In this overview I will offer some ideas and background about the play that might not be apparent in your reading but that I hope will help you understand the play better.
- Shakespeare wrote Romeo & Juliet shortly after he turned 30. It was published about 400 years ago, in 1597. He had already written plays familiar to moviegoers of the 1990s—Richard III and Titus Andronicus, but he had not yet written the plays he has become most famous for—Hamlet, Macbeth, King Lear, and others.
- Contrary to the view presented in Shakespeare in Love, Shakespeare most likely didn't make up the story of Romeo and Juliet because of something that happened in his life. The story goes way back to Greek mythology. It is the myth of Pyramus and Thisbe. In this ancient story, Pyramus and Thisbe fall in love,but their love is prohibited. They run away, but Pyramus thinks Thisbe has been killed by a lion and so stabs himself in despair. When Thisbe discovers him, she also kills herself. A number of writers over the centuries adapted the story. The version Shakespeare was probably most familiar with was a poem by Arthur Brooke written about 30 years before Shakespeare wrote his play.
- Shakespeare based his play on a poem,"Romeus and Juliet" by Arthur Brooke, but he made a lot of changes. Here are some of the main changes. As you read the play, think about why you think he might have made some of these changes:
- Brooke’s version takes place over 9 months, Shakespeare’s takes place in just 2-3 days. What is the effect of his decision so drastically to increase the pace of the love and death?
- Juliet is 18 or 16 years old in the other versions whereas in Shakespeare’s she is just 13. What is the effect of his making her so young?
- (It is not correct that marriage occurred at such an early age in Shakespeare's time. In fact, young women were generally about 22 and young men about 26 when they married.)
- The two most interesting characters, Mercutio and the nurse, are not present in Brooke’s version. What is the effect of Shakespeare giving such prominence to such cynical and realistic characters? How do they affect the meaning of the play?
- Is moderation in love the conclusion audiences come to? Most significantly, Brooke makes the ancient story into a sober moral warning to young lovers. Brooke warns against not obeying parents, having unhonest sexual desires, listening to gossips like the nurse or superstitious Catholic friars, and committing suicide. Does Shakespeare treat Romeo and Juliet's love as a warning or does he view their love in a different light?
- Tragedies in Shakespeare’s day were customarily about great men who fall from power. This play, instead, is about young lovers. The tragedies of great men usually occur because of their faults; Shakespeare begins the play by pointing out that his lovers are “star-cross’d.” What evidence do you find in the play that points to Romeo and Juliet being pawns of outside forces? Are these forces "fate," bad luck, or social forces of family and friends? What evidence do you find for their tragedy resulting from their own decisions? Can it truly be a tragedy if everything happens because of mistakes?
- A basic building block of Elizabethan drama is the juxtaposition of scenes. Scenes are placed next to each other that comment on each other on a graduating scale from parallel to contrasting.
- The strongest juxtaposition is that of Mercutio's dirty-mouthed views of love in the beginning of 2.1 and the balcony scene of Romeo and Juliet later in 2.1. Read the footnotes to Mercutio's lines in 2.1.20 & 24 & 26 to see all the different ways Mercutio can allude to erections and vulvas and semen. Then without a change of location, Romeo eavesdrops on Juliet's beautiful longing for Romeo and he answers her. Why does Shakespeare place Mercutio's foul-mouthed mockery of love right next to some of the most beautiful exchanges of young love ever written?
- Another form of contrast occurs between moods introduced by various characters. Some of the strongest, best defined characters in the play are those of the Nurse, Mercutio, and the friar. These three characters move back and forth between scenes in which they generate comedy and scenes in which they participate in tragedy.
- Are the contrasting moods introduced into the play by the Nurse, Mercutio, and the friar just “comic relief” or are they more? In some of the most emotional parts of the play, there is comedy, ludicrous language, farce, miscomprehension, etc.– attitudes that seem to run contrary to the main feeling. Characters such as the nurse, Mercutio, and the friar embrace both tragic and comic aspects.
- The nurse is sometimes acted only as a talkative gossip. On the other hand, Juliet calls her a "most wicked fiend" because the nurse advises Juliet to marry Paris because the difference between men is inconsequential.
- The friar attempts to manipulate Romeo and Juliet in order to reconcile the feuding families, but his plan of course goes sorely awry. His beneficence is most in question in the final scene when he abandons the dying Juliet.
- Are these variations in tone integrated into the play or are they like off-key notes?
Shakespeare in Love:
- Did falling in love inspire Shakespeare to write Romeo and Juliet ?
- Read more about Shakespeare in Love