...Love is painful, we see couples everyday that look so happy, but sometimes there's more that meets the eye. The couple could be going through something terrible, one of them could be cheating on the other, its a pity relationship. There's so much that we can't uncover just by a single glance. In Romeo and Juliet, the two are forbin to love each other, this causes so much pain that they end up dying because of it, sure they died together, but were they happy? Were they happy that they had to keep their love a secret? I know i wouldn't be, if i were in love i would want to show it, i would want everyone to know that i'm in love with this person and they shouldn't care, but people have opinions, and those opinions can hurt. In love you have to...
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...Jade Tate Broadford secondary college Jade Tate Broadford secondary college Year Ten English Romeo and Juliet Comparative Essay Year Ten English Romeo and Juliet Comparative Essay Romeo and Juliet is one of Shakespeare’s most famous plays, known for its tragic storyline. There are many interpretations of Romeo and Juliet, one of the most widely recognised being Baz Luhrmann’s version. In comparing the Shakespearean Romeo and Juliet to Luhrmann’s version there are many similarities and differences. These are in relation to many aspects of the play including; the setting, costume and props, sound and visual effects and the script itself. Baz Luhrmann has made these changes to the original play to help modern audiences understand ‘Romeo and Juliet. Setting is a key element in both the original and modern version. While the original Romeo and Juliet is set in Verona, Italy, the modernised version sets the film in Verona Beach, California. Despite having the same name, there is a substantial difference in the location of the sets. The depiction of what Mantua and the kind of location is another key difference in terms of the set. Shakespeare portrays Mantua as another city in his play where in Baz Luhrmann’s version Mantua is shown as an isolated barren location. This assists in making it clear as to why Romeo doesn’t want to go there, being an essential element in the modern version to indicate that banishment is worse than death rather than just moving to another city...
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...In Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare employs poetic language such as similes and metaphors to convey the newly formed, passionate, and emotional connection between Romeo and Juliet. Romeo reveals his lust for Juliet through the use of a metaphor. When Romeo catches sight of Juliet on her balcony he whispers to himself, “It is the East, and Juliet is the sun” (69). By comparing Juliet to the sun, a glowing orb of light, the audience is able to recognize Romeo’s passion towards Juliet. Through the comparison of Juliet and the sun, the audience sees that Juliet lights up Romeo’s life, that was once filled with grief as a result of love. The two lovers have already developed a relationship and Shakespeare was able to express the blossoming love through...
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...Post-modernism in Baz Luhrmann’s film adaptation of William Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet: a comparison of two creative works from two different periods. In 1996, Baz Luhrmann directed “Romeo + Juliet”, a modern twist on the famous tragedy play Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare in 1597, in which the main characters Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet where portrayed by Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes. While some praise the strange interpretation of the old tale, there are also those who condemn the rendition as destructive and disrespectful to the great work of Shakespeare. There will always be two sides to every story and this study will take that into consideration as well as comparing the two different yet similar works to see how post modernism has played a role in Luhrmann’s version of Romeo and Juliet. Postmodernism has been given many definitions. Some say it’s simply the outlook that the generation of late twenty first century has on life which entails the mistrust and dismissal of theories that existed before such as religion, ethics and law. According to these youths, the difference between right and wrong or what the meaning of life is based solely on that individual’s perspective. In film, the idea of postmodernism is somewhat similar as it’s an artist medium in which to undermine social norms and present one’s individual belief. The difference lies in that postmodernism in film concerns bringing in many aspects of popular culture to produce something...
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...of love and passion, is a piece of his writing that has fascinated audiences and critics alike for centuries. It could be argued that his sonnets (166 and 130) and the play Romeo and Juliet best represents his exploration of strong feelings and of love. Romeo and Juliet is a love story written by Shakespeare, it is the most famous tragic love play. It is about “two star-crossed lovers” in different households both alike in dignity which is where the scene begins. At the beginning of the play, there’s a feud going on between the Capulet and Montague families. People involved in the feud have to defend their families and friends, even if that means bloodshed. The main thing is that Shakespeare was trying to describe an exotic place where the audience could believe a tragic love story might happen. Romeo and Juliet are about two households in Verona which is where the scene begins. Throughout the play Romeo and Juliet Shakespeare presents love as a strong and passionate emotion. He generally links love and religion in his play. The prologue is a 14 line sonnet. This describes two families that are both ‘alike in dignity’ and live in Verona; this also tells us that from each household ‘a pair of star-cross’d’ lovers will appears. Their lives are taken to mend the hatred between their families. In Act 1 Scene V takes place at the Capulet’s party. At this point of the play the audience is aware of the fierce rivalry between the two households. In this scene Romeo and Juliet meet...
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...It could be argued that Romeo and Juliet is the most popular of William Shakespeare’s thirty-seven plays. In Romeo and Juliet Shakespeare uses many different approaches to keep the whole audience interested. These assist in creating his ability to attract a wide audience and are a great contributor to Shakespeare’s success. Shakespeare uses foils to highlight various attributes of characters. Two foils in Romeo and Juliet are the Nurse and Lady Capulet, Juliet’s mother. The foils highlight certain traits of each other. Shakespeare uses the contrast between the Nurse and Lady Capulet to emphasize the difference between their relationships with Juliet, but it emphasizes other differences too. One significant difference between Juliet’s caregiver...
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...English 16 May 2014 The Utter Infatuation of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet Over time, writing has become exceedingly prominent, and throughout generations it has tremendously improved, leaving behind some of the best literature pieces in history. Since writing began, many great authors, playwrights, and poets have emerged, contributing to the literary society and producing countless works of literature, some that are still read today. A few notable composers that left behind numerous classics include Charles Dickens, Edgar Allen Poe, and William Shakespeare. William Shakespeare is considered to be the greatest playwright of all time due to his many great plays and his vast contribution to the English language. Some of his works include Hamlet, Othello, and the infamous Romeo and Juliet. Wrote in 1597, the tragic comedy tells the story of young Romeo and Juliet, who find themselves “in love at first sight”. Unfortunately for them, their love story goes awry when they learn their parents are mortal conflict between their parents, which ultimately caused their demise. Woven throughout the plot, many examples become present that show that the star-crossed lovers are not in love. It becomes clear Romeo and Juliet are merely infatuated with each other. The ill-fated couple focus only on each other’s physical appearances and are severely impulsive throughout the tragic story. “The play then impresses upon us the intensity of youthful love, at once joyful and desperate, while at the...
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...Shakespeare’s Writings William Shakespeare used many different writing styles in order to capture the minds and hearts of his audience. He wrote thirty eight plays (Boyce 119), two narratives (Boyce 294), and 154 sonnets (Boyce 607). In order to do his writing, Shakespeare had to put his mind, body, and soul into his work. Shakespeare wrote three different types of genres, comedies, histories, and tragedies. “A comedy is a drama that provokes laughter at human behavior, usually involves romantic love, and usually has a happy ending.” The plots of the comedies were usually about the struggle between two young lovers. Shakespeare wrote eighteen comedies (Boyce 119). His histories dealt with England’s historical events. He wrote his histories to define the perfect king. Shakespeare wrote ten histories (Boyce 294). “A tragedy is a drama dealing with a noble protagonist placed in a highly stressful situation that leads to a disastrous, usually fatal conclusion.” He developed his tragedies from other tragic plays. Shakespeare based all of his plays from these three genres (Boyce 652). Shakespeare had five major themes about which he wrote. He used these themes in almost all of his plays. In his comedy, The Taming of the Shrew, a “drunkard” named Christopher Slay is tricked into believing he is a lord and later finds himself in many conflicts with the ladies of the house (Chazelle, n.p). In this comedy, Shakespeare demonstrated contrasting worlds by comparing men versus women...
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...Romeo and Juliet Compare to Contrast Shakespeare, a playwright who wrote a play by the name of Romeo and Juliet, along with movie producers who brought the play to a screen, helped the story of a tragedy be widely known. Moreover, the story of Romeo and Juliet is of forbidden teen lovers whose families are in a rivalry, so much so, that the cause of the two teenagers’ suicides is a direct and indirect result of the feud. However, though; both the literature and movies of this play explain the same story, they have more than just similarities, for an individual may also note the differences between the original creation and adapted creations. Therefore, by noting these distinct disparities and parallels of the literature and a singular cinema...
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...Comparing the voice of love and loss in Bryon’s “When We Two Parted” and the Balcony Scene in Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” Lili Mutyambizi From the beginning of Act 2 scene 2 it is evident that Romeo conveys a different voice of love and loss compared to Bryon. Because at this point, he knows that he has no other company and so therefore does not restrict any of his feelings or thoughts that go through his mind. So in the first part of his monologue, the language in this monologue includes phrases that are associated with subjects that are essential tot he human body as he expresses:: “It is the east and Juliet is the sun, arise far sun and kill the envious moon” this signifying that he needs Juliet to come out for him to ‘live’ and destroy the feelings he has for Rosaline ‘kill the envious moon’. This showing that Romeo’s voice of love is immature as he quickly wants to diminish his previous love of Rosaline and replace with Juliet as “kill” causes a fast action of death. However when comparing the first stanza of Byron’s “When We Two Parted” the mood of this is regretful as he reflects on past events:”Pale grew thy cheek cold colder thy kiss” as this effect is reinforced by the use of enjambment that is a common theme in the poem. This signifying that Bryon’s voice of loss is mature as he is accepting that what he thought was love was growing to be non existent which Romeo does not acknowledge as in this play he thinks that his and Juliet’s love will always be there...
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...shown in “Romeo and Juliet” and in Wuthering Heights”? In this essay I am going to compare the relationships in Romeo and Juliet and wuthering heights by discussing their similarities and how love is portrayed in them. Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare and wuthering heights by Emily Bronte are considered to be two of the most famous love stories ever written in the English language. Both explore love from many different perspectives such as domestic, maternal, social,romantic,religious and transcendent. The main characters in these two novels are Romeo and Juliet and Cathy and Heathcliffe.Cathy and Juliet’s lives are similar by how their lives rely around their lovers. Both of which also have their own personal obstacles to overcome, for example Juliet does not want to jeopardise her reputation and Heathcliff has to put aside the hatred he has towards them. Both stories display forbidden love by how Romeo and Juliet’s families are involved in a family feud and they are betraying them by falling love with one another, how Cathy is married to Edgar and sneaks around to visit Heathcliff behind Edgar's back is also portraying this idea of forbidden love and secrecy. Cathy describes her love for Heathcliff like the “sea” and that her love for Edgar is like a “horse trough” this suggests her love for Heathcliff is ever going and dangerous/unpredictable whereas her love for Edgar is confined and motionless unless prompted. It is evident that Cathy’s true love is Heathcliff...
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...Laurence plays a huge role in the story to come. He is Romeo's mentor and confidante. His soliloquy gives us better insight to his character and we get to know just what kind of person the Friar is. We learn that Friar meant well but nonetheless he created many disasters which could have been avoided. Romeo trusts the Friar because the Friar is Romeo’s mentor and confidant. He tells him almost everything including his love for Juliet. The Friar wants nothing more than then for rivalry between the Capulet and the Montague families to end so he agrees to marry Romeo and Juliet as he feels that the feud will end once the two families are united. Sadly however, he does it in such a secret manner that it caused more harm than good. He talks about the healing power of herbs but also how poisonous those same herbs could be. The soliloquy foreshadows and acts as an omen for the tragic events to come. The earth and all its creatures have a lot of good qualities and uses but if they are used inappropriately then the outcomes could be unwanted or even dangerous. That is why the same plant or herb that is used to heal could also kill if not used correctly. The Friar is also comparing the plants to humans saying that we can be both good and bad. When we read the following lines that the Friar Lawrence says, “The gray-eyed morn smiles on the frowning night,/Check’ring the eastern clouds with streaks of light,/And fleckled darkness like a drunkard reels/From forth day’s path and...
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...Translator’s Coming of Age by Omaya Ibrahim Khalifa Through studying the three translations of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet done by Mohammed Enani in 1965, 1986 and 1993 respectively, this study adopts a diachronic approach. In addition to examining the historical dimension, this study attempts to address itself to crucial questions related to the process of translating a literary text. A few of these are: how a translator can approach a given text in three different ways and how each translation changes according to the approach and the methods chosen by the translator. More importantly, the study proposes to discuss the pragmatic conditions governing the act of translation and how far these result in prominent modifications in the relationship between the source and target texts. The first part of this study discusses the problem or problems which confront a translator attempting to transpose Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet into Arabic, and the second analyses the three translations and how each deals with the problems discussed. Mohammed Enani, in his introduction to his third translation of Romeo and Juliet, singles out tone as the main difficulty that faces any translator attempting a rendering of the play. In the Elizabethan era romance was regarded as a subject for comedy and as such allowed playful treatment. Harry Levin explains that Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet was an innovation at the time. He reveals the effect of the play on contemporary audiences as follows:...
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...Shakespeare’s Sonnets: Form: 14 lines, each with ten stressed and unstressed syllables known as iambic pentameter (rhythm of the heartbeat) Genre: Lyric poetry – Lyric poetry presents the deep feelings and emotions of the poet as opposed to poetry that tells a story or presents a witty observation. Rhyme: ABAB CDCD EFEF GG Rhymes may be ear-rhymes or eye-rhymes: an ear-rhyme is one that rhymes in sound, e.g. “increase” and “decrease”; an eye-rhyme is one that rhymes by sight, e.g. “compare” and “are”. Structure: This rhyme sequence sets the usual structure of the sonnet as three quatrains (sets of four lines) concluding with 1 couplet (a pair of lines). It is usual for there to be a pause for thought in the sonnet’s message at the end of each quatrain, especially the 2nd, in order to add tension, with the sonnet resolving to its objective in the final couplet, just as a song normally resolves to its root chord at its close. To convey the sense of resolution and completeness at the end of the sonnet there are often key-words, or tie-words, present in the closing couplet that are also present in the earlier quatrains. This structuring provides a framework on which to build the words, phrases, themes, rhymes, syncopation, punctuation and rhythm of the sonnet making it, at its best, a self-contained work of art. Having established this structure though, the author can then go on to breach the framework to add tension and meaning: a quatrain will not necessarily comprise...
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...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...
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