighting and chaos. These words build the audiences anticipation of conflict and action in the scene because they make the people of Verona sound like barbaric and chaotic people. Mercutio’s language is very complex and extravagant he uses wit and word play throughout his conversation with Benvolio to try and convince him that he is a paranoid and angry person.  

Join now!

 Some examples of Mercutio’s manipulative word play are’ and as soon to be moody and moody to be moved’ and ‘thy head is full of quarrel as an egg is full of meat.’ These examples show Mercutio is trying to say Benvolio looks to find a fight in any situation even if there is no need. He also tries to portray Benvolio as a person who loves to fight.

  Mercutio seems to be a character that is manipulative and extremely violent, because he seems to enjoy the idea of fighting Tybalt and is not afraid of the idea ...

This is a preview of the whole essay