Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet

Name of the Book :Romeo and Juliet

Author : William Shakespeare

Year of Publication : Between 1591-1595

Genre :Tragedy

Literary period : Renaissance Age

Writing style : Blank verse

Rating : 5/5

Every avid reader wishes to read Shakespeare atleast once in their lifetime, But what stops them is the difficult language i.e Old English of his works. To overcome this difficulty read the TIPS section below.

Review:

Believe me, there are still some people who haven’t yet read this classic. William Shakespeare, the greatest dramatist of all times will stay with us forever for his timeless contribution to the literature. His works are read and performed all over the world. Romeo and Juliet is the greatest tragedy of all times and is known to everyone even though they haven’t read it. It is this reason that stops people from reading this particular work of art, as they know the plot well. Romeo and Juliet are not just mere characters but they are very much alive in today’s Lovers. Knowing the plot was the only reason that blocked me too from reading it.

The reason I again decided to pick this drama was when I watched the movie. I was halfway through the movie that I was mesmerized by the beautiful dialogues of the star- crossed lovers and decided to read it in the first place. The most striking feature of this drama is the Shakespeare’s style of writing.

Prologue:

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.

From forth the fatal loins of these two foes

A pair of star-cross’d lovers take their life;

Whose misadventur’d piteous overthrows

Doth with their death bury their parents’ strife.

The fearful passage of their death-mark’d love,

And the continuance of their parents’ rage,

Which, but their children’s end, nought could remove,

Is now the two hours’ traffic of our stage;

The which if you with patient ears attend,

What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.

The drama begins with a prologue which almost describes the whole plot. It righty portrays the essence of the play. Play is divided into 5 Acts. The action takes place in Verona and some part of it in Mantua. It introduces the two houses Montagues and Capulet who are pure enemies and the star- crossed lovers where Romeo is a Montague and Juliet is a Capulet. The play spans 4 days- showcasing Romeo & Juliet’s meeting and their love at first sight and the events occurring after their meeting until their death. Pure Love is what Shakespeare has portrayed through Romeo & Juliet.

Like most of the star-crossed lovers, Romeo and Juliet too are entitled to face difficulties to unite with each other. The play portrays the hardships that the couple suffer but all in vain. The important characters of the play according to their contribution in it are as follows: Juliet, Romeo, Frair Lawrance, Nurse, Benvolio, Mercutio, Tybalt and Prince.

Fate is the major force that drives the play. It is the fate that leads the couple to their doom. It also portrays how wrong timing and misunderstandings can alter your life forever. It is the misunderstanding in the end that created the tragedy.

Shakespeare has used foreshadowing element through his character’s dialogues to a great extent in his play such as Lawrance ‘s dialogue: ” Violent delights have violent ends:” Apart from this there are several other dialogues that foreshadows the end of the play.

Play is filled with beautiful Imagery,Simili and metaphors, that spellbounds and memerises the reader. It forces you to pause, step back, read again and relish the beauty of the language and the essence of the dialogue. Satire too has been used to a great extent by several characters. He also shows how Hate can destroy lives. Both the emotions of Love and Hate are in excess. By two contrasting emotions, he means to say in the end, that ‘Love conquers all’ whereas ‘Hate destroys all’.Though it is a work of fiction, it stays in reality and portrays some Universal truths of Time, Love, Hate and Fate. My favourite of it all is the portrayal of timing , that how delay in some minutes. some seconds can create mishaps.

Looking at the title of the play, it is appropriate as the play revolves around the love between Romeo and Juliet. They are the central characters of the play who take forward the action.

I enjoyed reading this play alot. Every emotion was pure, may it be hatred or love. I was an awesome experience. Every dialogue was worth the pause. I’ll definitely Recommend this play to every reader. But if you don’t like Romance genre then it may seem boring to you. N yes, I wont call it a love story to fall for as all of the action takes place in a short period of time. Precisely , some days. But its Shakespeares writing style and dialogues that mesmerised me. N I think its definitely worth reading.

Favourite Quotes:

“He that jests at scar never felt a wound.”

“Do not swear by the moon, for she changes constantly.

then your love would also change.”

“What’s in a name? that which we call a rose

By any other name would smell as sweet.”

“Ay me! sad hours seem long.”

“O Fortune, O Fortune! All men call thee fickle.

Thou hast taken my love; be fickle, Fortune,

For then I hope thou wilt not keep him long

But send him back”.

“Love is a smoke raised with the fume of sighs.”

*****

A quote inspired by the play:

Time, they say, waits for none. But maybe it is humans who don’t wait for the perfect time to arrive. Maybe it is us who are always in so much hurry of everything that we neglect time altogether. Time goes as it is, neither flow nor fast. It is our situation that makes it feel longer or slower. There is nothing as Bad timing, it is the humans haste in everything that destroys their own life.

Tips: Unless you are an language expert or have learnt the Shakespearean style of writing, it will be difficult for you to understand the language of the text as well as its meaning. If you are new to Shakespeare’s work, you shouldn’t directly buy the Old English version.

Nowadays, there are many books available in the market to make Shakespear’s style easy to read. What you must buy is the book with side by side translation, that has normal English translation on one side and old English on one side.

How to began: First you must read the normal English version and then jump on to old English and not vice versa if you are reading Shakespeare for first time. This makes easy to get the essence of the text and then when u read the old English, you are able to understand the wordings more easily. If you cannot find the book, you can download the pdfs that are easily available on internet. SPARKNOTES is one such site that offers side by side easy translation.

Bonus: If you are one of those who like to watch adaptations of the novels/dramas, you can watch Romeo and Juliet movie (2013). I can assure you that this is the best adaptation that I have watched so far. With same dialogues and 99.9% plot accuracy, this is definitely a treat to movie bingers and readers alike.

Thank you!!