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One of the most famous types of Shakespearian plays is a tragedy in which the ending is usually tragic. The “Romeo and Juliet” play is no different with a multitude of deaths and a forbidden love. In the story, a long feud between the Montague and Capulet families disrupts the city of Verona and causes tragic results for Romeo and Juliet. Revenge, love, and a secret marriage force the young starcrossed lovers to grow up quickly and fate causes them to commit suicide in despair. Act II scene II or the balcony scene is one of the bestknown scenes of Shakespeare when Romeo and Juliet meet each other the second time, reveal their love to each other, and at Juliets suggestion, they plan to marry. It is an important part that tells us more about the characters and their personalities, and what they are willing to do for each other. In this scene, Shakespeare uses imagery and figurative language to show that a forbidden love can still have the power to conquer any obstacles. The themes of love and feud permeate this scene, and they are always connected to passion whether it is hate or love. By the characters’ thoughts and acts throughout the scene, we can see how feud obstructs the two lovers and the way they get over it.
HANOI UNIVERSITY ENGLISH DEPARTMENT ENGLISH LITERATURE ASSIGNMENT ROMEO AND JULIET – WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE Lecturer: NguyễnThanh Huyền, M.A Students:NguyễnNgọcPhượng NguyễnQuỳnhTrang Class: 10A-13 Hanoi, June 2016 One of the most famous types of Shakespearian plays is a tragedy in which the ending is usually tragic The “Romeo and Juliet” play is no different with a multitude of deaths and a forbidden love In the story, a long feud between the Montague and Capulet families disrupts the city of Verona and causes tragic results for Romeo and Juliet Revenge, love, and a secret marriage force the young star-crossed lovers to grow up quickly and fate causes them to commit suicide in despair Act II scene II or the balcony scene is one of the best-known scenes of Shakespeare when Romeo and Juliet meet each other the second time, reveal their love to each other, and at Juliet's suggestion, they plan to marry It is an important part that tells us more about the characters and their personalities, and what they are willing to for each other In this scene, Shakespeare uses imagery and figurative language to show that a forbidden love can still have the power to conquer any obstacles The themes of love and feud permeate this scene, and they are always connected to passion whether it is hate or love By the characters’ thoughts and acts throughout the scene, we can see how feud obstructs the two lovers and the way they get over it Firstly, both Romeo and Juliet are obsessed by the conflict between two families The evidence is that during the time they meet each other they cannot stop mentioning the family feud, “why you have to be Romeo”, “it’s only your name that’s my enemy” said by Juliet and “I will take a new name”, “I hate my name”, “ my name is your enemy” said by Romeo Each of them has their different reaction about their family conflict For Juliet, she worries that the feud will affect their love, worries about their future and the safety of Romeo Whereas Romeo just fears that he cannot get Juliet’s love and she will hate him because he is a Montague The scene takes place at nighttime illustrating the way their love exists in a world quite distinct from the violence of the feud Light and dark imagery used in this scene the dark of the night and the light in the balcony - has described the blossoming of Romeo and Juliet’s romance Their love flourishes at night as an allusion to the forbidden nature of their love Although the feud is an obsession of the two lovers, it cannot make them stop loving each other.Romeo and Juliet mention the conflict not to make the contradictions worse but to get over it In the dark night, regardless of feud, they confess to each other and determine to construct their love By Juliet’s confessions, by Romeo’s great effort of proving his love for Juliet, the readers know that their love has become more mature It is no more the love in the first sight, it becomes deeper, more powerful and drastic When Juliet agrees to write letter for Romeo and theyplan to marry, it means nothing now can prevent their love At the start of this scene, Romeo, in a monologue, reveals his love and desire for Juliet when she appears at the window In Romeo soliloquy, Shakespeare uses personification, visual imagery and hyperboles to describe Juliet’s beauty through Romeo’s eyes It is the visual imagery that Romeocompares Juliet to the sun and draws how she is so bright that has the power to kill the moon and overpower the night: “It is the east, and Juliet is the sun Rise up, beautiful sun and kill the jealous moon.” The moon is personified to be “already sick and pale with grief” to show the affection Romeo has for Juliet as he is talking of her beauty and longing to see her: “The brightness of her cheeks would outshine the stars the way the sun outshines a lamp” This hyperbole shows how much Juliet is blushing from the event of the Capulet’s party Allthose things indicate that the emotion of Romeo is the emotion of a person who is falling deeply in love, therefore the sight surrounding cannot be compared with Juliet’s beauty Romeo also begins to display signs of increasing maturity in this scene He is no longer the melancholy lover at Act I He expresses his genius feelings for Juliet, makes his best effort to prove his love He is willing to give up his name, his family to be able to bewith Juliet: “from now on, I will never be Romeo again”, “I’m not those things if you hate them” He describes the joy of being with her and the pain of being away Juliet as “a school boy leaving his books” He “swears by the sacred moon above” and tries his best to persuade Juliet ofbelieving in his love for her, “if you were in the farthest sea, I would risk everything to gain you” We can see that, in Romeo’s mind, nothing is as important as Juliet and their love Not being as simple as Romeo’s state of mind, Juliet’s emotion is more complicated Besides the intense feeling of love, she also expresses her worriment It is understandable as a little girl is feebler and easier to be affected by circumstance The emotion of a person falling deeply in love is expressed in the soliloquy part when Juliet first appears in the balcony She confesses directly to Romeo without any hesistance of the hatred between two families and willing to give up her family to follow the call of love: “Trade in your name and take all of me in exchange”, “Just swear you love me and I’ll stop being a Capulet” This soliloquy also indicate Juliet’s maturity as she is aware that their love will meet the barriers of the families’ feud and it is only the name is her enemy, not Romeo himself The way she make questions and then answers them by herself conveys her passionate love for Romeo and her desire to overcome the fate to build up their love: “What’s a Montague anyway? What does a name mean? The thing we call a rose would smell just as sweet if we called it by any other name Romeo would be just as perfect even if he wasn’t called Romeo.” Then, in the dialogue with Romeo, Juliet feels worry and anxious When she sees Romeo, she wonders “How did you get there and why did you come?” She knows clearly that the orchard walls are high and if any of her relatives find Romeo here they will kill him She afraids for Romeo’s safety and also wonders if his love is strong enough to climb over the wall of the Capulets and even the feudal wall between two families Through this harrasment, readers can feel how the family pressure as well as circumstance pressure put upon these two young lovers But right after that Juliet chooses to trust Romeo Her heart turns entirely toward Romeo She declares her love to him and even plans to take in marriage with him At this part Juliet shows the beginnings of increasing self-possession and confidence that lead her to seek her own fate rather than a destiny imposed upon her by her parents She stops Romeo from swearing his love on the moon as it is “inconsistent” and makes the practical arrangements for sending a messenger to Romeo the next day Throughout the act II scene II of “Romeo and Juliet”, Shakespeare has described characters’s state of mind along with the development of characters’ conflict through monolouge and dialouge The tragedy of this extract is placed in two characters’s positions Romeo stands in the shadow beneath Juliet’s bedroom windows He has to hide in the dark or else he would face the danger relating to his life Juliet stands in the balcony of her room whose wall may protect her but also keep her away from her love This wall is symbolize for the tie of feudal ethical behaviour as well as the seperation caused by their familial battles The distance between them is not too long nor too short They can see each other but in a tottering position They afraid of being caught by someone else This distance contains a danger – a feud of the Motague and Capulet In conclusion, “Romeo and Juliet” is considered one of the greatest love stories of all time In act II scene II, Shakespeare has affirms the beauty of love in term of humanism through the win of true love against families’ hatred The relationship of Romeo and Juliet is also an incisive conviction for feudal prejudice which causes hatred among people The juxtaposition of light and dark, the injection of comic moments, and the beauty of the language of love further enhance the play and make it a classic for all time (1,495 words)