...characterization in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet In Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare uses metaphors and details through the characterization of Paris, Juliet, and Romeo in order to reveal the theme of how love is an addiction, it is an obsession and people make quick decisions without thinking because of love. Shakespeare incorporates many characters in his play in order to portray how love is so overpowering that it causes the characters apathy towards life to incline. For example, during act 5 scene 3, Paris is at Juliet’s grave morning when Romeo approaches and Paris says, “Nightly shall be to strew they grave and weep” (1136). This image invokes the idea that Paris is dismayed and feels depressed. Paris engages...
Words: 913 - Pages: 4
...swoon as they read Romeo and Juliet for the first time. The girls wish for a boy like Romeo to spot them in a crowded room and instantly fall in love, and even though they would never admit it, young men probably wish for the same. Even the students who scoff at Romeo’s flowery language and the dramatic irony secretly wish for the kind of overwhelming passion Romeo and Juliet share. However, the same students tend to overlook the warning Shakespeare has within the first page of the play. In the prologue, Shakespeare writes that Romeo and Juliet tells the tale of two families with such an intense hatred toward each other that it takes a child from each of the families committing suicide for the...
Words: 1452 - Pages: 6
...listen to all of the good and bad happening in one’s life. The idea of a relationship like this is shown in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Romeo always goes to Friar Lawrence for confession and the Friar will help Romeo with the problems he is facing. Shakespeare shows this kind and helpful relationship through metaphors, foreshadowing, and personification. The friendly nature of Romeo and Friar Lawrence’s relationship was captured by Shakespeare through metaphors. The Friar says, “Is Rosaline, that thou didst love so dear, So soon forsaken? Young men’s love then lies, not truly in their hearts, but in their eyes. (2.2.68-70). The Friar is asking Romeo how he moved on from Rosaline so quickly, saying young men must love with their eyes and not with their hearts. This shows how the Friar is being protective to Romeo because, the Friar wants to be sure that Romeo is not making a rash decision to marry Juliet after only...
Words: 597 - Pages: 3
...Poor decision making and bad advice can have devastating consequences. Usually, adults do not possess these qualities and provide helpful consultation to children. In William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, however, many adults go along and create plans which attempt to unite the young couple. Specifically, Friar Lawrence's advice to the young lovers leads to their passing. Therefore, Friar Laurence is most culpable for the deaths of Romeo and Juliet because of his irresponsible decision making. Friar Laurence incorrectly guides Romeo and Juliet by agreeing to marry them. The Friar takes little time to think the situation over and instead hastily makes plans for Romeo to marry Juliet. By allowing them to be together, he gives the couple...
Words: 457 - Pages: 2
...Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet features two main characters from feuding families who fall in love but feel adversely about their developing romance despite their mutual attraction. Romeo wants to be in a relationship with Juliet and acts rashly because he believes it will help him to do so. Adversely, Juliet acts with caution and thinks more about possible long-term consequences of a relationship with Romeo. Their differing approaches to their relationship reflect restrictive social standards for women, and ultimately prove that women must act more carefully when it comes to love because a woman would face greater consequences than a man if they were to break social codes. Juliet proceeds more with more discretion than Romeo when...
Words: 1054 - Pages: 5
...All Pun Intended Samantha Garapati Period 4: English Date: 30th May 2010 “Prick love for pricking, and you beat love down”(1.4.28); it doesn’t take the mind of a rocket scientist or a teenage boy to figure out the innuendo behind that quote. That’s precisely Shakespeare’s genius; people can enjoy his plays, whether they have the intellectually tuned minds of inventors or the less stimulated minds of cottars. Puns are one of the tools with which he accomplishes this popularity in all spectrums. Not only does he use puns to add rude humour to scenes with bawdy jokes to enhance the enjoyment of the public, he also uses it to indirectly characterize, adding dimension to characters. Finally, he also uses it to foreshadow approaching events, creating anticipation and tension in audiences. William Shakespeare’s primary use of pun is to add humour to scenes with bawdy jokes, thus providing audiences and readers comic relief and dissolving some of the tension of the previous and following scenes [T]. In the following quote, Shakespeare manages to both create the sexual imagery concerning virgins in readers’ minds and suggest that the best kind of wit is wit that is able to mould itself and accommodate many levels of meaning. Applying this to a larger subject, Shakespeare is suggesting that the best way to live life is to live on every level, base or intellectual. Our perception of life is essentially our personality, and our perspective is limited or broadened by our experiences...
Words: 1665 - Pages: 7
...comes an impulsive character, and in William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet that character is Romeo. For example Romeo’s rash actions caused his own demise. Upon hearing about the death of Juliet, Romeo immediately started to make plans to commit suicide. If Romeo sits down and thinks about his actions instead of acting the way he does, then he will not die. Romeo’s impulsive behavior also had negative consequences on the lives of Mercutio, Tybalt, and Juliet. The ill-fated Mercutio is one of the people who suffered by Romeo’s impulsive decisions. It all started when Romeo and his friends decided to go and crash the Capulet’s party. While at the party Tybalt spotted Romeo. He is enraged. After the party had passed Tybalt challenges Romeo to a duel, but Romeo does not want to fight. Tybalt does not give up, he continues to insinuate a fight with Romeo, with little success. Then one day...
Words: 771 - Pages: 4
...In William Shakespeare’s tragic love story, Romeo and Juliet, focuses on the deaths of the two teens, Romeo and Juliet. Poor mentorship grouped with fate and the anatomy of the teenage brain are most responsible for the deaths of the young lovers, demonstrating that when teenagers make poor decisions, it is not entirely their own faults. The first factor affecting the two deaths is poor mentorship. The main adult in who supported the love of Romeo and Juliet’s throughout the story was Friar Lawrence. The reason the Friar was a poor mentor for the teens is because he did not take a stand against the two kids, even though he knew they were making a wrong decision. The Friar gives advice to Romeo by saying, “These violent delights have violent...
Words: 754 - Pages: 4
...every day. This was evident In Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet as two unlucky characters were killed at the fault of someone else. In Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare, Friar Laurence and the Nurse have similar roles in the story, yet one of them has a great impact on the story. Friar Laurence and the Nurse both play a substantial part in the marriage. The Friar agreed to marry Romeo and Juliet to end the feud between their families. The friar says to Romeo, “For this alliance may so happy prove / To turn your households rancor to pure love” (2.2.91-92). The quote demonstrates that the friar played a significant role in the story since he married the two main characters. The quote also proves...
Words: 725 - Pages: 3
...Public Speaking, Fate and Free Will Tegan Whichello For centuries there has been a universal debate about if fate or free will makes our life the way it is. In Elizabethan times humans believed in a greater or higher power. They believed that their life had been planned out long before they lived, that no matter what choices they made in the end they would end up in the same place. In William Shakespeare’s play Macbeth, Shakespeare challenges us to think about if fate or the choices that we make is what is running our lives. Is Macbeth merely playing the part of a man destined to die a gruesome death or is he a man who chose the path that lead him to be killed by Macduff. At the start of the play Macbeth we are already shown that Macbeth is a fearless and ruthless personality. He is shown as a powerful leader in times of great worry. After the battle in Act 1 Scene 2 seargent says to the king “For brave Macbeth – well he deserves that name – disdaining fortune, with his brandish’d steel, which smoked with bloody execution, like valour’s minion carved out his passage, till he faced the slave; which ne’er shook hands, nor blade farewell to him, till he unseam’d him from the nave to the chaps.” In this statement to the king, seargent has highlighted that Macbeth when his mind is set on a goal would not let any man stand in his way, even if that means killing men along the way. This technique of foreshadowing tells us that just like in the battle, Macbeth will go to any length...
Words: 839 - Pages: 4
...wrote tragedies from the beginning of his career. One of his earliest plays was the Roman tragedy Titus Andronicus, which he followed a few years later with Romeo and Juliet. However, his most admired tragedies were written in a seven-year period between 1601 and 1608. These include his four major tragedies Hamlet, Othello, King Lear and Macbeth, along withAntony & Cleopatra, Coriolanus, Cymbeline, Julius Caesar and the lesser-known Timon of Athens and Troilus and Cressida. ------------------------------------------------- Tragedies[edit] Many have linked these plays to Aristotle's precept about tragedy: that the protagonist must be an admirable but flawed character, with the audience able to understand and sympathize with the character. Certainly, all of Shakespeare's tragic protagonists are capable of both good and evil. As one of the most influential Shakespearean critics of the 19th century, A. C. Bradley argues, "the playwright always insists on the operation of the doctrine of free will; the (anti) hero is always able to back out, to redeem himself. But, the author dictates, they must move unheedingly to their doom." Some, including drama historian Brian Arkins in his "Heavy Seneca: his Influence on Shakespeare's Tragedies," have also pointed out their Senecan nature, as differentiated from Aristotle's principles and Greek tragedy. In one of a few exceptions to the rule that Black Roman literature was essentially superficial imitation of Greek works, the Roman Stoic philosopher...
Words: 403 - Pages: 2
...none of his personal work was ever found. The only things people really knew about him was his poems, business transactions, court papers, and his will. We know a little about his family and the date on which his baptism was registered, but no one knows exactly when he was born. When he died his friends and fellow writers left information in their books and letters about him, but we still to this day do not know if they are entirely true. Some people may find Shakespeare to be controversial in the aspect how he portrays women. The women do not play the traditional role that people were used to seeing in their society. The men in Elizabethan England were in charge of the social power, political power, and arranged marriages. In a lot of Shakespeare’s plays women played a powerful role and break away from the...
Words: 1125 - Pages: 5
...flaw that makes them relatable to us. Hamlet, the title character from Hamlet, is very indecisive in deciding when to kill his uncle, and King Lear is blinded by his pride and shuns the only of his daughters that actually love him. The final reason why Shakespeare is still relevant to us is the fact that his plays serve more than to simply entertain us. They teach us lessons and give us warnings. Shakespeare’s plays all have a theme to them, something that provides us as an audience an understanding of why the plot is going in the direction that it is. For instance, one of the themes in Hamlet is revenge. Hamlet’s father was killed by Hamlet’s uncle. Later, as a ghost, Hamlet’s father comes to Hamlet to ask that he kill his uncle and provide his father peace. Thus, the entire play begins and the audience is immediately able to understand why the events of the play are happening. Shakespeare’s use of simple themes, yet complex plots and characters, allow audiences to find the plays enjoyable to watch and accessible to people from different cultures. The true genius of Shakespeare’s themes are, due to the way they are written, different people can come away from the same play with different ideas on what the theme was. Looking at Hamlet again, some people will see it as dark story of revenge and vengeance, one that ultimately leaves not just Hamlet’s uncle dead, by also his mother, the woman he loved, and Hamlet himself dead as well. Others will see this play and see it as a story...
Words: 1749 - Pages: 7
...ROMEO & JULIET Prologue (ACT 1) As a prologue to the play, the Chorus enters. In a fourteen-line sonnet, the Chorus describes two noble households (called “houses”) in the city of Verona. The houses hold an “ancient grudge” (Prologue.2) against each other that remains a source of violent and bloody conflict. The Chorus states that from these two houses, two “star-crossed” (Prologue.6) lovers will appear. These lovers will mend the quarrel between their families by dying. The story of these two lovers, and of the terrible strife between their families, will be the topic of this play. ANALYSIS This opening speech by the Chorus serves as an introduction to Romeo and Juliet. We are provided with information about where the play takes place, and given some background information about its principal characters. The obvious function of the Prologue as introduction to the Verona of Romeo and Juliet can obscure its deeper, more important function. The Prologue does not merely set the scene of Romeo and Juliet, it tells the audience exactly what is going to happen in the play. The Prologue refers to an ill-fated couple with its use of the word “star-crossed,” which means, literally, against the stars. Stars were thought to control people’s destinies. But the Prologue itself creates this sense of fate by providing the audience with the knowledge that Romeo and Juliet will die even before the play has begun. The audience therefore watches the play with the expectation that it must...
Words: 15625 - Pages: 63
...1. W. Shakespeare « Hamlet» (Renaissance) Character List Hamlet - The Prince of Denmark, the title character, and the protagonist. About thirty years old at the start of the play, Hamlet is the son of Queen Gertrude and the late King Hamlet, and the nephew of the present king, Claudius. Hamlet is melancholy, bitter, and cynical, full of hatred for his uncle’s scheming and disgust for his mother’s sexuality. A reflective and thoughtful young man who has studied at the University of Wittenberg, Hamlet is often indecisive and hesitant, but at other times prone to rash and impulsive acts. Hamlet is extremely philosophical and contemplative. He is particularly drawn to difficult questions or questions that cannot be answered with any certainty. Faced with evidence that his uncle murdered his father, evidence that any other character in a play would believe, Hamlet becomes obsessed with proving his uncle’s guilt before trying to act. Claudius - The King of Denmark, Hamlet’s uncle, and the play’s antagonist. The villain of the play, Claudius is a calculating, ambitious politician, driven by his sexual appetites and his lust for power, but he occasionally shows signs of guilt and human feeling—his love for Gertrude, for instance, seems sincere. Gertrude - The Queen of Denmark, Hamlet’s mother, recently married to Claudius. Gertrude loves Hamlet deeply, but she is a shallow, weak woman who seeks affection and status more urgently than moral rectitude or truth. Polonius - The...
Words: 9533 - Pages: 39
