Romeo and Juliet was written in 1595 by William Shakespeare as a play. It is classed as a tragic play, therefore involves a protagonist that has a peak in his or her life involving good fortune, but then on after good fortune turns quickly into bad, ending up in sadness and misfortune for the ... Read review
Oxford School Shakespeare is an acclaimed edition especially designed for students, with ... more
accessible on-page notes and explanatory illustrations, clear background information, and rigorous but accessible scholarly credentials. This edition of Romeo and Juliet includes illustrations, preliminary notes, reading lists (including websites) and classroom notes. Romeo and Juliet is a set text for KS3 in England, and remains one of the most popular texts for study by secondary students the world over.
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This is undoubtedly the greatest love story ever written, spawning a host of imitators on ... more
stage and screen, including Leonard Bernstein's smash musical West Side Story, Franco Zeffirelli's Romeo and Juliet filmed in 1968, and Baz Luhrmann's postmodern film version Romeo + Juliet. The tragic feud between "Two households, both alike in dignity/In fair Verona", the Montagues and Capulets, which ultimately kills the two young "star-crossed lovers" and their "death-marked love" creates issues which have fascinated subsequent generations. The play deals with issues of intergenerational and familial conflict, as well as the power of language and the compelling relationship between sex and death, all of which makes it an incredibly modern play. It is also an early example of Shakespeare fusing poetry with dramatic action, as he moves from Romeo's lyrical account of Juliet--"she doth teach the torches to burn bright!" to the bustle and action of a 16th-century household (the play contains more scenes of ordinary working people than any of Shakespeare's other works). It also represents an experimental attempt to fuse comedy with tragedy. Up to the third act, the play proceeds along the lines of a classic romantic comedy. The turning point comes with the death of one of Shakespeare's finest early dramatic creations--Romeo's sexually ambivalent friend Mercutio, whose "plague o' both your houses" begins the play's descent into tragedy, "For never was a story of more woe/Than this of Juliet and her Romeo". --Jerry Brotton
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Romeo and Juliet was written in 1595 by William Shakespeare as a play. It is classed as a tragic play, therefore involves a protagonist that has a peak in his or her life involving good fortune, but then on after good fortune turns quickly into bad, ending up in sadness and misfortune for the protagonist. All tragedies follow the same pattern, only changing the peak point and the speed of good fortune going bad. When mentioned, Shakespeare is often ... ...the romance stand out more, Romeo and Juliet is a very famous piece of Shakespeare's work, but is often thought to be extremely romantic and 'lovey-dovey', however with a deeper look underneath the surface it involves a lot of sex, violence, back-stabbing and corruption and isn't so romantic. William Shakespeare is an extremely well known and established writer to this day, despite his death centuries ago. This statement just shows the skill of Shakespeare, ... more
Romeo and Juliet was written in 1595 by William Shakespeare as a play. It is classed as a tragic play, therefore involves a protagonist that has a peak in his or her life involving good fortune, but then on after good fortune turns quickly into bad, ending up in sadness and misfortune for the protagonist. All tragedies follow the same pattern, only changing the peak point and the speed of good fortune going bad. When mentioned, Shakespeare is often thought to be associated with romance and beautiful imagery, which in some cases is true, but this romance is a needle in a haystack amongst the violent, sexual, crude and malicious imagery. This is a trick that is used to make the romance stand out more, Romeo and Juliet is a very famous piece of Shakespeare's work, but is often thought to be extremely romantic and 'lovey-dovey', however with a deeper look underneath the surface it involves a lot of sex, violence, back-stabbing and corruption and isn't so romantic. William Shakespeare is an extremely well known and established writer to this day, despite his death centuries ago. This statement just shows the skill of Shakespeare, and also shows how good Romeo and Juliet is, therefore meaning that we still study it nowadays. In Shakespeare's time, writers stole each others ideas, adapting them to their own. Shakespeare may have just done this himself, but written it better, therefore receiving the great praise he still gets long past his death. At the time of Shakespeare, sonnets and particular rhyming patterns were extremely popular. Therefore Shakespeare has included some of these in Romeo and Juliet in quite clever ways actually. For example, upon the first meet, Romeo and Juliet perform a traditional sonnet, separating it between characters in a very clever way. This is just one example amongst others that spread out over all of Shakespeare's established works and productions.
From the very first scene in the very first act, it is clear the play will most probably include lots of violence and sex. Gregory and Sampson, the characters that start off the play are very crude and violent: 'Therefore I will push Montague's men from the wall, and thrust his maids to the wall.' In simple terms this means he intends to kill or injure the Montague men and rape the Montague women: clearly a lot of hate, crudeness, violence etc. but no love. Surely if Shakespeare wanted to make it blatantly obvious that the play was completely love orientated he would have started it with something much less sexual and violent? The first act in which Shakespeare could be said to be establishing himself, he chose to use violence and sex, which signals to me the rest of the play may have love in it from reputation, but more orientated around violence and sex. Gregory and Sampson also talk about 'maidens' and how they 'will cut of their heads'. This is another violent image shortly after the last, this one talking about stealing virginity as a maiden is a virgin and 'cutting of their head' would be taking their virginity. So basically to follow a sexually violent image... is another sexually violent image. So if u didn't already expect the play to involve lots of violence and sex, then you definitely should now. Shakespeare has cleverly made certain characters more crude and violent and others. He has done this because it accentuates the other characters, making the seem much better instead of just a little. This is a trick that Shakespeare seems to have used throughout the whole play and as the main theme also. The fact there is a large amount of hate, anger, violence and sex, when love actually does occur it appears stronger, sticking out amongst the bad, much like a rose on a compost heap for example. In many cases lewd characters are used just for humour, for example the maid. Juliet's nurse, the woman who breast-fed Juliet when she was a baby and has cared for Juliet her entire life. A vulgar, long-winded, and sentimental character, the Nurse provides comic relief with her frequently inappropriate remarks and speeches. But, until a disagreement near the play's end, the Nurse is Juliet's faithful confidante and loyal intermediary in Juliet's affair with Romeo. She provides a contrast with Juliet, given that her view of love is earthy and sexual, whereas Juliet is idealistic and intense. The Nurse believes in love and wants Juliet to have a nice-looking husband, but the idea that Juliet would want to sacrifice herself for love is incomprehensible to her. The audience knows that she is an innocent character and therefore does not find her crudeness offensive, but instead funny. Whereas in the case of the males like Gregory and Sampson, the audience (if following the play intently), will understand that these characters should be seen as a threat. Therefore Gregory and Sampson may not be found as funny as the maid due to the fact the audience may actually believe what they are saying.The first kind of love that Romeo experiences in the play is infatuation. Romeo is infatuated with Roseline, but Roseline will not love Romeo as “She that sworn that she will live chaste”, which means she is going to stay a virgin, as she is a nun. At this point in the play, Romeo is very depressed, love sick and moody. This soon ends when he goes to the Capulet party to see Roseline. This is where he first sees Juliet and immediately forgets all about Roseline. The love between Romeo and Juliet is the strongest love in the play. It is certainly true love. When they first meet at the party in the Capulet mansion Romeo exclaims”Oh she doth teach the torches to burn bright” He is overcome with Juliet’s beauty.
It is in the balcony scene that we first see that the love between Romeo and Juliet is mutual. After the balcony scene they can hardly bear to leave each other. Juliet says, “Parting is such sweet sorrow. That I shall say goodnight till it be morrow!” Romeo makes a huge sacrifice for Juliet when he allows himself to be beaten by Tybalt and tries to be friends with him. “I do protest I n ever injured thee but love thee better than thou canst desire”.
When Romeo kills Tybalt Juliet still sides with him and does not hold it against him. “Shall I speak ill of him that is my husband?” When Romeo is banished from Verona to Mantura for killing Tybalt he is devastated, he even thinks death would be no worse than banishment because he won’t get to be with Juliet.. “ Ha banishment? Be merciful, say death.”
Romeo does not go to Mantura until after he has spent the night with Juliet. In the morning Juliet is desperate for Romeo to stay with her. “It is not yet day, it was the nightingale and not the lark.” When Juliet finds out that she will be forced to marry Paris she is so desperate that she decides to fake her own death by taking poison to make her sleep. The plan goes wrong and Romeo does not realise that she is not really dead, he decides to commit suicide so he can be with her. “Well Juliet, I will lie with thee tonight”. When Juliet wakes to find him dead beside her she stabs herself with his dagger “O happy dagger! This is thy sheath: there rust and let me die”
In the end we know that it was true love as they were willing to die for each other.
Advantages: great story, strong characters, help and guidance Disadvantages: /
...would be starting with the Romeo and Juliet unit, I didn't know what to think. I had never actually watched it, shockingly, or had the chance to read it. I knew briefly what the play was about, but I wasn't aware of any in depth detail.
When we were handed out the books, I had a look at the cover for any clues. It was quite a dull, and basic colour, with a photo of a balcony on the front. Underneath the 'Romeo' and 'Juliet' were written in white, ... ...characters here, We learn that Romeo is quite fickle too, as he stops loving Rosaline, whom he announced he was in love with beforehand, ?Did my heart love till now?? The moment he lays eyes on Juliet when he and Mercutio sneak into the Capulets' party, he falls deeply in love with her. By the end of the act, he has discovered that she is a Capulet, and that the pair are divided by nothing more than a name.
Act Two allows Romeo to come to Juliet ...
Amy69 22.02.2009
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Romeo and Juliet - William Shakespeare
...than a great romance
Romeo and Juliet was written in 1595 by William Shakespeare as a play. It is classed as a tragic play, therefore involves a protagonist that has a peak in his or her life involving good fortune, but then on after good fortune turns quickly into bad, ending up in sadness and misfortune for the protagonist. All tragedies follow the same pattern, only changing the peak point and the speed of good fortune going bad. When mentioned, ... ...the romance stand out more, Romeo and Juliet is a very famous piece of Shakespeare's work, but is often thought to be extremely romantic and 'lovey-dovey', however with a deeper look underneath the surface it involves a lot of sex, violence, back-stabbing and corruption and isn't so romantic. William Shakespeare is an extremely well known and established writer to this day, despite his death centuries ago. This statement just shows the skill of Shakespeare, ...
Bowie_J 15.01.2008
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Romeo and Juliet - William Shakespeare
...make it so powerful since Romeo and Juliet’s love is the modern, Western love affair. It goes against the wishes of the feuding families but also against the routine of society. This means that Juliet is faced with many problems as she pursues her love affair with Romeo and from her first scene the amount of help she receives is unclear and cause for argument. Juliet first appears in Act One Scene three. She is an obedient and well brought up child, ... ...the help of the Nurse, Romeo and Juliet would have been prevented from continuing their relationship. Nurse therefore throughout the play acts as guidance for Juliet and her role means that Juliet has help whenever she requires it. Whether or not she uses it is up to herself.
The Friar Laurence also acts as helpful figure and again without his work the two lovers would be separated. It is he that Juliet runs to when she finds out the definite plans ...
beckymilar_4 02.11.2004
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Romeo and Juliet - William Shakespeare
Advantages: exiting and tragic Disadvantages: old dyalect can be hard to understand
...different kinds of love in Romeo and Juliet. Write as much as you can about the different view of love which Shakespeare gives us.
In the play there are examples of many different kinds of love. There is the romantic love between Romeo and Juliet. There is the rude love that Mercutio talks about and the bawdy, comical love that the nurse jokes about. There is the arranged love between Paris and Juliet. Romeo experienced love at first sight for Roseline, ... ...stronger and more caring between Romeo and his parents than it seems to be between Juliet and Lord and Lady Capulet.
Romeo’s parents Lord and Lady Montague care about Romeo very much. They worry about him and when he is lovesick over Roseline. His mother says to Benvolio “O where is Romeo? Saw you him today? Right glad I am he was not at this fray”.
Juliet’s parents Lord and Lady Capulet do not show that sort of concern. Juliet is mainly looked ...
weno_101 20.08.2000
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Romeo and Juliet - William Shakespeare
Advantages: If you don't know the story (sorry) it keeps you on edge. Disadvantages: Shakespearean language is hard to grip at first
...lives shall pay for it.
Romeo and Juliet meet at the Capulet ball, where Romeo has sneaked in with his cousin, Benvolio, and best mate, Mercutio. He and Juliet fall in love at first sight. Unfortunately, Juliet's cousin sees Romeo has sneaked in and vows to get revenge.
After this, Romeo and Juliet are married in secret.
Later that same day, Tybalt comes after Romeo and when Romeo won't fight, he slays Mercutio instead. Romeo is so angry and upset ... ...and sends a message to Romeo to warn him. Alas, this message never arrives, and Romeo is told Juliet is dead. He rushes back to Verona to see if the news is true and finds Juliet 'dead' in the vault. He can't live without his love, so he drinks some poison. Juliet wakes up and sees her man dead and so stabs herself.
Probably the most tragic of Shakespeare's tragedies, but I like it anyway because it's about being in love, which is nice. I don't ...
reh 10.09.2000
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Romeo and Juliet - William Shakespeare
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piece of music is also said to be in that particular composer’s style.
Other cases have involved Van Gogh and Shakespeare. A Mrs Dowdon claims to have channelled for Shakespeare other ‘great’ writers. Did you know that Shakespeare gets a lot of credit for other peoples’ work? Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, in fact, every single piece of work, was in fact a collaboration of work. They are all in fact the work of three authors, WilliamShakespeare, Francis Bacon and Lord Oxford. Lord Oxford (and Shakespeare) wrong the plays while Bacon acted as the script editor. Lord Oxford provided the lyrical and romantic passages and wrote the majority of the sonnets. So, there we go, you learn something new everyday! Whether you believe the Mrs Dowden is up to you though.
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