Who does not know the story of Romeo and Juliet? And these immortal lines,"O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?""But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks?It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.""Good night, good night. Parting is such sweet sorrow,That I shall say good night till it be morrow."The very word "Romeo" has become synonymous with "male lover" in English, and the idea of the doomed romantic lovers, whose deaths ultimately reconcile their feuding families, is famous world-wide. It has been adapted numerous times for stage, film, musical, opera and radio; the latest film went on general release just a few months ago in 2013.However, Shakespeare did not invent the story of Romeo and Juliet. He reworked a long poem by Arthur Brooks, called "The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet", written in 1562. The tradition of tragic romances had been well established in literature - in particular Italian literature - for almost a hundred years, but what may be surprising is that many of the plot elements of Romeo and Juliet were all in Brooks' poem. The first meeting of the lovers at the ball, their secret marriage, Romeo's fight with Tybalt, the sleeping potion, and even the timing of their eventual suicides, are all episodes which we usually attribute to Shakespeare. This is characteristic of the author, who often wrote plays based on earlier works. Shakespeare's text is believed to have been written between 1591 and 1595, and as such was one of his earliest performed plays, although not published until later. It was an immediate success; so popular that Shakespeare continued to rework and hone the notes from the play's performances. It was then first published in 1597, with later editions improving on it still further. It was among Shakespeare's most popular plays during his lifetime, and has remained so, now being the most performed of all his plays alongside "Hamlet." Although the initial idea for Romeo and Juliet came from the earlier text, it is Shakespeare's wonderful play which is credited with having had such a profound influence on subsequent literature.It starts with a short prologue, in sonnet form, which tells the audience what is to follow. Nobody can be in any doubt that the story is a tragedy about young love, and that it will take their deaths to bring an end to family feuds. We are then straight into the action, which is a masterly piece of writing, full of bawdy references to ensure his audiences' attention, while providing all the background information needed to understand the world of the play. We are immediately told about the long-standing hatred between the two feuding families, the Capulets and the Montagues, and then immediately find ourselves engaged by an exciting brawl. Shakespeare cleverly establishes some of the major themes of the play, right at its start. He also portrays all of the layers of Veronese society starting with the servants, right through to Prince Escalus. Many of the secondary characters important to the play are also introduced here; for instance, Romeo's friend, Benvolio, thoughtful, pragmatic and fearful of the law, and Juliet's cousin Tybalt, a hothead, professing a hatred for peace as strong as his hatred for Montagues. A modern audience becomes aware that in the Verona of this play, masculine honour is not restricted to indifference to pain or insult. Tybalt makes it plain that a man must defend his honour at all times, whether the insult is verbal or physical. Mercutio is established as another friend; one who who can poke friendly fun at Romeo quite mercilessly. Benvolio is not nearly so quick-witted. Mercutio is confident, constantly joking, making puns and laughing. He is a passionate man, but his passions are different from Romeo's love and Tybalt's hate. Their passions are founded respectively upon two ideals of society - love and honour - but Mercutio believes in neither. He comes across as the character with the clearest vision. Just as Mercutio can see through words to other meanings, he can also see through the ideals held by those around him. He understands that often they are not sincerely held, but merely adopted for convenience. The characters in this play are multi-layered and complex, and Shakespeare is adept in revealing their subtleties by means of the action. Even as Mercutio dies, he utters his wild witticisms, cursing both the Montagues and the Capulets, "A plague o' both your houses! They have made worms' meat of me!""Ask for me tomorrow, and You shall find me a grave man."The character of Romeo develops significantly from the first impression we have of him as a stock callow youth. At first he is melancholy, distracted and lovelorn, as we expect. But surprisingly he is not lovesick over Juliet, but is in love with Rosaline. This love seems to stem almost entirely from the reading of bad love poetry! We understand from this that Romeo's love for Rosaline is an immature love, more a statement that he is ready to be in love than actual love. Perhaps Rosaline, who never appears in the play, exists only to demonstrate Romeo's passionate nature, his love of being in love. We meet Juliet in scene 3, and learn that in the Verona of this play, her status as a young woman leaves her with no power or choice in any social situation. Juliet at 13 years old is completely subject to parental influence, and is being encouraged to marry her parent's choice of Paris. Lady Capulet observes wryly that that she had already given birth to Juliet herself when she was Juliet's current age, before she was 14.In this way the forces that determine the fate of Romeo and Juliet are laid in place well before they even meet. Parental influence in the tragedy becomes a tool of fate. Juliet's arranged marriage with Paris, and the longstanding feud between Capulets and Montagues, will eventually contribute to the deaths of Romeo and Juliet. The reader enjoys the tension, and knowledge that terrible events are about to happen. Events and observations continually reinforce the presence and power of fate. Juliet's speeches have many different facets, and are capable of many interpretations. She often professes one thing, whilst we know she has an ulterior motive, and another intention. This is particularly evident when she is speaking to her parents, knowing that she intends to make her own decisions, she perversely wants to speak her mind, but deliberately couches her words in double meanings so that the truth will remain hidden. Juliet is a strong character in the play, particularly fascinating to a modern reader as she seems almost contemporary. She repeatedly goes against what is expected of women of her time and place, and takes action. The best example of this is when she drinks the sleeping potion. She comes up with many reasons why it might cause her harm, and recognises that drinking the potion might lead her to madness or even death. Yet she chooses to drink it anyway. This demonstrates a willingness to take her life into her own hands - and also hints at future events. There is never just one side to, or interpretation of, any event in this play. It is a portent. Juliet drinks the potion just as Romeo will later drink the apothecary's poison. Another instance of ominous foreshadowing is when the Nurse teases Juliet by saying that she is too tired to tell her what happened when she first met Romeo. This delay in telling Juliet the news is mirrored in a future scene, when the Nurse's anguish prevents her from relating news to Juliet and thereby causing terrible confusion. Another example of delicious dramatic irony is when Romeo is proclaiming his love to be the most powerful force in the world. Friar Laurence advises caution, saying, "These violent delights have violent endsAnd in their triump die, like fire and powderWhich, as they kiss, consume". The reader knows that the play is a tragedy, and that Romeo and Juliet will die. Shakespeare ingeniously manipulates the plot, so that we feel the impending doom, and are swept up in the inevitability of it all. Even the characters themselves are sometimes aware that they are pawns. Romeo cries, "O, I am fortune's fool!"when he realises he has killed Tybalt. He knows that by killing his new wife's cousin, he will be banished from Verona, and feels the inevitability of the situation. This emphasises the sense of fate - or fortune - that hangs over the play. Juliet also indicates in her speeches the power of fate and predestination. In her final scene with Romeo, the last moment they spend alive together, she says that he appears pale, as if he were dead. She looks out of her window and cries, "O God, I have an ill-divining soul! Methinks I see thee, now thou art so low, As one dead in the bottom of a tomb."This vision blatantly foreshadows the end of the play. The next time she sees Romeo, he will be dead. Friar Laurence is a pivotal character in the play. When we first see him he is collecting herbs and flowers for medicinal purposes, demonstrating a deep knowledge of the properties of the plants he collects, and alerting the reader to what may be to come. He meditates on the duality of good and evil that exists in all things; another clearly portentous speech. Referring to the plants, Friar Laurence says that, although everything in nature has a useful purpose, it can also lead to misfortune if used improperly, "For naught so vile that on the earth doth live But to the earth some special good doth give, Nor aught so good but strain'd from that fair use Revolts from true birth, stumbling on abuse: Virtue itself turns vice, being misapplied; And vice sometime's by action dignified". Friar Laurence ruminates on how good may be perverted to evil and evil may be purified by good. By making plans to marry Romeo and Juliet, he hopes that the good of their love will reverse the evil of the hatred between the feuding families. Shakespeare portrays him as a benign, wise philosopher. But his schemes also serve as tools of fate; secretly marrying the two lovers, sending Romeo to Mantua, and staging Juliet's apparent death. The tragic failure of his plans are outside his responsibility, and due to chance.The structure of the play is carefully controlled; it would be interesting at this distance to read the earlier versions. Different poetic forms are used by different characters, and sometimes the form changes as the character develops. There are many instances of the sonnet, as the reader would expect, because it is a perfect, idealised poetic form often used to write about love. The play starts with a Prologue in sonnet form, a masterly precis of the story. As it describes Romeo and Juliet’s eventual death, it also helps to create the sense of fate that permeates the entire play.Romeo himself, develops his expertise in the sonnet over the course of the play. When Romeo and Juliet meet they speak just fourteen lines before their first kiss. These fourteen lines make up a shared sonnet, which creates a link between their love and their tragic destiny, as told in the introductory prologue. There are numerous instances of such tightly written formal structure, which is remarkable in such an early play. Even the dramatic action of the play has a tight schedule, spanning just 4 days. Perhaps this is why many of the most important scenes, such as the balcony scene, take place either very late at night or very early in the morning. Shakespeare makes great use of effects such as switching between comedy and tragedy to heighten the tension, and bringing minor characters into the foreground to increase depth and interest. His additional use of sub-plots to enrich the story, is often cited as an early sign of his dramatic skill.This play has everything; love, beauty, and romance, but also sudden, fatal violence early on. Viciousness and danger are continually present, yet just at the point when they threaten to overcome the reader, the action will be tempered by wit, comedy and humour. We are in a masculine world in which notions of honour, pride, and status are prone to erupt in a fury of conflict, but there is a strong female who defies her confined expectations. Rashness, vengeance, passion, grief; they are all here. The motif of fate continues to the very end of the play. Romeo proclaims, "Then I defy you, stars" and"I will lie with thee tonight" in a last desperate attempt to control his own destiny by spending eternity with Juliet.Yet in this ultimate example of tragic irony, this defiant act seals both his fate, and their double suicide. Shakespeare tells his audience that nothing can withstand the power of fate. The neat twists of the ending are supremely ironic, devastating and heart-wrenching. Here is Romeo, in despair,"O true apothecary!Thy drugs are quick. Thus with a kiss I die."And on waking, Juliet,"I will kiss thy lips;Haply some poison yet doth hang on them,To make die with a restorative...O happy dagger!This is thy sheath...There rust and let me die!"It is said that the best way to appreciate Shakespeare is to go to a live performance of a play. Of course in one sense this is true of any play; the live action is how the play was intended to be experienced. But there is a lot to be said for reading Shakespeare on the page. The structure and poetry of the language is so much more evident. The puns and in-jokes are so much clearer. The reader can give pause to properly interpret the manifold meanings of both the exciting events and the rousing speeches. And above all we can marvel at the mastery of a writer who can still speak to us with relevance, move us with poetry and story, and entertain his audience well over 400 years later."For never was a story of more woe Than this of Juliet and her Romeo."
ROMEO AND JULIET: THE MUSICAL (A BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN PRODUCTIONS EXTRAVAGANZA)WHAT THE CRITICS ARE SAYING:"Bruce Springsteen mixes Shakespeare’s best known romance with electric guitars, pianos, keyboards and saxophones." (Rolling Stoned)"Sex, drugs, rock ‘n’ roll, cars, bikes, gangs, bangs, brawls, literature, blood, sugar, death, magik, kitchen sinks, meatloaf, clowns. It’s got everythnig." (Grauniad)"E-Street Bard." (Village Voyce)"Star-crossed Lovers Killed by Loose Windscreen." (Notional Enquirer)"The Boss Updates Big Willie" (The Unyun)"Bruce Shakesteen or William Springspeare: You Decide!" (Variete)"I Haven't Seen It. Have You Seen My Backlog of GR Notifications?" (Paul Bryant)"Like." (Bird Brian)"Well everybody better move over, that's all/He's running on the bad side/And he's got his back to the wall/Tenth avenue freeze-out, tenth avenue freeze-out" (Richard)"This show sets the bar very high, almost out of reach of regular top-shelf drinking patrons." (Bruce Shakespeare, The Australian Shakespearience Dinner and Floorshow)CHORUS:Two households, both alike in dignity,In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.BRUCE:The midnight gang's assembled And picked a rendezvous for the night Man there's an opera on the turnpike There's a ballet being fought in the alley PRINCE:Three civil brawls, bred of an airy word,By thee, old Capulet, and Montague,Have thrice disturb'd the quiet of our streets,And made Verona's ancient citizensCast by their grave beseeming ornaments,To wield old partisans, in hands as old,Canker'd with peace, to part your canker'd hate.BRUCE:Outside the street's on fire In a real death waltz Between what's flesh and what's fantasy And the poets down here Don't write nothing at all They just stand back and let it all be PRINCE:If ever you disturb our streets again,Your lives shall pay the forfeit of the peace.Once more, on pain of death, all men depart.BRUCE:In the quick of the night They reach for their moment And try to make an honest stand But they wind up wounded Not even dead Tonight in JunglelandCHORUS:From forth the fatal loins of these two foes,A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life;Whose misadventured piteous overthrows,Doth with their death bury their parents' strife.Enter Romeo, still love-sick for Rosaline.ROMEO:Rosaline, jump a little higher Senorita, come sit by my fire I just want to be your lover, ain't no liar Rosaline, you're my stone desire MERCUTIO:True, I talk of dreams,Which are the children of an idle brain,Begot of nothing but vain fantasy,Which is as thin of substance as the airAnd more inconstant than the wind.BRUCE:In the day we sweat it out on the streets of a runaway Italian dream At night we ride through the mansions of glory in suicide machines Romeo, still pining for Rosaline, discovers Juliet and becomes newly infatuated.ROMEO:Juliet, let me in, I wanna be your friend, I want to guard your dreams and visions Bruce realises he has competition for Juliet’s love and wants to elope without her parents’ permission.BRUCE:Together we could break this trap We'll run till we drop, baby we'll never go back Romeo pleads even harder, now he has learned about his rival, Bruce.ROMEO:I gotta know how it feels I want to know if love is wild Babe, I want to know if love is real Oh, Juliet, can you show meJuliet learns that Romeo comes from a rival family.JULIET:My only love sprung from my only hate! Too early seen unknown, and known too late!Juliet falls for Romeo regardless.JULIET:What ’s in a name? That which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet.Juliet decides she must confront Bruce and tell him they are not meant to be.JULIET:Bruce, the angels have lost their desire for usI spoke to them just last night and they said they won'tset themselves on fire for us anymoreBruce persists, trying to hold onto the memory of their love.JULIET:I'm really sorry, BruceI've gotta set you looseI know you've got a beat up old BuickAnd dreams of something better for meBut, frankly, I just can't see itMy vision for me can't be achievedIn the back seat of a second hand FiatWhile your friends hang around drinking CoronaBRUCE:You say you don't like it But girl I know you're a liar'Cause when we kiss Ooooh, FireJuliet grows weak and almost falls.BRUCE:What is wrong, my love?JULIET:I have the worst headache.BRUCE:Here take some of these now, and again when you feel the pain coming on.Bruce gives her a small glass bottle of non-prescription drugs. Blue tablets.JULIET:How many should I take?BRUCE:No more than two every four hours.Juliet takes three tablets immediately.JULIET:It hurts me to say but you gotta know itThere’s no point in remaining coyI can’t marry you, Bruce.I could never be happy with a boyFrom Long Branch, New JerseyNo amateur actor or drama queenNo busboy, bellhop or dead ringerFor De Niro or a film student from PomonaNot for me, your guitar-slinging outlaw singer I crave more than an Asbury Duke or an E Street Loner.Romeo looks dashing in his open-necked shirt and film director scarf. Juliet has never seen anything like him.The love between Romeo and Juliet grows in leaps and bounds.JULIET:My bounty is as boundless as the sea, My love as deep; the more I give to thee, The more I have, for both are infinite.ROMEO:Beneath the city two hearts beat Soul engines running through a night so tender In a bedroom locked In whispers of soft refusal And then surrender. JULIET:I long for a real hot-blooded manAn alpha male of the highest orderA man of another world from hereSomeone from across the borderI don't just mean New JerseyOr Philadelphia, PA You see, I love a Prince from far Verona With a flash suit and money to burn, A mansion and a real fast carA smart haircut and a leather-coated bonerHe’s waiting for me nowI've got him in my viewHe's the rising sonOf the House of MontagueROMEO:Baby this town rips the bones from your back It's a death trap, it's a suicide rap We gotta get out while we're young Cause tramps like us, baby we were born to run CHORUS:Wisely and slow; they stumble that run fast.Juliet feels no relief for her headache. She opens the bottle and takes another two tablets. It’s only an hour since her last dose. JULIET:I want to be a starOf the stage and screenI don't want a bit partOr a role that’s obsceneI've had enough of men who work All week for minimum wagesI want to be rememberedThrough time eternal...and for ages and agesMy love’s a director who makes serious filmsNot just action flics designed to wowEven his money men are all agreed“Romeo, Romeo, we’re for art now”The moment he cast his eyes on meHe sat me down and cast me on his couchHe said he’d get my photo in the magazinesAnd we’d drive around all night in limousines Romeo and Juliet resolve to escape in Romeo’s car.JULIET:Just so I could live in this promised landI turned my back on Bruce’s traveling bandNo more Buicks or Fiats for this CapuletDear husband, I pledge to be your wife, JulietSo I can feature in a film cameoIn the front seat of your Alfa, Romeo.Tybalt chases them on a motor bike. He crosses suddenly into Romeo's path and clips the front edge of the car. He loses control of his bike and falls to the thundering road. Romeo can't avoid running over the top of Tybalt and killing him. Still, Romeo rolls his car three times while taking evasive action, and both Romeo and Juliet are knocked unconscious when their heads hit the side door panels.ROMEO:I dreamt my lady came and found me dead (in that order).Juliet wakes first, only to look over to the driver’s seat, where she sees Romeo. She can’t tell if he is alive or dead. She realises that her headache has now become extreme. If she can treat her pain, she can try to help Romeo. She touches her forehead where it hit the inside of the car door and pulls her hand away, covered in blood that still seems to be flowing profusely. Tears form in her eyes and her eyesight becomes blurry. She reaches into her purse and takes another four tablets, in the hope that it will kill her pain. She lapses into unconsciousness.Shortly afterwards, Romeo awakes and finds Juliet still beside him. There is blood everywhere and a white froth has descended from her lips and dried on her chin.ROMEO:O my love! my wife!Death, that hath suck'd the honey of thy breath,Hath had no power yet upon thy beauty:Thou art not conquer'd; beauty's ensign yetIs crimson in thy lips and in thy cheeks,And death's pale flag is not advanced there. Romeo wipes the froth from her lips and gives her one last kiss. He lifts the left leg of his trousers and pulls out his knife.ROMEO:O, hereWill I set up my everlasting rest,And shake the yoke of inauspicious starsFrom this world-wearied flesh. Eyes, look your last!Arms, take your last embrace! and, lips, O youThe doors of breath, seal with a righteous kissA dateless bargain to engrossing death!Come, bitter conduct, come, unsavoury guide!Thou desperate pilot, now at once run onThe dashing rocks thy sea-sick weary bark!Here's to my love!Romeo drags the knife across his throat. He drops the knife and holds his hand to the artery in his neck. He continues to feel the slow, regular pumping of his heart, until it pumps no more.Now, Juliet wakes again. Still groggy, she looks over to Romeo. Convinced by the abundance of blood that he has died, she shakes the rest of the tablets in the bottle into her hand and swallows them eagerly.JULIET:O true apothecary!Thy drugs are quick. Thus with a kiss I die.She kisses Romeo and dies.PRINCE:Never was a story of more woeThan this of Bruce, Juliet and her Romeo.Bruce lives alone and works his day job, almost like an automaton. His only salvation is the time he spends in his beat up old Buick. Every night, he drives the streets of Verona, haunted by the love he felt for Juliet and the guilt that it was the pills he gave her that took her life. Sometimes, through the tears in his eyes, he imagines that he sees her walking down the street, only to lose sight of her as she slips quietly down an alleyway.BRUCE:You're still in love with all the wonder she brings And every muscle in your body sings as the highway ignites You work nine to five and somehow you survive till the night Hell all day they're busting you up on the outside But tonight you're gonna break on through to the inside And it'll be right, it'll be right, and it'll be tonight And you know she will be waiting there And you'll find her somehow you swear Somewhere tonight you run sad and free Until all you can see is the night.APOLOGIES:Please don't sue me, Boss.How can I possibly argue that your lyrics deserve to be on the same page as Shakespeare, unless I shamelessly misappropriate them in the pursuit of parody, pastiche, spoof, send-up or lampoon?This isn't damning with faint praise. This is no piss-take. This is a full-on homage, a big hurrah, a laud almighty. I say, more kudos to the Boss!As the literary theorist Linda Hutcheon puts it (as quoted by my WikiLawyer), "parody...is imitation, not always at the expense of the parodied text." I already have multiple copies of your albums on both CD and vinyl, even the boring ones. I don't need any more, until you release 50th anniversary editions with bonus disks I don't already have. [I really hope I'm still around in 2045, so I can be the first to buy "The Ghost of Tom Joad Uncut".]If that doesn't convince you it's not worth suing me, Brucewad, I won't have any money left to support this great music industry of ours that is being killed by illegal downloads.Please get your lawyers to spare my humble upload.And if they do come looking for me, they'd better be pretty damned fit, coz tramps like us, baby we were born to run.
What do You think about Romeo And Juliet (2004)?
How someone can go and get two degrees in English and not read Romeo and Juliet, I have absolutely no idea. Why I would take it upon myself to read Shakespeare when I’m under no obligation, I’m afraid only fellow writers and lit geeks will understand.It’s among the best-known stories in history, even for people who’ve never come within a mile of the Bard’s plays. Two lovers are kept apart by their feuding families. They must thus pursue their love in secret. But it’s not called The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet because they live happily ever after.The play features some of Shakespeare’s most famous and most eloquent passages; read parts aloud if you can get away with it. It’s also highly compressed, so there’s never any point where you hope for things to just move on. And even if the language is at times hard to follow, you can’t ever get too lost with what’s happening.The lovers’ plight, while sympathetic and heartfelt, is diminished by its lack of dramatization. Their courtship happens in such short order, and a goodly portion off-stage, that it prevents readers from identifying more. Yes, the ultimate tragedy is heightened because of the brevity, but I just feel like it’s a missed opportunity. (A moot point, I suppose, when the author is four centuries deceased.)In the event someone else hasn’t read it yet, do. Every love story owes its existence to Romeo & Juliet. Just don’t expect it to be a definitive rendition on the theme. A lot has happened since the days of Shakespeare.Grade: B-
—Matt
I'm not sure what annoys me more - the play that elevated a story about two teenagers meeting at a ball and instantly "falling in love" then deciding to get married after knowing each other for one night into the most well-known love story of all time, or the middle schools that feed this to kids of the same age group as the main characters to support their angst-filled heads with the idea that yes, they really are in love with that guy/girl they met five minutes ago, and no one can stop them, especially not their meddling parents!Keep in mind that Juliet was THIRTEEN YEARS OLD. (Her father states she "hath not yet seen the change of fourteen years" in 1.2.9). Even in Shakespeare's England, most women were at least 21 before they married and had children. It's not clear how old Romeo is, but either he's also a stupid little kid who needs to be slapped, or he's a child molester, and neither one is a good thing.When I was in middle school or high school, around the time we read this book, I remember a classmate saying in class that when her and her boyfriends' eyes met across the quad, they just knew they were meant to be together forever. How convenient that her soulmate happened to be an immensely popular and good-looking football player, and his soulmate happened to be a gorgeous cheerleader! That's not love at first sight, that's lust at first sight. If they were really lucky, maybe as time went on they would also happen to "click" very well, that lust would develop into love (it didn't), and they would end up together forever (they didn't). But if they saw each other at a school dance, decided they were "like, totally in love," and then the next day decided to run off and get married, we shouldn't encourage that as a romantic love story, we should slap the hell out of them both to wake them up to reality.For what it's worth, my cynicism doesn't come from any bitterness towards life or love. I met my wife when we were 17, and we've now been together almost 10 years, married for a little over 2. Fortunately for me, she turned out to be awesome. If we had decided the day after meeting each other that we were hopelessly in love and needed to get married immediately, we would have been idiots, and I hope someone who I trusted and respected would have slapped me, hard. If we were 13 at the time, that would be even worse. Enlightened adults injecting this into our youth as a classic love story for the generations, providing further support for their angst-filled false ideas of love and marriage, is probably worst of all.
—Nate
@Anuradha I agree, it's definitely my least favourite Shakespeare so far. In the end, the only reason it got 3 stars instead of 2 was because some of the prose is absolutely gorgeous, namely Mercutio's Queen Mab speech. And thank you ;)
—Mia (Parentheses Enthusiast)
