Scarica Romeo e Giulietta di Shakespeare e più Appunti in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! SHAKESPEARE Romeo and juliet ● Was one of the earliest plays of S. Although the story had already been treated by Masuccio Salernitano and by Luigi da Porto, the main source was probably The Tragicall Historye of Romeus and Juliet, a poem by Arthur Brooke ● The first two acts are a love comedy ● The play is set in Verona, where two rival families, the Montagues and the Capulets, have an ancient grudge and whose followers often quarrel in the streets. Romeo, a Montague, is in love with Rosaline and, when old Capulet gives a feast in his own house, where are invited the family and his friends. There is also Romeo, who is masked, and wants to see Rosaline. But when he sees Juliet, Capulet’s only daughter, he forgets R and falls in love with her, and also she falls in love with him. That night, Romeo secretly creeps into the Capulets’ garden, after overhearing J on the balcony confessing her love to the moon and convinces her to marry him. ● The real tragedy starts in the third act ● The next afternoon they are secretly married by Friar Laurence, Romeo's friend. The same day, R, with his friends Mercutio and Benvolio, meets Tybalt, Juliet’s cousin, who had recognized him at the feast but had been restrained from denouncing him by old Cpulet. Tybalt wants to challenge him, but R refuses to fight, Mercutio fights in his place and is killed. Then R kills T and is banished from Verona by the Prince. ● Before leaving the town for Mantua, he spends the night with his bride, who in the meantime, has been betrothed to Paris, by her parents unaware of her marriage. J consult Friar Laurance, who suggests that she should drink a potion that will give her a semblance of death, during which he will send word to Romeo to come and rescue her at her awakening ● But the friar’s messenger fails to reach Romeo in Mantua so that, on hearing that Juliet is dead, R buys some poison, runs to her tomb, where he meets and kills Paris, drinks the poison and dies beside Juliet. When she Awakened by the friar, J sees R dead, overcome with grief, she stabs herself with R’s dagger. ● The Mpntagues and Capulets meet at the tomb and, over the bodies of their dead children, they are reconciled. ● The story during 4 days and 4 nights ● The protagonists are two rival families, the Montagues and the Capulets; their children, Romeo and Juliet. ● It is a comedy for the instant attraction of the young lovers; the masked balls; the comic servants; the surface life of street fights. ● It is a tragedy,for the tragic role of chance leading up to the deaths of the two lovers. ● The 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) ● 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 balcony scene An excerpt from the famous balcony scene, in which R and J, on the night after the ball, talk to each other for the first time. Is the best-known and most lyric love scene in literature. It is not the first time that young love appears in his works but never with the intensity and poignancy as in this play. There are women in love, usually more mature than their lovers. Juliet, 14 years old, has very little experience of life, she still looks like a mere child, loyal to her house and respectful to her parents. J is still a child but more mature than R, she has a more practical view of the situation. She realizes that the risk is great above all for R and her premonition of death is present also in the balcony scene. She never gives up fighting against her parents, her relatives and the adversities of fate.
