the play Romeo and Juliet

Several teams are represented in the play Romeo and Juliet. They involve the concepts of passion, death, a team of loss, and a team of women’s roles. All of these themes have been used to convey different meanings and to keep the plot flowing as planned. It is important to note that themes are at the heart of every games. It is thus used to express and communicate to the viewer the intended lesson. The motif also links the play to the other pieces and characters. This means that the artist remains focused on the subject.
Theme of Love
The theme of love has manifested itself in the play, Romeo, and Juliet. In the first scenes of the play, various kinds of loves are portrayed. There is sensual love which has been presented in the ribald jokes made by Samson Gregory in his comments to the Nurse. Mercutio as well portrays sexual jokes regarding Rosaline. Additionally, petty love is also portrayed especially in the lovesick Romeo. It is seen that Romeo is in love with various ideas of love and thus fancies that Rosaline is the person he longs to be with. He continually praises her beauty and even went as far as moaning about her not accepting his love (Sause 17). This makes Rosaline shed tears for his plight.

Mercutio together with Friar is also aware of the shallowness of Romeo’s feelings claiming to love Rosaline. Conventional love has been portrayed also in the play. This kind of love has been developed in the social arrangement of the planned marriage. Paris is seen to offer his rank so that she can get the beauty Juliet has. In this regards, he asks the Lord Capulet in a respectable manner to marry his daughter prior to meeting her professionally (Shakespeare and Miller 26). This implies that there are no emotions, but there exists proper social matching and convenience of both individuals.

With the three kinds of love portrayed, Romeo’s genuine as well as passionate love for Juliet was depicted to stand out prominently. When Romeo meets Juliet at the Capulets ball, his feeling for Rosaline vanishes completely. He, therefore, puts aside his sentimentality together with his artificiality. This depicts that true love completely takes over his mind and some becoming a driving force of his life (Shakespeare and Gill 92). His language as well changes drastically and became pure and simple portraying the language of a heart in love.

It can be denoted from the film as well that true love has got no limits. Romeo and Juliet choose to ignore the barriers which exist between their families. They thus defy their parental authorities. Love finds a way of consummating a marriage despite the fact that Romeo is in exile and there are a lot of dangers involved in staying in Verona for that night. He decided to come up with a strategy to protect Juliet from marrying Paris (Grosz and Wendler 20). In doing this, he finds a way through death so they can be united with Juliet eternally. This portrays that both Romeo and Juliet becomes immortal courtesy of passionate love.

Theme of Death

Another theme which has been portrayed in the play is the tragic consequences leading to various deaths. The opening scene in the play coherently depicts a disorder in which Verona is depicted to be presenting the quarrel with the servants who are seen to belong to the opposing house of the Montague together with those of Capulets (Sause 21). Prince Escalus as well being the guardian of the piece is depicted to threaten death for anyone who decides to continue the strife. However, his word falls on deaf years as nobody listens to him. In Act II Scene I, it is seen that a quarrel erupts between Mercutio and Tybalt and then between Tybalt and Romeo. This conflict leads to the death of both Mercutio and Tybalt. Moreover, in the final scene, it is seen another fight existing between Romeo and Paris which lead to the death of Paris.

In addition, Romeo and Juliet become the sacrifice of enmity which exists between the two families. Despite being deeply in love, both of them do not admit their feelings for each other openly. This is because Juliet is a Capulet while Romeo is a Montague. This makes them to marry each other in secret and tell no one outside of Friar Lawrence. When the Capulet forces come to hear of what had happened, they decided to take a potion which will put a trance rather than betray Romeo. However, Romeo understands her very well, so he chose to kill himself. In turn, seeing what has happened to his love, Juliet also kills herself. In this regards, it can be denoted that the two deaths were caused directly by the civil disorder which existed between the Capulets and Montagues (Leveaux, et al. 73). This further depicts that if Romeo and Juliet had professed their loves openly, they would not have ended up becoming tragic heroes.

Theme of Sexuality & Role of Women

Another theme manifested in the Play Romeo, and Juliet is sexuality and the role of women. Since the story of Romeo and Juliet mainly revolve around the two-star lovers whose families have inseparable differences, they decided to love themselves despite that fact. The other female characters in the play have been portrayed in various ways which represent how the roles of women have been shown and according to different times.

The female character depicted to represent the old medieval vision of women is the Lady Capulet and Lady Montague. Both these characters are shown to almost non-existent. The Lady Montague is seen to be trying to stop the Old Montague from fighting in act I while Lady Capulet, on the other hand, has few lines when Tybalt dies. With these facts, it can be denoted that the women have been used to hold the old vision of the women which shows that they are weaker and also inferior when compared to the men in the play. The women are additionally considered as objects which belong to the mean rather than a person (Lehman 61).

Consequently, the play Romeo and Juliet portrays women being governed by the rules of the society, and their roles are also subservient so that they make members of their family. This is portrayed when the Old Capulet arranges the marriage for her daughter Juliet to Paris. Juliet must accept such arrangement since the rules of the society demand so. This further portrays that women in the society are perceived to be meaningless and should only follow the orders given by men. It is portrayed in scene I that the vision of Mercutio together with his friends have women whose objectives is to satisfy the sexual desires of the men (Bloom and Marson 54).

The play as well depicts a transition between the old and the new world. This is represented by the Nurse at the start of the play. It is seen that the Nurse is trying his best to help Juliet to be in constant contact with her love Romeo. It can thus be noted that the person responsible for keeping communication in place between Romeo and Juliet is the nurse. However, it can be noted that when Romeo kills Tybalt, there is a representation of an old vision that Juliet accepts the will of her father to marry Paris. This as well is seen to fulfill the will and the role of Elizabeth women.

Notably, Juliet as well is used to representing the new world. This is because she is in most cases the leading character. At the beginning of the play, she is depicted as just a girl then grows up to adolescents where she meets Romeo. At the time of her death, she is a woman. Juliet follows her own rules and pursues her desires despite the pressure which is in her family to marry Paris. She decided to go against the will of her family and take her own decisions. This tells us that women as well have been used to show that anybody can make a change which they desire to see in their lives (Packer 37).

Prologue Summary

The prologue to the play Romeo and Juliet are represented in a fourteen line sonnet. The chorus is used to describe the two households which are noble in the Verona city. The houses contained an ancient grudge against each other and thus have remained the major cause of violence and blood conflicts. The chorus describes these houses as the star crossed in which the lovers appear. These lovers in this regards will mend their quarrels which exist between their families. Such story of the two lovers’s together with that of the terrible strife between their families is the major theme in the play (Romeo & Juliet: the Tragic Lovers 69).

The prologue has been used to introduce Verona of Romeo and Juliet that it can be obscure and deeper. The prologue does not simply set the view of Romeo and Juliet since it informs the audience of the activities taking place. The prologue further refers to an ill fated couple with the use of the word star crossed which in essence shows that the situations are the stars. However, the prologue itself comes up with a sense of fate through the provision of the knowledge of Romeo and Juliet for the audience (Romeo and Juliet: Live from Shakespeare’s Globe 56). In this regards, the audience is thus enticed to watch the play with expectations that it must fulfill the prologue sets.

Character Analysis

Romeo

Romeo is the son and Heir to Montague and Lady Montague. He lives in the middle of violence feud which exists between his family and the Capulet’s family. However, Romeo is not interested in violence but only in love. She loves Rosaline at first, but at the time he sees Juliet, the feelings for Rosaline died instantly and loved Juliet. Due to the conflicts which exist between the two families, Romeo marries Juliet secretly (McDonald, et al. 39).

Juliet

Juliet is the Daughter of Capulet. Since she is from an aristocratic family, she lacks the freedom to roam around. However, she shows an amazing courage to trust Romeo with her entire life in loving him. She even goes as far as not wanting to believe the reports that Romeo has indulged himself in fights with her cousin. Juliet’s close friend Nurse helps her to communicate with Romeo constantly (McDonald, et al. 41).

Friar Lawrence & Mercutio

He is the friend to both Romeo and Juliet. He is kind and civic minded, and he is always ready with a plan. He went ahead and secretly marries the impassionate lovers with the hope that their union will lead to peace manifestation in Verona. Further, being a Catholic man, Lawrence is a known expert in using mystical portions and herbs. Mercutio as well is the Kinsman to the Prince and a close friend to Romeo. He is one of the most extraordinary characters since he is overflowed with imaginations and wit at times. He loves wordplay mainly the doable sexual entendre. Notably, he can be quite hotheaded and hates the individuals who are affected and obsessed with the latest fashions. He finds that Romeo romanticized the ideas pertaining to love tiresome while he tried to convince Romeo to view love as a simple matter especially to sexual appetite.

The Nurse

She is the woman who has taken great care of Juliet since she was young. She breast fed Juliet and ensure that she is well gathered for. The nurse is a sentimental character and provides comic relief with her constant inappropriate utterances. However, when the disagreement nears the end, Nurse proofs to be a faithful confidante as well as a loyal intermediary between Romeo and Juliet. Consequently, she provides a contrast with Juliet with the view of love as a sexual while Juliet views it as idealistic and moreover intense (Romeo and Juliet: Minor Characters 92). The nurse thus believes in love and therefore wants Juliet to have a husband who is nice looking and well behaved.

Tybalt & Paris

Tybalt is a Capulets, cousin on the side of her mother. He is vain and fashionable and supremely aware of the courtesy and the lack of such. He thus becomes aggressive and violent and very quick to draw his sword whenever he feels his pride is being compromised with by anybody. Once the sword is drawn, something which has to be feared happens; he in most cases loathes the Montagues. Paris is a kinsman to the prince as well as a suitor to Juliet whom he is preferred by the Capulet. Once he was promised that he would marry Juliet, he began behaving in a presumptuous ways towards Juliet and acting as if he is married already (Romeo and Juliet: Minor Characters 97).

Capulet

Capulet is a patriarch of the Capulet family. He is the father of Juliet and a husband to Lady Capulet. He is the enemy of the Montague family for reasons best known to him. He loves Juliet so dearly and therefore he is not acquainted with the thought and feelings of Juliet. He thinks that he can make decisions for Juliet especially pertaining who to marry. He thus went ahead and saw that Paris is the best match. He in most cases commands respect and propriety and able to fly into rages when such commands are lacking.

Lady Capulet

She is Juliet’s mother and Capulet’s wife. She was married at a younger age and gave birth to Juliet when she was just fourteen years old. This is the reason why she is very eager to see her daughter get married to Paris. In essence, she is an ineffectual mother and mainly relies on the nurse for both moral and pragmatic support.

Why the book has a Tragic End of Romeo and Juliet

The play ends tragically. The tragedy is best known as a situation where the protagonist fails to achieve his objectives, and the play comes to an end. However, if the protagonist is successful, then it can be depicted that the play has had a happy ending. From this play, we can certainly affirm that Rome and Juliet did not have a happy ending since they did not live to enjoy their love (Shakespeare 62).

Romeo and Juliet’s ends are considered to have ended tragically for a number of reasons. This includes the facts that the stories have a tragic hero who in this regards is Romeo. He is being considered to be a tragic hero since he is the protagonist and is faced with the difficult conflict which he has to do everything to overcome it. He, first of all, feels in love with Juliet who is the daughter of the enemy of their family. He as well went ahead and killed his cousin. His judgments also lead to his own death.

Additionally, the tragic ending as well is as a result of the bad decision which the character makes. It is worth noting that even the small role of the apothecary has a very great impact on one’s outcome. If for instance, he had decided to say not the Romeo, then the deaths of Romeo and Juliet would have indubitably been avoided. This implies that the characters can be very responsible for their own misfortunes. In is coherent that the decisions made by Romeo and Juliet lead to their self-destructions (Shakespeare and Levenson 65).

How tragedy from Romeo and Juliet differ from most of the tragedies

The tragedy as depicted in Romeo and Juliet differ with other Shakespeare’s works in various ways. In the play of Hamlet, it can be denoted that the tragedies in both plays have differences. In Hamlet, the father of hamlet is murdered by his uncle while his mother chooses to marry a criminal. This makes hamlet take revenge on any one who murdered his father. In Othello as well, his tragedy occurred due to his soliloquies which make it poetical rather than being realistic. This depicts further that the father of Ophelia dies due to a conspiracy of hamlet and Claudia. In the play of Romeo and Juliet, tragedy occurs due to the rushing in the activities which becomes rapidly tumultuous. This implies that the emotional stress had taken over the lovers Romeo and Juliet and the stress became so intense to a level which they decided that their actions could not be prolonged (Costello 42). This is unique in a way since in the other plays by William Shakespeare; the tragedies are caused by other people, actions while in the play Romeo and Juliet, the tragedy is caused by the individuals themselves due to love they have for each other.

Works Cited

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