Romeo and Juliet (letteratura inglese), Appunti di Inglese

Scarica Romeo and Juliet (letteratura inglese) e più Appunti in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! ROMEO AND JULIET A very popular play: • It’s one of Shakespeare’s best-known tragedies. • It’s the most famous love story of all times. • There are several film versions. • The setting in place: Verona • The setting in time: four days and four nights • The protagonists: two rival families, the Montagues and the Capulets; their children, Romeo and Juliet The first two acts are a love comedy. • Romeo and Juliet meet at the Capulets’ ball and it is love at first sight. • They are secretly married by Friar Laurence. THE PLOT • The real tragedy starts in the third act with Mercutio’s and Tybalt’s deaths; Romeo is banished from Verona. • In the fourth act Juliet drinks a potion to avoid the marriage with Count Paris. • In the fifth act tragic conclusion of the play with the deaths of the two lovers. A COMEDY OR A TRAGEDY? It is a comedy: • the instant attraction of the young lovers; • the masked balls; • the comic servants; • the surface life of street fights. It is a tragedy: • the tragic role of chance leading up to the deaths of the two lovers. THEMES • The lack of knowledge coming from bad communication. • The feud between the two families. • Old hate vs young love. • Speed as the medium of fate. • The reflection upon the language made by Juliet (appearance vs reality). THE TWO LOVERS Romeo courteous lover, intense adoration of a chaste woman Juliet though she is set within the courtly love convention, she is unconventional because she stands for innocence, belongs to no characterisation, is a real woman STYLE • Regular rhythm. • Use of rhymes. • Use of sonnets in dialogues. • Imagery of light: linked to life and the courteous love convention • Imagery of darkness: death THE BALL SCENE • What has the term ROMEO become universal for? He stands for “universal lover” • The language is highly poetical, but it preserves spontaneity and truthfulness. Romeo traduzione prima parte “Ella insegna perfino alle torce come splendere di più viva luce! Pare che sul buio volto della notte ella brilli come una gemma rara pendente dall'orecchio d'una Etiope. Bellezza troppo ricca per usarne, troppo cara e preziosa per la terra! Ella spicca fra queste sue compagne come spicca una nivea colomba in mezzo ad uno stormo di cornacchie. Finito questo ballo, osserverò dove s'andrà a posare e, toccando la sua, farò beata questa mia rozza mano... Ha mai amato il mio cuore finora?... Se dice sì, occhi miei, sbugiardatelo, perchè io non ho mai visto vera bellezza prima di questa notte.” Romeo Se con indegna mano profano questa tua santa reliquia (è il peccato di tutti i cuori pii), queste mie labbra, piene di rossore, al pari di contriti pellegrini, son pronte a render morbido quel tocco con un tenero bacio- Giulietta Pellegrino, alla tua mano tu fai troppo torto, ché nel gesto gentile essa mostra la buona devozione che si deve. Anche i santi hanno mani, e i pellegrini le possono toccare, e palmo a palmo è il modo di baciar dei pii palmieri. INGLESE TRADUZIONE 
 ROMEO Have not saints lips, and holy palmers too? JULIET Ay, pilgrim, lips that they must use in prayer. ROMEO O, then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do; They pray, grant thou, lest faith turn to despair. JULIET Saints do not move, though grant for prayers' sake. ROMEO Then move not, while my prayer's effect I take. ROMEO Santi e palmieri non han dunque labbra? JULIET Sì, pellegrino, labbra ch'essi debbono usar per la preghiera. ROMEO E allora, cara santa, che le labbra facciano anch'esse quel che fan le mani: esse sono in preghiera affinchè la fede non si trasformi in disperazione. JULIET I santi, pur se accolgono i voti di chi prega, non si muovono. ROMEO E allora non ti muovere fin ch'io raccolga dalle labbra tue l‘effetto della mia preghiera. (la bacia)
 ROMEO (taking JULIET’s hand) Your hand is like a holy place that my hand is unworthy to visit. If you’re offended by the touch of my hand, my two lips are standing here like blushing pilgrims, ready to make things better with a kiss.  JULIET Good pilgrim, you don’t give your hand enough credit. By holding my hand you show polite devotion. After all, pilgrims touch the hands of statues of saints. Holding one palm against another is like a kiss. ROMEO Don’t saints and pilgrims have lips too? JULIET Yes, pilgrim—they have lips that they’re supposed to pray with. ROMEO Well then, saint, let lips do what hands do. I’m praying for you to kiss me. Please grant my prayer so my faith doesn’t turn to despair. JULIET Saints don’t move, even when they grant prayers. ROMEO Then don’t move while I act out my prayer. (He kisses her) ANALYSIS • When is the scene set? At night. It takes place during the Capulets’ ball. • Who is Romeo speaking about in his monologue? about juliet. • What happens when Romeo and Juliet meet? There is instant physical attraction. Romeo touches Juliet’s hand and then kisses her. • Can you recognize a fixed poetic form in lines 11-24? It is an Elizabethan sonnet, a short poem of 14 lines with a rhyming couplet at the end. The rhyme scheme is ABAB CDCD EFEF GG • What in the dialogue between Romeo and Juliet shows that they are both very young? The purity, simplicity and beauty of their language. • Romeo embodies the Renaissance code of courtly love. How is this apparent from the monologue? Romeo is linked to the code of courtly love; he starts to understand the real meaning of love thanks to Juliet. Juliet embodies LIGHT, BEAUTY, PERFECTION. With the use of similes Juliet is compared to a bright torch, a jewel, a holy shrine and a dove. METAPHORS- RELIGIOUS IMAGES • Romeo compares Juliet to a precious Jewel because Juliet is already precious to him; • Then she compares her to a snowy dove, underlining her purity and beauty; • She is called Saint and she is like a holy shrine to which the pilgrim Romeo turns to, to obtain favours through prayer. • Romeo is compared to a blushing pilgrim since they both pursue a great ideal. • Yet Juliet is also a real, concrete woman, who falls in love and immediately returns Romeo’s love returning his kiss. • Hands, lips, kiss, palm to palm evoke an image of physical love. • Both courtly love and physical love are therefore present in the scene.