Reflect on the world-creating and meaning-making that we have been exploring this week. Discuss the shape of the play and how the patterns and images change.
When thinking about Romeo and Juliet most believe the story simply centers around the romance of the two teens, though through this exercise we have uncovered more depth to the characters, plot and climate of the play. To begin, the patterns within the play express clear themes of the text. We talked in class about the way each act alternates between beginning with violence and love. Act one begins with violence and act five ends with violence. The love between the characters are all essentially ‘within’ the violence of these other acts, symbolising an idea of love being trapped or intertwined with conflict. The story centers around a hope of love overcoming all barriers, though with the ending mostly having to do with death, it seems as though Shakespeare is making a point of the cruel social structure within his society. The images of the beginning, middle and end of the play go along with this idea as well. The start of the play centers around the conflict and chaos within Verona. The Montagues and Capulets are the center focus and the feud’s impact on the city sets up the social construct of the play. All the characters are introduced and how they fit in the plot based on their economical or social standing defines their importance. The violence of the families is also set up in this part of the play. As the scenes go on, Shakespeare begins to zoom in on Romeo and Juliet’s love as well as their internal conflicts of family vs. love. The centralized aspect of the play circles around the ‘star crossed lovers. The teens maintain the ‘magical’ tone of the play almost allowing the audience to forget the two can never be together. This is quickly contrasted as the play reaches the end by the deaths of Tybalt, Mercutio and eventually Romeo and Juliet. This change in tone brings the characters and the audience back to reality as Romeo and Juliet face the consequences of their actions. For example, in the first balcony scene in the middle of the play Romeo and Juliet speak using kind and gentle words, their lines are also in rhyme showing a sense of purity. “O, speak again, bright angel, for thou art As glorious to this night, being o’er my head, As is a winged messenger of heaven” (2, 2, 26-29) This language is far different from the text in the ending where the words are harsh and fearful “Death, that hath sucked the honey of thy breath, Hath had no power yet upon thy beauty” (5,3,92) While in both of these lines Romeo is discussing Juliet’s beauty, the language is much sharper and even darker in it’s intent towards the end of the show. The word “sucked” to me holds a negative connotation different than the words “bright” and “glorious”. Obviously, the content of the chapters are different, though it still shows the contrast between the ideas of love and violence throughout the play.
This to me expresses an important aspect of Romeo and Juliet. As mentioned above the show tackles a theme of love overcoming all obstacles, though I don’t think this is the true intent of the patterns, character changes, and images of the show. What we talked about in class proves to me that Shakespeare wasn’t simply telling a story about love, but drawing inspiration from the injustices and cruelty he saw in his own community. I believe Shakespeare was drawing attention to unfortunate truth of his world. The depth we were able to draw from just simply the structure of the play validates an idea of strong intent in the text. The foreshadowing used and powerful character contrasts having to do with both power (Juliet and Lord Capulet) or gender (Paris and Juliet) justify the concept of the story mirroring Shakespeare’s perspective on love and society. I believe this is crucial in analyzing Romeo and Juliet as more than a romance but a story with a web of characters bridged by morals, conflict, violence and love.
When thinking about Romeo and Juliet most believe the story simply centers around the romance of the two teens, though through this exercise we have uncovered more depth to the characters, plot and climate of the play. To begin, the patterns within the play express clear themes of the text. We talked in class about the way each act alternates between beginning with violence and love. Act one begins with violence and act five ends with violence. The love between the characters are all essentially ‘within’ the violence of these other acts, symbolising an idea of love being trapped or intertwined with conflict. The story centers around a hope of love overcoming all barriers, though with the ending mostly having to do with death, it seems as though Shakespeare is making a point of the cruel social structure within his society. The images of the beginning, middle and end of the play go along with this idea as well. The start of the play centers around the conflict and chaos within Verona. The Montagues and Capulets are the center focus and the feud’s impact on the city sets up the social construct of the play. All the characters are introduced and how they fit in the plot based on their economical or social standing defines their importance. The violence of the families is also set up in this part of the play. As the scenes go on, Shakespeare begins to zoom in on Romeo and Juliet’s love as well as their internal conflicts of family vs. love. The centralized aspect of the play circles around the ‘star crossed lovers. The teens maintain the ‘magical’ tone of the play almost allowing the audience to forget the two can never be together. This is quickly contrasted as the play reaches the end by the deaths of Tybalt, Mercutio and eventually Romeo and Juliet. This change in tone brings the characters and the audience back to reality as Romeo and Juliet face the consequences of their actions. For example, in the first balcony scene in the middle of the play Romeo and Juliet speak using kind and gentle words, their lines are also in rhyme showing a sense of purity. “O, speak again, bright angel, for thou art As glorious to this night, being o’er my head, As is a winged messenger of heaven” (2, 2, 26-29) This language is far different from the text in the ending where the words are harsh and fearful “Death, that hath sucked the honey of thy breath, Hath had no power yet upon thy beauty” (5,3,92) While in both of these lines Romeo is discussing Juliet’s beauty, the language is much sharper and even darker in it’s intent towards the end of the show. The word “sucked” to me holds a negative connotation different than the words “bright” and “glorious”. Obviously, the content of the chapters are different, though it still shows the contrast between the ideas of love and violence throughout the play.
This to me expresses an important aspect of Romeo and Juliet. As mentioned above the show tackles a theme of love overcoming all obstacles, though I don’t think this is the true intent of the patterns, character changes, and images of the show. What we talked about in class proves to me that Shakespeare wasn’t simply telling a story about love, but drawing inspiration from the injustices and cruelty he saw in his own community. I believe Shakespeare was drawing attention to unfortunate truth of his world. The depth we were able to draw from just simply the structure of the play validates an idea of strong intent in the text. The foreshadowing used and powerful character contrasts having to do with both power (Juliet and Lord Capulet) or gender (Paris and Juliet) justify the concept of the story mirroring Shakespeare’s perspective on love and society. I believe this is crucial in analyzing Romeo and Juliet as more than a romance but a story with a web of characters bridged by morals, conflict, violence and love.
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