JULIET
ROMEO
A comedy
or a
tragedy?
THEMES
STYLE
THE
PLOT
RAFFAELLA MANNORI -2013-2014
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.
RAFFAELLA MANNORI -2013-2014
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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.
RAFFAELLA MANNORI -2013-2014
It is a comedy
It is a tragedy
• the instant attraction
of the young lovers;
• the masked balls;
• the comic servants;
• the surface life of
street fights.
• the tragic role of chance
leading up to the deaths
of the two lovers.
RAFFAELLA MANNORI -2013-2014
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At the beginning( ACT I) he
represents the typical courtly lover,
linked to melancholy, holy devotion
and idealization of the object of
desire.He meditates over his hopeless
unrequited love for Rosaline.
His love for Juliet gradually develops
into a profound and intense passion
and he abandons the features of
courtly conventions .
Yet Romeo’s deep capacity for love
is merely a part of his larger capacity
for intense feeling of all kinds. Put
another way, it is possible to describe
Romeo as lacking the capacity for
moderation.
Love forces him to sneak into the
garden of his enemy’s daughter,
risking death simply to catch a glimpse
of her.
Anger compels him to kill his wife’s
cousin in a reckless duel to avenge
the death of his friend.
Despair compels him to suicide upon
hearing of Juliet’s death.
Such extreme behavior dominates
Romeo’s character throughout the
play and contributes to the ultimate
tragedy.
RAFFAELLA MANNORI -2013-2014
Juliet
Though she is set within the
courtly love convention, she is
unconventional because she
stands for a real woman .
• She is an innocent girl, a
child at the beginning of the
play, and is startled by the
sudden power of her love for
Romeo.
• She develops very quickly
into a determined, capable,
mature, and loyal woman .
RAFFAELLA MANNORI -2013-2014
• 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).
RAFFAELLA MANNORI -2013-2014
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The feud between the two families (old hate vs young love).
A major theme is the tension between social and family identity
(represented by one’s name) and one’s inner identity.
Juliet believes that love stems from one’s inner identity, and that
the feud between the Montagues and the Capulets is a product of
the outer identity, based only on names. The young lovers are
driven to defy their entire social world, which represents an
obstacle for their love:
families and the placement of familial power in the father;
law and the desire for public order;
religion and the social importance placed on masculine honor.
RAFFAELLA MANNORI -2013-2014
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The feud between the two families (old hate vs
young love).
The enmity between their families creates a profound
conflict for Romeo and Juliet, who must rebel against
their heritages.
Further, the patriarchal power structure inherent in
Renaissance families places Juliet in an extremely
vulnerable position.
It is possible to see Romeo and Juliet as a battle
between the responsibilities and actions demanded by
social institutions and those demanded by the private
desires of the individual.
Romeo and Juliet’s appreciation of night, with its
darkness and privacy, and their renunciation of their
names, with its loss of obligation, make sense in the
context of individuals who wish to escape the public
world. But the lovers cannot stop the night from
becoming day. And Romeo cannot cease being a
Montague simply because he wants to.
The lovers’ suicides can be understood as the ultimate
night, the ultimate privacy.
RAFFAELLA MANNORI -2013-2014
• The reflection upon the language
made by Juliet (appearance vs reality).
• Juliet shows a tendency of
concreteness and realism in her use of
language
• Appearence vs reality is also present in
Juliet death-like sleep (feigned death)
RAFFAELLA MANNORI -2013-2014
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Speed as the medium of fate.
Shakespeare compresses all the events
of the love story into just a few days, so he
gives the sense that the action is
happening so quickly that characters
don’t have time to react, and, by the end,
that matters are going out of control.
The mechanism of fate works in all of the
events surrounding the lovers:
the feud between their families ;
horrible series of accidents that ruin Friar
Lawrence’s apparently well-intentioned
plans at the end of the play;
the tragic timing of Romeo’s suicide and
Juliet’s awakening.
These events are not mere coincidences,
but rather manifestations of fate that help
bring about the unavoidable outcome of
the young lovers’ deaths.
RAFFAELLA MANNORI -2013-2014
• The lack of knowledge coming
from bad communication.
Shakespeare makes the plot depend
crucially on messages: Juliet’s nurse
brings her a happy reply from Romeo;
then she brings her the news of
Tybalt’s death and Romeo’s
banishment; Friar’s Lawrence’s
message can’t reach Romeo in time
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• 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
protection
For example , when Romeo is in Juliet’s orchard he
feels protected by the “night’s cloak”. Juliet longs
for a “a love –performing night” …” Come, civil
night”.
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1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
What are the typical elements of a love
comedy?
When does the real tragedy start?
What are the conventional features of a
courtly lover which Romeo shares ?
What is the flaw in Romeo’s character, which
leads to his downfall?
Why is Juliet unconventional in her reflection
upon the language? Some critics think that
the major theme in Romeo & Juliet is the
contrast between social identity and inner
identity .Do you agree ? Give reasons.
Why is speed an important theme in the
play?
What is the imagery of the tragedy based
on?
RAFFAELLA MANNORI -20132014