Romeo and Juliet

Otázka: Romeo and Juliet (William Shakespeare)

Jazyk: Angličtina

Přidal(a): hana

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare was born on 23rd of April 1564 in Stratford upon Avon. He was the youngest son of a glove maker John and his wife Mary. He attended the local Grammar school. In 1582 he married Anne Hathaway who was 8 years older. Ten years later he came to London and joined a group of actors called Lord Chamberlain’s men. First, he only helped re-write older plays, but later he started to write his own plays. After his son’s death he returned to Stratford and lived a quiet life with family. He died on 23rd of April 1616. It is the same day he was born.

Shakespeare wrote 37 plays and beautiful sonnets. Mostly he wrote comedies, history plays and tragedies.

Some comedies are:
- The comedy of Errors – it was inspired by the comedy of Plautus
- The Merchant of Venice – it’s the first comedy
- A Midsummer-Night’s Dream – the story is similar to Romeo Juliet, but it’s not a tragedy, it’s a romantic comedy
History plays are:
- Henry VI., Henry V.
- Richard III., Richard II.
- Julius Caesar
Tragedies are:
- Macbeth
- Hamlet
- Othello

Main Characters

Juliet Capulet – she is 14 years old; she falls in love with Romeo, the son of her family’s enemy and they are secretly married.
Romeo Montague – he is son of the Montague family, good-hearted, he falls in love with Juliet
Friar Lawrence – Franciscan friar and a mentor to Romeo and Juliet
The Nurse – she is like a real mother to Julia
Mercutio – close friend to Romeo
Tybalt – Juliet ‘s cousin and her best friend, troublemaker
Paris – he was supposed to marry Julia

Summary

It`s a love story about the unhappy love of two young people. The story takes place in northern Italy, in the city of Verona.

There are two wealthy families, the Montagues and the Capulets.

The Prince of Verona and the townspeople cannot cope with the constant struggles. One day, the servants of both clans will cause further strife, so the prince declares that the person, who breaks peace will be killed.

Romeo is unhappily in love with Rosalie, so his friends take him to the Capulet ball as a distraction. When he sees Juliet at a party, Romeo instantly falls in love with her instead.

When they find out that they are actually enemies because of their families, they are very shocked. Even so, they decide to get married the very next day and Friar Laurence secretly helps them.

Next day, Romeo goes to celebrate their wedding with his friends- Mercutio and Benvolio. But Romeo meets Tybalt, he is Juliet`s cousin, and he gets into a fight with him. Tybalt kills Mercutio and Romeo will kill him for revenge. And that`s why the prince banished him (Romeo violated his agreement).

Juliet`s father decides she should marry Paris, but she disagrees with that.

Juliet asks Lawrence for help and he gives her some potion that makes her look dead for two days and he sends a message about the secret plan to Romeo.

On the day of her wedding with Paris, she takes the potion and fakes her dead. After that, everybody thinks, she is really dead, so her family bury her in family tomb.

She lies in the tomb where she is waiting for Romeo so they can run away together. Romeo didn`t know it was just a plan, because the letter wasn’t delivered to him, so he thought she was really dead.

Romeo goes to Verona and sees his love dead in her tomb, so he drinks poison to die so he can be with his love. When Julie wakes up, she finds out that Romeo is dead, and she kills herself with his dagger.

My opinion

I think it`s beautiful story. But I think they were both young and longing for forbidden love and I don`t know how long they would stay together if their families had a normal friendly relationship.
I like the because it was easy to read, the drama is quick read and I like the romantic stories. So it was good reading for me. But I don’t like the end of story.

Historical context

There are some new fields of science
It is a time of great development and invention.
America was discovered and for the first time the whole earth was sailed.
The first medical autopsy was performed.

Background

It is generally believed that the play is based on a real Italian love story from the 3rd Century. The ‚real families‘ are the Capeletti and the Montecci families.
William Shakespeare wasn’t the first person to write about the Montagues and the Capulets. Shakespeare wrote his version in 1594 which was based on Arthur Brooke’s poem of 1562.
The story wasn’t always called like this, when it was first published it had called The Most Excellent and Lamentable Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet.