William Shakespeares Romeo and Juliet is a play, which is based on tragic romance Essay Example For Students

William Shakespeares Romeo and Juliet is a play, which is based on tragic romance Essay William Shakespeares Romeo and Juliet is a play, which is based on tragic romance. The play is about two households (Montague and Capulet) who both despise each other; these two households have had a grudge from each other from ages ago and it still exists. Romeo from the Montague and Juliet from the Capulets both fall in love, but this love creates even more chaos for both families. This love creates many deaths including the lives of the pair of star-crossed lovers, but this brings the two families closer. Although it is a play about love, there are many scenes that certainly contain violence and conflict. The play opens with a fight and ends with the tragic death. In this essay I will discuss the historical background of Shakespeare, and the three violent scenes in Romeo and Juliet (act1, scene1 and act3, scene1 and act3, scene5). Romeo and Juliet was written by William Shakespeare and first performed in the globe theatre. It is set in the sixteenth century. Elizabeth I was ruling at the time. She loved the theatres. People in the sixteenth century were fond of any sort of entertainment. They liked watching bear bating, cock fighting and executions. It was important for Shakespeare to make his plays as exciting as possible, because the puritans (strict Christians) closed the globe theatre down, because they thought it was sinful, they would call the theatre the school of Satan. So poor people had to travel to another town to see any plays, so if the plays werent exciting then they would waste money and wont go and see the other plays. Shakespeare mocked rich and higher classed people, as this was the sort of theme poor people liked, so Romeo and Juliet would also be a good play to them as they also liked higher class feuds and there is a lot of violence in Romeo and Juliet concerning higher class people. Although Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy, the opening scene is full of humour; Sampson and Gregory are joking with each other by teasing. They do this by using puns. This is when one word can have two meanings it is ambiguous. Sampson and Gregory use puns to humour themselves. No, for then we should be colliers.(Gregory) And we be in choler (Sampson). The puns are the two underlined words. They sound the same but have different meanings. Often on stage puns become increasingly rude and vulgar, it wouldve also lead to violence. In the opening scene the readers see Sampson stirring a fight, well draw and Gregory making violent cocky, Ay while you live, draw your neck out of collar. Sampsons quote means draw your sword and Gregory s quote means take your neck out of your collar (as he I s calling him a coward.) Humour violence is achieved through puns but the violence between the two households (Capulet and Montague) is gained by the use of repetition. Repetitive language creates an atmosphere in this case it causes a violent atmosphere, Do you bite your thumb at us sir? I do bite my thumb sir, do you bite your thumb at us sir? I do not bite my thumb at you sir, but I bite my thumb sir, This quote gives readers the impression that something bad is going to stir up, because it feels like they are quarrelling. Benvolio arrives at the scene to calm things down and with the help of Tybalt they couldve accomplished that but Tybalt hates peace and starts fighting, what drawn and talk of peace? I hate the word, as I hate hell, all Montagues and thee: have at thee coward. The prince in the play is also violent but he is violent to stop people from getting killed or injured. The prince in the play is prepared to take the lives of the households to stop the feud, if ever you disturb our streets again; your lives shall pay the forfeit of the peace this means that if there is another public fight between the two households, then one of their lives shall be taken to make peace. Other than repetitive language Shakespeare uses oxymorons in this scene (where opposite words are put in a sentence). He uses oxymorons for Romeos conflict with his past girlfriend Roselin, Romeo was meant to make love to her but she refused and ended up with both of them splitting up. Romeo comes back and is confused about what he says, should without eyes, see pathways to his will heres much to do with hate, but more with love; o brawling love, feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health this love feel I, that feel no love in this. this quote shows us that he is very distressed and confused because he is saying what he feels inside using oxymorons, because you cant have cold fire or feather of lead, so this gives the readers the impression that he is mixed up and confused. The three words EssayBoy this shal not excuse the injuries that thou hast done me, therefore turn and draw, which means that Romeo can not excuse for what he has done to him, so he must turn around and fight. This was after Romeo tells him that he has to love him, because they are now cousins, because they have just eloped. This also tells us hat he is now crazy and still wants to kill. Act3, scene1, just shows how he maintains the violence. In act 3, scene 5 the readers see that problems have occurred to Juliet, because her husband Romeo has now been banished from Verona to Mantua, because he is wanted for the death of Tybalt her cousin and her parents lord and lady Capulet want her to marry Paris (a wealthy, good looking character who is at the party in act 1, scene 2), but she refuses. We see this problem solved through violence. When lady Capulet tells Juliet that she has to marry Paris on Thursday, marry my child, early next Thursday morn, she then refuses, I will not marry yet lord Capulet then enters thinking that she has said yes, but then gets the impression that she has said no by lady Capulet commenting, I would the fool marry to her grave, which means I wish she were dead. Here they should offer help and support, but they straight away go to hate, doth she not count her blest unworthy as she is, here lord Capulet is saying doesnt she thank me for blessing her Paris she is unworthy. The audience can see that there is hate where love should be. The audience then see that Juliet is then verbally abused and forced into marriage with Paris; readers see this through the violent verbal outburst of lord Capulet, green sickness carrion out you baggage, which means in a nasty way you repulsive rotting dead flesh out you heavy load. As Capulet says, sickness, in that quote I makes the audience feel as if he is spitting while talking, another quote for this point is, hang thee young baggage, disobedient wretch, I tell thee what, get thee to church on Thursday, or never after look me in the face. So he has now made the decision for her, if she doesnt come to church on Thursday then she cannot be a part of his family ever again Before he leaves he uses a wide range of violent language, hang, beg, starve, die in the streets, here lord Capulet makes it look like he is just about to throw her out, but if she doesnt arrive then this quote simply means that she wont be part of his family and if she is starving, dying or even being hung on the streets, he wouldnt careless. In conclusion to this Shakespeare introduces violence and conflict in many ways. He introduces it by using different types of language. He uses puns- which are two words which sound the same but have two different meanings, repetition- using the same words more than twice, and oxymorons- words that are the opposites put next to each other, i.e. cold fire these types of language help the reader to imagine how it is to be in the characters position, like Romeo and his conflict. When he uses oxymorons it straight away makes the reader feel confused the way Romeo is feeling in the book. The language that Shakespeare uses makes the audience and the reader find the violence physical, emotional and verbal, the reason for this play being a tragic romance.