Sunday 29 July 2012

"O ROMEO, ROMEO! WHEREFORE ART THOU ROMEO?"

Romeo and Juliet  is one of  Shakespeare's best-known tragedies and probably the  most famous  love story of all  times.
In world literature Romeo and Juliet have become archetypical ill-fated lovers, and countless other literary and artistic works have been based on this Shakespearean drama, such as the Academy Award-winning films West Side Story  (1961) and Shakespeare in Love (1998).



Romeo and Juliet  was written  relatively early in Shakespeare's career, around 1594-1595, around the same time as the comedies Love's Labour's Lost and A Midsummer Night's Dream.   These plays are often grouped together because they explore the themes of love, courtship, and marriage. These plays also share a similar poetic quality in the language used, as they incorporate sonnets and the conventions associated with them such as falling in love at first sight.
Shakespeare's audience already knew the essential story of Romeo and Juliet, a popular story in European folklore which Arthur Brooke had translated into English in 1562 as a poem called The Tragicall Historye of Romeus and Juliet. Brooke's work  was based on a French version (1559) of the tragedy by Pierre Boiastuau, who based his story on a 1554 Italian work by Matteo Bandello, a monk and author of 214 tales. Sources for certain plot devices probably included Il Novellino (1476), by Masuccio of Salerno;  Hystoria Nouellamente Ritrouata di Due Nobili Amanti (1530), by Luigi da Porto; and the ancient mythological tale of Pyramis and Thisbe.
Shakespeare improved on his sources, developing the characters, condensing the time frame, and adding certain scenes to emphasize his own themes. 

Bloomsbury Digital on Twitter: "William Shakespeare's play "Romeo ...

Despite the fact that the Montagues  and the Capulets are bitter enemies,  Romeo and Juliet fall in love with each other and are secretly  married. From the beginning their love seems destined  to end in  death: the stars – that is to say fate  –  are against the two young lovers  and images of death and the tomb occur  throughout the play. Eventually, they  commit suicide in despair.
Romeo and Juliet   is the  tragedy of youth   -  it is the young people who die in the play and their deaths are due to the feud  between their families. Shakespeare makes it clear that Romeo and Juliet are victims sacrificed in order that their families might make peace and swear to never fight again. Moreover, they vow to build gold statues of Romeo and Juliet and place them side by side so all can remember their plight.
This ending of the play is not entirely pessimistic, and provides an element of regeneration that is typical of tragedy.

I 50 anni del Romeo e Giulietta di Zeffirelli | Sky Arte - Sky

One of the play's strenghts  is  its language. Romeo and Juliet explodes with verbal fireworks. As one of Shakespeare’s early dramas, the play was a vehicle through which he attempted to startle audiences with his ability to manipulate language, creating puns, rhyming poetry, and striking similes, metaphors, and other figures of speech.
For example, Mercutio, a brilliant punster, uses his way with words to criticize the stupidity of the two feuding families and the folly of blind passion:
Romeo: I dreamt a dream tonight. 
Mercutio: And so did I. 
Romeo: And what was yours? 
Mercutio: That dreamers often lie. 
Tybalt: What would you have with me? 
Mercutio: Good King of Cats, only one of your nine lives! 
Mercutio: A plague o' both your houses! They have made worms' meat of me. 
Mercutio: Ask for me tomorrow, and you shall find me a grave man. 

Romeo and Juliet. on emaze | Romeo and juliet, Juliet movie, Juliet

You can download a very useful mind map of the play here!

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