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Romeo and Juliet

William shakespeare.

Welcome to the LitCharts study guide on William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet . Created by the original team behind SparkNotes, LitCharts are the world's best literature guides.

Romeo and Juliet: Introduction

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Historical Context of Romeo and Juliet

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• Full Title: Romeo and Juliet
• When Written: Likely 1591-1595
• Where Written: London, England
• When Published: “Bad quarto” (incomplete manuscript) printed in 1597; Second, more complete quarto printed in 1599; First folio, with clarifications and corrections, printed in 1623
• Literary Period: Renaissance
• Genre: Tragic play
• Setting: Verona, Italy
• Climax: Mistakenly believing that Juliet is dead, Romeo kills himself on her funeral bier by drinking poison. Juliet wakes up, finds Romeo dead, and fatally stabs herself with his dagger.
• Antagonist: Capulet, Lady Capulet, Montague, Lady Montague, Tybalt

Extra Credit for Romeo and Juliet

Tourist Trap. Casa di Giulietta, a 12-century villa in Verona, is located just off the Via Capello (the possible origin of the anglicized surname “Capulet”) and has become a major tourist attraction over the years because of its distinctive balcony. The house, purchased by the city of Verona in 1905 from private holdings, has been transformed into a kind of museum dedicated to the history of Romeo and Juliet , where tourists can view set pieces from some of the major film adaptations of the play and even leave letters to their loved ones. Never mind that “the balcony scene,” one of the most famous scenes in English literature, may never have existed—the word “balcony” never appears in the play, and balconies were not an architectural feature of Shakespeare’s England—tourists flock from all over to glimpse Juliet’s famous veranda.

Love Language. While much of Shakespeare’s later work is written in a combination of verse and prose (used mostly to offer distinction between social classes, with nobility speaking in verse and commoners speaking in prose), Romeo and Juliet is notable for its heady blend of poetic forms. The play’s prologue is written in the form of a sonnet, while most of the dialogue adheres strictly to the rhythm of iambic pentameter. Romeo and Juliet alter their cadences when speaking to each another, using more casual, naturalistic speech. When they talk about other potential lovers, such as Rosaline and Paris, their speech is much more formal (to reflect the emotional falsity of those dalliances.) Friar Laurence speaks largely in sermons and aphorisms, while the nurse speaks in blank verse.

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A Summary and Analysis of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

Although it was first performed in the 1590s, the first  documented  performance of Romeo and Juliet is from 1662. The diarist Samuel Pepys was in the audience, and recorded that he ‘saw “Romeo and Juliet,” the first time it was ever acted; but it is a play of itself the worst that ever I heard in my life, and the worst acted that ever I saw these people do.’

Despite Pepys’ dislike, the play is one of Shakespeare’s best-loved and most famous, and the story of Romeo and Juliet is well known. However, the play has become so embedded in the popular psyche that Shakespeare’s considerably more complex play has been reduced to a few key aspects: ‘star-cross’d lovers’, a teenage love story, and the suicide of the two protagonists.

In the summary and analysis that follow, we realise that Romeo and Juliet is much more than a tragic love story.

Romeo and Juliet : brief summary

After the Prologue has set the scene – we have two feuding households, Montagues and Capulets, in the city-state of Verona; and young Romeo is a Montague while Juliet, with whom Romeo is destined to fall in love, is from the Capulet family, sworn enemies of the Montagues – the play proper begins with servants of the two feuding households taunting each other in the street.

When Benvolio, a member of house Montague, arrives and clashes with Tybalt of house Capulet, a scuffle breaks out, and it is only when Capulet himself and his wife, Lady Capulet, appear that the fighting stops. Old Montague and his wife then show up, and the Prince of Verona, Escalus, arrives and chastises the people for fighting. Everyone leaves except Old Montague, his wife, and Benvolio, Montague’s nephew. Benvolio tells them that Romeo has locked himself away, but he doesn’t know why.

Romeo appears and Benvolio asks his cousin what is wrong, and Romeo starts speaking in paradoxes, a sure sign that he’s in love. He claims he loves Rosaline, but will not return any man’s love. A servant appears with a note, and Romeo and Benvolio learn that the Capulets are holding a masked ball.

Benvolio tells Romeo he should attend, even though he is a Montague, as he will find more beautiful women than Rosaline to fall in love with. Meanwhile, Lady Capulet asks her daughter Juliet whether she has given any thought to marriage, and tells Juliet that a man named Paris would make an excellent husband for her.

Romeo attends the Capulets’ masked ball, with his friend Mercutio. Mercutio tells Romeo about a fairy named Queen Mab who enters young men’s minds as they dream, and makes them dream of love and romance. At the masked ball, Romeo spies Juliet and instantly falls in love with her; she also falls for him.

They kiss, but then Tybalt, Juliet’s kinsman, spots Romeo and recognising him as a Montague, plans to confront him. Old Capulet tells him not to do so, and Tybalt reluctantly agrees. When Juliet enquires after who Romeo is, she is distraught to learn that he is a Montague and thus a member of the family that is her family’s sworn enemies.

Romeo breaks into the gardens of Juliet’s parents’ house and speaks to her at her bedroom window. The two of them pledge their love for each other, and arrange to be secretly married the following night. Romeo goes to see a churchman, Friar Laurence, who agrees to marry Romeo and Juliet.

After the wedding, the feud between the two families becomes violent again: Tybalt kills Mercutio in a fight, and Romeo kills Tybalt in retaliation. The Prince banishes Romeo from Verona for his crime.

Juliet is told by her father that she will marry Paris, so Juliet goes to seek Friar Laurence’s help in getting out of it. He tells her to take a sleeping potion which will make her appear to be dead for two nights; she will be laid to rest in the family vault, and Romeo (who will be informed of the plan) can secretly come to her there.

However, although that part of the plan goes fine, the message to Romeo doesn’t arrive; instead, he hears that Juliet has actually died. He secretly visits her at the family vault, but his grieving is interrupted by the arrival of Paris, who is there to lay flowers. The two of them fight, and Romeo kills him.

Convinced that Juliet is really dead, Romeo drinks poison in order to join Juliet in death. Juliet wakes from her slumber induced by the sleeping draught to find Romeo dead at her side. She stabs herself.

The play ends with Friar Laurence telling the story to the two feuding families. The Prince tells them to put their rivalry behind them and live in peace.

Romeo and Juliet : analysis

How should we analyse Romeo and Juliet , one of Shakespeare’s most famous and frequently studied, performed, and adapted plays? Is Romeo and Juliet the great love story that it’s often interpreted as, and what does it say about the play – if it is a celebration of young love – that it ends with the deaths of both romantic leads?

It’s worth bearing in mind that Romeo and Juliet do not kill themselves specifically because they are forbidden to be together, but rather because a chain of events (of which their families’ ongoing feud with each other is but one) and a message that never arrives lead to a misunderstanding which results in their suicides.

Romeo and Juliet is often read as both a tragedy and a great celebration of romantic love, but it clearly throws out some difficult questions about the nature of love, questions which are rendered even more pressing when we consider the headlong nature of the play’s action and the fact that Romeo and Juliet meet, marry, and die all within the space of a few days.

Below, we offer some notes towards an analysis of this classic Shakespeare play and explore some of the play’s most salient themes.

It’s worth starting with a consideration of just what Shakespeare did with his source material. Interestingly, two families known as the Montagues and Capulets appear to have actually existed in medieval Italy: the first reference to ‘Montagues and Capulets’ is, curiously, in the poetry of Dante (1265-1321), not Shakespeare.

In Dante’s early fourteenth-century epic poem, the  Divine Comedy , he makes reference to two warring Italian families: ‘Come and see, you who are negligent, / Montagues and Capulets, Monaldi and Filippeschi / One lot already grieving, the other in fear’ ( Purgatorio , canto VI). Precisely why the families are in a feud with one another is never revealed in Shakespeare’s play, so we are encouraged to take this at face value.

The play’s most famous line references the feud between the two families, which means Romeo and Juliet cannot be together. And the line, when we stop and consider it, is more than a little baffling. The line is spoken by Juliet: ‘Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?’ Of course, ‘wherefore’ doesn’t mean ‘where’ – it means ‘why’.

But that doesn’t exactly clear up the whys and the wherefores. The question still doesn’t appear to make any sense: Romeo’s problem isn’t his first name, but his family name, Montague. Surely, since she fancies him, Juliet is quite pleased with ‘Romeo’ as he is – it’s his family that are the problem. Solutions  have been proposed to this conundrum , but none is completely satisfying.

There are a number of notable things Shakespeare did with his source material. The Italian story ‘Mariotto and Gianozza’, printed in 1476, contained many of the plot elements of Shakespeare’s  Romeo and Juliet . Shakespeare’s source for the play’s story was Arthur Brooke’s  The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet  (1562), an English verse translation of this Italian tale.

The moral of Brooke’s tale is that young love ends in disaster for their elders, and is best reined in; Shakespeare changed that. In Romeo and Juliet , the headlong passion and excitement of young love is celebrated, even though confusion leads to the deaths of the young lovers. But through their deaths, and the example their love set for their parents, the two families vow to be reconciled to each other.

Shakespeare also makes Juliet a thirteen-year-old girl in his play, which is odd for a number of reasons. We know that  Romeo and Juliet  is about young love – the ‘pair of star-cross’d lovers’, who belong to rival families in Verona – but what is odd about Shakespeare’s play is how young he makes Juliet.

In Brooke’s verse rendition of the story, Juliet is sixteen. But when Shakespeare dramatised the story, he made Juliet several years younger, with Romeo’s age unspecified. As Lady Capulet reveals, Juliet is ‘not [yet] fourteen’, and this point is made to us several times, as if Shakespeare wishes to draw attention to it and make sure we don’t forget it.

This makes sense in so far as Juliet represents young love, but what makes it unsettling – particularly for modern audiences – is the fact that this makes Juliet a girl of thirteen when she enjoys her night of wedded bliss with Romeo. As John Sutherland puts it in his (and Cedric Watts’) engaging  Oxford World’s Classics: Henry V, War Criminal?: and Other Shakespeare Puzzles , ‘In a contemporary court of law [Romeo] would receive a longer sentence for what he does to Juliet than for what he does to Tybalt.’

There appears to be no satisfactory answer to this question, but one possible explanation lies in one of the play’s recurring themes: bawdiness and sexual familiarity. Perhaps surprisingly given the youthfulness of its tragic heroine, Romeo and Juliet is shot through with bawdy jokes, double entendres, and allusions to sex, made by a number of the characters.

These references to physical love serve to make Juliet’s innocence, and subsequent passionate romance with Romeo, even more noticeable: the journey both Romeo and Juliet undertake is one from innocence (Romeo pointlessly and naively pursuing Rosaline; Juliet unversed in the ways of love) to experience.

In the last analysis, Romeo and Juliet is a classic depiction of forbidden love, but it is also far more sexually aware, more ‘adult’, than many people realise.

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4 thoughts on “A Summary and Analysis of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet”

Modern reading of the play’s opening dialogue among the brawlers fails to parse the ribaldry. Sex scares the bejeepers out of us. Why? Confer “R&J.”

It’s all that damn padre’s fault!

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Literary Theory and Criticism

Home › Drama Criticism › Analysis of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet

Analysis of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet

By NASRULLAH MAMBROL on July 25, 2020 • ( 6 )

Shakespeare, more than any other author, has instructed the West in the catastrophes of sexuality, and has invented the formula that the sexual becomes the erotic when crossed by the shadow of death. There had to be one high song of the erotic by Shakespeare, one lyrical and tragi-comical paean celebrating an unmixed love and lamenting its inevitable destruction. Romeo and Juliet is unmatched, in Shakespeare and in the world’s literature, as a vision of an uncompromising mutual love that perishes of its own idealism and intensity.

—Harold Bloom, Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human

Romeo and Juliet, regarded by many as William Shakespeare’s first great play, is generally thought to have been written around 1595. Shakespeare was then 31 years old, married for 12 years and the father of three children. He had been acting and writing in London for five years. His stage credits included mainly histories—the three parts of Henry VI and Richard III —and comedies— The Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Taming of the Shrew, The Comedy of Errors, and Love’s Labour’s Lost. Shakespeare’s first tragedy, modeled on Seneca, Titus Andronicus , was written around 1592. From that year through 1595 Shakespeare had also composed 154 sonnets and two long narrative poems in the erotic tradition— Venus  and  Adonis   and  The  Rape  of  Lucrece.  Both  his  dramatic  and  nondramatic  writing  show  Shakespeare  mastering  Elizabethan  literary  conventions.  Then,  around 1595, Shakespeare composed three extraordinary plays—R ichard II, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Romeo and Juliet —in three different genres—history, comedy, and tragedy—signalling a new mastery, originality, and excellence.  With  these  three  plays  Shakespeare  emerged  from  the  shadows  of  his  influences and initiated a period of unexcelled accomplishment. The two parts of Henry IV and Julius Caesar would follow, along with the romantic comedies The Merchant of Venice, As You Like It, and Twelfth Night and the great tragedies Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth, and Antony and Cleopatra . The three plays  of  1595,  therefore,  serve  as  an  important  bridge  between  Shakespeare’s  apprenticeship and his mature achievements. Romeo and Juliet, in particular, is a crucial play in the evolution of Shakespeare’s tragic vision, in his integration of poetry and drama, and in his initial exploration of the connection between love and tragedy that he would continue in Troilus and Cressida, Othello, and Antony  and  Cleopatra.  Romeo  and  Juliet   is  not  only  one  of  the  greatest  love  stories in all literature, considering its stage history and the musicals, opera, music, ballet, literary works, and films that it has inspired; it is quite possibly the most popular play of all time. There is simply no more famous pair of lovers than Romeo and Juliet, and their story has become an inescapable central myth in our understanding of romantic love.

Despite  the  play’s  persistence,  cultural  saturation,  and  popular  appeal,  Romeo and Juliet has fared less well with scholars and critics, who have generally judged it inferior to the great tragedies that followed. Instead of the later tragedies of character Romeo and Juliet has been downgraded as a tragedy of chance, and, in the words of critic James Calderwood, the star-crossed lovers are “insufficiently endowed with complexity” to become tragic heroes. Instead “they  become  a  study  of  victimage  and  sacrifice,  not  tragedy.”  What  is  too  often missing in a consideration of the shortcomings of Romeo and Juliet by contrast with the later tragedies is the radical departure the play represented when compared to what preceded it. Having relied on Senecan horror for his first tragedy, Titus  Andronicus,  Shakespeare  located  his  next  in  the  world  of  comedy and romance. Romeo and Juliet is set not in antiquity, as Elizabethan convention dictated for a tragic subject, but in 16th-century Verona, Italy. His tragic protagonists are neither royal nor noble, as Aristotle advised, but two teenagers caught up in the petty disputes of their families. The plight of young lovers pitted against parental or societal opposition was the expected subject, since  Roman  times,  of  comedy,  not  tragedy.  By  showing  not  the  eventual  triumph  but  the  death  of  the  two  young  lovers  Shakespeare  violated  comic  conventions,  while  making  a  case  that  love  and  its  consequences  could  be  treated with an unprecedented tragic seriousness. As critic Harry Levin has observed, Shakespeare’s contemporaries “would have been surprised, and possibly shocked at seeing lovers taken so seriously. Legend, it had been hereto-fore taken for granted, was the proper matter for serious drama; romance was the stuff of the comic stage.”

Shakespeare’s innovations are further evident in comparison to his source material.  The  plot  was  a  well-known  story  in  Italian,  French,  and  English  versions. Shakespeare’s direct source was Arthur Brooke’s poem The Tragicall Historye of Romeus and Juliet (1562). This moralistic work was intended as  a  warning  to  youth  against  “dishonest  desire”  and  disobeying  parental  authority. Shakespeare, by contrast, purifies and ennobles the lovers’ passion, intensifies  the  pathos,  and  underscores  the  injustice  of  the  lovers’  destruction.  Compressing  the  action  from  Brooke’s  many  months  into  a  five-day crescendo, Shakespeare also expands the roles of secondary characters such as  Mercutio  and  Juliet’s  nurse  into  vivid  portraits  that  contrast  the  lovers’ elevated lyricism with a bawdy earthiness and worldly cynicism. Shakespeare transforms Brooke’s plodding verse into a tour de force verbal display that is supremely witty, if at times over elaborate, and, at its best, movingly expressive. If the poet and the dramatist are not yet seamlessly joined in Romeo and Juliet, the play still displays a considerable advance in Shakespeare’s orchestration of verse, image, and incident that would become the hallmark of his greatest achievements.

The play’s theme and outcome are announced in the Prologue:

Two households, both alike in dignity, In fair Verona, where we lay our scene, From ancient grudge break to new mutiny, Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean. From forth the fatal loins of these two foes A pair of star-cross’d lovers take their life; Whose misadventur’d piteous overthrows Doth with their death bury their parents’ strife.

Suspense over the lovers’ fate is eliminated at the outset as Shakespeare emphasizes the forces that will destroy them. The initial scene makes this clear as a public brawl between servants of the feuding Montagues and Capulets escalates to involve kinsmen and the patriarchs on both sides, ended only when the Prince of Verona enforces a cease-fire under penalty of death for future offenders of the peace. Romeo, Montague’s young son, does not participate in the scuffle since he is totally absorbed by a hopeless passion for a young, unresponsive beauty named Rosaline. Initially Romeo appears as a figure of mockery, the embodiment of the hypersensitive, melancholy adolescent lover, who  is  urged  by  his  kinsman  Benvolio  to  resist  sinking  “under  love’s  heavy  burden”  and  seek  another  more  worthy  of  his  affection.  Another  kinsman,  Mercutio, for whom love is more a game of easy conquest, urges Romeo to “be  rough  with  love”  and  master  his  circumstances.  When  by  chance  it  is  learned that Rosaline is to attend a party at the Capulets, Benvolio suggests that they should go as well for Romeo to compare Rosaline’s charms with the other beauties at the party and thereby cure his infatuation. There Romeo sees Juliet, Capulet’s not-yet 14-year-old daughter. Her parents are encouraging her  to  accept  a  match  with  Count  Paris  for  the  social  benefit  of  the  family.  Love  as  affectation  and  love  as  advantage  are  transformed  into  love  as  all-consuming, mutual passion at first sight. Romeo claims that he “ne’er saw true beauty till this night,” and by the force of that beauty, he casts off his former melancholic  self-absorption.  Juliet is  no  less  smitten.  Sending her nurse  to  learn the stranger’s identity, she worries, “If he be married, / My grave is like to be my wedding bed.” Both are shocked to learn that they are on either side of the family feud, and their risk is underscored when the Capulet kinsman, Tybalt, recognizes Romeo and, though prevented by Capulet from violence at the party, swears future vengeance. Tybalt’s threat underscores that this is a play as much about hate as about love, in which Romeo and Juliet’s passion is  increasingly  challenged  by  the  public  and  family  forces  that  deny  love’s  authority.

The  first  of  the  couple’s  two  great  private  moments  in  which  love’s  redemptive and transformative power works its magic follows in possibly the most famous single scene in all of drama, set in the Capulets’ orchard, over-looked by Juliet’s bedroom window. In some of the most impassioned, lyrical, and famous verses Shakespeare ever wrote, the lovers’ dialogue perfectly captures the ecstasy of love and love’s capacity to remake the world. Seeing Juliet above at her window, Romeo says:

But soft! What light through yonder window breaks? It is the East, and Juliet is the sun! Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon, Who is already sick and pale with grief That thou her maid art far more fair than she.

He overhears Juliet’s declaration of her love for him and the rejection of what is implied if a Capulet should love a Montague:

O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo? Deny thy father and refuse thy name! Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love, And I’ll no longer be a Capulet. . . . ’Tis but thy name that is my enemy. Thou art thyself, though not a Montague. What’s Montague? it is nor hand, nor foot, Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part Belonging to a man. O, be some other name! What’s in a name? That which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet .So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call’d, Retain that dear perfection which he owes Without that title. Romeo, doff thy name; And for that name, which is no part of thee, Take all myself.

In  a  beautifully  modulated  scene  the  lovers  freely  admit  their  passion  and  exchange vows of love that become a marriage proposal. As Juliet continues to be called back to her room and all that is implied as Capulet’s daughter, time and space become the barriers to love’s transcendent power to unite.

With the assistance of Friar Lawrence, who regards the union of a Montague and a Capulet as an opportunity “To turn your households’ rancour to pure  love,”  Romeo  and  Juliet  are  secretly  married.  Before  nightfall  and  the  anticipated consummation of their union Romeo is set upon by Tybalt, who is by Romeo’s marriage, his new kinsman. Romeo accordingly refuses his challenge, but it is answered by Mercutio. Romeo tries to separate the two, but in the  process  Mercutio  is  mortally  wounded.  This  is  the  tragic  turn  of  the  play  as  Romeo,  enraged,  rejects  the  principle  of  love  forged  with  Juliet  for  the claims of reputation, the demand for vengeance, and an identifi cation of masculinity with violent retribution:

My very friend, hath got this mortal hurt In my behalf; my reputation stain’d With Tybalt’s slander—Tybalt, that an hour Hath been my kinsman. O sweet Juliet, Thy beauty hath made me effeminate And in my temper soft’ned valour’s steel!

After killing Tybalt, Romeo declares, “O, I am fortune’s fool!” He may blame circumstances for his predicament, but he is clearly culpable in capitulating to the values of society he had challenged in his love for Juliet.

The lovers are given one final moment of privacy before the catastrophe. Juliet, awaiting Romeo’s return, gives one of the play’s most moving speeches, balancing sublimity with an intimation of mortality that increasingly accompanies the lovers:

Come, gentle night; come, loving, black-brow’d night; Give me my Romeo; and, when he shall die, Take him and cut him out in little stars, And he will make the face of heaven so fine That all the world will be in love with night And pay no worship to the garish sun.

Learning the terrible news of Tybalt’s death and Romeo’s banishment, Juliet wins her own battle between hate and love and sends word to Romeo to keep their appointed night together before they are parted.

As Romeo is away in Mantua Juliet’s parents push ahead with her wedding to Paris. The solution to Juliet’s predicament is offered by Friar Lawrence who gives her a drug that will make it appear she has died. The Friar is to summon Romeo,  who  will  rescue  her  when  she  awakes  in  the  Capulet  family  tomb.  The Friar’s message to Romeo fails to reach him, and Romeo learns of Juliet’s death. Reversing his earlier claim of being “fortune’s fool,” Romeo reacts by declaring, “Then I defy you, stars,” rushing to his wife and breaking society’s rules by acquiring the poison to join her in death. Reaching the tomb Romeo is surprised to find Paris on hand, weeping for his lost bride. Outraged by the intrusion  on  his  grief  Paris  confronts  Romeo.  They  fight,  and  after  killing  Paris, Romeo fi nally recognizes him and mourns him as “Mercutio’s kinsman.” Inside the tomb Romeo sees Tybalt’s corpse and asks forgiveness before taking leave of Juliet with a kiss:

. . . O, here Will I set up my everlasting rest And shake the yoke of inauspicious stars From this world-wearied flesh.

Juliet  awakes  to  see  Romeo  dead  beside  her.  Realizing  what  has  happened,  she responds by taking his dagger and plunges it into her breast: “This is thy sheath; there rest, and let me die.”

Montagues, Capulets, and the Prince arrive, and the Friar explains what has happened and why. His account of Romeo and Juliet’s tender passion and devotion shames the two families into ending their feud. The Prince provides the final eulogy:

A glooming peace this morning with it brings. The sun for sorrow will not show his head. Go hence, to have more talk of these sad things; Some shall be pardon’d, and some punished; For never was a story of more woe Than this of Juliet and her Romeo.

The  sense  of  loss  Verona  and  the  audience  feels  at  the  lovers’  deaths  is  a  direct  result  of  Shakespeare’s  remarkable  ability  to  conjure  love  in  all  its  transcendent power, along with its lethal risks. Set on a collision course with the values bent on denying love’s sway, Romeo and Juliet manage to create a dreamlike, alternative, private world that is so touching because it is so brief and perishable. Shakespeare’s triumph here is to make us care that adolescent romance matters—emotionally,  psychologically,  and  socially—and  that  the  premature and unjust death of lovers rival in profundity and significance the fall of kings.

Romeo and Juliet Oxford Lecture by Emma Smith

Analysis of William Shakespeare’s Plays

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Home — Essay Samples — Literature — Plays — Romeo and Juliet

Essays on Romeo and Juliet

Romeo and juliet essay topics: a guide for college students.

Explore essay topics on Shakespeare's timeless tragedy, "Romeo and Juliet." Selecting the right essay topic is the first step towards crafting a compelling and insightful analysis. This page aims to spark your creativity and personal interest in diving deep into the play's themes, characters, and societal implications.

Essay Types and Topics

Essays can vary greatly in type and focus. Below, we categorize potential "Romeo and Juliet" essay topics by type, providing a diverse range of subjects suitable for college-level analysis. Each topic suggestion comes with an introductory paragraph example, including a clear thesis statement, and a concluding paragraph that summarizes the essay and reiterates the thesis with a final reflection or call to action.

Argumentative Essays

• Topic: The Role of Fate vs. Free Will in Romeo and Juliet

Introduction Example: "Romeo and Juliet" is often interpreted as a narrative dominated by fate, yet a closer examination reveals a complex interplay between destiny and the choices of its characters. This essay argues that while fate sets the stage, the personal decisions of Romeo, Juliet, and others significantly influence the tragic outcome. Thesis Statement: Despite the heavy hand of fate, the tragic ending of "Romeo and Juliet" is the result of the characters' own choices, highlighting Shakespeare's commentary on free will.

Conclusion Example: In conclusion, "Romeo and Juliet" serves not only as a tale of doomed love but also as a profound exploration of the tension between fate and free will. The characters' decisions, as much as fate, weave the fabric of their tragedy, suggesting that our destinies are not solely at the mercy of the stars but also of our actions.

Compare and Contrast Essays

• Topic: Love and Hate in "Romeo and Juliet": A Comparative Analysis

Introduction Example: "Romeo and Juliet" masterfully juxtaposes the themes of love and hate, revealing how closely intertwined and yet vastly different they are. This essay will compare and contrast these central themes, examining how they coexist and influence the narrative's progression. Thesis Statement: Shakespeare demonstrates through "Romeo and Juliet" that love and hate are two sides of the same coin, each driving the story to its inevitable tragic conclusion.

Conclusion Example: Ultimately, the examination of love and hate in "Romeo and Juliet" reveals the complexity of human emotions and the tragic outcomes when these powerful feelings collide. Shakespeare's play serves as a timeless reminder of the destructive power of hate and the transcendent nature of love.

Descriptive Essays

• Topic: The Symbolism of Light and Darkness in "Romeo and Juliet"

Introduction Example: Throughout "Romeo and Juliet," Shakespeare employs the motifs of light and darkness to symbolize the dual nature of love and the societal constraints surrounding the protagonists. This essay aims to describe the significance of these symbols and their impact on the narrative. Thesis Statement: Light and darkness in "Romeo and Juliet" serve as powerful symbols that highlight the intensity of Romeo and Juliet's love and the darkness of the world that ultimately leads to their demise.

Conclusion Example: The symbolism of light and darkness in "Romeo and Juliet" enriches the narrative, offering deeper insights into the protagonists' love and the challenges they face. Through these motifs, Shakespeare communicates the enduring power and peril of love within a divided society.

Persuasive Essays

• Topic: The Importance of the Friar Lawrence Character in "Romeo and Juliet"

Introduction Example: Friar Lawrence is often viewed as a secondary character in "Romeo and Juliet," yet his role is pivotal to the unfolding of the play's events. This essay will persuade readers of the critical importance of Friar Lawrence, arguing that his decisions and actions are central to the narrative and themes of the play. Thesis Statement: Friar Lawrence is a crucial character in "Romeo and Juliet," whose actions and wisdom deeply influence the course and outcome of the story.

Conclusion Example: In persuading the reader of Friar Lawrence's significance, it becomes clear that his character is not only central to the narrative but also embodies the themes of wisdom, folly, and the unintended consequences of well-meaning actions. His involvement is essential to understanding the play's deeper messages.

Narrative Essays

• Topic: A Modern Retelling of "Romeo and Juliet"

Introduction Example: Imagining "Romeo and Juliet" set in the modern era offers a unique opportunity to explore how the themes of love, conflict, and tragedy translate across time. This narrative essay will recount the classic story through a contemporary lens, examining how the central themes endure in today's society. Thesis Statement: The timeless themes of "Romeo and Juliet" continue to resonate, even when set against the backdrop of the modern world, illustrating the universality of Shakespeare's masterpiece.

Conclusion Example: Through a modern retelling of "Romeo and Juliet," it becomes evident that the themes of love, hate, and fate are not confined to any one era but are enduring aspects of the human condition. Shakespeare's work remains relevant, reflecting the persistent nature of these experiences across generations.

Engagement and Creativity

As you embark on your essay-writing journey, choose a topic that not only aligns with your assignment requirements but also sparks your interest and curiosity. Let your exploration of "Romeo and Juliet" be guided by creativity and a desire to uncover new insights into Shakespeare's work. Engage deeply with the text, and allow your critical thinking to bring fresh perspectives to well-trodden paths.

Educational Value

Writing essays on "Romeo and Juliet" offers valuable opportunities to develop analytical thinking, persuasive writing skills, and a deeper appreciation for literature. Each essay type encourages a different approach to the text, whether it be through argumentative analysis, comparative exploration, descriptive detail, persuasive advocacy, or narrative creativity. Embrace these challenges as chances to enhance your academic skills and personal growth.

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The Role of Fate in "Romeo & Juliet" by William Shakespeare

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The Extreme Effects of Love and Hate in Romeo and Juliet, a Play by William Shakespeare

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1597, William Shakespeare

Play; Shakespearean Tragedy

Romeo, Juliet, Count Paris, Mercutio, Tybalt, The Nurse, Rosaline, Benvolio, Friar Laurence

Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet is based on a narrative poem by Arthur Brooke called "The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet," which was published in 1562. However, Shakespeare's play transformed the original story into a timeless masterpiece of love and tragedy. The historical context of the play is rooted in the Italian Renaissance, a period characterized by a renewed interest in classical literature, arts, and humanism. This cultural milieu influenced Shakespeare's portrayal of the conflict between love and societal norms, as well as the exploration of passion, honor, and fate.

In the city of Verona, two prominent families, the Montagues and the Capulets, are engaged in a bitter feud. Amidst this hostility, Romeo, a Montague, attends a masquerade ball hosted by the Capulets and instantly falls in love with Juliet, a Capulet. They share a passionate encounter and realize they are from rival families. Determined to be together, Romeo and Juliet secretly marry with the help of Friar Laurence. However, their blissful union is short-lived when a series of unfortunate events unfolds. Tybalt, Juliet's hot-tempered cousin, challenges Romeo to a duel, resulting in Tybalt's death. As punishment, Romeo is banished from Verona. Desperate to avoid her arranged marriage to Count Paris, Juliet seeks assistance from Friar Laurence, who devises a plan to reunite the lovers. But the plan goes awry, and miscommunication leads Romeo to believe that Juliet is dead. Overwhelmed by grief, Romeo drinks a poison and dies next to Juliet's lifeless body. Upon awakening and discovering Romeo's fate, Juliet takes her own life with a dagger. The tragic deaths of Romeo and Juliet finally bring their feuding families together in sorrow, realizing the consequences of their longstanding enmity.

Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet is set in the Italian city of Verona during the 14th century. Verona serves as the backdrop for the tragic love story of the young protagonists, Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet. The city of Verona is depicted as a place of deep-seated rivalry and violence between the two influential families, the Montagues and the Capulets. The streets of Verona are filled with tension and hostility, as the feuding families constantly clash and disrupt the peace. Within Verona, significant locations play a vital role in the story. The streets and public squares serve as meeting places for the characters, where conflicts and confrontations often occur. The Capulet household, including the iconic balcony where Romeo and Juliet exchange their famous declarations of love, symbolizes the forbidden nature of their relationship. Additionally, the tomb of the Capulets becomes the tragic final setting where Romeo and Juliet meet their fateful ends.

Love: Romeo and Juliet's love is portrayed as passionate and all-consuming, transcending the boundaries of their warring families. The theme of love is further explored through the contrast between romantic love and familial love, as the couple grapples with loyalty to their families and their own desires. Fate: The play suggests that the lovers' tragic end is predetermined by forces beyond their control, emphasizing the role of destiny in their lives. This theme is captured in the famous line, "star-crossed lovers," which highlights the notion that their love is doomed from the start. Feuds and conflict: The bitter rivalry between the Montagues and the Capulets fuels the tension and violence that ultimately leads to the tragic events. Shakespeare explores the destructive consequences of long-standing enmity and the price that is paid when hatred triumphs over peace.

One prevalent literary device in the play is metaphor. Shakespeare employs metaphor to convey complex ideas and emotions. For example, in Romeo's famous line, "But soft, what light through yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Juliet is the sun," he compares Juliet to the sun, emphasizing her radiant beauty and his adoration for her. Another device used extensively in Romeo and Juliet is dramatic irony. This occurs when the audience knows more about the events or the true intentions of the characters than they do themselves. A notable example is when Juliet takes a sleeping potion to feign her death, while Romeo, unaware of her plan, believes she is truly dead. This creates tension and heightens the emotional impact of the subsequent tragic events. Additionally, Shakespeare employs soliloquies and asides to reveal the characters' inner thoughts and feelings directly to the audience. These monologues provide insight into their motivations, dilemmas, and conflicts, fostering a deeper understanding of their complexities. Other literary devices employed in Romeo and Juliet include imagery, allusion, foreshadowing, and wordplay.

"But soft, what light through yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Juliet is the sun." - Romeo (Act II, Scene II) "What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet." - Juliet (Act II, Scene II) "O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?" - Juliet (Act II, Scene II) "Good night, good night! Parting is such sweet sorrow." - Juliet (Act II, Scene II) "These violent delights have violent ends." - Friar Laurence (Act II, Scene VI)

In film, there have been numerous cinematic adaptations of Romeo and Juliet, each offering its unique take on the timeless story. Franco Zeffirelli's 1968 film and Baz Luhrmann's 1996 modernized version are among the most well-known adaptations, capturing the tragic romance and passion of the original play. Television has also embraced Romeo and Juliet, with adaptations ranging from traditional period dramas to contemporary reinterpretations. These adaptations often explore different settings and time periods while staying true to the core themes of love, feuds, and destiny. The play has influenced music as well, with artists drawing inspiration from the story and its characters. Popular songs, such as "Love Story" by Taylor Swift and "Check Yes Juliet" by We the Kings, reference Romeo and Juliet, showcasing the enduring impact of the play on popular culture. Additionally, Romeo and Juliet has been referenced in literature, visual arts, and even advertising campaigns, highlighting its cultural significance and widespread recognition.

Cultural Significance: The play has become a symbol of romantic tragedy and forbidden love. It has inspired countless adaptations, films, and musicals, further cementing its status as an iconic love story. Language and Expressions: Shakespeare's unique language and poetic expressions in "Romeo and Juliet" have greatly influenced the English language. Phrases like "What's in a name?" and "A rose by any other name would smell as sweet" have become widely quoted and integrated into everyday speech. Archetypal Characters: The characters of Romeo and Juliet have become archetypes of passionate, young lovers. Their plight and the themes of love, fate, and family conflict resonate with audiences across cultures and generations. Impact on Drama and Theater: The play's tragic structure, complex characters, and dramatic tension have had a lasting impact on the field of drama. It has served as a model for storytelling and character development, inspiring playwrights and directors for centuries.

Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" is a timeless masterpiece that remains relevant and captivating across centuries. Exploring the reasons why it is worth writing an essay about involves delving into its enduring significance. Firstly, the play explores universal themes such as love, fate, and family conflict, which resonate with audiences of all ages and cultures. Its exploration of the intensity and consequences of young love provides valuable insights into human emotions and relationships. Secondly, the play showcases Shakespeare's unparalleled mastery of language and poetic expression. Studying the rich and evocative dialogue, intricate wordplay, and use of literary devices in "Romeo and Juliet" allows for a deeper appreciation of Shakespeare's artistic genius and contributes to the understanding of his broader body of work. Furthermore, the play's exploration of societal expectations, gender roles, and the power of passion challenges conventional norms and raises thought-provoking questions about the constraints of society. Lastly, the enduring popularity and numerous adaptations of "Romeo and Juliet" in various art forms demonstrate its cultural significance and ability to inspire creative interpretations.

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