Romeo and Juliet: main themes
• Shakespeare was the first to place love at the centre
of a tragedy.
• Absolute love of Juliet, in contrast to other notions
of love (for Juliet’s father is a contract, for Juliet’s
nurse is physical attraction, for Paris is correct
behaviour)
• Fathers and daughters: Juliet, only 16, is strong
enough to oppose her father’s will. Shakespeare’s
women characters are not weak, submissive
creatures (differently from the real social situation)
• Lack of knowledge, or bad communication leads to
the tragic final destruction
• Destiny vs free will: characters are free to choose,
but this will lead to their death
• Appearance vs reality: tragedy comes from believing
in appearance.
• Juliet’s reflection upon language: words are just a
convention; they do not correspond to the essence
of things.
Extract on pages 65-66
• Ll 1-24: Romeo’s monologue: very poetic language.
He describes Juliet using a lot of comparisons
(metaphors and rhetorical exaggerations), typical of
courtly love tradition (Juliet is compared to the sun,
then her eyes to two stars…). Juliet is idealized but at
the same time she is the object of sexual desire (ll 78).
• Ll 26-33: Romeo’s aside: Juliet is compared to a
bright angel.
• Ll 34-50: Juliet’s monologue: reflection on the values
of names.
• Ll 51-81 dialogue: Juliet’s pragmatic reflections in
contrast to Romeo’s poetic language and rhetorical
exaggerations.
• Romeo and Juliet’s monologues are written in blank
verse = unrhymed iambic pentameter (each line is
made of 5 stressed and 5 unstressed syllables)
The sonnet: the most popular poetic form in the
Renaissance
• Derived from Dante and Petrarch
• Main themes: love, friendship, beauty, time, the
power of poetry to immortalize the beloved, to
freeze a moment.
• Paradox of the poet’s desire: he desires a lady but
also hopes that she will remain unreachable. She is
idealised and, therefore, perfect.
• Differences between Petrarchan and Elisabethan
sonnet ( see page 94)
The metaphysical poets
• They used elaborate philosophical metaphors,
called conceits. They linked science to
feelings (ex: John Donne’s comparisons of two
lovers to two legs of a compass)
Shakespeare’s sonnets (154)
• To the young man ( the “fair youth”), his patron,
probably the Earl of Southampton.
• Main themes: love,friendship, beauty, time, power of
poetry.
The poet encourages the man to get married and
procreate, so that his beauty can be passed on to his
children. He also believes that the man’s beauty can
be preserved in his poetry.
Spiritual love
• To the dark lady: passionate love
• They reject the conventions of courtly love: the
woman is not idealised but is a real, flesh-and-blood
woman.
• The dark lady is fascinating because she’s unique and
natural (“beauty is in the eye of the beholder”).
Henry Fuseli (1741-1825), Swiss artist. He travelled a lot in Germany,
Italy and finally settled in Britain. Many of his works are inspired by
Shakespeare. Here: Romeo at Juliet’s Deathbed, 1809
Hamlet and the ghost
The nightmare