Essay -- Papers

Contrasts in William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet â€Å"Romeo and Juliet† is a famous romantic drama written by William Shakespeare containing many contrasts within it, portraying the eponymous lovers’ everlasting love for one another. The conflict between the two families; the Montagues and the Capulets makes it almost impossible for them to be together. The play consists of romance and humour building up to the climax of Romeo and Juliet’s death. In the play we are first introduced to the servants Sampson and Gregory, from the Montague household, who have a similar lifestyle to the servants in the Capulet household, who are trying to keep up the reputation of the families. The Capulet household are holding a party where the servants are busy getting food, drinks and decoration ready, whereas Lord and Lady Capulet live the life of luxury where they simply think about marriage, money and parties. In the film we see that the servants are dressed down in black tatty clothing while the upper class people; the masters are wearing bright elaborate clothing. In Franco Zeffirelli and Baz Luhrmann’s interpretations of the play, they show this because they wanted to emphasise the status between higher and lower social people. The dark clothes also represent the darker days and shows that the servants are emotionally sad, but the masters are expressively happy. The language of the servants compared to the masters is very different. The servants are illiterate and not educated; however, the masters are highly educated and very posh, they can afford schooling, whereas the servants could not. Shakespeare shows this when the servant spea... ...her innocence, beauty and purity. Tybalt is a devil because he is likes to fight, he is evil, seeking trouble and devious. Paris is an astronaut who is rich, successful and out of this planet representing why he is the right person for Juliet to get married to. Lord and Lady Capulet are king and queen of Verona Beach and dress up as Marc Anthony/Julius Caesar and Cleopatra who also die in a similar way to Romeo and Juliet. This play is full of many opposites and contrasts: love and hate, peace and conflict, young and old. It is all mainly to do with historical, cultural and social context. The play sadly ended with the two star-crossed lovers having to give their life for their families to end their fighting. Romeo and Juliet end with these words: â€Å"For never was a story of more woe than this of Juliet and her Romeo†.