The play was written to impress an audience so Shakespeare included such themes as, religion, male dominance and marriage. During Shakespeare time marriage was a very important thing in social life. It was important for the men to have wives and women to have a good husband. Religion was high on the list of priorities in their times. Shakespeare represented these themes very well in the play by showing that Juliet had no say in the person she married, also male dominance is also shown by the point that there are more male characters then female characters. Marriage in the play is the main theme in at the time it was expected for all women to marry a rich male man. It is for this reason that Juliet was forced to marry Paris because he was rich and unmarried. This also represents male dominance to an extent also because of the amount of dictorship there is by the father in to marrying Paris and no one else.
The prologue appears at the start of the play as an introduction and explanation of the different events in the play. The prologue in this story is a 14 line sonnet poem .As an audience we are told the story in a quick and easily understood way. Due to the story being written hundreds of years the language of the time was different and it is for this reason it is not as well understood these days. It is short, sharp and gets straight to the point. Shakespeare uses the prologue as a dramatic device. It introduces the idea of love in a dramatic way, it gives you a couple of lines which are dramatically made and finish in a sad death. In order to gain the audiences attention from the start the prologue needs to have a combination of the whole play in it, i.e. romance, birth and death. The line “A pair of star crossed lovers take their life;” is a good example of this as it talks about love and devotion but then about the death of the pair of them. This shows the difference in the play and draws the reader and audience in to the play. Shakespeare does this in a way that draws the audience’s attention straight away. He creates his own little world and just drops you in as if you were in the story. The prologue helps us understand the play by describing it in a plot description idea.
The Prologue helps in our understanding of the play by introducing the main characters to us especially the two families. It brings the characters to life in a realistic way by telling the story before the play actually starts. ”From ancient grudge to new mutiny” is a good reference to this as it tells the audience that this is something that happens over a long period of time and lots of generations. The characters in Romeo and Juliet appear to be directly created to take up these themes. For example Romeo and Juliet, the main characters, have some very intimate moments. This demonstrates the theme of love very well. A good character that shows ‘true’ love well is Romeo. In the start of the play he is a normal ordinary male just wants a women for sex. It is for this reason that he loves Rosaline. But when Romeo meets Juliet at the ball everything changes for him. He starts to truly love Juliet instead of just wanting her for sex. ”If I profane with my unworthiest hand. This holy shrine, the gentle sin is this.” This line tells us that Romeo doesn’t really want Juliet for sex, but that he does truly love her. This is because he talks about Juliet in a very different way to other women and also discusses her differently. When Romeo meets Juliet he starts speaking in rhyme creating a sonnet. Romeo starts with “If I profine with my unworthiest hands.” By introducing a sonnet, he creating the idea that Romeo has really meet his true love as this is totally different to how he would speak to Rosaline and yet a again even more different to how he would speak to his friends and family.
Dramatic Irony is created in the play by the audience knowing more then the characters. Dramatic irony is useful to the story as without the audience may not understand different themes and ideas in the play. A good example of this is when Romeo & Juliet marry in secret. Juliet then gets told she is going to marry Paris the next day. She starts crying, the parents believe it was grief from Tybalts death but we know it better as Juliet’s love for Romeo.
The prologue introduces the audience to the idea of contrast and opposition. This is introduced to use using the hatred between the montages and the Capulet. It tells us that they don’t get on and that this hatred threats Romeo’s and Juliet’s love for each other. The hatred between the families also shows how there is hatred in society. This is shown by the fighting in public and the opposition between different groups of people. There is also the use of oxymorons in the play where Romeo says to Juliet. “My only love sprung from my only hate,” This says that his love come from his hate, the audience no this because if had not been for the fact that they where sneaking in to the party then the love would have never formed. There are large amounts of arguments in public but then the love and intimacy of Romeo and Juliet as they meet on the balcony shows the audience a view different view to the story and really does show that in the centre of hate there can be love. This is very useful for people in this age to pick up on.
In conclusion, the prologue helps us in the understanding of the play by putting us in to the picture and explaining to us how things happened. It also shows as the events leading up to the play. This play is a brilliant play to study and read. It is interesting and different and the prologue really does introduce as to the story of Romeo and Juliet. Although the play was written years ago there is still a large relevance to today’s audience. For example how hate only creates more hate and how love is moiré important then anything. I think this creates a large lesson for us to learn which is that fighting and hatred doesn’t get us anywhere just in to more trouble.
