Essay on Romeo and Juliet - page 4
Keywords: Shakespeare Romeo and Juliet essay character development
By Jenny on 02/07/2009
Level: GCSE Key Stage 4 (Years 10-11)
Page Number: 4 of 5 pages: 1 2 3 4 5
but confidant and the word “enriches” already suggests wealth and good things happening.
He then starts to speak in sonnets – these were popular poetry in Elizabethan times.
“O, she doth …………………………… for I ne’er saw true beauty till this night”.
He praises her with phrases like
“it seems she hangs upon the cheek of night” and “like a rich jewel in an Ethiopes ear”,
saying that she is exotic and different and that she seems to be from the night, too special and beautiful to belong to day with everyone else.
When he says she is a
“snowy dove trooping with crows”
he harks back to Benvolio’s earlier metaphor
“I’ll make thee think thy swan a crow”
but he is so consumed by Juliet that he gets mixed up and switches “swan” to “snowy dove”.
He finishes the sonnet with the words
“Did my heart love till now? Forswear it sight for I ne’er saw true beauty till this night.”
This shows you that he has now realised on feeling true love that he has never truly loved until that moment and so “forswears” that he has ever loved before.
When he first speaks to Juliet he says,
“If I profane ………………………………… give me my sin again”
Shakespeare uses religious imagery for example:
“pilgrims”, “saints”, “prayer” and “faith”
to show that he adores her as if she was a saint and he a pilgrim come to worship her.
This would have had a powerful effect upon the Elizabethan audience.
Also we can see that he has become more confident by the way that he approaches Juliet. However, just after this the beginning of the tragedy is revealed.
When Romeo discovers she is a Capulet he says,
“O dear account my life is my foes dept”,
he realises that the girl his life belongs to is from he family that is enemy to his – How unlucky is that!
Now I am going to describe how a director should have Romeo make two key speeches.
First while Romeo makes the speech,
“Alas, the love………………………………..thou not laugh?”
Romeo should say the first two lines until
“…shall we dine?”
slowly and softly, sitting down, looking slightly upwards with a wistful expression on his face. Then when he says
“O me! What fray was here…”
he should suddenly look around and jump up looking startled as though he has only just noticed what has happened, he should suddenly speak louder and faster, then slow down as he says
“Yet tell me not for I have heard it all”.
As he says this he should put
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