THE HISTORY OF ROMEO AND JULIET
Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy written early in the career of playwright William Shakespeare about two star-crossed lovers. Romeo and Juliet belong to a tradition of tragic romances stretching back to antiquity. He takes from other stories such as Pyramus and Thisbe, The playwright Romeo and Juliet is based on an Italian tale. Shakespeare being the amazing he is used dramatic structure, using effects such as switching between comedy and tragedy in order to heighten tension.
It is said to be unknown when Shakespeare exactly wrote Romeo and Juliet. The story Romeo and Juliet was published in two quarto editions. These two editions are referred to as Q1 and Q2. The edition that was first printed, known as Q1, appeared in the early 1597 and was printed by John Danter. It was noted that because the text contains numerous differences and was a bad quarto. The superior Q2 was printed in 1599 by Thomas Creede and published by Cuthbert Burby. Quarto 2 is about 800 lines longer than quarto 1. People that study Shakespeare believe that quarto 2 was based on Shakespeare pre-performance draft (his foul papers). More complete and reliable text was reprinted in 1609(quarto3), 1622(quarto4), and 1637(quarto 5).
Below you can see the characters from the play.
Ruling house of Verona
• Prince Escalus- ruling prince of Verona
• Count Paris- Kinsman of Escalus who wishes to marry Juliet
• Mercutio- another kinsman of Escalus, and a friend of Romeo
House of Capulet
• Capulet- is the patriarch of the house of Capulet
• Lady Capulet- Matriarch of the house of Capulet
• Tybalt- cousin of Juliet and nephew of Lady Capulet
• The Nurse- Juliet’s personal attendant and confidante
• Juliet Capulet- daughter of the Capulet’s and the female protagonist
House of Montague
• Montague- is the patriarch of the house of Montague
• Lady Montague- Matriarch of the house of Montague
• Romeo- son of Montague and Lady Montague and the plays male protagonist
• Benvolio- is Romeos cousin and best friend
• Abram and Balthasar- servants of the Montague household
Others
• Friar Laurence- Franciscan friar, and is Romeo’s confident
• A chorus- reads a prologue to each of the first two acts.
• Friar John- is sent to deliver Friar Laurence’s
It has not been found to assign one specific, over-arching theme to the play “Romeo and Juliet”. Even if there wasn’t an overall theme that cannot be found, the play still is full of several small themes. A few often debated by scholars are displayed below.
• Love
• Fate and Chance
• Duality (light and dark)
• Time
One of the earliest known critic of Romeo and Juliet was diarist Samuel Pepys. In the later 18th and 19th century there were debates over the moral message of Romeo and Juliet.
There was a variety of different forms of language throughout Romeo and Juliet. Shakespeare begins using 14-line prologue in the form of a Shakespearean sonnet. Romeo and Juliet is written in mostly blank verse or strict iambic pentameter. When Shakespeare is choosing which form of language to use he would always match the poetry to the character that uses it. Take Friar Laurence for example, this character uses sermon and sententiae forms of language
William Shakespeare was incredible at what he did. He made ordinary into extraordinary and has become the most talk about playwright. His plays will always be remembered and so will he.
