...Miscommunication In The Tragedy of Romeo And Juliet And How It Causes Tragedy In life, there is one primary reason why bad things happen, and that reason is lack of communication between people. As Joseph Fink puts it, “…miscommunication leads to everything that has ever happened in the whole of the world.”. Essentially, any time there is something left unsaid or a lie is told, more and more events result from it, leading to a tragedy. This is evident in The Tragedy of Romeo And Juliet. It may be better known as a love story, but the true tale is that of two teen’s demise due to misconceptions that are perpetrated by themselves and their confidants. These miscommunications occur due to the generation gap, masculine peer pressure, and fate....
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...There are many themes in Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet; the most important themes are love, death and grief. These themes are displayed in the play in a number of scenes and incidents. Romeo and Juliet is the most famous and oldest recorded love story in the English literary tradition. Love is naturally the play’s dominant and most important theme this play may be over 400 years old but, is still relevant today due to popular and common themes in modern times. Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet is about two teenagers who fall in love at first sight, but is forbidden and unrequited because the two families (Capulet and Montague) are feuding. The lack of communication between the two in this play leads to both of the lovers taking their own lives so they can be eternally together. Love is unsurprisingly the play’s most overriding and most significant theme. The love that Shakespeare ultimately portrays in the play is a youthful lust that the kind of love that Romeo and Juliet display leads the star crossed lovers to enact a selfish isolation from their parent’s demands and expectations around them. Romeo and Juliet avoid their commitments to anyone else and choose to act selflessly only towards one another. Romeo and Juliet’s youthful lust is one of many reasons why their relationship grows so intense so quickly. Throughout the play, Shakespeare only describes Romeo and Juliet's love as a short-term burst of youthful passion. In most of his work, considering that no other relationships...
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...Friar Lawrence Friar Laurence is presented as a holy man who is trusted and respected by the other characters. The Friar's role as the friend and advisor to Romeo and Juliet highlights the conflict between parents and their children within the play. The centrality of the Friar's role suggests a notable failure of parental love. Romeo and Juliet can't tell their parents of their love because of the quarrel between the two families. In their isolation, Romeo and Juliet turn to the Friar who can offer neutral advice. At first, the Friar can't believe how quickly Romeo has abandoned Rosaline and fallen in love with Juliet, so he reminds Romeo of the suddenness of his decisions. The Friar uses the formal language of rhyme and proverbs to stress the need for caution to Romeo. However, he agrees to marry Romeo and Juliet in the hope that their marriage will heal the rift between the Montagues and the Capulets. His decision to marry the lovers is well-meaning but indicates that he has been naive in his assessment of the feud and hasn't reflected on the implications of Romeo and Juliet's clandestine marriage. The conflict between youth and old age also manifests itself in the Friar's relationship with Romeo and Juliet. When Friar Laurence tries to soothe Romeo's grief at the news of his banishment with rational argument, Romeo quickly responds that if the Friar were young and in love, he wouldn't accept such advice any better. The Friar's knowledge of plants — especially their...
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...Though Romeo and Juliet is arguably the most stereotypical love story in the English language, it portrays with a specific kind of love: young, irrational, passionate love. In this play Shakespeare ultimately suggests that, that type of love that Romeo and Juliet feel leads lovers to act out in a selfish isolation from the world around them. The two lovers anticipate officializing their marriage, but it does not define their love. Instead, their young lust is one of the main reasons why their relationship grows so intense so fast. But through all of their love and intense lust their families were still in the dark about the two of them being together and still budding heads even turn they take. Love versus hate and the many forms love takes; its power to challenge hate; the assurance of young love; the irrationality of hate and its capacity to destroy. The tragedy in Romeo and Juliet is that the two lover struggle with the fact that their families have been in a century-long feud. Like different tragedies, which ends in fatality, this play end is the death of the "star-crossed lovers." Throughout the play it creates strong feelings, or moods. In Act Five, Scene Three of Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare uses imagery, symbolism, and irony to create such a tragic mood....
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...melancholy and depressed by his passions, Romeo is now revitalised, buoyed by a renewed romantic energy after seeing Juliet at her balcony. Thoughts of his impending marriage have enlivened him to meet all of Mercutio's barbed, verbal challenges with equally gilded retorts. An air of excited anticipation energizes the atmosphere. Mercutio continues to ridicule Romeo as a Petrarchan lover for employing the popular love poetry of the sonnets. However, his speech is ironic because he still believes that Romeo is in love with Rosaline, and he never discovers Romeo's love for Juliet. These rapid, highly energized exchanges between the two friends reflect Romeo's own feelings of anticipation at his forthcoming wedding. Mercutio, who has little patience for the emotional aspects of romantic pursuit, is delighted that Romeo has gotten over his lovesickness. Mercutio impishly engages in lewd wordplay and is preoccupied with the physical aspects of love. When Benvolio declares a truce in the talk between the two friends, Mercutio turns his verbal rapier on the Nurse, flustering her to distraction. This mischievous repartee contrasts with the darkly ominous threats of Tybalt's challenge to duel Romeo. As in other parts of the play, vastly contrasting ideas coexist — love and hate; euphoria and despair; good and evil; levity and danger. The news of Tybalt's challenge threatens to embroil Romeo in the violence of the family feud. While Romeo is well-liked in the community and has a...
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...A TEACHER’S GUIDE TO THE SIGNET CLASSIC EDITION OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE’S ROMEO AND JULIET By ARTHEA J.S. REED, PH.D. S E R I E S W. GEIGER ELLIS, ED.D., E D I T O R S : UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA, EMERITUS and ARTHEA J. S. REED, PH.D., UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA, RETIRED A Teacher’s Guide to the Signet Classic Edition of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet 2 INTRODUCTION William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is an excellent introduction to Shakespearean drama; teenagers can relate to its plot, characters, and themes. The play’s action is easily understood, the character’s motives are clear, and many of the themes are as current today as they were in Shakespeare’s time. Therefore, it can be read on a variety of levels, allowing all students to enjoy it. Less able readers can experience the swash-buckling action and investigate the themes of parent-child conflict, sexuality, friendship, and suicide. Because of the play’s accessibility to teenagers, able readers can view the play from a more literary perspective, examining the themes of hostility ad its effect on the innocent, the use of deception and its consequences, and the effects of faulty decision making. They can study how the characters function within the drama and how Shakespeare uses language to develop plot, characters, and themes. The most able students can develop skills involved in literary criticism by delving into the play’s comic and tragic elements and its classically...
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...Romeo and Juliet: Are the Parents to Blame? In every tragedy, it is a common goal to find out who or what is to blame for causing the event. This allows us as humans to punish the culprit or declare the event and accident. In the case of Romeo and Juliet, it is no different. There is a part of every reader who wants to know what happened to drive the star-crossed lovers to their death. Was it their parents or was it the naive teenagers? It was both. Both sides of the tragedy lacked communication with each other, seeing others points of view, and not putting in the effort to listen to each other. Throughout most of the drama, readers are exposed to the two opposing sides of a rooted family feud. The Capulets and Montagues want absolutely no relations between one another at all. This feeling of isolation from one another is...
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...The song commences by establishing the West and East side of America as a place, “Where we choose pride over character”( The Chainsmokers 1). This correlates with the way Shakespeare introduces the Montagues and Capulets as “ Two households, both alike in dignity” ( l. Prologue.7). Both, the beginning of the song and the prologue, introduce the audience to two conflicting groups that reside in the same area. This contributes to the underlying theme that if one is too fixated on their pride and not finding a solution, consequences are bitter. Furthermore, conveying that people are more fixated on the prospects of one’s pride rather than their morals. The song then continues with a very adverse outlook on society, stating, “ We’re united by our...
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...references the meaning of the story comes out in so many different ways creating a melody, thereby binding the music, and story together. Joyce uses the main character Gabriel to reveal to us the overall reoccurring theme, and how emotionally dead these characters are which leads up to Gabriel’s epiphany at the end of the story. With a title like “The Dead” we imagine that it is going to take place in some gloomy place, like a graveyard. However, to our surprise the story opens up to a Christmas party in which Mr. & Mrs. Conroy, Gabriel and Gretta, are invited to attend. We do not get the feeling of gloom or death, but more of a warm inviting environment. However, with the progression of the story the focus shifts towards the isolation and insecurities that Gabriel is exemplifying. We first see this taking place when he is questioning himself about his speech that he is planning on giving later on in the night. Gabriel is wondering whether or not to quote Robert Browning because he “fears they would be above the heads of his hearers.” (2174) He feels it better to quote “Shakespeare or from the Melodies would be better.” (2174) It seems relevant that we read this within the first pages of the story, because the Irish Melodies he mentions were “extremely popular in the late 19th and early 20th century.”(2174) These collections of songs by Thomas Moore included one called “O Ye Dead.” Even though Joyce does not mention Thomas Moore directly in...
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...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...
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...Tyler Ryan Professor Wheeler English 101 April 22, 2015 Catcher in the Rye Jerome David (J.D.) Salinger was born on New Year’s Day in the year 1919, in New York City, “the second and last child of Sol and Marie (Miriam) Jillich Salinger” (Alexander 1). As a young boy, Salinger was interested in theatre and dramatics. Growing up, he attended a public school on the Upper West Side in Manhattan. He was always a very quiet and polite young man. His parents, Sol and Marie, thought he would fit in perfectly in a private school – seeing how well-mannered that young Salinger was – they “enrolled him in McBurney School in Manhattan in 1932” (Alexander 2), but, just as one of his most famous characters, Holden Caufield, he did not fit in very well in the private school, struggling to keep his grades satisfactory. Concerned, Salinger’s parents sent him to Valley Forge Military Academy when he was just 15 years old. “There he was active in drama and singing clubs. He sometimes wrote fiction by flashlight under his blankets at night and contributed to the school’s magazine” (Alexander 3). Salinger graduated in June of 1936 from Valley Forge, and then went on to pursue a brief, but significant college career. He began his education at New York University, but quickly dropped out “to try performing as an entertainer on a Caribbean cruise ship” (Alexander 4). When he was 20 years old, he worked toward his college career once again. He enrolled in a class at Columbia University to learn...
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...the novel he lies countless times, one example is "If I'm on my way to buy a magazine, even, and somebody asks me where I'm going, I'm liable to say I'm going to the opera " (Salinger 16). This problem of his makes it very hard for him to be a dependable person even though dependability is highly valued in his own opinion.Holden lies for various reasons. At times, Holden feels depressed and lies to distract himself from thinking of his problems. When Holden feels awkward or embarrassed, he lies in order to get himself out of those situations. He often lies to other people to keep them from getting to know him.For example, when Holden was at the sandwich bar eating his breakfast, he noticed two nuns and starts talking to them about Romeo and Juliet. But when the nuns asked for a donation, he gives a ten dollar contribution.When asked, Holden lied and said he has "quite a bit of money". Even though Holden knows he is unable to make ends meet. With lying, he likes that he is able to make people believe that he possess a different...
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...Title: The Catcher in the Rye Author: J.D. Salinger Setting: Time: A long weekend in the late 1940s or early 1950s Place: Holden begins his story in Pennsylvania, at Pencey Prep. He then recounts his adventures in New York City. Themes: Alienation as a form of self-protection; the painfulness of growing up; the phoniness of the adult world Characters: • Holden Caulfield- he protagonist and narrator of the novel, Holden is a sixteen-year-old junior who has just been expelled for failing from Pencey Prep. Although he is intelligent and sensitive, Holden narrates in a cynical and jaded voice. He finds the hypocrisy and ugliness of the world around him almost unbearable, and he tries to protect himself from the pain and disappointment of the adult world. The criticisms that Holden aims at people around him are also aimed at himself. He is uncomfortable with his own weaknesses, and at times displays as much phoniness, meanness, and superficiality as anyone else in the book. • Ackley- Holden's next-door neighbor in his dorm at Pencey Prep. Ackley is a pimply, insecure boy; he often barges into Holden's room and is oblivious to Holden's hints that he should leave. • Stradlater- Holden's roommate at Pencey Prep. Stradlater is handsome, self-satisfied, and popular. • Jane Gallagher - A girl with whom Holden spent a lot of time one summer. Jane is extremely important to Holden, because she is one of the few girls whom he both respects and finds attractive. • Phoebe Caulfield...
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...Renaissance Literature December 10, 2012 Should Shakespeare be taught to Minority Students? Shakespeare is a staple in the English curriculum in American schools. Beginning in seventh or eighth grade, students are fed a steady diet of his tragedies, comedies, histories, and sometimes even the sonnets. Before Michael, Madonna or Prince, he was the one-name artist everyone could relate to globally. This wasn’t always the case. The branding of the name is not accidental. Even more than “William Shakespeare play-wright to American school students” the word Shakespeare, has become a trademark representing the culture and values of a nation. I approached this project with the firm belief that teaching Shakespeare to non-white students was harmful to their development. Shakespeare being taught to non-white students is a problem because they are being told that their culture isn’t enough. Is this a message we want to send after the last 40 years of minority groups demanding, and receiving, inclusion into society? Aren’t there any other works that could be substituted for the works of Shakespeare’s? Plenty of good candidates are published every year but they aren’t taken seriously. Why not? One reason is of course the name brand recognition of Shakespeare. He has had 500 years to gain a position in the public eye. Another reason is the many contributions that he has made to the English language. Many of the tried and true turn of phrases used today come from his characters...
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...Larkin has been regarded as one of the most pessimistic poets. Larkin surely takes a very dark view of human life. The main emphasis in his poems is on failure and frustration in human life. And then there is his preoccupation with death. In a number of poems he emphasizes the sombre and grim aspects of human life and in many poems he speaks of the cert of death. We are all aware of the facts of failure and frustration in human life and we are all aware of the faith of death. But what makes Larkin a pessimist, and a confirmed pessimist at that, is his repeated emphasis, and over-emphasis, on these aspects of human life. On explanation of his repeated reminders to us of the certain of death, he has been regarded as “a graveyard poet”; and the general and brooding atmosphere of melancholy and despondency in his poems justifies the label “pessimist” for him. A number of poems come to our minds in this connection. The poem Ambulances paints a gloomy picture of human life because of the fact that every street is visited by an ambulance at one time or the other. An ambulance is a symbol of disease and death. Dockery and Son contains the following pessimistic line: “Life is first boredom, then fear”. And this poem concludes with the pessimistic view that there is old age, and that the end of old age is death. Aubade is a poem in which Larkin’s fear of death reaches its climax. Larkin himself described it his “in-a-funk-about-death poem.” The Positive Features of His Pessimistic...
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