Essay Examples on Romeo and Juliet

Writing a good essay on “Romeo and Juliet” requires you to get an idea of what to write about. To get inspiration, please go through our essay examples on this topic.

Literary Analysis of “Romeo and Juliet” Essay

Literary Analysis of “Romeo and Juliet is a play about two silly, immature teenagers who lack common sense.

Therefore, the play expresses the danger of a love in which two people become the whole world to one another.” To what extent do you agree or disagree? The story of Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy. The two lovers go against their families and against their hate to be together but they don’t think about the consequences, which in the end are devastating. Romeo and Juliet engage in a love that they believe is the one true love.

They don’t even know each other and don’t know each others personality so they can only be attracted sexually.

Instead of taking things slowly and getting to know each other or on the other hand engage in a type of relationship just to satisfy each others desires they act like they have known each other for a long time and that they can’t live one without the other. At the start of the play we see that Romeo is in love with Roseline and that he o! nly talks about her but when he meets Juliet at the party he totally forgets Roseline and falls in love with Juliet.

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Friar Laurence clearly states this to Romeo: “Is Rosaline, whom thou didst love so dear, so soon forsaken? Young men’s love then lies not truly in their hearts, but in their eyes”. This is exactly how Romeo behaves. Juliet on the other hand had to marry Count Paris so her love with Romeo is simply a way to get out of it.

She never had a relationship with a man and she didn’t like to have herfirst and only relationship with a man her parents arranged for her. She wanted freedom and Romeo was her ticket to it. During the story Romeo and Juliet convince them selves to be in love with each other and they become obsessed, not with the love for each other, but with the fact of being in love with each other.

Romeo and Juliet, Act 1 Scene 5 Analysis

Act 1 scene 5 sees Tybalt furious about Romeo, Benvolio, and Mercutio being able to stay at the Capulet’s ball. Today through an interior monologue I will give you a better understanding of the thoughts going through Tybalt’s mind after the ball. I will explore Tybalt’s personality in the process. How dare that filthy Montague dance with fare Juliet.

If he thinks he can just stroll in here and dance with a Capulet then he’s asking for trouble. She fell right into dirty arms; tomorrow she will just be another one of Romeo’s girl. How could a Montague ever be a guest of ours? How could someone of such low caliber be allowed to join us Capulets. I have been brought up all my life to hate Montague’s, yet Master Capulet allows that dirty scum into the house. To be a real man in this world you have to show honour.

Allowing dirty Montague’s into our house shows not honour, but dishonor. That family wouldn’t be hated so much if they hadn’t have killed my father. An innocent man he was, fighting for his freedom, the pain that comes to mind when I think of the topic is unbearable. I will fight for the respect that I show towards my father. I will live my life in the way my father would have wanted me to.

He was my role model and the Montague’s tortured an innocent man, he didn’t kill Master Montague, yet my father was put to death. I will fight till death. This has been the worst night of my life, being in the presence of such trash. How could Capulet let not only intruders, but Montague’s into our household? How dare he dishonor the Capulet name? Is the great Capulet going to listen to the Prince? Is he going to end the Great War? The feud will go on between us and I’m going to make sure it does. I could have killed Romeo there and then tonight.

I could have killed a Montague. I would have brought great pride to the Capulet name.

Romeo and Juliet, Act 3, Scene 1 Analysis

Act 3, scene 1 of romeo and juliet is important for many different reasons, most notably the change of writing style used by Shakespeare. The first half of the play is a typical comedy with comical devices used such as the nurse whereas the second half becomes much more of tragedy. This can be seen as at the start of the scene theres quite a laid back atmosphere with Benvolio and Mercutio, two of the audiences favourite characters, but it then ends in the exile of Romeo and death of Mercutio.

The scene also helps us to learn more about Romeo as a typical renessaince tragic hero as things start to go wrong for him starting when Mercutio dies after line 99. This shows that things aren’t always going to go right for him especially when he decides to go after Tybalt to prove he his still a noble man despite thinking Juliet has changed him ‘Thy beauty hath made me effeminate’ meaning that it is because he loves Juliet too much that he didn’t stand up for himself and fight Tybalt in the first place. This is a reminder that the play is set in a very masculine and nobility fueled time. The descision to go after Tybalt also turns out to be a flawed piece of judgement as it leads to his exile and ultimately his death. the final tragic hero realisation comes when Romeo admits that he’s the one that’s caused his own downfall and misfortune. This is shown when he says ‘Oh, I am fortune’s fool!’ before being told to leave by Benvolio so that he isn’t killed.

You also learn a lot about other characters specifically Benvolio and Mercutio. You learn that Benvolio is quite an intelligent guy that doesn’t make rash descsions like Romeo or Mercutio. You can see this in lines 1-4 where Benvolio is begging to retire inside so that him and Mercutio don’t clash with the Capulets. Unlike Mercutio who in lines 5-8 he says that Benvolio is a man that can change his mind and get angry for no reason but this is ironic as we know that he is in fact talking about himself. We also learn that Mercutio is one of Shakespeares greatest characters. This is symbolised in the way he dies off stage in the dark. This directly contrasts to when Tybalt dies in the middle of the stage and in the light for everyone to see. Benvolios character is also used to build dramatic effect throughout the scene.

This is done as Benvolio is used as the main narratorial role throughout the play he narrates Mercutios death before it happens. ‘any man should buy the fee simple of my life for an hour and a quarter’ This builds up tension in the audience as they become scared for Mercutios life which is ultimately ended by Tybalt. Shakespeare also uses Romeo to help build dramatic effect. This is done as he arrives right in the heat of the arguing between Mercutio and Tybalt. This then starts the fighting as Romeo turns down a challeneg from Tybalt so Mercutio steps up to fight for Romeo ‘Tybalt, you ratcatcher, will you walk?’

The two familys also fight throughout the play starting with a mass brawl at the start and then at the Capulet ball when Tybalt wants to fight Romeo. And this is carried through this scene along with other key themese throught the play such as love which leads to Romeo killing Tybalt, out of love for his friend and love of Juliet being the start of his ultimate downfall. The final key theme is the dark and light imagery. This is shown by the majority of the scene being in the light, meaning it is out in the streets for the public to see unlike Romeo and Juliets wedding which is set in the dark, off stage as it is a secret. This scene being in the light therefore means that if either of the familys disturbs the peace the offender will be killed, a key point to the scene which is well thought out by Shakespeare and leads to this scene being very effective to the storyline of the play.

Therefore I conclude that the scene has a large amount of dramatic effectiveness with things such as Romeos entry at a key point is also extremly significant to the whole of the play as it shapes the storyline and largely affects the genre.