Romeo and Juliet

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Tom Mooney                                        January/February 2009

10W2

GCSE English/English Literature

Including ‘Literary Tradition

Shakespeare Text – “Romeo and Juliet”

Explore how male domination contributes to the tragedy of “Romeo and Juliet”

A tragedy is an event which causes great destruction of suffering, also it is a type of drama which the action and language are elevated which the ending usually sad especially involving the fall of a great man, this normally is known as a shocking or sad event.

a personal tragedy is a close person or living thing that dies where a literary tragedy is a written tragedy like a novel or a story.

A Shakespearian tragedy play normally starts off happy and gets sad and negative at the end, A good example is when a protagonist usually the man of importance and outstanding qualities falls to disaster through the combination of a personal failing and circumstances with which he cannot deal. Other tragedy plays by Shakespeare include ; Hamlet, Macbeth, Othello, Romeo and Juliet, king Lear, Julius Caesar, Antony and Cleopatra.

Romeo and Juliet is one of the most well known plays and it has been performed countless of times as it is about love, luck and chance of everything going wrong. Everyone feels sorrow for them as it is about a tragic story about young love.

The Prologue is a chorus for which is written for a Greek version of Romeo and Juliet. It is basically saying the storyline and that it is a tragedy, for example it says" a fearful passage of their death-marked love". It tells it’s a tragedy as Shakespeare uses words like “fateful" and "death".

It also uses words like “Fatal...death marked love...blood" all exemplify violence throughout the play which contributes to the tragedy.

The ancient Grudge is between the Capulet’s and the Montague’s which is mainly with the male side as it shows off their masculinity. ‘Ancient’ suggests that it has been on going for generations and no living soul knows how or why I started but it is finally stopped by the death if the son and daughter of the lords themselves.

In ‘Romeo and Juliet’ Shakespeare emphasises the male stereotype as he mentions that they are ruthless, temperamental, competitive and dominant because of these characteristics the masculinity continues the feud and violence between the family’s which reinforces the stereotypes.

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The male domination illustrates the weakness of the females role in life as the were thought to be owned by men which made them feel useless and just for show, the male stereotype of competitive was shown by this as they were shown to be worth nothing and only used for sexual pleasure.

Samsung and Gregory were two servants of the Capulet family who are always wanting a fights with the Montague's. Samsung is very boastful and very sexist, we see this as he says "women being the weaker vessels are ever thrust to the wall" this shows ...

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