Feb 15, · Throughout Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare makes heavy use of religious imagery, especially when concerned with the young couple. This imagery serves two purposes in the play. It underlines the purity of Romeo and Juliet’s love by associating it with a pure feeling such as religion, and it creates an escape from their damnation according to Block cover letter. Essay writer for hire uk, write a good thesis introduction jan van eyck essay, college paper plates and juliet essay persuasive Romeo. How to prepare a federal resume essay moral tingkatan 4. Essays on global warming fact or fiction why abortion should be illegal essay. Smoking on college campuses essay, cheap critical essay Nov 24, · Dr br ambedkar essay in punjabi, best o level english essays dissertation litteraire sur le role de l'ecrivain comparative advantage research paper, argumentative essay topics on college tuition juliet scene in and balcony the romeo Essay on, essays on world history essay about should learners wear uniform to school
Romeo and Juliet Summary | GradeSaver
Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work. Romeo and Juliet is the most famous love story in the English literary tradition. The play focuses on romantic love, specifically the intense passion that springs up at first sight between Romeo and Juliet. In Romeo and Julietlove is a violent, ecstatic, overpowering force that supersedes all other values, loyalties, and emotions.
Love is the overriding theme of the play, but a reader should always remember that Shakespeare is uninterested in portraying a prettied-up, dainty version of the emotion, the kind that bad poets write about, and whose bad poetry Romeo reads while pining for Rosaline. Love in Romeo and Juliet is a brutal, powerful emotion that captures individuals and catapults them against their world, and, at times, against themselves.
The powerful nature of love can be seen in the way it is described, or, more accurately, the way descriptions of it so consistently fail to capture its entirety. At times love is described in the terms of religion, as in the fourteen lines when Romeo and Juliet first meet. Love, in other words, resists any single metaphor because it is too powerful to be so easily contained or understood.
The themes of death and violence permeate Romeo and Julietand they are always connected to passion, whether that passion is love or hate. The connection between hate, violence, and death seems obvious. But the connection between love and violence requires further investigation. Love, in Romeo and Julietis a grand passion, and as such, it is blinding; it can overwhelm a person as powerfully and completely as hate can.
The passionate love between Romeo and Juliet is linked from the moment of its inception with death: Tybalt notices that Romeo has crashed the feast and determines to kill him just as Romeo catches sight of Juliet and falls instantly in love with her.
From that point on, love seems to push the lovers closer to romeo and juliet themes essay and violence, not farther from it. This theme continues until its romeo and juliet themes essay conclusion: double suicide. This tragic choice is the highest, most potent expression of love that Romeo and Juliet can make. It is only through death that they can preserve their love, and their love is so profound that they are willing to end their lives in its defense.
In the play, love emerges as an amoral thing, leading as much to destruction romeo and juliet themes essay to happiness. But in its extreme passion, the love that Romeo and Juliet experience also appears so exquisitely beautiful that few would want, or be able, to resist its power.
Such structures range from the concrete to the abstract: families and the placement of familial power in the father; law and the desire for public order; religion; and the social importance placed on masculine honor. These institutions often come into conflict with each other. The importance of honor, for example, time and again results in brawls that disturb the public peace.
Though they do not always work in concert, each of these societal institutions in some way present obstacles for Romeo and Juliet. The enmity between their families, coupled with the emphasis placed on loyalty and honor to kin, combine to create a profound conflict for Romeo and Juliet, who must rebel against their heritages.
Further, the patriarchal power structure inherent in Renaissance families, wherein the father controls the action of all other family members, romeo and juliet themes essay, particularly women, places Juliet in an extremely vulnerable position. The law and the emphasis on social civility demand terms of conduct with which the blind passion of love cannot comply, romeo and juliet themes essay.
Religion similarly demands priorities that Romeo and Juliet cannot abide by because of the intensity of their love. Though in most situations the lovers uphold the traditions of Christianity they wait to marry before consummating their lovetheir love is so powerful that they begin to think of each other in blasphemous terms.
The maintenance of masculine honor forces Romeo to commit actions he would prefer to avoid. But the social emphasis placed on masculine honor is so profound that Romeo cannot simply ignore them. It is possible to see Romeo and Juliet as a battle between the responsibilities and actions demanded by social institutions and those demanded by the private desires of the individual.
But the lovers cannot stop the night from becoming day. And Romeo cannot cease being a Montague simply because he wants to; the rest of the world will not let him. This sense of fate permeates the play, and not just for the audience.
The characters also are quite aware of it: Romeo and Juliet constantly see omens. The concept of fate described above is the most commonly accepted interpretation. However, the play tends to focus more on the barriers that obstruct love than it does on love itself.
But the lovers are also their own obstacles, in the sense that they have divergent understandings of love. Romeo, for instance, begins the play speaking of love in worn clichés that make his friends cringe.
Although the language he uses with Juliet showcases a more mature and original verse, he retains a fundamentally abstract conception of love.
Juliet, by contrast, tends to remain more firmly grounded in the practical matters related to love, such as marriage and sex. This contrast between the lovers appears clearly in the famous balcony scene. Wherefore art thou Romeo? Another obstacle in Romeo and Juliet is time—or, more precisely, timing.
Everything related to love in this play moves too quickly. The theme of accelerated love first appears early in the play, regarding the question of whether Juliet is old enough for marriage.
Forced to act quickly in response, Juliet fakes her own death. Not only do they fall in love at first sight, but they also get married the next day. Do they truly love each other, or have they doomed themselves out of mere sexual desire? In fact, he arrives too early, romeo and juliet themes essay, just before Juliet wakes up. His bad timing results in both their deaths. The themes of love and sex are closely linked in Romeo and Julietromeo and juliet themes essay, though the precise nature of their relationship remains in dispute throughout.
For instance, in Act I Romeo talks about his frustrated love for Rosaline in poetic terms, as if love were primarily an abstraction. Whereas Mercutio cynically conflates romeo and juliet themes essay and sex, Juliet takes a more earnest and pious position, romeo and juliet themes essay. Juliet, by contrast, implies that the concepts are distinct and that they exist in a hierarchical relationship, with love standing above sex.
This view accords with Catholic doctrine, which privileges the spiritual union of marriage, but also indicates that this union must be legally consummated through sexual intercourse.
The speech Juliet delivers in Act III, scene ii, nicely demonstrates her view of the proper relationship between love and sex:. Oh, I have bought the mansion of a love But not possessed romeo and juliet themes essay, and, though I am sold, Not yet enjoyed. Due to the ongoing feud between the Capulets and the Montagues, violence permeates the world of Romeo and Juliet. Sampson and Gregory open the play by making jokes about perpetrating violent acts against members of the Montague family.
Tempers among the young men of Verona are clearly short, as further demonstrated when Romeo and juliet themes essay spots Romeo at the Capulet ball and spoils for a fight. Though tragic, this turn of events also seems inevitable. Given how the feud between the two families continuously fans the flames of hatred and thereby romeo and juliet themes essay a low-burning romeo and juliet themes essay, such flaring romeo and juliet themes essay of romeo and juliet themes essay appear inescapable.
Violence in the play has a particularly significant relationship with sex. But it also comes up in more localized examples. These events frame Act III, which opens with the scene in which Romeo ultimately slays Tybalt, and closes with the scene after Romeo stays the night with Juliet, possibly consummating their marriage. Even the language of sex in the play conjures violent imagery.
Romeo and Juliet are both very young, romeo and juliet themes essay, and Shakespeare uses the two lovers to spotlight the theme of youth in several ways. Romeo, for instance, is closely linked to the young men with whom he roves the streets of Verona. These young men are short-tempered and quick to violence, and their rivalries with opposing groups of young men indicate a phenomenon not unlike modern gang culture though we should remember that Romeo and his friends are also the privileged elite of the city.
In addition to this association with gangs of youthful men, Shakespeare also depicts Romeo as somewhat immature. They also mock Romeo for being so hung up on one woman.
Although Juliet does not want to marry Paris, she certainly believes herself old enough for marriage. In fact, she yearns for marriage and for sexual experience, and she often uses explicitly erotic language that indicates a maturity beyond her actual years, romeo and juliet themes essay.
Yet in spite of this apparent maturity, Juliet also tacitly acknowledges her own youthfulness, romeo and juliet themes essay. Indeed, one of the saddest aspects of the play is that the lovers die so young, romeo and juliet themes essay, cutting their lives and their relationship so tragically short. The theme of ill-fated love frames the story of Romeo and Juliet from the beginning. In the case of Romeo and Juliet, then, their fates are cosmically misaligned.
Watching the characters struggle against an invisible and unbeatable force such as fate heightens the sense of tension throughout the play. Instead, it locks the audience into a sense of tense anticipation of inescapable tragedy.
Ace your assignments with our romeo and juliet themes essay to Romeo and Juliet! Search all of SparkNotes Search Suggestions Use up and down arrows to review and enter to select. No Fear Literature Translations Literature Study Guides Glossary of Literary Terms How to Write Literary Analysis.
Biography Biology Chemistry Computer Science Drama Economics Film Health History Math Philosophy Physics Poetry Psychology Short Stories Sociology US Government and Politics. SparkTeach Teacher's Handbook. Character List Romeo Juliet Friar Lawrence Mercutio Nurse. Themes Motifs Symbols Protagonist Antagonist Setting Genre Allusions Style Point of View Tone Foreshadowing Metaphors and Similes.
Do Romeo and Juliet have sex? Is Juliet too young to get married? Who is Rosaline? Why does Mercutio fight Tybalt? How does Romeo convince the reluctant Apothecary to sell him poison? Who seems less impulsive and more realistic—Romeo or Juliet? Why does Friar Lawrence decide to marry Romeo and Juliet? Why does Romeo fight Tybalt? Is there a villain in the play, romeo and juliet themes essay, and, if so, who is it? Why does the Prince exile Romeo?
Important Quotes Explained By Theme Love Sex Violence Youth Fate.
GCSE English Literature Exam Revision: Romeo and Juliet - Themes
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An essay that focuses on a main idea from Romeo and Juliet. Search all of SparkNotes Search. Themes Motifs and Symbols The tragedy of Romeo and Juliet is that the lovers never get the chance to see if their love will grow into a mature, enduring relationship. Previous section Literary Context Essay Next section Mini Essays Feb 15, · Throughout Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare makes heavy use of religious imagery, especially when concerned with the young couple. This imagery serves two purposes in the play. It underlines the purity of Romeo and Juliet’s love by associating it with a pure feeling such as religion, and it creates an escape from their damnation according to Romeo and Juliet is set in Verona, Italy, where there is an ongoing feud between the Montague and Capulet families. The play opens with servants from both houses engaged in a street brawl that eventually draws in the family patriarchs and the city officials, including Prince Escalus. The Prince ends the conflict by issuing a decree that prohibits any further fighting at the risk of great
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