Discuss how far you feel that Shakespeare presents the play Romeo and Juliet as a dramatic tragedy based upon the themes of love and hate.

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Discuss how far you feel that Shakespeare presents the play Romeo and Juliet as a dramatic tragedy based upon the themes of love and hate.

    Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is a love / hate story set in Verona, Italy, where two households are in conflict with each other. The rivalry, arguments and fighting between these two families is shown throughout the play. Both families are very religious, believing strongly in Christianity and the church. They also believe very heavily in fate and it is because of these views that the story unfolds. Like most stories there are hidden and deep messages and in Romeo and Juliet, although it is a love story, is making us aware that hatred only leads to destruction.  

   An audience would have viewed the play differently today compared to an audience hundreds of years ago. Back in the days when it was written, people were extremely image conscious and followed the rules of the land strictly, whereas today, society often has a more relaxed approach to life and we can relate to many of the prejudices covered in Romeo and Juliet. An example of this is Juliet’s relationship with her father. Lord Capulet arranges Juliet’s marriage to Paris against her will. She has no say in this arrangement, whereas today this concept is almost non existent as many people now find love without parent intervention, although in some cultures arranged marriages do still happen.

    Shakespeare concentrates mainly love and hate scenes in his play and he never puts two scenes of conflict or two scenes of hate together. He alternates them, for example in Act Two Scene Two and Act Two Scene Three, he helps to build up the suspense and tension an audience would feel throughout the play by suddenly leaving one scene, making people think what will happen. Although the play is set in Italy, Shakespeare makes it sound more Elizabethan as the only reference to Italy Shakespeare makes is the heat and the scenery. In his writing he mocks the Italian way of life. The play Romeo and Juliet has also been transferred into film by two directors Zefferelli and Baz Luhrman, the two films both take a different perspective to the play and the directors both interpret it in their own way. Baz Luhrman has set the film out so it would be popular to a modern day audience and brings a new aspect of Shakespeare’s work and made it appeal to various age groups mainly focusing on teenagers. Even though it’s a modern adaptation, Lurhman still uses the language from the play but limits it to a minimum as it is hard to understand and it can become quite confusing to some who my not of read “Romeo and Juliet”. This is the opposite to Zefferelli’s interpretation of the play as he obviously worked closely with the book throughout the whole of the time he was directing the film. It is very similar to the way Shakespeare had made it out to be and the film was set around about 1600A.D. Also the language and speech is similar, this is maybe as Zefferelli’s film was brought out a lot earlier than Baz Lurhman’s it could reflect how society has grown since then. As if around the time Zefferlli’s adaptation was brought out and so was Baz Lurhman’s then I would expect the people watching it would be shocked as they haven’t seen anything like that before. It shows us how technology and other modern day innovations has brought a wider view of opinions.

    Romeo and Juliet is a tragic love story where two people meet and fall in love, but know their relationship will result in conflict between their two families. We are introduced straight away to the fact that Romeo and Juliet’s relationship will end in tragedy and it will be a play full of contrasts, as in the prologue there is a sonnet,

“From forth the fatal loins of these two foes, A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life, Doth with their death bury their parents’ strife.”

Aristotle the famous Greek philosopher introduced the idea that every hero has a fatal flaw called his hubris. Romeo and Juliet’s fatal flaw is that they both put their love for each other before their family and law and order in Verona. I think Aristotle’s idea of a hero is very accurate and is shown throughout Romeo and Juliet when Romeo breaks his banishment to go and see Juliet for the last time as he hears about her death. Also Shakespeare studied the work and history of the Greeks and when they performed plays about fate, they believed that whomever tempted fate would pay sooner or later and this is shown in Romeo and Juliet.

    The story of Romeo and Juliet is based upon love and hate. Shakespeare deals with the themes of love and hate very effectively, by using, different language, sonnets and emotions sometimes expressing them by the use of soliloquies. Throughout the play we are introduced to many different types of love. These are: the bawdy, earthy sexual love of the nurse and servants, Romeo’s captivated love for Rosaline, the parental love of the Capulets towards Juliet, the friendship of Romeo, Benvolio and Mercutio, Friar Lawrence’s idea of religious love, the pure love of Romeo and Juliet and finally the love of the nurse for Juliet. Each love is interpreted differently as each character seems to have a different view on the perception of love again I think Shakespeare used this to create contrasts e.g. Mercuito mocks love and Romeo believes its something very special. The three main loves that I think are most important in Romeo and Juliet are Romeo’s infatuated love for Rosaline, the friendship love between Romeo. Mercutio and Benvolio and the most important love are Romeo and Juliet’s genuine love for each other. The other five types of love add to the depth in the play and make it fit together perfectly.

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    As the play begins we are introduced to one love almost straight away as Romeo appears in Act One Scene One, deeply in love with Rosaline but with mixed emotions, as he is devastated she doesn’t love him. Romeo and Benvolio begin to launch into a speech about Romeo’s love for Rosaline and Romeo begins to use oxymorons to describe his feelings for her. Examples of these are “heavy lightness”, “serious vanity”, and “feather of lead “,” bright smoke “,” sick health.”

He is describing Rosaline and uses words that contradict each other and pose the opposite meaning ...

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