Essay on Romeo and Juliet - page 1
Keywords: Shakespeare Romeo and Juliet essay character development
By Jenny on 02/07/2009
Level: GCSE Key Stage 4 (Years 10-11)
Page Number: 1 of 5 pages: 1 2 3 4 5
English Coursework
Essay on Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare)
Examine the character of Romeo throughout Act 1 of Romeo and Juliet. Comment on how Shakespeare presents the character through language and explain how you think a director should direct the actor playing Romeo in two key moments.
In this coursework I am first going to give some background to the Elizabethan stage and audience, and to the play itself. I am then going to say how we find out about Romeo’s state of mind from the start of Act 1, and how it all changes when he meets Juliet.
I will also say how an actor playing Romeo should be directed in two key speeches and summarise by saying how important this development of his character is for the rest of the play.
In Elizabethan times going to the theatre would have been a very different experience to how it is now. To start with it was expensive – “Groundlings” paid a penny (for many this would have been almost a whole days wages) and stood in the area in front of the stage. A seat in the tiers would have cost from tuppence up to four pence.
Also, theatres were open air and “lit” by daylight and they used fewer props and scenery. The Elizabethans liked hearing their language being grandly spoken on stage.
An important difference that all the actors would have been men so Juliet would have been played by a young boy!
The audience at that time would have reacted differently to the play as well. For modern audiences the most striking thing is their extreme youth. In Elizabethan times the average age of marriage was actually higher than it is now, but children from noble families were often married younger for reasons of estate money etc. For example Paris says
“younger than she are happy mothers made”.
So it is difficult to be certain how an Elizabethan audience would have reacted to their youth. However part of the effect of Shakespeare’s tragedy is exaggeration, in terms of status neither Romeo or Juliet are particularly important, it is their extreme youth that gives it force and that as probably true in Elizabethan times as well.
Harder to guess is the Elizabethan audience’s response to Juliet’s disobedience. Children at the time were expected to obey their parents, but their parents were expected to be responsible.
Shakespeare may have drawn on personal experience for this play as it is possible that he
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