romeo and juliet essays

Romeo and Juliet essay-2007 p2 question 2

Q.)Name a play you have studied and state what you think is its main idea and/or message. Explain how this main idea and/or message is communicated in the play.

                  The play I studied is Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare. The main message in this poem is that love and death are connected. Romeo and Juliet are “star-cross’d lovers,” their love is destined for disaster. Although they tried, their fate could not be changed and the play ends tragically for the lovers. The theme of love and death is seen repeatedly throughout this play and is portrayed through Shakespeare’s characters, language, and imagery. The scenes I will be discussing are act1 scene5, act2 scene2 and act 5 scene3.

Act1 scene5 is the first meeting of Romeo and Juliet. In this scene, we see the first association of love and death. We know love is a very prominent message in this scene through Shakespeare’s language. We can also imagine that through the actor’s body language and facial expressions love would be an obvious theme. However an observant reader will also find the love-death connection in Shakespeare’s language,”Go ask his name. If he be married, my grave is like to be my wedding bed." This quote shows how love and death are often compared to each  other, Juliet is comparing a grave to a wedding bed.

In act2 scene2 we see from Shakespeare’s imagery how love and death are connected. Shakespeare uses celestial imagery when describing Juliet. “Arise fair sun and kill the envious moon".We can picture the sun ‘killing’ the moon every  morning as it rises in our heads just from reading the line. Once again we see how love and death are linked throughout this play.

We also see the love-death idea through Shakespeare’s characters. In act5 scene5, the final scene we see how Romeo is willing to die for love. We see his bravery and his loyalness  to Juliet brings him to commit suicide. Romeo does not think life is worth living without love, his immediate reaction to finding out Juliet is dead is to die himself, which shows love and death are connected in his mind. Romeo kills Paris to be with Juliet, death is a cause of an act of love.

In this essay I have shown why I think the theme of love and death is the strongest idea in this play. This message is communicated through William Shakespeare’s language imagery and characters, as well as the actor’s body language and facial expressions