Romeo and Juliet: William Shakespeare's So-Called Manipulations

ROMEO AND JULIET: WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE'S

SO-CALLED MANIPULATIONS

by

Polea, Mark Manuel

Cerico, John Matthew

College English 2

Ms. Maria Thereza Panzo

March 2007

THESIS

William Shakespeare is one of the best literary figures of all time. He has always been one of the favorite playwrights of the many. Students, teachers, and even critics choose his work as their subject. He has written many plays that aroused intrigue among his audience. Like any other artists, Shakespeare also has his own set of critics whose interpretation of his works seem to defy and oppose what has been a conventional analysis. Between tragedy and comedy in plays, the transition is not quite clear. Romeo and Juliet is a picture of love and its pitiable fate in a world which atmosphere is too sharp. Two beings created for each other feel mutual love at the first glance and every consideration disappears as both only thought of what they feel for each other. Under circumstances Romeo and Juliet unite themselves by a secret marriage, relying simply on the protection of an invisible power. After that, untoward incidents follow in a rapid succession and their heroic deed for the sake of their love for each other was put to test and ended with a voluntary death. Under Shakespeare's handling of the play, it has become a glorious song of praise. The sweetest and the bitterest love and hatred, festive rejoicings and mourning, the fullness of life and deprivation, are brought close to each other in this play.

Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code, gathered numerous negative feedbacks because philosophies and beliefs of certain individuals were being run over when the book was released to the public. The book conveys its message right from the beginning. Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet on the other hand, was said to be an opposite of what its audience interpret its events to be.

INTRODUCTION

Romeo and Juliet is the most famous love story in the English literary tradition. Love is naturally the play's dominant and most important theme. In the course of the play, the young lovers are driven to defy their entire social world. Love is the overriding theme of the play, but a reader should always remember that Shakespeare is uninterested in portraying a dainty version of the emotion, the kind that bad poets write about.

Love in Romeo and Juliet is a brutal, powerful emotion that captures individuals and catapults them against their world, and, at times, against themselves. In other words, it resists any single metaphor because it is too powerful to be so easily contained or understood.

Romeo and Juliet does not make a specific moral statement about the relationships between love and society, religion, and family; rather, it portrays the chaos and passion of being in love, combining images of love, violence, death, religion, and family in an impressionistic rush leading to the play's tragic conclusion.

All through out the play, the audience would not have suspected the author's concealed real manipulation of the events and characters of the play. It is very well crafted that audience focus on the series of events. Only very few people, mostly critics, and the so called pessimists, see Romeo and Juliet in another level, and some people had to agree. According to these critics, William Shakespeare has manipulated the two main characters, Romeo and Juliet and the events, in such a way that there is no escaping whatever circumstance there is. Every possible solution to the dilemma that successively takes place in the play is a catch22. Furthermore, according to these critics, Shakespeare set the two main characters, Romeo and Juliet, so that they had no choice in what they did. Almost everyone that hears this side of argument, and try to go deeper in analyzing the play, have to agree.

DISCUSSION OF RESEARCH

"Romeo and Juliet" is a play that really makes the audience wonder if the two young lovers had any chance for a life. In the prologue, Shakespeare states that "From forth the fatal loins of these two foes/ A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life" (37). There is a debate in philosophy that applies very much to this play. The debate is concerned with two opposite ideas about human beings which are free will and determinism. If you have free will, then you can do something else besides what you did. What happens in the play is important because it could happen to two people today. The thesis of this paper is that Shakespeare set this play in such a way that there is absolutely no way Romeo and Juliet could have done otherwise.

Romeo and Juliet are young teenagers who were born into a very negative situation. Romeo is of the house of Montague and Juliet belongs to the house of Capulet. The worst part of their trouble is caused by the feud between their families. However, there are a number of complicated events and much more confusion that lead to their deaths. One of the most important events in the entire play is just a small one. It is when Friar John is delayed and cannot get the message to Romeo in time. This is actually the main reason that Romeo kills himself. However, there are much more important reasons that lead to the tragedy. The main one is when Romeo kills Tybalt.

The love between Romeo and Juliet is intense. The language that Shakespeare uses makes their love unforgettable. Romeo literally risks his life to see Juliet. When she warns him of the danger, he replies: "With love's light wings did I o'er-perch these walls/ For stony limits cannot hold love out,/ And what love can do that dares love attempt" (65). From the very first words of the prologue, everything in the play is working against their love. Shakespeare manages to make the negative events that much worse by breaking them up. The main event is when Romeo becomes involved in the duel with Tybalt.

With all the tragic events, Romeo and Juliet have just one night of happiness, and even that is really only a few hours. As Romeo prepares to leave, Juliet mentions that in a few hours they will meet to be married. As she puts it, "It is twenty years till then" (68). Then she speaks the very famous words: "Good