Examine the similarities and differences in the ways Shakespeare presents Juliet and Romeo.

The first 200 words of this essay...

Engl 111, Past Masters, 2007

Assignment 2: Essay

Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet

Question One: Examine the similarities and differences in the ways Shakespeare presents Juliet and Romeo.

Due Date: 21/05/07

Extension Granted by Tatjana to 25/05/07

Charlotte French

300075543

Word Count: 1423

Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare is a tragedy about love. But, more specifically it is a tragedy about young love. Shakespeare presents both he characters of Juliet and Romeo as being particularly young and youthful. But he gives each of them different characteristics that form this picture. These characteristics are often contrasting, but all build up the picture that emphasises the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet: that the love they experience is so short-lived, and they die so early in their lives.

Juliet has an undoubtable youthful innocence about her. She is only just coming towards the verge of woman-hood. In many ways she is still a child at the outset of the play. At the beginning of the play her father, Capulet, asserts this to Paris her potential suitor, saying: "My child is yet a stranger in the world, / She hath not yet seen the