is romeo and juliet's love real essay

Website navigation

A Modern Perspective: Romeo and Juliet

By Gail Kern Paster

Does Romeo and Juliet need an introduction? Of all Shakespeare’s plays, it has been the most continuously popular since its first performance in the mid-1590s. It would seem, then, the most direct of Shakespeare’s plays in its emotional impact. What could be easier to understand and what could be more moving than the story of two adolescents finding in their sudden love for each other a reason to defy their families’ mutual hatred by marrying secretly? The tragic outcome of their blameless love (their “misadventured piteous overthrows”) seems equally easy to understand: it results first from Tybalt’s hotheaded refusal to obey the Prince’s command and second from accidents of timing beyond any human ability to foresee or control. Simple in its story line, clear in its affirmation of the power of love over hate, Romeo and Juliet seems to provide both a timeless theme and universal appeal. Its immediacy stands in welcome contrast to the distance, even estrangement, evoked by other Shakespeare plays. No wonder it is often the first Shakespeare play taught in schools—on the grounds of its obvious relevance to the emotional and social concerns of young people.

Recent work by social historians on the history of private life in western European culture, however, offers a complicating perspective on the timelessness of Romeo and Juliet. At the core of the play’s evident accessibility is the importance and privilege modern Western culture grants to desire, regarding it as deeply expressive of individual identity and central to the personal fulfillment of women no less than men. But, as these historians have argued, such conceptions of desire reflect cultural changes in human consciousness—in ways of imagining and articulating the nature of desire. 1 In England until the late sixteenth century, individual identity had been imagined not so much as the result of autonomous, personal growth in consciousness but rather as a function of social station, an individual’s place in a network of social and kinship structures. Furthermore, traditional culture distinguished sharply between the nature of identity for men and women. A woman’s identity was conceived almost exclusively in relation to male authority and marital status. She was less an autonomous, desiring self than any male was; she was a daughter, wife, or widow expected to be chaste, silent, and, above all, obedient. It is a profound and necessary act of historical imagination, then, to recognize innovation in the moment when Juliet impatiently invokes the coming of night and the husband she has disobediently married: “Come, gentle night; come, loving black-browed night, / Give me my Romeo” ( 3.2.21 –23).

Recognizing that the nature of desire and identity is subject to historical change and cultural innovation can provide the basis for rereading Romeo and Juliet. Instead of an uncomplicated, if lyrically beautiful, contest between young love and “ancient grudge,” the play becomes a narrative that expresses an historical conflict between old forms of identity and new modes of desire, between authority and freedom, between parental will and romantic individualism. Furthermore, though the Chorus initially sets the lovers as a pair against the background of familial hatred, the reader attentive to social detail will be struck instead by Shakespeare’s care in distinguishing between the circumstances of male and female lovers: “she as much in love, her means much less / To meet her new belovèd anywhere” ( 2. Chorus. 11 –12, italics added). The story of “Juliet and her Romeo” may be a single narrative, but its clear internal division is drawn along the traditionally unequal lines of gender.

Because of such traditional notions of identity and gender, Elizabethan theatergoers might have recognized a paradox in the play’s lyrical celebration of the beauty of awakened sexual desire in the adolescent boy and girl. By causing us to identify with Romeo and Juliet’s desire for one another, the play affirms their love even while presenting it as a problem in social management. This is true not because Romeo and Juliet fall in love with forbidden or otherwise unavailable sexual partners; such is the usual state of affairs at the beginning of Shakespearean comedy, but those comedies end happily. Rather Romeo and Juliet’s love is a social problem, unresolvable except by their deaths, because they dare to marry secretly in an age when legal, consummated marriage was irreversible. Secret marriage is the narrative device by which Shakespeare brings into conflict the new privilege claimed by individual desire and the traditional authority granted fathers to arrange their daughters’ marriages. Secret marriage is the testing ground, in other words, of the new kind of importance being claimed by individual desire. Shakespeare’s representation of the narrative outcome of this desire as tragic—here, as later in the secret marriage that opens Othello —may suggest something of Elizabethan society’s anxiety about the social cost of romantic individualism.

The conflict between traditional authority and individual desire also provides the framework for Shakespeare’s presentation of the Capulet-Montague feud. The feud, like the lovers’ secret marriage, is another problem in social management, another form of socially problematic desire. We are never told what the families are fighting about or fighting for; in this sense the feud is both causeless and goal-less. The Chorus’s first words insist not on the differences between the two families but on their similarity: they are two households “both alike in dignity.” Later, after Prince Escalus has broken up the street brawl, they are “In penalty alike” ( 1.2.2 ). Ironically, then, they are not fighting over differences. Rather it is Shakespeare’s careful insistence on the lack of difference between Montague and Capulet that provides a key to understanding the underlying social dynamic of the feud. Just as desire brings Romeo and Juliet together as lovers, desire in another form brings the Montague and Capulet males out on the street as fighters. The feud perpetuates a close bond of rivalry between these men that even the Prince’s threat of punishment cannot sever: “Montague is bound as well as I,” Capulet tells Paris ( 1.2.1 ). Indeed, the feud seems necessary to the structure of male-male relations in Verona. Feuding reinforces male identity—loyalty to one’s male ancestors—at the same time that it clarifies the social structure: servants fight with servants, young noblemen with young noblemen, old men with old men. 2

That the feud constitutes a relation of desire between Montague and Capulet is clear from the opening, when the servants Gregory and Sampson use bawdy innuendo to draw a causal link between their virility and their eagerness to fight Montagues: “A dog of that house shall move me to stand,” i.e., to be sexually erect ( 1.1.12 ). The Montagues seem essential to Sampson’s masculinity since, by besting Montague men, he can lay claim to Montague women as symbols of conquest. (This, of course, would be a reductive way of describing what Romeo does in secretly marrying a Capulet daughter.) The feud not only establishes a structure of relations between men based on competition and sexual aggression, but it seems to involve a particularly debased attitude toward women. No matter how comic the wordplay of the Capulet servants may be, we should not forget that the sexual triangle they imagine is based on fantasized rape: “I will push Montague’s men from the wall and thrust his maids to the wall” ( 1.1.18 –19). Gregory and Sampson are not interested in the “heads” of the Montague maidens, which might imply awareness of them as individuals. They are interested only in their “maidenheads.” Their coarse view of woman as generic sexual object is reiterated in a wittier vein by Mercutio, who understands Romeo’s experience of awakened desire only as a question of the sexual availability of his mistress: “O Romeo, that she were, O, that she were / An open-arse, thou a pop’rin pear” ( 2.1.40 –41).

Feuding, then, is the form that male bonding takes in Verona, a bonding which seems linked to the derogation of woman. But Romeo, from the very opening of the play, is distanced both physically and emotionally from the feud, not appearing until the combatants and his parents are leaving the stage. His reaction to Benvolio’s news of the fight seems to indicate that he is aware of the mechanisms of desire that are present in the feud: “Here’s much to do with hate, but more with love” ( 1.1.180 ). But it also underscores his sense of alienation: “This love feel I, that feel no love in this” ( 187 ). He is alienated not only from the feud itself, one feels, but more importantly from the idea of sexuality that underlies it. Romeo subscribes to a different, indeed a competing view of woman—the idealizing view of the Petrarchan lover. In his melancholy, his desire for solitude, and his paradox-strewn language, Romeo identifies himself with the style of feeling and address that Renaissance culture named after the fourteenth-century Italian poet Francesco Petrarca or Petrarch, most famous for his sonnets to Laura. By identifying his beloved as perfect and perfectly chaste, the Petrarchan lover opposes the indiscriminate erotic appetite of a Gregory or Sampson. He uses the frustrating experience of intense, unfulfilled, and usually unrequited passion to refine his modes of feeling and to enlarge his experience of self.

It is not coincidental, then, that Shakespeare uses the language and self-involved behaviors of the Petrarchan lover to dramatize Romeo’s experience of love. For Romeo as for Petrarch, love is the formation of an individualistic identity at odds with other kinds of identity: “I have lost myself. I am not here. / This is not Romeo. He’s some other where” ( 1.1.205 –6). Petrarchan desire for solitude explains Romeo’s absence from the opening clash and his lack of interest in the activities of his gang of friends, whom he accompanies only reluctantly to the Capulet feast: “I’ll be a candle holder and look on” ( 1.4.38 ). His physical isolation from his parents—with whom he exchanges no words in the course of the play—further suggests his shift from traditional, clan identity to the romantic individualism prefigured by Petrarch.

Shakespeare’s comic irony is that such enlargement of self is itself a mark of conventionality, since Petrarchism in European literature was by the late sixteenth century very widespread. A more cutting irony is that the Petrarchan lover and his sensual opponent (Sampson or Gregory) have more in common than is first apparent. The Petrarchan lover, in emphasizing the often paralyzing intensity of his passion, is less interested in praising the remote mistress who inspires such devotion than he is in displaying his own poetic virtuosity and his capacity for self-denial. Such a love—like Romeo’s for Rosaline—is founded upon frustration and requires rejection. The lover is interested in affirming the uniqueness of his beloved only in theory. On closer look, she too becomes a generic object and he more interested in self-display. Thus the play’s two languages of heterosexual desire—Petrarchan praise and anti-Petrarchan debasement—appear as opposite ends of a single continuum, as complementary discourses of woman, high and low. Even when Paris and old Capulet, discussing Juliet as prospective bride, vary the discourse to include a conception of woman as wife and mother, she remains an object of verbal and actual exchange.

In lyric poetry, the Petrarchan mistress remains a function of language alone, unheard, seen only as a collection of ideal parts, a center whose very absence promotes desire. Drama is a material medium, however. In drama, the Petrarchan mistress takes on embodiment and finds an answering voice, like Juliet’s gently noting her sonneteer-pilgrim’s conventionality: “You kiss by th’ book” ( 1.5.122 ). In drama, the mistress may come surrounded by relatives and an inconveniently insistent social milieu. As was noted above, Shakespeare distinguishes sharply between the social circumstances of adolescent males and females. Thus one consequence of setting the play’s domestic action solely within the Capulet household is to set Juliet, the “hopeful lady” of Capulet’s “earth” ( 1.2.15 ), firmly into a familial context which, thanks to the Nurse’s fondness for recollection and anecdote, is rich in domestic detail. Juliet’s intense focus upon Romeo’s surname—“What’s Montague? . . . O, be some other name” ( 2.2.43 , 44 )—is a projection onto her lover of her own conflicted sense of tribal loyalty. Unlike Romeo, whose deepest emotional ties are to his gang of friends, and unlike the more mobile daughters of Shakespearean comedy who often come in pairs, Juliet lives isolated and confined, emotionally as well as physically, by her status as daughter. Her own passage into sexual maturity comes first by way of parental invitation to “think of marriage now” ( 1.3.75 ). Her father invites Paris, the man who wishes to marry Juliet, to attend a banquet and feast his eyes on female beauty: “Hear all, all see, / And like her most whose merit most shall be” ( 1.2.30 –31). Juliet, in contrast, is invited to look only where her parents tell her:

I’ll look to like, if looking liking move.

But no more deep will I endart mine eye

Than your consent gives strength to make it fly.

( 1.3.103 –5)

The logic of Juliet’s almost instant disobedience in looking at, and liking, Romeo (rather than Paris) can be understood as the ironic fulfillment of the fears in traditional patriarchal culture about the uncontrollability of female desire, the alleged tendency of the female gaze to wander. Petrarchism managed the vexed question of female desire largely by wishing it out of existence, describing the mistress as one who, like the invisible Rosaline of this play, “will not stay the siege of loving terms, / Nor bide th’ encounter of assailing eyes” ( 1.1.220 –21). Once Romeo, in the Capulet garden, overhears Juliet’s expression of desire, however, Juliet abandons the conventional denial of desire—“Fain would I dwell on form; fain, fain deny / What I have spoke. But farewell compliment” ( 2.2.93 –94). She rejects the “strength” implied by parental sanction and the protection afforded by the Petrarchan celebration of chastity for a risk-taking experiment in desire that Shakespeare affirms by the beauty of the lovers’ language in their four scenes together. Juliet herself asks Romeo the serious questions that Elizabethan society wanted only fathers to ask. She challenges social prescriptions, designed to contain erotic desire in marriage, by taking responsibility for her own marriage:

If that thy bent of love be honorable,

Thy purpose marriage, send me word tomorrow,

By one that I’ll procure to come to thee,

Where and what time thou wilt perform the rite,

And all my fortunes at thy foot I’ll lay

And follow thee my lord throughout the world.

( 2.2.150 –55)

The irony in her pledge—an irony perhaps most obvious to a modern, sexually egalitarian audience—is that Romeo here is following Juliet on an uncharted narrative path to sexual fulfillment in unsanctioned marriage. Allowing her husband access to a bedchamber in her father’s house, Juliet leads him into a sexual territory beyond the reach of dramatic representation. Breaking through the narrow oppositions of the play’s two discourses of woman—as either anonymous sexual object (for Sampson and Gregory) or beloved woman exalted beyond knowing or possessing (for Petrarch)—she affirms her imaginative commitment to the cultural significance of desire as an individualizing force:

Come, civil night,

Thou sober-suited matron all in black,

And learn me how to lose a winning match

Played for a pair of stainless maidenhoods.

Hood my unmanned blood, bating in my cheeks,

With thy black mantle till strange love grow bold,

Think true love acted simple modesty.

( 3.2.10 –16)

Romeo, when he is not drawn by desire deeper and deeper into Capulet territory, wanders into the open square where the destinies of the play’s other young men—and in part his own too—are enacted. Because the young man’s deepest loyalty is to his friends, Romeo is not really asked to choose between Juliet and his family but between Juliet and Mercutio, who are opposed in the play’s thematic structure. Thus one function of Mercutio’s anti-Petrarchan skepticism about the idealization of woman is to offer resistance to the adult heterosexuality heralded by Romeo’s union with Juliet, resistance on behalf of the regressive pull of adolescent male bonding—being “one of the guys.” This distinction, as we have seen, is in part a question of speaking different discourses. Romeo easily picks up Mercutio’s banter, even its sly innuendo against women. Mercutio himself regards Romeo’s quickness at repartee as the hopeful sign of a return to a “normal” manly identity incompatible with his ridiculous role as lover:

Why, is not this better now than groaning for love? Now art thou sociable, now art thou Romeo, now art thou what thou art, by art as well as by nature. For this driveling love is like a great natural that runs lolling up and down to hide his bauble in a hole.

( 2.4.90 –95)

Implicit here is a central tenet of traditional misogyny that excessive desire for a woman is effeminizing. For Mercutio it is the effeminate lover in Romeo who refuses shamefully to answer Tybalt’s challenge: “O calm, dishonorable, vile submission!” he exclaims furiously ( 3.1.74 ). Mercutio’s death at Tybalt’s hands causes Romeo temporarily to agree, obeying the regressive emotional pull of grief and guilt over his own part in Mercutio’s defeat. “Why the devil came you between us?” Mercutio asks. “I was hurt under your arm” ( 3.1.106 –8). Why, we might ask instead, should Mercutio have insisted on answering a challenge addressed only to Romeo? Romeo, however, displaces blame onto Juliet: “Thy beauty hath made me effeminate / And in my temper softened valor’s steel” ( 3.1.119 –20).

In terms of narrative structure, the death of Mercutio and Romeo’s slaying of Tybalt interrupt the lovers’ progress from secret marriage to its consummation, suggesting the incompatibility between romantic individualism and adolescent male bonding. The audience experiences this incompatibility as a sudden movement from comedy to tragedy. Suddenly Friar Lawrence must abandon hopes of using the love of Capulet and Montague as a force for social reintegration. Instead, he must desperately stave off Juliet’s marriage to Paris, upon which her father insists, by making her counterfeit death and by subjecting her to entombment. The legal finality of consummated marriage—which was the basis for Friar Lawrence’s hopes “to turn your households’ rancor to pure love” ( 2.3.99 )—becomes the instrument of tragic design. It is only the Nurse who would allow Juliet to accept Paris as husband; we are asked to judge such a prospect so unthinkable that we then agree imaginatively to Friar Lawrence’s ghoulish device.

In terms of the play’s symbolic vocabulary, Juliet’s preparations to imitate death on the very bed where her sexual maturation from girl- to womanhood occurred confirms ironically her earlier premonition about Romeo: “If he be marrièd, / My grave is like to be my wedding bed” ( 1.5.148 –49). Her brief journey contrasts sharply with those of Shakespeare’s comic heroines who move out from the social confinement of daughterhood into a freer, less socially defined space (the woods outside Athens in A Midsummer Night’s Dream , the Forest of Arden in As You Like It ). There they can exercise a sanctioned, limited freedom in the romantic experimentation of courtship. Juliet is punished for such experimentation in part because hers is more radical; secret marriage symbolically is as irreversible as “real” death. Her journey thus becomes an internal journey in which her commitment to union with Romeo must face the imaginative challenge of complete, claustrophobic isolation and finally death in the Capulet tomb.

It is possible to see the lovers’ story, as some critics have done, as Shakespeare’s dramatic realization of the ruling metaphors of Petrarchan love poetry—particularly its fascination with “death-marked love” ( Prologue. 9 ). 3 But, in pondering the implications of Shakespeare’s moving his audience to identify with this narrative of initiative, desire, and power, we also do well to remember the psychosocial dynamics of drama. By heightening their powers of identification, drama gives the members of an audience an embodied image of the possible scope and form of their fears and desires. Here we have seen how tragic form operates to contain the complex play of desire/identification. The metaphors of Petrarchan idealization work as part of a complex, ambivalent discourse of woman whose ultimate social function is to encode the felt differences between men and women on which a dominant male power structure is based. Romeo and Juliet find a new discourse of romantic individualism in which Petrarchan idealization conjoins with the mutual avowal of sexual desire. But their union, as we have seen, imperils the traditional relations between males that is founded upon the exchange of women, whether the violent exchange Gregory and Sampson crudely imagine or the normative exchange planned by Capulet and Paris. Juliet, as the daughter whose erotic willfulness activates her father’s transformation from concerned to tyrannical parent, is the greater rebel. Thus the secret marriage in which this new language of feeling is contained cannot here be granted the sanction of a comic outcome. When Romeo and Juliet reunite, it is only to see each other, dead, in the dim confines of the Capulet crypt. In this play the autonomy of romantic individualism remains “star-crossed.”

The story of these massive shifts in European sensibility is told in a five-volume study titled A History of Private Life , gen. eds. Philippe Ariès and Georges Duby (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1987–91). The study covers over three millennia in the history of western Europe. For the period most relevant to Romeo and Juliet, see vol. 3, Passions of the Renaissance (1989), ed. Roger Chartier, trans. Arthur Goldhammer, pp. 399–607.
The best extended discussion of the dynamic of the feud is Coppélia Kahn, Man’s Estate: Masculine Identity in Shakespeare (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1981), pp. 83ff.
Nicholas Brooke, Shakespeare’s Early Tragedies (London: Methuen, 1968), pp. 82ff.

Stay connected

Find out what’s on, read our latest stories, and learn how you can get involved.

Love in 'Romeo and Juliet'

Shakespeare's Life and World
Best Sellers
Classic Literature
Plays & Drama
Short Stories
Children's Books
M.A., Theater Studies, Warwick University
B.A., Drama and English, DeMontfort University

The play "Romeo and Juliet" has become forever associated with love. It's a truly iconic story of romance and passion—even the name “Romeo” is still used to describe enthusiastic young lovers.

But while the romantic love between the titular characters is often what we think of when we consider the love theme in "Romeo and Juliet," Shakespeare ’s treatment of the concept of love is complex and multifaceted. Through different characters and relationships, he portrays some of the various types of love and the different ways it can manifest.

These are some of the expressions of love Shakespeare threads together to create the play.

Shallow Love

Some characters fall in and out of love very quickly in "Romeo and Juliet." For example, Romeo is in "love" with Rosaline at the start of the play, but it is presented as an immature infatuation. Today, we might use the term “puppy love” to describe it. Romeo’s love for Rosaline is shallow, and nobody really believes that it will last, including Friar Laurence:

Romeo: Thou chid'st me oft for loving Rosaline. Friar Laurence: For doting, not for loving, pupil mine. (Act Two, Scene Three)

Similarly, Paris’ love for Juliet is borne out of tradition, not passion. He has identified her as a good candidate for a wife and approaches her father to arrange the marriage. Although this was the tradition at the time, it also says something about Paris’ staid, unpassionate attitude toward love. He even admits to Friar Laurence that in his haste to rush the wedding, he hasn’t discussed it with his bride-to-be:

Friar Laurence: On Thursday, sir? the time is very short. Paris: My father Capulet will have it so; And I am nothing slow to slack his haste. Friar Laurence: You say you do not know the lady's mind: Uneven is the course, I like it not. Paris: Immoderately she weeps for Tybalt's death, And therefore have I little talked of love. (Act Four, Scene One)

Friendly Love

Many of the friendships in the play are as sincere as Romeo and Juliet’s love for one another. The best example of this is in Act Three, Scene One, where Mercutio and Romeo fight Tybalt. When Romeo attempts to bring peace, Mercutio fights back at Tybalt's slander of Romeo. Then, it is out of rage over Mercutio's death that Romeo pursues—and kills—Tybalt:

Romeo: In triumph, and Mercutio slain! Away to heaven, respective lenity, And fire-eyed fury be my conduct now.— Now, Tybalt, take the “villain” back again That late thou gavest me, for Mercutio’s soul Is but a little way above our heads, Staying for thine to keep him company. Either thou or I, or both, must go with him. (Act Three, Scene One)

It is out of friendly love for his companion that Romeo acts out.

Romantic Love

Then, of course, is romantic love, the classic idea of which is embodied in "Romeo and Juliet." In fact, maybe it is "Romeo and Juliet" that has influenced our definition of the concept. The characters are deeply infatuated with one another, so committed to being together that they defy their respective families.

Romeo: By a name I know not how to tell thee who I am. My name, dear saint, is hateful to myself Because it is an enemy to thee. Had I it written, I would tear the word. (Act Two, Scene Two)

Perhaps Romeo and Juliet's love is fate ; their love is given a cosmic significance, which suggests that the universe plays a role in the creation of deep romantic love. Despite their love being disallowed by the Capulet and Montague households , they inevitably—and irresistibly—find themselves drawn together.

Juliet: Prodigious birth of love it is to me That I must love a loathèd enemy. Act One, Scene Five)

All in all, Shakespeare presents romantic love as a force of nature, so strong that it transcends expectations, tradition, and—through the combined suicides of lovers who cannot live without one another—life itself.

The Supporting Cast of 'Romeo and Juliet'
Romeo and Juliet From 'Beautiful Stories From Shakespeare'
The House of Montague in 'Romeo and Juliet'
'Romeo and Juliet' Scenes
Members of the Montague-Capulet Feud in 'Romeo and Juliet'
Romeo: Shakespeare's Famous Doomed Lover
The Role of Fate in 'Romeo and Juliet'
The House of Capulet in Romeo and Juliet
Romeo's Monologues From "Romeo and Juliet
The Recurrent Theme of Love in Shakespeare's Plays
Juliet's Monologues From Shakespeare's Tragedy
Key 'Romeo and Juliet' Quotes
Mercutio Monologues
A Character Profile of Juliet From 'Romeo and Juliet'
Academic Speculation on the Year Shakespeare Wrote ‘Romeo and Juliet’
Must-Read Books If You Like Romeo and Juliet

A Summary and Analysis of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

Although it was first performed in the 1590s, the first documented performance of Romeo and Juliet is from 1662. The diarist Samuel Pepys was in the audience, and recorded that he ‘saw “Romeo and Juliet,” the first time it was ever acted; but it is a play of itself the worst that ever I heard in my life, and the worst acted that ever I saw these people do.’

Despite Pepys’ dislike, the play is one of Shakespeare’s best-loved and most famous, and the story of Romeo and Juliet is well known. However, the play has become so embedded in the popular psyche that Shakespeare’s considerably more complex play has been reduced to a few key aspects: ‘star-cross’d lovers’, a teenage love story, and the suicide of the two protagonists.

In the summary and analysis that follow, we realise that Romeo and Juliet is much more than a tragic love story.

Romeo and Juliet : brief summary

After the Prologue has set the scene – we have two feuding households, Montagues and Capulets, in the city-state of Verona; and young Romeo is a Montague while Juliet, with whom Romeo is destined to fall in love, is from the Capulet family, sworn enemies of the Montagues – the play proper begins with servants of the two feuding households taunting each other in the street.

When Benvolio, a member of house Montague, arrives and clashes with Tybalt of house Capulet, a scuffle breaks out, and it is only when Capulet himself and his wife, Lady Capulet, appear that the fighting stops. Old Montague and his wife then show up, and the Prince of Verona, Escalus, arrives and chastises the people for fighting. Everyone leaves except Old Montague, his wife, and Benvolio, Montague’s nephew. Benvolio tells them that Romeo has locked himself away, but he doesn’t know why.

Romeo appears and Benvolio asks his cousin what is wrong, and Romeo starts speaking in paradoxes, a sure sign that he’s in love. He claims he loves Rosaline, but will not return any man’s love. A servant appears with a note, and Romeo and Benvolio learn that the Capulets are holding a masked ball.

Benvolio tells Romeo he should attend, even though he is a Montague, as he will find more beautiful women than Rosaline to fall in love with. Meanwhile, Lady Capulet asks her daughter Juliet whether she has given any thought to marriage, and tells Juliet that a man named Paris would make an excellent husband for her.

Romeo attends the Capulets’ masked ball, with his friend Mercutio. Mercutio tells Romeo about a fairy named Queen Mab who enters young men’s minds as they dream, and makes them dream of love and romance. At the masked ball, Romeo spies Juliet and instantly falls in love with her; she also falls for him.

They kiss, but then Tybalt, Juliet’s kinsman, spots Romeo and recognising him as a Montague, plans to confront him. Old Capulet tells him not to do so, and Tybalt reluctantly agrees. When Juliet enquires after who Romeo is, she is distraught to learn that he is a Montague and thus a member of the family that is her family’s sworn enemies.

Romeo breaks into the gardens of Juliet’s parents’ house and speaks to her at her bedroom window. The two of them pledge their love for each other, and arrange to be secretly married the following night. Romeo goes to see a churchman, Friar Laurence, who agrees to marry Romeo and Juliet.

After the wedding, the feud between the two families becomes violent again: Tybalt kills Mercutio in a fight, and Romeo kills Tybalt in retaliation. The Prince banishes Romeo from Verona for his crime.

Juliet is told by her father that she will marry Paris, so Juliet goes to seek Friar Laurence’s help in getting out of it. He tells her to take a sleeping potion which will make her appear to be dead for two nights; she will be laid to rest in the family vault, and Romeo (who will be informed of the plan) can secretly come to her there.

However, although that part of the plan goes fine, the message to Romeo doesn’t arrive; instead, he hears that Juliet has actually died. He secretly visits her at the family vault, but his grieving is interrupted by the arrival of Paris, who is there to lay flowers. The two of them fight, and Romeo kills him.

Convinced that Juliet is really dead, Romeo drinks poison in order to join Juliet in death. Juliet wakes from her slumber induced by the sleeping draught to find Romeo dead at her side. She stabs herself.

The play ends with Friar Laurence telling the story to the two feuding families. The Prince tells them to put their rivalry behind them and live in peace.

Romeo and Juliet : analysis

How should we analyse Romeo and Juliet , one of Shakespeare’s most famous and frequently studied, performed, and adapted plays? Is Romeo and Juliet the great love story that it’s often interpreted as, and what does it say about the play – if it is a celebration of young love – that it ends with the deaths of both romantic leads?

It’s worth bearing in mind that Romeo and Juliet do not kill themselves specifically because they are forbidden to be together, but rather because a chain of events (of which their families’ ongoing feud with each other is but one) and a message that never arrives lead to a misunderstanding which results in their suicides.

Romeo and Juliet is often read as both a tragedy and a great celebration of romantic love, but it clearly throws out some difficult questions about the nature of love, questions which are rendered even more pressing when we consider the headlong nature of the play’s action and the fact that Romeo and Juliet meet, marry, and die all within the space of a few days.

Below, we offer some notes towards an analysis of this classic Shakespeare play and explore some of the play’s most salient themes.

It’s worth starting with a consideration of just what Shakespeare did with his source material. Interestingly, two families known as the Montagues and Capulets appear to have actually existed in medieval Italy: the first reference to ‘Montagues and Capulets’ is, curiously, in the poetry of Dante (1265-1321), not Shakespeare.

In Dante’s early fourteenth-century epic poem, the Divine Comedy , he makes reference to two warring Italian families: ‘Come and see, you who are negligent, / Montagues and Capulets, Monaldi and Filippeschi / One lot already grieving, the other in fear’ ( Purgatorio , canto VI). Precisely why the families are in a feud with one another is never revealed in Shakespeare’s play, so we are encouraged to take this at face value.

The play’s most famous line references the feud between the two families, which means Romeo and Juliet cannot be together. And the line, when we stop and consider it, is more than a little baffling. The line is spoken by Juliet: ‘Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?’ Of course, ‘wherefore’ doesn’t mean ‘where’ – it means ‘why’.

But that doesn’t exactly clear up the whys and the wherefores. The question still doesn’t appear to make any sense: Romeo’s problem isn’t his first name, but his family name, Montague. Surely, since she fancies him, Juliet is quite pleased with ‘Romeo’ as he is – it’s his family that are the problem. Solutions have been proposed to this conundrum , but none is completely satisfying.

There are a number of notable things Shakespeare did with his source material. The Italian story ‘Mariotto and Gianozza’, printed in 1476, contained many of the plot elements of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet . Shakespeare’s source for the play’s story was Arthur Brooke’s The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet (1562), an English verse translation of this Italian tale.

The moral of Brooke’s tale is that young love ends in disaster for their elders, and is best reined in; Shakespeare changed that. In Romeo and Juliet , the headlong passion and excitement of young love is celebrated, even though confusion leads to the deaths of the young lovers. But through their deaths, and the example their love set for their parents, the two families vow to be reconciled to each other.

Shakespeare also makes Juliet a thirteen-year-old girl in his play, which is odd for a number of reasons. We know that Romeo and Juliet is about young love – the ‘pair of star-cross’d lovers’, who belong to rival families in Verona – but what is odd about Shakespeare’s play is how young he makes Juliet.

In Brooke’s verse rendition of the story, Juliet is sixteen. But when Shakespeare dramatised the story, he made Juliet several years younger, with Romeo’s age unspecified. As Lady Capulet reveals, Juliet is ‘not [yet] fourteen’, and this point is made to us several times, as if Shakespeare wishes to draw attention to it and make sure we don’t forget it.

This makes sense in so far as Juliet represents young love, but what makes it unsettling – particularly for modern audiences – is the fact that this makes Juliet a girl of thirteen when she enjoys her night of wedded bliss with Romeo. As John Sutherland puts it in his (and Cedric Watts’) engaging Oxford World’s Classics: Henry V, War Criminal?: and Other Shakespeare Puzzles , ‘In a contemporary court of law [Romeo] would receive a longer sentence for what he does to Juliet than for what he does to Tybalt.’

There appears to be no satisfactory answer to this question, but one possible explanation lies in one of the play’s recurring themes: bawdiness and sexual familiarity. Perhaps surprisingly given the youthfulness of its tragic heroine, Romeo and Juliet is shot through with bawdy jokes, double entendres, and allusions to sex, made by a number of the characters.

These references to physical love serve to make Juliet’s innocence, and subsequent passionate romance with Romeo, even more noticeable: the journey both Romeo and Juliet undertake is one from innocence (Romeo pointlessly and naively pursuing Rosaline; Juliet unversed in the ways of love) to experience.

In the last analysis, Romeo and Juliet is a classic depiction of forbidden love, but it is also far more sexually aware, more ‘adult’, than many people realise.

Discover more from Interesting Literature

Subscribe to get the latest posts to your email.

Type your email…

4 thoughts on “A Summary and Analysis of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet”

Modern reading of the play’s opening dialogue among the brawlers fails to parse the ribaldry. Sex scares the bejeepers out of us. Why? Confer “R&J.”

It’s all that damn padre’s fault!

Pingback: A Summary and Analysis of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet
Pingback: A Short Analysis of the ‘Two Households’ Prologue to Romeo and Juliet – Interesting Literature

Comments are closed.

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Romeo and Juliet

William shakespeare, ask litcharts ai: the answer to your questions.

“These violent delights have violent ends,” says Friar Laurence in an attempt to warn Romeo , early on in the play, of the dangers of falling in love too hard or too fast. In the world of Romeo and Juliet , love is not pretty or idealized—it is chaotic and dangerous. Throughout the play, love is connected through word and action with violence, and Romeo and Juliet ’s deepest mutual expression of love occurs when the “star-crossed lovers take their life.” By connecting love with pain and ultimately with suicide, Shakespeare suggests that there is an inherent sense of violence in many of the physical and emotional facets of expressing love—a chaotic and complex emotion very different from the serene, idealized sweetness it’s so often portrayed as being.

There are countless instances throughout Romeo and Juliet in which love and violence are connected. After their marriage, Juliet imagines in detail the passion she and Romeo will share on their wedding night, and invokes the Elizabethan characterization of orgasm as a small death or “petite mort”—she looks forward to the moment she will “die” and see Romeo’s face reflected in the stars above her. When Romeo overhears Juliet say that she wishes he were not a Montague so that they could be together, he declares that his name is “hateful” and offers to write it down on a piece of paper just so he can rip it up and obliterate it—and, along with it, his very identity, and sense of self as part of the Montague family. When Juliet finds out that her parents, ignorant of her secret marriage to Romeo, have arranged for her to marry Paris , she goes to Friar Laurence’s chambers with a knife, threatening to kill herself if he is unable to come up with a plan that will allow her to escape her second marriage. All of these examples represent just a fraction of the instances in which language and action conspire to render love as a “violent delight” whose “violent ends” result in danger, injury, and even death. Feeling oneself in the throes of love, Shakespeare suggests, is tumultuous and destabilizing enough—but the real violence of love, he argues, emerges in the many ways of expressing love.

Emotional and verbal expressions of love are the ones most frequently deployed throughout the play. Romeo and Juliet wax poetic about their great love for each other—and the misery they feel as a result of that love—over and over again, and at great lengths. Often, one of their friends or servants must cut them off mid-speech—otherwise, Shakespeare seems to suggest, Romeo and Juliet would spend hours trying to wrestle their feelings into words. Though Romeo and Juliet say lovely things about one another, to be sure, their speeches about each other, or about love more broadly, are almost always tinged with violence, which illustrates their chaotic passion for each other and their desire to mow down anything that stands in its way. When Romeo, for instance, spots Juliet at her window in the famous “balcony scene” in Act 2, Scene 2, he wills her to come closer by whispering, “Arise, fair sun ”—a beautiful metaphor of his love and desire for Juliet—and quickly follows his entreaty with the dangerous language “and kill the envious moon, Who is already sick and pale with grief.” Juliet’s “sun”-like radiance makes Romeo want her to “kill” the moon (or Rosaline ,) his former love and her rival in beauty and glory, so that Juliet can reign supreme over his heart. Later on in the play, when the arrival of dawn brings an end to Romeo and Juliet’s first night together as man and wife, Juliet invokes the symbol of a lark’s song—traditionally a symbol of love and sweetness—as a violent, ill-meaning presence which seeks to pull Romeo and Juliet apart, “arm from arm,” and “hunt” Romeo out of Juliet’s chambers. Romeo calls love a “rough” thing which “pricks” him like a thorn; Juliet says that if she could love and possess Romeo in the way she wants to, as if he were her pet bird, she would “kill [him] with much cherishing.” The way the two young lovers at the heart of the play speak about love shows an enormously violent undercurrent to their emotions—as they attempt to name their feelings and express themselves, they resort to violence-tinged speech to convey the enormity of their emotions.

Physical expressions of love throughout the play also carry violent connotations. From Romeo and Juliet’s first kiss, described by each of them as a “sin” and a “trespass,” to their last, in which Juliet seeks to kill herself by sucking remnants of poison from the dead Romeo’s lips, the way Romeo and Juliet conceive of the physical and sexual aspects of love are inextricable from how they conceive of violence. Juliet looks forward to “dying” in Romeo’s arms—again, one Elizabethan meaning of the phrase “to die” is to orgasm—while Romeo, just after drinking a vial of poison so lethal a few drops could kill 20 men, chooses to kiss Juliet as his dying act. The violence associated with these acts of sensuality and physical touch furthers Shakespeare’s argument that attempts to adequately express the chaotic, overwhelming, and confusing feelings of intense passion often lead to a commingling with violence.

Violent expressions of love are at the heart of Romeo and Juliet . In presenting and interrogating them, Shakespeare shows his audiences—in the Elizabethan area, the present day, and the centuries in-between—that love is not pleasant, reserved, cordial, or sweet. Rather, it is a violent and all-consuming force. As lovers especially those facing obstacles and uncertainties like the ones Romeo and Juliet encounter, struggle to express their love, there may be eruptions of violence both between the lovers themselves and within the communities of which they’re a part.

Love and Violence ThemeTracker

Love and Violence Quotes in Romeo and Juliet

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 misadventured 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.

Why then, O brawling love! O loving hate! O any thing, of nothing first created; O heavy lightness! serious vanity! Mis-shapen chaos of well-seeming forms!

Oh, she doth teach the torches to burn bright! It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night Like a rich jewel in an Ethiope's ear, Beauty too rich for use, for earth too dear. So shows a snowy dove trooping with crows As yonder lady o'er her fellows shows. The measure done, I'll watch her place of stand, And, touching hers, make blessèd my rude hand. Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight! For I ne'er saw true beauty till this night.

You kiss by th’ book.

My only love sprung from my only hate! Too early seen unknown, and known too late!

But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Juliet is the sun!

O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo? Deny thy father and refuse thy name; Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love, And I'll no longer be a Capulet.

'Tis but thy name that is my enemy; — Thou art thyself though, not a Montague. What's Montague? It is nor hand, nor foot, Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part Belonging to a man. O, be some other name! What's in a name? That which we call a rose, By any other word would smell as sweet; So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call'd, Retain that dear perfection which he owes Without that title: — Romeo, doff thy name; And for thy name, which is no part of thee, Take all myself.

I take thee at thy word: Call me but love, and I'll be new baptis'd; Henceforth I never will be Romeo.

O, swear not by the moon, the inconstant moon, That monthly changes in her circled orb, Lest that thy love prove likewise variable.

Good-night, good-night! Parting is such sweet sorrow That I shall say good-night till it be morrow.

Romeo, the hate I bear thee can afford No better term than this: thou art a villain.

Romeo: Courage, man; the hurt cannot be much. Mercutio: No, 'tis not so deep as a well, nor so wide as a church-door; but 'tis enough, 'twill serve: ask for me to-morrow, and you shall find me a grave man.

O, I am fortune's fool!

Come, gentle night, — come, loving black brow'd night, Give me my Romeo; and when he shall die, Take him and cut him out in little stars, And he will make the face of Heaven so fine That all the world will be in love with night, And pay no worship to the garish sun.

Wilt thou be gone? it is not yet near day. It was the nightingale, and not the lark, That pierc'd the fearful hollow of thine ear; Nightly she sings on yond pomegranate tree. Believe me love, it was the nightingale.

Is there no pity sitting in the clouds That sees into the bottom of my grief? O sweet my mother, cast me not away! Delay this marriage for a month, a week, Or if you do not, make the bridal bed In that dim monument where Tybalt lies.

Or bid me go into a new-made grave, And hide me with a dead man in his shroud - Things that, to hear them told, have made me tremble - And I will do it without fear or doubt, To live an unstain'd wife to my sweet love.

Then I defy you, stars!

O true apothecary! Thy drugs are quick. — Thus with a kiss I die.

Yea, noise, then I'll be brief; O, happy dagger! This is thy sheath; there rest, and let me die.

For never was a story of more woe Than this of Juliet and her Romeo.

Home — Essay Samples — Literature — Romeo and Juliet — Theme of Love in Romeo and Juliet

Theme of Love in Romeo and Juliet

Categories: Romeo and Juliet Tragedy William Shakespeare

About this sample

Words: 1071 |

Published: Feb 8, 2022

Words: 1071 | Pages: 2 | 6 min read

This essay discusses the theme of love in Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet." Love is a central theme in the play, explored in various forms, including romantic love between the titular characters, familial love, and the love between Juliet and her Nurse.

The essay highlights how Romeo and Juliet experience a deep and passionate love for each other, even to the extent of risking their lives. They meet at a Capulet party and fall in love at first sight, leading to a secret marriage. Their love is intense and unwavering, ultimately culminating in a tragic double suicide when they believe they cannot be together.

The essay also delves into the relationships between Juliet and her parents. While her parents, particularly her father, love her dearly, they have different ideas about her future, intending to marry her off to County Paris. Juliet, however, is too consumed by her love for Romeo to consider this arrangement. This contrast in their desires contributes to the tragic outcome of the story.

The role of the Nurse, who has been like a mother to Juliet, is discussed as well. The Nurse's love for Juliet is evident, but she also plays a role in Juliet's secret romance with Romeo, at times offering both support and humor.

Works Cited

Andrews, J. (1989). Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet: The Relationship between Text and Film. Literature/Film Quarterly, 17(2), 80–88. https://doi.org/10.2307/43797710
Atchity, K. (2004). Shakespearean Tragedy: The Basics. Blackwell Publishing.
Dobson, M. (Ed.). (2010). The Oxford Companion to Shakespeare. Oxford University Press.
Greenblatt, S. (2004). Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare. W. W. Norton & Company.
Kirschbaum, L. (2011). Shakespeare and the Idea of Love. Bloomsbury Arden Shakespeare.
Leggatt, A. (1989). Shakespeare’s Tragedies: Violation and Identity. Cambridge University Press.
Lerner, L. (2005). The Triumph of Love: Same-Sex Marriage and the Politics of Romance in Shakespeare’s Comedy. University of Chicago Press.
Shakespeare, W. (2016). Romeo and Juliet (Revised Edition). Edited by Jill L. Levenson. Penguin Classics.
Smith, D. (2013). Love in the Western World. Princeton University Press.
Vickers, B. (1998). Shakespeare, Co-Author: A Historical Study of Five Collaborative Plays. Oxford University Press.

Cite this Essay

Let us write you an essay from scratch

450+ experts on 30 subjects ready to help
Custom essay delivered in as few as 3 hours

Get high-quality help

Verified writer

Expert in: Literature

+ 120 experts online

By clicking “Check Writers’ Offers”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy . We’ll occasionally send you promo and account related email

No need to pay just yet!

Related Essays

3 pages / 1349 words

3.5 pages / 1634 words

1 pages / 653 words

4 pages / 1712 words

Remember! This is just a sample.

You can get your custom paper by one of our expert writers.

121 writers online

Still can’t find what you need?

Browse our vast selection of original essay samples, each expertly formatted and styled

Related Essays on Romeo and Juliet

The tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, written by William Shakespeare, is one of the most famous love stories in literature. Throughout the play, Shakespeare uses various forms of figurative language to enhance the themes of love, [...]

Character foils are a common literary device used by authors to highlight and contrast the traits of different characters in a story. In William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, the use of character foils is particularly [...]

The tragic tale of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare is a timeless classic that continues to captivate audiences worldwide. One of the central themes of the play is the concept of fatal flaws, which are inherent weaknesses [...]

The tragic story of Romeo and Juliet is one of the most famous and enduring tales of love and loss in literature. The conclusion of their story is a poignant and heartbreaking moment that has captivated audiences for centuries. [...]

Life is driven by both choice and faith but choice is mainly what life is driven by. To begin with, fate is responsible for the reason that both Romeo and Juliet were born into two opposite families that hate each other, yet [...]

In the context of human society, a family is a group of people either related to each other by blood or by marriage or other relationships. Since human society continues to exist the concept of a family shall continue to exist. [...]

Get Your Personalized Essay in 3 Hours or Less!

We use cookies to personalyze your web-site experience. By continuing we’ll assume you board with our cookie policy .

Instructions Followed To The Letter
Deadlines Met At Every Stage
Unique And Plagiarism Free

114 Romeo and Juliet Essay Titles & Examples

Looking for Romeo and Juliet essay titles? The world’s most tragic story is worth writing about!

🥀 Best Romeo and Juliet Essay Titles

🖤 romeo and juliet essay prompts.

🏆 Best Romeo and Juliet Essay Examples

📌 Interesting Romeo and Juliet Essay Topics

🎭 easy titles for romeo and juliet essays, 👍 exciting romeo and juliet title ideas, ❓ romeo and juliet essay questions.

Romeo and Juliet is probably the most famous tragedy by William Shakespeare. It is a story of two young lovers whose deaths reconcile their feuding families. Whether you are assigned an argumentative, persuasive, or analytical essay on this piece of literature, this article will answer all your questions. Below you’ll find Romeo and Juliet essay examples, thesis ideas, and paper topics.

“Romeo and Juliet”: character analysis
What role does the setting play in “Romeo and Juliet”?
“Romeo and Juliet” and antique tradition of tragic love stories
Theme of love in “Romeo and Juliet”
What role does the theme of fate play in “Romeo and Juliet”?
“Romeo and Juliet”: dramatic structure analysis
Analyze the balcony scene in “Romeo and Juliet”
“Romeo and Juliet”: feminist criticism
The most famous adaptations of “Romeo and Juliet”
“Romeo and Juliet” in the world culture

Keep reading to learn the key points you can use to write a successful paper.

Original Italian Tale vs. Shakespeare’s Tragedy

The story described in Shakespeare’s tragedy is based on the Italian tale that was translated into English in the sixteenth century. Original version represents situations and lines from Romeo and Juliet lives.

Shakespeare added a few more main characters: Mercutio, Paris, and Tybalt. Numerous researches state that Shakespeare used three sources to write his tragedy: a novella Giulietta e Romeo by Matteo Bandello, written in 1554; a story Il Novellio, by Masuccio Salernitano; and the Historia Novellamente Ritrovata di Due Nobili Amanti, written by Luigi Da Porto.

You can learn more about these novels to find out similarities and differences between primary sources and Shakespeare’s work

Love and Fate in Romeo and Juliet

If you’re going to write Romeo and Juliet essay on fate, read this paragraph. Fate is the fundamental concept of the plot. It makes us look at Romeo and Juliet affair as a single tragedy.

At the same time, another core element of the story is love. From the very beginning of the drama, you will clearly understand that the story will end in tragedy.

Shakespeare shows us the value of fate events.

However, love remains a crucial thematic element. The roles of Nurse, Paris, and Romeo show us a physical attraction, sympathy, and romantic affection while being the embodiment of love. Analyze what type of love is represented by each character in your essay. Explain, what do you think real love is.

Value and Duality in Romeo and Juliet

Among the central idea to consider for your Romeo and Juliet essay titles is an issue of value and duality. Shakespeare actively uses duality in his tragedy by representing the deaths of Romeo and Juliet as reasons of tragedy in Verona, which brought new order to the city.

Friar Laurence also reveals ambiguity when he helped Romeo and thus forced young lovers to suffer in the end. The decision to marry couple had a reason to end the conflict between Montague and Capulets.

Romeo and Juliet’s example discloses happiness and blame brought by key episodes and change in society. In your writing, you may analyze how the effect of adoration had influenced Romeo, Juliet, and other people lives.

Masculinity in Romeo and Juliet

A lot of Romeo and Juliet essay examples analyze the role of gender and masculinity in the tragedy. Mercutio is shown as a classic example of a real man: active, brave citizen.

He is a person of action. On the other hand, Romeo is described as a boy who seeks for love. Romeo and Juliet love thrown into quarreling world.

You can analyze the reasons why Romeo fights and kills Paris when finding him near Juliet body.

Covering all of the points mentioned above will help you to produce an outstanding Romeo and Juliet essay. Check the samples below to get inspiration and more ideas that you can use in your own paper.

🏆 Best Romeo and Juliet Topic Ideas & Essay Examples

Different Types of Love Portrayed in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet Term Paper In regards to this communication, the issue of romantic love between Romeo and Juliet is highlighted7. The concept of true love is no where to be seen in Romeo and Juliet’s relationship.
William Shakespeare “Romeo and Juliet” and “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” This paper examines romantic love as the source of joy and fulfillment in “Romeo and Juliet” and “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”. Love is the source of pain and suffering in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”.
The Portrayal of Fate in “Romeo and Juliet” Thus, the play Romeo and Juliet demonstrates that fate is the invisible, unavoidable force behind the entirety of the human experience.
Symbolism and Foreshadowing in “Romeo and Juliet” The love of Juliet to Romeo at the early stages is described as the “bud love, expected to grow into a beauteous flower” when the two meet later.
Analysis of the Play ‘Romeo and Juliet’ Another interesting scene of the production that makes it real understanding of the authors work is the casting of the romantic love between Romeo and Juliet, the physical love of the nurse and the contractual […]
The Renaissance Time During Romeo and Juliet Men and women performed different roles in the household; the man was responsible for farming while the woman took care of the poultry and dairy. In the upper-class, marriages were arranged and the parents chose […]
William Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” in Baz Luhrmann’s Interpretation The fragility of love in this work is contrasted with its hardness – it can be compared in quality and beauty to a cut diamond.
Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet: Act 1 Scene 4 Review In this speech alone we see Mercutio in direct opposition to all of the characters in Romeo and Juliet while at the same time we are provided an alternate point of view to the ideals […]
Breaking the Rules: Romeo and Juliet’s Quest for Independence Finally, the death of Romeo and Juliet puts an end to their love and is powerful enough to reconcile their feuding families.
Romeo and Juliet’s Analysis and Comparison With the Film Romeo Must Die It can be concluded that, in the case of the original Romeo and Juliet, the main heroes are dying, but their families reconcile.
Franco Zeffirelli’s “Romeo and Juliet” Adaptation As the plot of the play develops and the reader gets more involved in the reading of the play, the constant need to read the stage directions has a disruptive effect on the reader’s interaction […]
“Romeo and Juliet” by William Shakespeare: Play’s Concept In Romeo and Juliet, the development of characters eventually led to the tragedy of the main characters. The love of Romeo and Juliet is a remarkable love as they have to undergo many obstacles to […]
Forbidden Love in Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare From Freud’s perspective, the characters’ problems can be perceived as the result of a conflict between their superego, id and ego.
Analysis of “Romeo and Juliet” Directed by Simon Godwin The actors played in the theater without an audience, and the shooting itself took two and a half weeks, but also due to the director’s attempt to combine the action on the theater stage and […]
Friar Lawrence in “Romeo and Juliet” by Shakespeare The strengths of such friendships can be seen in the way Friar Laurence accepts and anticipates Romeo’s actions, showing that he is ready to hear him as a friend not as a priest, “Doth couch […]
“Romeo and Juliet”: Play and Film Preminger et al.claim that poetry is to be educative and pleasurable and both versions of “Romeo and Juliet” meet this criterion regardless of the fact that they had to appeal to the audience of a […]
“Romeo and Juliet” and “The Winter’s Tale” Comparison Because of the importance of the role of plants and trees in the two abovementioned plays, it would be reasonable to consider each of the plays in detail.
Romeo and Juliet: Analysis of Play Being a tragedy, the story narrates the challenges two lovers, Romeo and Juliet, go through due to the enmity between their respective families. For example, the story of Juliet and Romeo presents a romantic and […]
Love and Sadness in the First Act of “Romeo and Juliet” The love story of Romeo and Juliet is well known to most people, but one might forget that Romeo was initially not in love with Juliet; he met her later.
Carlo Carlea’s Film “Romeo and Juliet” The new adaptation of my play generally made a controversial impression: the actors look suitable for their roles, but the internal theme of the play seems to be not so profoundly got.
“Romeo and Juliet” Staged in Greek Style According to the analysis, it is evident that even though the story, plot, and characters stay the same, the change in the style of “Romeo and Juliet” will have a significant difference from the original […]
Personality and Maturity in the Romeo and Juliet Play by W. Shakespeare While this idea is not always true in specific cases, it can be assumed to be true in the case of Romeo and Juliet because of the ways in which they act.
Oh Tae-Suk’s Romeo and Juliet Oh Tae-suk is a South-Korean playwright and director, well-known for his masterful portrayal of modern Korean life and the use of the elements of the traditional Korean theater in his plays.
What Shapes More Lovers’ “Story of Romeo and Juliet?” In Romeo and Juliet, love is the central theme of the tragedy, and the images of the protagonists are mostly shaped by the relationships and challenges they had to face.
Nurse and Friar Laurence in Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” The way Friar Laurence supported Romeo and Juliet to get Married, The way the Nurse is opposing in her regards of Romeo and Paris, When Friar Laurence clandestinely married them, the way the Nurse is […]
Character Analysis of Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” The Renaissance in Italy was a time in which historians and writers were most active, sparking a new wave of literacy in the Italian world, said to be the father of Renaissance Europe.
“Analysis of Causes of Tragic Fate in Romeo and Juliet Based on Shakespeare’s View of Fate” by Jie Li The article is easy to read and makes a compelling case for the reasons that precipitated the tragedy in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.
Romeo and Juliet: The Twentieth Century This is the first scene of the play. In the mean time, Capulet learns that Juliet has fallen in love with Romeo, and he is infuriated with the behavior of her daughter.
Relationships Among Individuals in Shakespeare’s Plays The events that take place in Athens are symbolic in the sense that they represent the sequence of events during the day whereas the events in the forest represent the dream like circumstances.
The Saga as Old as Time: Romeo and Juliet, Vampire Style Basing partially on the plot of Romeo and Juliet story and partially on the problems that modern teenagers face, The Twilight Saga offers a number of issues that are quite topical nowadays, such as the […]
The Interpretation of William Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” by Baz Luhrmann and Franco Zeffirelli
The Irresponsibility of Friar Laurence in William Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet”
The Key Elements of Aristotle’s Unity of Action Theory in “Romeo and Juliet” by William Shakespeare
The Love of Young Lovers in “Romeo and Juliet” by William Shakespeare
The Lack of a Real Loving Connection Between Juliet and Her Own Parents in “Romeo and Juliet” by William Shakespeare
The Language of Love and Death in “Romeo and Juliet” by William Shakespeare
The Life-Changing Decisions During the Teen Years in “Romeo and Juliet” by William Shakespeare
Central Themes of Violence and Conflict in “Romeo and Juliet” by William Shakespeare
The Origins of the Archetypal Themes Present in Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet”
The Passionate Hatred of Tybalt and the Theme of Revenge in “Romeo and Juliet” by William Shakespeare
The Perceptions of Love and the Use of Language and Structure in “Romeo and Juliet” by William Shakespeare
The True Meaning and Experience of Love in “Romeo and Juliet” by William Shakespeare
The Relationship Between Parents and Children Presented in William Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet”
The Theme of People Being in Unusual Circumstances in Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet”
The Responsible for the Deaths of the Lovers in “Romeo and Juliet” by William Shakespeare
The Role of Fate and Coincidence in William Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet”
Comparing the Characters of Tybalt and Mercutio in William Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet”
The Role and Representation of the Nurse in William Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet”
The Significance of Mercutio in William Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet”
The Tragic Ending of a Pair of Star Crossed Lovers in Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet”
The Underlying Theme and Message in William Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet”
The Unselfish Character of Benvolio in “Romeo and Juliet” by William Shakespeare
True Love in “Romeo and Juliet” by William Shakespeare
The Use of Dramatic Irony and Other Literary Elements in “Romeo and Juliet” by William Shakespeare
Young Love and Human Nature in “Romeo and Juliet” by William Shakespeare
The Suicidal Instinct Depicted in “Romeo and Juliet” by William Shakespeare
The Various Types of Love in the Tragedy of “Romeo and Juliet” by William Shakespeare
The World of True Love in William Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet”
The Young Lovers in the Play “Romeo and Juliet” by William Shakespeare
Timeless Appeal of William Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” and Leonard Bernstein’s “West Side Story”
Tragic Love in Movie Adaptations of Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” and “Othello”
Transformation of Juliet in Shakespeare’s Tragedy of “Romeo and Juliet”
The Use of Oppositions to Create Conflict in “Romeo and Juliet” by William Shakespeare
Two Against the Whole World: “Romeo and Juliet” by William Shakespeare
The Use of Language to Convey Strong Emotion in Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet”
Violence and Conflict in William Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet”
The Volatile Mixture of Love and Hate in William Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet”
The Use of Verbal, Situational, and Dramatic Irony in William Shakespeare’s Play “Romeo and Juliet”
Shakespeare’s Reflections on Love in the Play “Romeo and Juliet”
The Importance of Act Three Scene One in “Romeo and Juliet” by William Shakespeare
The Use of Sonnets in “Romeo and Juliet” by William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare’s Use of Death to Create Tension in “Romeo and Juliet”
The Themes of Love and Madness in William Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” and “Romeo and Juliet”
The Use of Imagery in the Play “Romeo and Juliet” by William Shakespeare
How Does Shakespeare Create a Sense of Tragedy in the Final Scene of “Romeo and Juliet”?
Are Romeo and Juliet Responsible for Their Deaths?
How Does Shakespeare Create Drama and Tension in “Romeo and Juliet”?
Why Does Shakespeare Create Sympathy for “Romeo and Juliet”?
Is “Romeo and Juliet” Relevant to Modern Life?
How Does Shakespeare Create a Dramatic Conclusion in Act Five Scene Three of “Romeo and Juliet”?
How Are Adults Presented in “Romeo and Juliet”?
How Are the Main Themes Presented in the Opening Sequence of Baz Luhrman’s Film “Romeo and Juliet”?
Does “Romeo and Juliet” Deserve to Be Considered Pop Culture in the Elizabethan Era?
Why Does “Romeo and Juliet” Attract Teenagers?
How Did Shakespeare Introduce the Characters of “Romeo and Juliet”?
How Does Act One Scene One Provide an Effective Opening to “Romeo and Juliet”?
How Did Hate Cause Major Events in “Romeo and Juliet”?
How Does Bas Luhrman’s Staging of Key Scenes “Romeo and Juliet”?
Did Baz Luhrmann Manage to Gain Sympathy for “Romeo and Juliet” and Interest a Modern Audience?
How Does Baz Lurhmann Make “Romeo and Juliet” More Accessible to a Modern Audience?
How Does Conflict Manifest Itself in “Romeo and Juliet”?
How Does Fate Affect “Romeo and Juliet”?
Why Did Fate Lead to the Tragic Conclusion of “Romeo and Juliet”?
How Does Lord Capulet Change Through the Course of the Play “Romeo and Juliet”?
Why Does Love Change Romeo and Juliet’s Life?
How Do Shakespeare Introduce Romeo and Juliet’s Relationship?
Did Romeo and Juliet Ever Have Control Over What Happened to Them or Was It All Fate?
How Does Shakespeare Make Romeo and Juliet Dramatically Effective?
How Do Juliet’s Decisions Affect Her Growth and Her Relationships in “Romeo and Juliet”?
How Does Shakespeare Portray Ambiguity in the Play “Romeo and Juliet”?
How Are the Relationships in “Romeo and Juliet” Represented and Developed?
Does the Film “Romeo and Juliet” Have the Same Dramatic Impact on the Audience as the Original Play?
How Does Shakespeare Portray Love in “Romeo and Juliet”?
How Does Shakespeare Present Conflict at the Start of “Romeo and Juliet”?
The Story of an Hour Essay Ideas
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Research Ideas
Oedipus the King Essay Topics
Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God Research Topics
The Other Wes Moore Paper Topics
The Road Not Taken Topics
The Handmaid’s Tale Research Ideas
The Glass Menagerie Paper Topics
Chicago (A-D)
Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2023, December 7). 114 Romeo and Juliet Essay Titles & Examples. https://ivypanda.com/essays/topic/romeo-and-juliet-essay-examples/

"114 Romeo and Juliet Essay Titles & Examples." IvyPanda , 7 Dec. 2023, ivypanda.com/essays/topic/romeo-and-juliet-essay-examples/.

IvyPanda . (2023) '114 Romeo and Juliet Essay Titles & Examples'. 7 December.

IvyPanda . 2023. "114 Romeo and Juliet Essay Titles & Examples." December 7, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/topic/romeo-and-juliet-essay-examples/.

1. IvyPanda . "114 Romeo and Juliet Essay Titles & Examples." December 7, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/topic/romeo-and-juliet-essay-examples/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "114 Romeo and Juliet Essay Titles & Examples." December 7, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/topic/romeo-and-juliet-essay-examples/.

Romeo And Juliet Love Or Lust

Romeo and Juliet is one of the most famous love stories in history. But is it really a story about love, or is it a story about lust? Let’s take a closer look at the evidence.

Romeo and Juliet meet at a party and instantly fall in love. Romeo is so smitten that he declares his love for Juliet without even knowing her last name. This kind of impulsive behavior is often associated with lust, not love.

Romeo and Juliet are willing to do anything for each other, including breaking the law. Romeo gets banished for killing Juliet’s cousin Tybalt, but he does not hesitate to sneak back into Verona to be with her. And when Juliet finds out that Romeo has been killed, she takes her own life. This kind of passion and intensity is often associated with lust, not love.

Romeo and Juliet’s relationship is intense and passionate, but it is also very short-lived. They meet, fall in love, get married, and die all within the span of a few days. This kind of whirlwind romance is often associated with lust, not love.

So what conclusions can we draw? Romeo and Juliet may be one of the most famous love stories in history, but it seems just as likely that it is a story about lust rather than love.

“A strong sense of passionate attraction.” That is the definition of love. Ice cream, a child and his mother, and family bonds between a mother and her children are all examples of true love. This is real love. The feeling of attraction between Romeo and Juliet, written by William Shakespeare in the play Romeo and Juliet, is not genuine love According to

Romeo Montague falls in love with Juliet Capulet, who is due to marry the County Paris. Romeo and Juliet get married in secret by Friar Lawrence. Romeo gets banished. Juliet fakes her own death in a plan to be reunited. Romeo believes Juliet is truly dead and kills himself. When Juliet finds Romeo’s corpse beside her, she kills herself. The selfless love between Romeo and Juliet resulted in their suicides. Their “love” was driven by lust and selfish desires which lead to their downfall.

Some may argue that Romeo and Juliet were truly in love because they were willing to die for each other. However, if we take a closer look at their relationship, it is evident that their so-called “love” was nothing more than lust and selfish desires. Romeo Montague was infatuated with Juliet Capulet from the moment he laid eyes on her. Romeo was so obsessed with Juliet that he was willing to forget about his true love, Rosaline.

“Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight! For I ne’er saw true beauty till this night.” -Romeo (1.5.52-54).

Romeo was so blinded by Juliet’s beauty that he was willing to forget about the love he once had for Rosaline. If Romeo truly loved Juliet, he would have been able to see past her physical appearance and appreciate her for who she was on the inside. However, Romeo was only interested in Juliet’s outer beauty and this ultimately led to his downfall.

Juliet was also infatuated with Romeo from the moment she laid eyes on him. She was so taken aback by Romeo’s good looks that she completely forgot about her impending marriage to County Paris. “My only love sprung from my only hate! Too early seen unknown, and known too late! Prodigious birth of love it is to me, that I must love a loathed enemy.” -Juliet (1.5.137-140).

Juliet was so consumed by Romeo’s beauty that she was willing to forget about the man she was supposed to marry. If Juliet truly loved Romeo, she would have been able to see past his physical appearance and appreciate him for who he was on the inside. However, Juliet was only interested in Romeo’s outer beauty and this ultimately led to her downfall.

Romeo and Juliet’s relationship was based on physical attraction and nothing more. Their “love” for each other was driven by lust and selfish desires which eventually led to their demise. Romeo and Juliet were not truly in love, they were only infatuated with each other’s physical appearance. If Romeo and Juliet were truly in love, they would have been able to see past each other’s outer beauty and appreciate each other for who they were on the inside. However, Romeo and Juliet were only interested in each other’s outer beauty and this ultimately led to their downfall.

The play is set in the streets of Verona, Italy during a time when arranged marriages at 14 were socially acceptable. Romeo and Juliet, two young teens, believe they have feelings for each other but act more out of lust than anything else. As the play progresses it becomes increasingly clear that their actions are based on sexual desire rather than genuine emotions.

Romeo pursues Juliet even after he is married to another woman, and Juliet fakes her own death in order to be with Romeo.

While Romeo and Juliet may have thought they were in love, it is evident that they were simply lusting after each other. If they had truly been in love, they would have respected each other’s marriages and not acted on their sexual desires. Romeo and Juliet is a cautionary tale about the dangers of acting on lust instead of love.

Love is stronger than desire, but it’s obvious that Romeo and Juliet are driven by nothing more than lust. In the first act of Romeo and Juliet, Romeo claims to have a strong and emotional love for Rosaline.

A few days later, Romeo declared his passion for Juliet was genuine. This is the first indication that this “love” may not be as genuine as it appears. Juliet is the rebound or plan-B choice for Romeo. The only distinction between the prior situations of Rosaline and Romeo with respect to where they’re going is that instead of loving him back, Juliet “loves” him (which she doesn’t).

From Romeo’s perspective, it may appear to be love, but it is nothing more than a mutual infatuation, or lust.

Love is more than just a physical attraction. Love is an emotional connection. Romeo and Juliet do not have an emotional connection. They barely know each other. Their relationship is based purely on physical attraction and sexual desire. This is not real love. Real love takes time to develop. Romeo and Juliet did not have time to develop a real, emotional connection because they were forced to marry in secret and Romeo was forced into exile.

Romeo and Juliet’s relationship was doomed from the start because it was based on lust, not love. If their relationship had been based on true love, they may have been able to overcome the obstacles in their way. As it was, their relationship was ultimately doomed to failure. Romeo and Juliet’s deaths were a tragedy, but they could have been avoided if Romeo and Juliet had truly loved each other.

More Essays

Types Of Love In Romeo And Juliet
Romeo And Juliet Love Letter Assignment
Romeo And Juliet Love Letters
Romeo And Juliet True Love Essay
Romeo Is To Blame For The Death Of Romeo And Juliet Essay
Theme Of Love In Romeo And Juliet
Imagery In Romeo And Juliet
Love In Shakespeare’s Romeo And Juliet Essay
What Is The Role Of Fate In Romeo And Juliet Essay

‘Romeo and Juliet’ Is NOT a Love Story: CHANGE MY MIND!

Although it is commonly cited as a great love story, Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" really isn't a romance (MARK YORK/The Stanford Daily).

With that scandalous title out of the way, I assume, dear reader, that you are not unacquainted with Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet.”

Quite honestly, it’s difficult to avoid — there’s the original play, the stage musical, an adaptation with feuding caterers, the anime in which Romeo and Juliet work to take down a tyrannical government, a retelling with gnomes… basically, “Romeo and Juliet” is everywhere. This story is as interwoven in our cultural grasp of romance as “Sherlock Holmes” is with our understanding of mystery, or the “Ice Age” series is with our understanding of in-flight entertainment. Yet, labeling “Romeo and Juliet” as a “love story” always felt odd.

To some, this statement may sound drab and obvious… next, they just might say, I will write about how Gatsby was not so great, or how “Animal Farm” was never REALLY about animals. To others, this may be a strange point to make — does it not check all the boxes? Love at first sight, steamy confessions, covert weddings… it’s practically a fairy tale. Taylor Swift would certainly disagree with me, as she wrote a song about Romeo and Juliet literally titled “Love Story.”

Romance is indeed present — yet, it’s the way in which romance is implemented in the play that’s often overlooked. In particular, the romantic and tragic aspects initially work in this play as distinct separate parts. The love story, in other words, is not the main point of focus… it’s the bait.

For the sake of anecdotes, let’s go back to the mediocre, sweaty days of eighth grade, in which I — a true intellectual — finally stopped playing hacky sack with my assigned reading to experience “Romeo and Juliet” for the first time. From the get-go, I was ready to hate the play. Not only were the words (er, how would you say this…) “unique” compared to what I was used to, but I had this pre-imposed assumption that I was about to experience yet another shallow, cliched love story.

“Give me something deep!” I would say, hair greased, zits popped. “Something with sustenance!” And initially I was proven right. I expected “Romeo and Juliet” to be a love story, and middle-school me did not think it was a very good one.

However, with time, I was exposed to more Shakespeare, and I got a better hang of his style, his narratives and his importance; eventually, I even grew to LIKE his plays. And last year, when I saw a very solid production right here on campus, “Romeo and Juliet” became one of my favorites. So, what happened? Was middle-school me really just that wrong about storytelling?

Yes. Yes he was. Though, aside from that, my opinions haven’t changed all so drastically — “Romeo and Juliet” is not a good love story. I still believe that.

Of course, criticisms of this play’s romantic structure are certainly not new. Any young, scrappy writer looking for their wings tends to take a potshot at this easy target. However, some of these criticisms are still worth echoing. The two fall in love at a single glance, they hardly understand anything about their likes and dislikes… these kids barely even manage to hold a conversation before deciding they need to get married. If you ask me, Mercutio and Benvolio have more chemistry — they talk more at least. If you look at it like a fable, sure, it’s perfectly fine, but there’s not much meat to these bones. And if there’s one thing Shakespeare was NOT known for, it’s his simplicity.

This is the man who gave us the multi-layered tragedy “Hamlet,” the fascinating character study that is “Macbeth,” the stage direction “Exit, pursued by a bear” (this phrase is not very relevant to the topic at hand, I admit, but is worth bringing up in any civilized conversation). Shakespeare hardly takes the linear approach. Thus, the overt simplicity in “R&J” must have some other purpose. There must be something here that makes this play worth the three and a half hours.

At this moment, I would like to draw attention to the “tragedy” part of this romantic tragedy. Shakespeare approaches these darker elements in a different way than he does in “Hamlet” or “Othello.” Instead of a gradual, seamless ease or the immediate establishment of a darker tone, the audience is slapped square in the gut and left to reel in the whiplash of a sudden tone shift.

What makes “Romeo and Juliet” especially interesting, I say, is contrast.

The bulk of the romance we have discussed earlier is present in Act One; a comparatively lighter, more comedic part compared to the more famous, grittier aspects in Act Two. Whenever the characters aren’t spewing sex jokes (though believe me, there are a lot), the audience is exposed to exaggerated personalities, wordplay and often a bit of slapstick here and there. This is a side of “Romeo and Juliet” that the mainstream world seems to have forgotten. The stakes start off relatively low, and the tone is relatively jovial. This is practically the equivalent of a 16th century rom-com.

Imagine an Elizabethan “Love Actually” that suddenly turns into an old-timey “Marley and Me” in the blink of an eye (or, perhaps a thrust of the sword is more accurate). It almost feels like a completely different play; the darkness was, of course, always there, but now the audience has to confront it.

What I’m trying to get at is that the fairy tale-esque, simplistic romance is a front — a staging device to illuminate tragic truths of its very opposite. The simple love story, the confessions and the sugary sweet laments serves to lull you into a false sense of security. The tragedy was, I believe, a twist in itself!

It’s a twist, like Star Wars’ “I am your father” and Harry Potter’s “Yer a wizard Harry,” which has been spoiled with time. We all know how “Romeo and Juliet” ends; so much that the ending comes immediately to mind whenever we hear it mentioned. Yet, so does the more mindless, and intentionally misleading romance of Act One. Two completely different, and distinct, aspects meld together as one and mould our modern day mainstream perception of the play.

With this modern context, “Romeo and Juliet” becomes a rom-com with a mournful coat, a tragedy built onto the bones of a fairy-tale: one whole as opposed to two contrasting elements as it originally was.

Of course, such changes in perception are inevitable. Stories are bound to change over time — this is part of what makes storytelling so interesting to begin with. Yet, it is worth noting that the “Romeo and Juliet” of Hollywood and the “Romeo and Juliet” of old are two distinct stories. And perhaps if we strip our minds of such previous assumptions of what this play is or what it should be, we may find new, fascinating elements about a tale told perhaps a few too many times.

Still, it could’ve been improved with a bear or two — just a thought.

Contact Mark York at mdyorkjr ‘at’ stanford.edu.

Login or create an account

Share full article

Supported by

‘Romeo and Juliet’ Review: Plenty of Style, but Little Love

The London production, starring Tom Holland, sold out in hours. But its understated rendering of the central romance may leave some theatergoers wanting more.

A man in a black hoodie and a woman in a black jacket stand face-to-face, looking into each other’s eyes.

By Houman Barekat

The critic Houman Barekat saw the show in London

As the male lead entered the stage in a new production of “Romeo and Juliet” in London, a single, very loud whoop erupted from the orchestra level. Nobody else joined in — this is Britain, after all — but the breach of decorum was telling. This particular Romeo is the big-screen superstar Tom Holland, of “Spider-Man” fame, and his pulling power helped tickets for this show’s run sell out within hours — even though the actor playing Juliet wasn’t cast until many weeks later.

Yet this “Romeo and Juliet,” directed by Jamie Lloyd (“ Sunset Boulevard ,” “ The Effect ”) and running at the Duke of York’s Theater through Aug. 3, is no straightforward crowd-pleaser. The visuals are stripped-down and the staging unconventional; instead of indulging the giddy melodrama of young love, the emphasis is on brooding atmospherics. The show is slickly executed by a talented cast and production crew, but its understated rendering of the lovers’ romantic infatuation may leave some theatergoers wanting more.

The stage is dark, and entirely bare except for a sign that announces the setting in chunky capitals: VERONA. The performers, in monochrome streetwear, are illuminated by hazy spotlights. (Set design and costumes are by Soutra Gilmour.) In several scenes, they speak from fixed positions, stationed behind microphone stands, sometimes facing the audience rather than each other. The gloomy visuals are complemented by snatches of ambient techno and a dull humming sound that conjures a sense of anticipatory dread. To keep the audience on its toes, some scene changes are punctuated by blinding lights and obnoxiously loud flashbulb clacks. (The sound is by Ben and Max Ringham, the lighting by Jon Clark.)

The minimalist staging puts an extra onus on the actors to make the script shine, and they don’t disappoint. Holland gives a controlled performance as Romeo, evoking the halting, hopeful awkwardness of a love-struck teenager with understatement. As Juliet, Francesca Amewudah-Rivers is similarly restrained: Tentative and inscrutable during the early phase of the courtship, she is at her best in the scenes in which she stands up to her father, Lord Capulet (Tomiwa Edun) as he pressures her to break it off with Romeo. In these moments, Amewudah-Rivers — who is making her West End debut — displays an impregnable abstractedness that rings true to the stubborn determination of adolescence.

The supporting cast is also less experienced than the illustrious leading man, but for the most part, you wouldn’t know it. Edun convinces as the hectoring, overbearing patriarch. Freema Agyeman plays the Nurse, the affable go-between who enables the lovers’ forbidden affair, with a fine blend of sassy assertiveness and quasi-maternal tenderness. Ray Sesay’s Tybalt is impressively menacing and Nima Taleghani, with his wide-eyed and gentle bearing, is tenderly protective as Romeo’s trusty friend, Benvolio.

At times the spectacle feels more like a reading than a play, but some nifty camerawork injects dynamism. A camera operator intermittently appears onstage and films close-up footage of an actor’s face, which is relayed in real time onto a screen above the stage. This technique — familiar from the work of directors such as Ivo van Hove and Christine Jatahy — can sometimes feel frustratingly gratuitous, leading to a sense of visual clutter, but it feels smooth here. During some scenes, actors are filmed elsewhere in the theater — in its foyer bar, corridors and balcony — while others occupy the stage. This gives a fitting sense of simultaneity in a narrative replete with back-channel dialogues and conspiratorial maneuverings.

Lloyd has tried to condense the story to its essence, just as he did in his Olivier-winning take on “Sunset Boulevard.” To this end, one or two scenes — such as the finale in which the Montagues and Capulets agree to set aside their differences after Romeo and Juliet’s deaths — have been abridged. The production’s artful subtlety is encapsulated in the tragic denouement, when the lovers’ deaths are conveyed simply by Holland and Amewudah-Rivers removing their mics.

The restrained portrayal of the lovers’ passion is aesthetically brave, but there’s a downside: In his determination to eschew the easy charms of melodrama, Lloyd slightly undercooks the romance, which in turn diminishes our investment in its terrible ramifications. There are other Shakespeare plays that lend themselves better to this kind of high-concept treatment, because they are more psychologically complex. ( A similarly stylized “Macbeth,” staring David Tennant, which ran at the Donmar Warehouse last year and will transfer to the West End in the fall, comes to mind.)

Leaving the theater, I encountered an excitable throng of mostly young fans hoping to catch a glimpse of Holland. His superstar status will attract a mainstream audience to this show. But what will they make of it? “Spider-Man” it most certainly ain’t.

Romeo and Juliet Through Aug. 3 at the Duke of York’s Theater in London; thedukeofyorks.com .

Arts and Culture Across Europe

The Victoria and Albert Museum in London is a treasure trove of art and design. Here’s one besotted visitor’s plan for taking it all in .

The Royal Shakespeare Company’s co-artistic directors have put together a challenging debut season . But many visitors come to Stratford-upon-Avon seeking something more traditional.

The Venice Biennale, the art world’s most prestigious exhibition, opened recently to some fanfare, some criticism and a number of protests . Here’s a look at some of the standouts from the 2024 edition.

New productions of “Macbeth” and “Hamlet” in Paris follow a French tradition of adapting familiar works . The results are innovative, and sometimes cryptic.

At a retrospective of John Singer Sargent’s portraits in London, where the American expatriate fled after creating a scandal in Paris, clothes offer both armor and self-expression .

Tom Holland's Romeo wows crowds more than critics

Tom Holland and Francesca Amewudah-Rivers in Romeo & Juliet in Romeo & Juliet

Tom Holland plays Romeo, with Francesca Amewudah-Rivers as Juliet

Published 24 May 2024

The "unprecedented" excitement among fans outside the London theatre where Spider-Man star Tom Holland is appearing in Romeo and Juliet hasn't quite been matched by the response from the critics inside.

The most glowing review - a five-star write-up in the Telegraph , external - said Holland "ravishes" and "mesmerises" as Romeo.

But at the other end of the scale, the Daily Express's one-star critique , external called it "absolute drivel" and described Holland as "a charisma free zone".

Time Out said , external the actor "certainly doesn’t disgrace himself", while the Guardian said , external it was "a good performance".

Other critics also struggled to get exercised, describing Holland's Romeo as "fine", "perfectly OK" and "perfectly plausible".

They were, on the whole, more enthusiastic about Francesca Amewudah-Rivers as Juliet, who was described by Time Out's Andrzej Lukowski as "great".

"She has a lightness that contrasts with Holland’s dour angst," he wrote.

Time Out gave the play four stars, saying director Jamie Lloyd's minimalist production is "brilliantly unsettling" and is "staged like a particularly stylish radio play".

Tom Holland seen leaving Duke of York's Theatre following his second Romeo & Juliet performance on May 14, 2024 in London

Fans have been waiting for Holland outside the theatre every night

The Times was less enamoured , external with what it said felt like "a conscientious but colourless radio drama".

Awarding three stars, critic Clive Davis said Holland was "quiet, fresh-faced and sensitive".

"In the opening scenes he really does convince you that he is an adolescent adrift, waiting to abandon himself to a doomed romance," he wrote.

But in the end, Lloyd's production "at times felt too formulaic" and left the audience "more perplexed than gripped", he said.

The Guardian's Arifa Akbar also gave three stars and said the two lead stars are "perfectly cast, wired with an awkwardly cool teen energy, she a mix of innocence and streetwise steel, he jittering with sweaty-palmed earnestness".

"The chemistry is most definitely there, even if it feels deliberately restrained in Jamie Lloyd’s turbo-stylised production," she wrote.

There is "much to admire" - but she concluded that "the deliberate underplaying of emotion ultimately leeches the play of its tragedy".

Holland is famous for playing Spider-Man in the Marvel films

Variety's David Benedict , external was not very keen on a production he described as "fiercely stripped-down", in which "the exuberance of love and youth is entirely missing".

The drama and most characters are hobbled by a slow pace with pauses that break the rhythm and meaning of the script, Benedict said. "The exception to all this is Juliet...

"But Holland lacks her still stage presence. He’s perfectly plausible as lovestruck Romeo growing increasingly stressed and distressed, but he emotes rather than elicits emotions."

Elsewhere, the Independent's Tim Bano , external went further and said Holland’s performance "falls flat".

"On comes Holland, a camera following him from backstage. He’s tearful, morose, muttering. He’s a very sad boy in a tight white vest," Bano wrote.

Footage shot by on-stage cameras, shown on a big screen, has become a hallmark Lloyd's productions, as has what Bano described as "industrial chic".

"Or it was chic the first time Lloyd did it, but now it just looks like a fetish for ventilation ducts."

He added: "If it had ended at the interval, it would have been brilliant. Instead, it becomes a thing of diminishing returns...

"As for the ending, well, it’s a bit of a letdown. They die, but theatrically: earpieces out, eyes closed, sitting on the front of the stage like bouncers having a nap after a long shift at a warehouse rave."

The performance has pared-down staging

BBC Culture's Hugh Montgomery said the show has "the status of a global event".

He noted the "unprecedented scenes outside the Duke of York's Theatre, where hundreds of fans teem behind railings, waiting for a glimpse of Holland as he travels from stage door to his car, waving like royalty".

"If only the show itself was able to match this energy," he continued, giving two stars.

"Unfortunately, though, it's a depressingly lifeless affair, which somehow manages to be both overstated and underpowered.

"This, it should be emphasised, is in no way the fault of the actors – neither Holland, who is fine, nor Francesca Amewudah-Rivers, playing Juliet, who is better than fine, nor the supporting cast.

"The problem lies firmly with the gimmicky, oppressively dour staging, which consistently works against all of them."

Film cameras are used as part of the play

Deadline's Baz Bamigboye , external also described the "memorable" crowds outside to catch a glimpse of Holland and girlfriend Zendaya.

He was lukewarm about the production, and the British actor, who he said was "a perfectly OK Jack-the-lad Romeo". But a friend's 13-year-old daughter "adored all of it".

"The thing is, this is the kind of production that will bring in a young audience. A new audience," he concluded.

"They don’t want to sit through stuffy, traditional productions of the Bard. Theatre needs young audiences to be excited now so they keep going back.

"They want the shiny, bright rawness that Lloyd offers."

The star power in the London production will be rivalled by another new version on Broadway pairing Heartstopper's Kit Connor with West Side Story's Rachel Zegler, which will open in September.

The New York show - with music by Taylor Swift's producer Jack Antonoff - released its trailer on Thursday.

Allow YouTube content?

This article contains content provided by Google YouTube. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Google’s cookie policy , external and privacy policy , external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’ .

Tom Holland Has His Biggest Supporter by His Side While Critics and Fans Show No Love to Romeo and Juliet With Francesca Amewudah-Rivers

T om Holland has given some of the best performances of his lifetime in star-studded projects like those from Marvel including the Avengers and the Spider-Man film series, and has even garnered a massive fan following. However, his latest project isn’t gaining the best of reviews from anyone, including not only critics but a considerable majority of his fandom as well.

The project that has been getting all this hate is his latest play Romeo and Juliet with Francesca Amewudah-Rivers, and one of the biggest reasons behind this backlash is only understandable: the glumness and lack of energy in the drama. However, even through such tough times, Holland has his biggest supporter and the love of his life still right by his side: Zendaya.

Tom Holland’s Romeo and Juliet is Getting the Worst Critical Reviews

Among multiple other star-studded projects, Holland chose to take on the musical play Romeo and Juliet with Francesca Amewudah-Rivers to continue to amuse audiences with his breathtaking performances. However, this one fell more than just short, considering all the brutally critical reviews it has been garnering.

While Tom Holland ‘s presence and performance have undeniably added to the show’s popularity, this new take on the classic story by William Shakespeare failed to deliver its charm. If anything, it has terribly underperformed among viewers, as can be understood by the latest reviews from critics and audiences.

“Romeo and Juliet isn’t history”: Tom Holland’s Shakespeare Play Casting Black Actress Upsets Racists as Twitter Sends Them Back to School

For instance, BBC ‘s review states that this play wasn’t able to match the star-studded energy that Holland and Amewudah-Rivers brought to the table, and “somehow manages to be both overstated and underpowered.” Moreover, this review further cites the play as “some kind of nihilistic horror” take to the series, even calling it “a depressingly lifeless affair.”

Then there’s the review from Express.co.uk , which was even more brutal and didn’t hold back while pointing out all the mistakes including the cameras and their shots, and the “whispered dialogue and faltering chemistry” in the “gloom” and “leached of color, both visually and verbally” act. In fact, this review concludes with an “absolute drivel” remark, which is anything but good.

Tom Holland Will Be Challenging Leonardo DiCaprio For The Best Romeo Title With His Juliet Francesca Amewudah-Rivers in a Remake

Adding fire to the fuel is Variety ‘s take on this play, which, just like almost every other review, felt ‘disappointed’ as well. Calling it “a world of intense shadows created by Jon Clark’s stark side-lighting,” this review highlighted how the actors “face front impassively, as if poleaxed” and “the absence of anything approaching connection.”

Last off for this list is The Guardian ‘s review, which tried to stay mostly positive but couldn’t help but point out similar lacking points as all the others listed above. Like how the chemistry between the two feels “deliberately restrained” or how “actors speak their lines – in a line – at the audience” and “the deliberate underplaying of emotion ultimately leeches the play of its tragedy.”

“Can’t wait for this to fail”: Racists Just Can’t Digest British Star of African Descent as Juliet in Tom Holland’s Upcoming ‘Romeo & Juliet’ Project

Needless to say, all of these reviews point out that even though it tried, the play still managed to brutally underperform, failing to leave the viewers amused and entertained to the core.

However, even through such criticism, Holland still had the love of his life right by his side to support him, and fans are deeply in love with how this real-life love story is blooming.

Zendaya is Still by Tom Holland’s Side, and Fans Are Loving it

While everyone else seems to criticize this latest project by Holland, his girlfriend Zendaya is right by his side to boost his morale and stand as his moral support. This was evident from how the fan-favorite Euphoria actress was seen heading out to watch her boyfriend’s Romeo and Juliet play on opening night.

“I don’t have that kind of money”: Tom Holland Fans Suffer to Watch Him in Romeo and Juliet

Shutting down all further rumors of a breakup following the chemistry she shared with co-star Timothee Chalamet in their Dune saga, Holland’s girl was seen fully prepared to support her man as she was seen sporting a black Shakespearean dress from Andreas Kronthaler (via Vogue ), as seen in the clip shared by @PopBase on X.

Ever since then, fans seem to be having the time of their life as they hype up and showed their support on their favorite Gen Z pair and how they support each other at all times. Taking to the comment section on @PopBase’s tweet on X , here’s what they are saying:

“Will he be better?”: Why Fans are Comparing Tom Holland’s Romeo and Juliet With Leonardo DiCaprio

For what it’s worth, Tom Holland and Francesca Amewudah-Rivers may not have been able to establish that perfect modern take on Shakespeare’s fan-favorite classic play, but he and Zendaya have, most certainly, once again set the bar too high for fans with their perfect relationship.

Romeo and Juliet has live shows scheduled at the Duke of York’s Theatre, London till the 3rd of August, 2024.

Tom Holland in Spider-Man: No Way Home . | Credit: Sony Pictures Releasing.

A ‘Romeo and Juliet’ for people who think they know ‘Romeo and Juliet’

Evan Taylor and Chloe McFarlane in Actors’ Shakespeare Project’s production of "Romeo and Juliet."

Saskia Martínez’s Barbie-pink, terraced set for “Romeo and Juliet” is the first clue that director Marianna Bassham is not interested in a traditional production of this oft-told tale. Her Actors’ Shakespeare Project ensemble emerges in Lisa Coleman’s contemporary outfits — hoodies and sunglasses, torn jeans, crop tops and T-shirts — all in muted shades of black and white, and they move with a fluid grace and groove (choreographed by Ilya Vidrin) that celebrates life even as the specter of death looms over the proceedings.

This expressionistic vibe strips away any expectations in a production that feels extraordinarily fresh and vibrant. It also captures a lot of humor and playfulness among these characters, who are, in so many ways, just trying to get by in a world that seems determined to thwart their simple attempts at happiness.

In the Roberts Studio Theatre at the Calderwood Pavilion, Bassham assembles an outstanding group of novices and veterans who tap directly into the raw emotions that drive the action. That mixing of experienced Shakespearean actors with newcomers ups everyone’s game, and the result is performances that are absolutely transparent, driving the familiar plot twists with new awareness of our continued weakness for petty squabbles that perpetuate shocking violence.

Bassham’s dispensing of the literal interpretation of the tragedy never sacrifices Shakespeare’s poetry; instead it frees the actors to infuse their characters with an immediacy that makes them instantly recognizable. This ensemble’s ease with their characters and the language eliminates the usual need to take a few minutes to tune into Shakespeare’s “blank verse” channel. More than four centuries after this play was first performed, these characters converse without a hint of artifice, and with a sincerity and conviction that sounds uneasily like our neighbors or ourselves.

Christopher V. Edwards and Esme Allen as the Capulets in Actors' Shakespeare Project's "Romeo and Juliet."

Watch Esme Allen (Lady Capulet) play the part of the spoiled rich wife whose overbright smile never reaches her eyes and whose boozy enthusiasm for her daughter Juliet’s impending marriage rings hollow. Michael Broadhurst (Mercutio) slinks and shimmies across the stage, teasing and taunting his friend Romeo. His Mercutio is appealingly complex, a man torn by a trauma he only hints at, who laughs to keep his own despair at bay. Sandra Seoane-Serí, as Tybalt, seethes with so much anger, the air fairly crackles every time her character appears on stage. This Tybalt is so driven by hatred and revenge, he simply can’t exist without it.

But the play, of course, belongs to the young lovers, played by Evan Taylor (Romeo) and Chloe McFarlane (Juliet). Their confidence with Shakespeare’s poetry is matched only by their open, relaxed responses to each other. They imbue that sweet first kiss with a childlike innocence that instantly creates empathy even as we worry about how vulnerable they are. They have a chemistry that makes us unsurprised at their sudden attraction for each other and an excitement about what the future could hold that is contagious.

The true beauty of this production is that every member of the company makes us feel they are living this experience in real time, even though Bassham and her production team keep reminding us that the Verona of Shakespeare’s story could be anywhere, at any time. As if to keep that thought front and center, Jesse Hinson sits at a small table upstage center throughout the performance, his electric guitar and array of effects knobs and pedals providing the enchanting atmospheric soundscape as the drama unfolds.

Although we may know this will not end well, these characters do not (despite a few well-placed bits of foreshadowing), and they sweep us up in their rush of newfound love and possibility. Bassham’s contemporary, hopeful take on the ending makes the action that came before even more heart-wrenching. This “Romeo and Juliet” takes us on a ride that is never less than thrilling.

Terry Byrne can be reached at [email protected] .

ROMEO AND JULIET

By William Shakespeare. Directed by Marianna Bassham. Presented by Actors’ Shakespeare Project. At Roberts Studio Theatre, Calderwood Pavilion, Boston Center for the Arts. Through June 2. actorsshakespeareproject.org

Cast & crew

Verona's Romeo & Juliet

Based on the real story that inspired Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, follows the greatest love story of all time, set as an original pop musical. Based on the real story that inspired Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, follows the greatest love story of all time, set as an original pop musical. Based on the real story that inspired Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, follows the greatest love story of all time, set as an original pop musical.

Timothy Scott Bogart
William Shakespeare
Rebel Wilson
Jason Isaacs
Rupert Everett

Rebel Wilson in Verona's Romeo & Juliet (2025)

Lady Capulet

Lord Montague

Lord Capulet

Prince Escalaus

The Apothecary

The Irishman

Lady Montague

All cast & crew
Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

More like this

Did you know

Trivia Timothy Scott Bogart and Jason Isaacs previously collaborated on Spinning Gold (2023) together.
When was Verona's Romeo & Juliet released? Powered by Alexa
February 14, 2025 (United States)
United States
Castell'Arquato, Piacenza, Emilia-Romagna, Italy
Hero Entertainment Group
Hero Partners
See more company credits at IMDbPro