R AND J CONTEXT Flashcards
Shakespeare use of the sonnet form is significant because
it was the form he used in hundreds of poems about love, by presenting r and j dialogue in sonnet form, he is arguably establishing that their love is meant to represent romantic love
in his requited expressions of love towards Rosaline…
Romeo is following the conventions of courtly love a mmedieval traditionof love in which a knight would love a lady from afar, the focus on the individual feelings of conflict is satirised by Shakespeare. during Elizabethan England there had been a revival of this tradition amongst the aristocracy and it seemed that is what Shakespeare was satirisng
Shakespeare critiques…
the patriarchal power which wass present amongst the aristocracy to the modern 21st century audience this would’ve been seen as problematic as the benevolent thing to do would be to follow authority regarding juliets marriage however to a Elizabethan audience perhaps capulets anger would’ve been justified as Juliet disobeying him
Shakespeare may be critiquing….
the catholic society in which the play is set in order to gain some favours from the protestant monarch whom he would’ve relied on for patronage. England at the time was in a state of sectarian tensions as a result of henry viii separation from the vactican and the reign of Elizabeth 1st
the focus on juliets beauty…
rather than her personality is arguably problematic for a modern feminist audience, however in Elizabethan England women were believed to be the fairer sex it was a socially more normal thing to elevate a women beauty
it is significant that the peripeteia
of the tradegy is the death of Tybalt and Mercutio over minor matters of masculine honour, which starts the chain of events which leads to Romeo and Juliets demise. indeed through the framing device of the prologue and the opening quarall Shakespeare present violence as the underpinning tradegy
Shakespeare follows the conventions of…
aristotelean tradegy through the use of the chorus to frame the narrative. by detailing the events on the play in the prologue, Shakespeare creates a sense of tragic inevitability for the audience as they watch the events unfold powerless to stop them
in Elizabethan England…
belief in astrology was still widespread, and there was a renewed interest in the subject during the renaissance. the motif of the stars signposts to the audience that the fate of the protagonists has already been written, It helps create pathos for the characters who are arguably not in control of their own fates
