Although there is a good deal of rhyme, much of the language of Romeo and Juliet is blank verse (unrhymed verse written in iambic pentameter). Iambic pentameter is a rhythm or metre in which each line has five stressed syllables alternating with five unstressed syllables, as shown in the fallowing quotation:
‘That pierced the fearful hollow of thine ear’ (Line 4).
Shakespeare’s iambic pentameter in this play is mostly written in poetry. With experience of having written dozens of plays, Shakespeare was becoming more flexible and experimental with his use of iambic pentameter.
Shakespeare uses many metaphors, similes, alliterations and personifications to create imagery for the audience like in the following quotations:
‘As one dead in the bottom of a tomb.’(Simile, line 56).
‘Dry sorrow drinks our blood.’(Personification, line 58).
‘It is some meteor that the sun exhaled.’(Metaphor, line 13).
‘Hunting thee hence with hunt’s-up to the day.’(Alliteration, line 34)
Imagery like in the quotations above creates an impact on the audience by helping to create an atmosphere of the play as the audience conjure up emotionally charged pictures in their imagination. This imagery gives excitement to the audience as it stirs their imagination; it deepens the dramatic impact of particular moments or moods, provides insight into characters, and intensifies meaning and emotional force. Images carry powerful significance far deeper than their surface meanings. In the play Shakespeare provides Juliet with more than a dozen images to express her conflicting perceptions of Romeo. These images help to create a sense of themes of the play. Romeo and Juliet abound in imagery: vivid words and phrase that help to create the atmosphere of the play.
Shakespeare uses repetitions through out the play, contributing to its emotional climate and dramatic impact, as shown in the fallowing quotation from Act 3 Scene 5:
‘O now be gone, more light and light it grows.
More light and light, more dark and dark our woes’ (Lines 35&36).
As you can see from the quotation that words ‘light’ and ‘dark’ are used many times. These repetitions of opposite words are used through out the play like ‘love’ and ‘death’. Their repetition is a clear indication of the two of the play’s major themes and the repetition of words also conveys the pressure building up on a character at a particular point in a play. Shakespeare uses repetition in particular speeches to heighten theatrical effect and deepen the imaginations of the audience, thus creating a big impact on them.
One of Shakespeare’s favourite language methods is to accumulate words or phrases like a list. He had learned the technique as a schoolboy in Stratford-upon-Avon and his skill is knowing how to use lists dramatically is evident in examples in the play. The fallowing quotation is from a different speech in the play from Act 1 Scene 4, lines 54-55:
‘She is the fairies’ midwife, and she comes
In shape no bigger than an agate-stone’
The whole speech is made up of lists and portrayal of Queen Mab and her effects on sleepers. This list of words has big effect on the audience because Shakespeare intensifies and varies description, atmosphere and argument as he ‘piles up’ words on words, incident on incident.
Shakespeare wrote the play in two sets of writing, prose and poetry (verse), prose was traditionally used by comic and low-status characters and high-status characters spoke in poetry. The play is also written in highly patterned rhyme and rhythm and colloquial language.
Shakespeare fills the play with dramatic irony: characters are unaware of events or of the real meaning of what is said to them. Tybalt does not know that Romeo has become his Kinsman. As Capulet promises Juliet to Paris, the audience knows she is at the moment in bed with Romeo. This sort of irony provides the audience with entertainment as they can tell what is really going on.
Shakespeare does not just create the effect on the audience from his language; he also uses the advantages of stage production. He was able to use props to dress his characters in the appropriate way to give the audience a visual image of the character. Also the background settings gave the audience an idea of what was going on, so they would be able to visualise the event. As we all know Shakespeare wrote for the stage, and the characters would therefore employ wide variety verbal and no-verbal methods to exploit the language by stressing or shouting on some words to create a dramatic atmosphere. The characters would use full range of their voices and accompany the words with appropriate expressions, gestures and actions. The actual stage where the production would be staged would be small, so Shakespeare would make the audience imagine what is happening in the play with his language, characters, props and background scenery. So I believe that the theatrical effects (props, characters etc) played a big part in creating dramatic tension for the audience.
The play is still staged through out the world because after many years of its original production because it has always created an impact on the audience. Some productions have changed the story to give it a new feeling but the themes are still the same. The play is still relevant to the 21st Century because the familiar images of Romeo and Juliet have become part of popular imagination worldwide which symbolises love and tragedy. Expressions from Romeo and Juliet have become universally known. They are use in all kinds of discourse: ‘O Romeo, Romeo wherefore art thou Romeo?’, ‘What’s in a name?’, ‘star-crossed lovers’, and many others. These images of love and hate are still present today so the play still does reflect on modern day doomed lovers and tragedies.
I think that Shakespeare mainly created impact from his language because in the days of Shakespeare the stage was basic, there was no music or any other mechanical devices that we have today. So he made the audience visualise what was happening with his language by using metaphors, similes, alliteration, personification, repetition and many others. I think the play is still relevant to the 21st Century because today people still face the consequences of what happened in the play. Also director and producers of films and plays today use the themes of Romeo and Juliet in their play like ‘love’ versus ‘hate’ and ‘life’ versus ‘death’. So from the reasons above I believe that people still watch and stage Romeo and Juliet. th plays, this is because antithesis powerfully expresses conflict through its uses of opposites, and conflict is the essence of all drama, therefore it creates an impact on the audience. In Romeo and Juliet, conflict occurs in many forms: Montague versus Capulet, life versus death and age versus youth.
Although there is a good deal of rhyme, much of the language of Romeo and Juliet is blank verse (unrhymed verse written in iambic pentameter). Iambic pentameter is a rhythm or metre in which each line has five stressed syllables alternating with five unstressed syllables, as shown in the fallowing quotation:
‘That pierced the fearful hollow of thine ear’ (Line 4).
Shakespeare’s iambic pentameter in this play is mostly written in poetry. With experience of having written dozens of plays, Shakespeare was becoming more flexible and experimental with his use of iambic pentameter.
Shakespeare uses many metaphors, similes, alliterations and personifications to create imagery for the audience like in the following quotations:
‘As one dead in the bottom of a tomb.’(Simile, line 56).
‘Dry sorrow drinks our blood.’(Personification, line 58).
‘It is some meteor that the sun exhaled.’(Metaphor, line 13).
‘Hunting thee hence with hunt’s-up to the day.’(Alliteration, line 34)
Imagery like in the quotations above creates an impact on the audience by helping to create an atmosphere of the play as the audience conjure up emotionally charged pictures in their imagination. This imagery gives excitement to the audience as it stirs their imagination; it deepens the dramatic impact of particular moments or moods, provides insight into characters, and intensifies meaning and emotional force. Images carry powerful significance far deeper than their surface meanings. In the play Shakespeare provides Juliet with more than a dozen images to express her conflicting perceptions of Romeo. These images help to create a sense of themes of the play. Romeo and Juliet abound in imagery: vivid words and phrase that help to create the atmosphere of the play.
Shakespeare uses repetitions through out the play, contributing to its emotional climate and dramatic impact, as shown in the fallowing quotation from Act 3 Scene 5:
‘O now be gone, more light and light it grows.
More light and light, more dark and dark our woes’ (Lines 35&36).
As you can see from the quotation that words ‘light’ and ‘dark’ are used many times. These repetitions of opposite words are used through out the play like ‘love’ and ‘death’. Their repetition is a clear indication of the two of the play’s major themes and the repetition of words also conveys the pressure building up on a character at a particular point in a play. Shakespeare uses repetition in particular speeches to heighten theatrical effect and deepen the imaginations of the audience, thus creating a big impact on them. These repetition of opposite words are used through out the play and their repetition is a clear indication of the two major themes of the play and the words also conveys the message by building up the pressure on an character at a particular stage in the play
