"The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet" by William Shakespeare,is one of the world's most famous love stories and tragedies. Although the first thing readers think of is love when you hear Romeo and Juliet is love, what makes the love so strong is the hatred and the love contrasted! Day by day reading this book gives readers more to think about as a writer so that I know more about how to make themes contrasting. Shakespeare as a writer uses the technique of contrast in order to make the love and hate themes more dramatic and extreme.
Love is a very important theme in Romeo and Juliet and plays a major role in the contrasts of the two main themes. When Romeo and Juliet are together the scene immediately comes to life and the focus goes directly to them. At the party scene when they first met the audiences attention went directly to their love and you knew that some sort of love gesture would take place. When the people that surround them like friends and family are against their love, it makes the consequences of their relationship more dramatic and intense. In the balcony scene,the first real scene showing their love apart from their first kiss has a lot of drama. "My name dear saint, is hateful to myself because it is an enemy to thee" (2.2.61). In this quote Romeo has snuck out into the night to see Juliet, when she asks who he is Romeo replies with that line. Juliet then knows that Romeo is a Montague. This then makes the scene more interesting because they now know that they are supposed to be enemies.It also makes the audience want to know what will happen between them during the rest of the scene. You can see althroughout the love scenes that hate is always shadowing anything they do. Hate and love are juxtaposed. All scenes between them are very strong though and we know that one of the main factors is love.
Hatred in the play is just as extreme and important as love is and is also a main theme in the play. All throughout the play fights brew mostly between the two houses the Montagues and the Capulets. Tybalt, one of the members of the Capulets, is telling his uncle at the party " Uncle this is a Montague our foe, a villain that is hither come in spite to scorn at our solemnity this night"(1.5.68). You can see that Tybalt obviously thinks of the Montagues as enemies and before says (1-5-62) "Fetch me my rapier boy" which means he intends to hurt or possibly kill on of the Montagues when he sees them at the party. Not only is there hatred between the families there is hatred between the characters selves. At the end both are upset with themselves for not being able to protect the other one. Juliet also has hatred for her parents In line (3-5-166) Capulet, Juliet's father is upset by her daughters disapproval to marry Paris, a family friend although Juliet does not love him. As you can see even though the hatred is strong(When Tybalt is angered)love is always their shadowing over (Love at first sight for Romeo and Juliet). Hatred is portrayed in many different and interesting ways.
Love and hate are completely different themes but put together make any circumstances more dramatic. With everyone against each other friendships are so close. One great friendship that involves some form of hatred is Romeo and Mercutio. Mercutio and Romeo will do any thing for eachother even if it means risking their own lives, which is exactly what happens. When Romeo attempts to beat down Tybalt and Mercutio's swords, Mercutio gets in front of Romeo. Tybalt stabs Mercutio instead of Romeo. Mercutiop getting in front of Romeo shows real friendship. Another important friendship in Romeo and Juliet is Juliet and the Nurse. I think this friendship is more like a mother daughter relationship. The nurse even weaned Juliet which is the mothers job, she is with her all the time and they take care of each other. I think this friendship is strong because in the lines (3-5-176) the Nurse stands up for Juliet when Capulet is screaing at Juliet of the marrige plans. The nurse says " God in heaven bless her, you are to blame my lord not to rate her so." The Nurse jumps in front of her and protects her. Even in times of hate, love can balance all.
In conclusion, I really think that that love and hate together make the story much more powerful when the two themes are contrasted in a scene. It always makes the story more extreme. I really liked reading the play "Romeo and Juliet" and hopefully will keep this idea in my mind for never was a story of deeper woe than this of Juliet and her Romeo.
No comments:
Post a Comment