Romeo&Juliet

William Shakespeare 26 April 1564 - 23 April 1616 was an English poet, playwright, and actor,

widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist.

Shakespeare produced most of his known work between 1589 and 1613.His early plays were primarily comedies and histories, and these are regarded as some of the best work ever produced in these genres. 

Scenes

Quote

"Love is a smoke raised with the fume of sighs;Being purged, a fire sparkling in lovers’ eyes;Being vex’d a sea nourish’d with lovers’ tears:What is it else? a madness most discreet,A choking gall and a preserving sweet."-

William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet

Romeo and Juliet may arguably be one of William Shakespeare's most popular works. Like many of his plays, Shakespeare based the sad tale of two star-crossed lovers on the Greek tragedies.

In "Romeo and Juliet" there are some obvious truths concerning love offered by Shakespeare. First of all, through the main characters, Romeo and Juliet, youthful passion is explored. Both are unwilling to live without the other; however, on a deeper level, Shakespeare uses the lovers to explore love within families.

Both characters defy their parents and their feuding families to be together. Their death is possibly the only way the feuding of the Capulets and Montagues would cease. Perhaps, most importantly, youthful love, that of Romeo and Juliet, is passionate and reckless. I doubt if two people in their thirties or forties would wed within a day or two of meeting and then kill themselves if they thought they could not be together..but together in death.

Romeo compares Juliet to light throughout the play. Upon first sight of her, Romeo exclaims that she teaches "the torches to burn bright" (I.v.43). She is also "the sun" who can "kill the envious moon" (II.ii.3), and later in this scene, Shakespeare says that her eyes are like "[t]wo of the fairest stars in all the heaven" (II.ii.15). But hers is a light that shows best against the darkness; she "hangs upon the cheek of night / As a rich jewel in an Ethiop's ear"

Symbols Romeo is also compared with a light that illuminates the

darkness; if Juliet dies, she wants Romeo cut "in little stars/And he will make the face of heaven so fine/That all the world will be in love with night/? And pay no worship to the garish sun" (III.ii.22-25). This quote reminds us that their light shines most brightly in the dark — that it is a muted glow associated primarily with stars, torches, and the dawn, rather than with sunlight, which is almost obscenely bright.

Symbols The combination of light and dark makes an

interesting motif in Romeo and Juliet. But for our young lovers, the nighttime itself is an important motif as well. The evening hours holds all of the significant moments for Romeo and Juliet. They meet; they pledge their love; they elope; they commit suicide.

Symbols Poison, both sleep inducing

and lethal, is the instrument of Romeo and Juliet's deaths. (Technically Juliet stabbed herself, but that never would have happened if not for the sleeping potion.) While poison has a literal purpose in the play, it's also a symbol. The poison symbolizes the Capulet and Montague feud. Not only is the feud deadly in itself, — recall Mercutio's death — it's also the catalyst for Romeo and Juliet's double suicide.

History of the play

Romeo and Juliet was based on real lovers who lived in Verona, Italy who died for each other in the year 1303. At that time the Capulets and Montagues were among the inhabitants of Verona. 

Characters Mercutio, the witty skeptic, is a foil

for Romeo, the young Petrarchan lover. Mercutio mocks Romeo's vision of love and the poetic devices he uses to express his emotions:

Romeo, Humors! Madman! Passion! Lover!Appear thou in the likeness of a sigh,Speak but one rhyme and I am satisfied.

The end of the storyToo little,too late Romeo consumes his poison and dies, however, Juliet soon

stirs awake and discovers Romeo dead at her side. The friar, who had performed the marriage of Romeo and Juliet earlier in the play, pleads with Juliet to escape with him. Juliet refuses and stabs herself with Romeo's dagger, dying as well. At the very end, the two warring families, the Montagues and Capulets, join together in peace to mourn the deaths of their young and beloved Romeo and Juliet.

“If love be rough with you,be rough with love.”-Mercutio

Joke

The Signs as Capulets and Montagues

Montague:Aries, Leo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Pisces

Capulet:Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Virgo, Capricorn, Aquarius

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