Themes of Romeo and Juliet and GCSE Revision Flashcards
Theme of Conflict
with quotes
Main problem is the conflict of the feud in the play
‘ancient grudge’
Fighting in the prologue
R + J ‘s love causes conflict
Many people die through conflict
Internal conflict : When Juliet decides if she will mourn Tybalts death or be happy that Romeo is alive. When she is not sure whether to drink the potion or not.
Juliet in the orchard when she fleetingly doubts
Fate vs free will:
All throughout the play they talk about fate controlling them both have dreams about their deaths. Friar John and the letter could be blamed on fate.
Juliet vs her father
arranged marriage
Act 3 Scene 5
He shows his angry side when Juliet disobeys her commands
Prologue:
‘Ancient grudge’
ancient- very old even embedded in the servants
grudge- a dislike that can’t be overcomed
‘civil blood makes civil hands unclean’
blood- foreshadows death and fighting
‘lovers take their lives’- fore warned about their deaths
1st Time you see conflict is in prologue
Quickly summarise the conflict of Act 1 Scene 1
first time physical conflict shown
servants from the two households fight because Samson says ‘I bite my thumb sir’ which is an ancient italian insult
This causes fight Samson says ‘draw if you be men’
and then a brawl breaks out - showing how the toxic masuclinity of the time further stirred conflict
‘they fight’ (stage direction) the speed and which the fight breaks out establishes to the audience the unadultered hatred between the two families and how a fight can break out at any time anywhere.
Analysis ‘I bite my thumb sir’
- Samson has no reason to hate the Montague servants
-he only wants to cause trouble because his masters feud with them - the irony here is although Samson is attempting to stir up conflict he is too cowardly to own up to his gesture because the law will punish him
- Shakespeares is pointing out that the feud is childish and pointless
Tybalt as a driver of conflict
Is an antagonist enjoys conflict in act 1 scene 1
His first words show his one dimensional character status ‘What art thou drawn among these heartless hinds?’
‘Turn thee Benvolio look upon thy death’
Context of the original story :
Arthur Brookes:
original source material - plot reduced from 9 months to 5 days (speed! tension!)
Brookes:
Juliet’s age reduced from 16 to 13 (concerning! tension!)
Theme of fate and free will throughout the play
from the very opening of the play we are led to believe that fate is to blame for the tragedy
The prologue sets up this idea by presenting us with ‘a pair of star-crossed lovers’
Act 1 Scene 4: Romeo has a bad felling about the feast
Both characters experience feelings of foreboding and have bad dreams and premonitions of what is to come.
Act 3 Scene 5: Juliet makes a chilling prediction about Romeo’s death
Methinks I see thee, now thou art so low As one dead in the bottom of a tomb. Either my eyesight fails, or thou look’st pale.” 3.5. 54-57. Juliet speaks to Romeo as he departs, saying that he looks as though he is in his tomb, to which Romeo replies she does in his eyes as well.
Yet neither of them change their actions and continue to act out of a sense of free will throughout the play- almost challenging the fates in the same way that Juliet challenges her father’s authority
Indeed when Romeo hears of Juliet’s death he does this outright, ‘I defy you, stars!’
Love
Act 1 Scene 5:- Romeo only attends ball to glimpse rosaline
R + J meet for first time and realise they are from feuding fams
Act 2 Scene 2:
R +J alone after the feast is over declare their love for each other and promise marriage- There are many different loves that we see in the play. Romeo shows a stylised love called courtly or (petrarchan) love we also see Paris acting out courtly love to Juliet
Act 3 Scene 5:
The lovers make their final farewell after their wedding night
There also several references to love in terms of sexuality:
In our first meeting with the Nurse she jokes that ‘women grow by men’ and moments later is encouraging Juliet to view paris sympathetically and ‘seek happy nights to happy days’
The true love of Romeo contrasts with these types of love
Death and Life
Prologue: Death is foreshadowed ‘star-crossed lovers take their life’
Act 1 Scene 4 : Romeo foreshadows his own death: With this night’s revels and expire term/ Of a despised life, closed in my breast, / By some vile forfeit of untimely death”
Act 3 Scene 1: The violent and bloody deaths of Mercutio and Tybalt take place in the street
Act 3 Scene 5: Juliet makes a chilling prediction about Romeo’s death
Methinks I see thee, now thou art so low As one dead in the bottom of a tomb. Either my eyesight fails, or thou look’st pale.” 3.5. 54-57. Juliet speaks to Romeo as he departs, saying that he looks as though he is in his tomb, to which Romeo replies she does in his eyes as well.
Act 4 Scene 5: The capulets react to Juliet’s feigned death
Act 5 Scene 3: Verona sees the deadly consequences of the Capulet-Montague feud.
At times in the play life seems to be held cheaply
- The young men of Verona are swift to draw their swords and bloodshed ensues
- As a result, the play is set against the young lives being cut short and we witness the loss of Tybalt, Paris, Meructio, Romeo and then Juliet
Romeo views his banishments to Mantua as worse than death ‘Ha, banishment! be merciful, say ‘death;’
For exile hath more terror in his look,
Much more than death: do not say ‘banishment.’
Interestingly it is the older characters that are more philisophical about death ‘we were born to die’ and who are left to consider what they have learned at the end of the play
Shakespeare context
William Shakespeare was born in Stratford upon -avon in 1564 and died in 1616 after 25 years working in London as a writer actor and theatre manager. R+J was published earlier in his career estimated from 1597-9 at the end of a period when he had been reworking other plays and beginning to develop skills in writiing tragedies.
Patriarchal society
is one that is ruled by men and fathers are of most importance. Which was common in the Renaissance and Capulet amplifies this in the play. He has absolute power over his wife and daughter or so he thinks. The male head od house would hold all wealth and girls were expected to become wives and mothers. We can see this in how Lord C orders his own family. He is also much older than Lady C ( we learn she married him as a young girl) and is almost like a father figure to her.
Cultural context young love
Recall a quote from Paris about young marriage
Juliet is 14 Romeo a couple years older. Even with the different life expectancy of sixteenth-century Europeans, this was still rather young for marriage. Paris’s interest in marrying Juliet has a dramatic purpose giving urgency to the story and even possibly forcing Juliet into considering marriage to Romeo on their second meeting.
‘Younger than she are happy mothers made’
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Structure of Romeo and Juliet
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1jh69bF1xMzpYppy01ZzFZihIRLrOHQYY7phykgv1qz4/edit#slide=id.g228bf53f3a6_0_14
Friar Lawrence
Overview: He is a man who is taken holy orders and therefore can marry the lovers but he is also Romeo’s friend and advisor
