ROMEO AND JULIET

ROMEO AND JULIET

PLOT: The Montagues and the Capulets are two families in conflict. During a ball Romeo, the son of Lord Montagues, falls in love with Juliet, the daughter of Lord Capulet. With the help of a Friar they marry secretly the next day, but Romeo is banished to Mantua, for having killed Juliet's cousin in revenge of the murder of his friends. Meanwhile Juliet, in order to not marry a Count as her father wants, helped by the Friar decides to drink a potion which will give her the appearance of being bead for 42 hours in this way she could go away with Romeo; but Friar's message doesn't rich Romeo in time, so he seeing Juliet dead, decides to kill himself. When Juliet awakes, she finds her beloved dead and kills herself.

FEATURES:

1-this is Shakespeare's romantic tragedy, which has become the archetype of adolescent love

2-this love ends with the death of the beloveds: infect there are many obstacles placed in their path

3- the play explores the matter of love in its many forms:

- Juliet's father: contract between 2 families

- Juliet's nurse: something physical

- Count Paris: a fusion of decorum and correct behaviour

- Romeo and Juliet. Pure and absolute love

4- the tragedy of the play is linked to the classical idea of destiny

5- we can consider the play as a modern tragedy because Shakespeare inserts the idea of free will to his characters

6- Shakespeare gives a lot of importance to the power of apparence and illusion

LANGUAGES AND STYLE:

"Romeo and Juliet" plays with the audience's expectations. It's important to note that Juliet's is known by the audience, who can only watch the illusion and the wrong choises of Romeo. The most poetic scene is the Romeo's initial speech in the famous balcon: in this speech he describes and compairs his beloved using some conventions of courtly love and Neoplatonism. The verse used in this play is the blank verse= not rhymed jambic pentameter.