Analysis of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare - Book Report/Review Example

XXXXXXXXXX Number: XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX XXXXXXX XXXXXXX of XXXXXXXX Summary of Romeo and Juliet – William Shakespeare Introduction: Romeo and Juliet is a famous play by William Shakespeare. This paper aims at summarizing the play and providing an overview of the story. The paper will provide a plot overview for each of the five acts of the play. Furthermore the paper provides an analysis of the main characters of the play and a comparison of the play to the movie. Plot Overview: The play begins with a prologue which brings out the main essence of how tragic the story is and how Romeo from the family of Montague and Juliet from the family of Capulet, fall in love and eventually die at the end of the play. Act I: The servants of the two families, Capulets and Montague start with a street fight and then are joined by Benvolio from and Tybalt of the Capulet family. The two families are warned of a possible death penalty if the fights continue to increase, by Escalus the Prince of Verona. Romeo on the other hand is shown to be deeply in love with Rosaline, who does not in any manner reciprocate to his feelings. His friend Benvolio seeing this tells Romeo to look for other girls. However Romeo is still deeply interested in Rosalina and he and his friends plan to turn up to a party being uninvited. The party is being held by Capulet, who is hoping for Paris to marry his daughter Juliet. In the meanwhile Juliet has expressed her views for the idea of marriage to her mother Lady Capulet who comes in to ask for Juliet’s views. During the party where Romeo is in a mask, falls in love with Juliet at first sight. On the other side Capulet stops Tybalt from attacking Romeo at the party. Both Romeo and Juliet realize that they hail from families that are enemies and they both show loyalty to their respective families. The act ends with a Prologue that is sung by the choir which basically highlights the conflict that is being faced by the duo for their love and their respect and loyalty towards their families (Shakespeare, 2004). Act II: Romeo and Juliet are so involved and madly in love with each other. Romeo does not worry about the danger of crossing the walls into the Capulet family and does so to be with his love Juliet. Juliet on the other hand declares her love for him as well and the duo plan to marry. Juliet sends out a messenger as well to plan their wedding as well. The act also introduces Romeo’s friend Friar Laurence who has a very serious doubt of how Romeo fell out of love for Rosaline and fell for Juliet. The main intension of Romeo is to marry Juliet his love with the hope that it would end the fight among the two families. The act ends with the marriage of Romeo and Juliet and also where Juliet’s messenger comes to Romeo with a rope or cord which would help him climb into Juliet’s room as her husband (Shakespeare, 2004). Act III: The third act brings a number of twists and turn to the story. First, in a fight Mercutio and Tybalt are killed, and then the banishment of Romeo, for the murder of Tybalt. Juliet mourns the banishment of her husband however is faced with a much bigger problem where her parent fix her marriage with Paris and no fights against her father’s wishes work and dissuade him from getting her married to Paris (Shakespeare, 2004). Act IV: This act brings the arrangements that Capulet is making for his daughter’s wedding with Paris and how Juliet has been planning to commit suicide. Juliet plans to take a potion to stimulate her death and stops opposing her father which delights Capulet and leads him to make even more arrangements for the wedding. Juliet manages to sleep alone and she takes the potion. At around 3 in the morning while Paris is about to arrive, Capulet finds his daughter dead, and all the arrangements change from a marriage to a funeral (Shakespeare, 2004). Act V: The final act of the play is the most tragic, where Romeo finds out about Juliet and manages to risk his life to see his love one last time. Romeo buys some poison from the local Apothecary and is unaware that Juliet is alive. Despite continuous efforts from his friend Friar Laurence to let Romeo know that Juliet is alive and will awaken soon, none of the messages reach Romeo. Romeo and Paris get into a fight and Paris is killed, after which Romeo takes the poison as well and kills himself near the body of his beloved. Juliet wakes up to see this and is shocked and stabs herself to death. Escalus arrives to the place and admonishes the two families, who now reconcile their differences and end the long fight. The play ends with a summary of the tragic love story of the duo (Shakespeare, 2004). Analysis of Main Characters: The characters of Romeo and Juliet are although the main characters of the play have not been portrayed so. The duo is the main discussion in the play however the friends and the other minor characters actually are the central characters in the play (Shakespeare, 2004). They together make the duo’s love a secret and also in a very serious manner. All the minor characters together are the cause of the death of the duo and all the complexities that happen within their lives. For instance, Tybalt is the main trigger for causing the duo to go downhill and has in a number of manners always caused trouble for the couple. He has been a major cause for the fights between Romeo and Juliet and he triggers Romeo all the time. Romeo towards the end kills Tybalt which leads him to be sent on an exile by the Prince. Also like the role of Friar Laurence who is Romeo’s friend, it is clear that he leads to the misunderstanding that Juliet is dead when he is aware that she has taken the potion which only stimulated death however would wake up in a short while. This miscommunication to a great extent also led to the duo losing their lives. If only Romeo were to know that Juliet was not really dead then he would not have taken the poison and killed himself as well. The Prince also contributes to the play a great extent especially by exiling Romeo which according to Romeo is very unfair and it causes a number of issues. The Capulet family also plays a major role in the play and contributes to the already high tension for Juliet when she is already being faced with the issue of Romeo being exiled and being secretly married. He also does not allow the duo to marry because Romeo hails from the Montague family and this is against the current relationship between the two families. This has an impact on the couple and forces them to have a secret relationship and also a secret marriage. The nurse also plays a major role in the play and contributes to the overall relationship of the duo as well. Firstly she playfully teases Juliet about her relationship with Romeo. The nurse however is seen to be of flickering. First she likes Romeo and hopes for Juliet to marry Romeo, however as time passes by she starts to become more focused on Juliet marrying Paris. The nurse has no intensions of hurting Juliet but is grossly misinformed which causes the issues and chaos. Comparison of Play and Movie: One of the main things that surprise a number of people across the world is how the book by Shakespeare written years ago is more intense and effective than the movie that have been produced. Although a number of people believe the movie to be better, a few of the major parts of the play had been left out in the movie. There is much more drama and intensity in the play than there was in the movie. The mood that was set down by Shakespeare in the play is undoubtedly much better and real than that set out in the movie. For instance, the play shows during the marriage time how serious the duo are and the real mood of the marriage however in the movie there is a more of a childish behavior and a sense of naughtiness among the two. The matter is one which is serious and needs to be portrayed with all due seriousness and intensity rather than making a mockery of the situation and making it look like life is full of funs and games at all times. Another place where the scene is n a number of ways made mockery of is the funeral scene. In the movie Friar is seen to giggle and pretend to pray for Juliet, however in the actual play there is more seriousness and intensity to the scene (Shakespeare, 2004). The main difference that is present is a lack of seriousness and intensity in the movie and a less mature outlook as the book actually entails. It is important to understand the views of Shakespeare are very mature and the play displays the same level of maturity in each character as well, however this level of seriousness and maturity is lacking in the movie to a great extent. The lack of this maturity in the acting and direction of the movie causes the main essence of the scene to be lost. Another major difference in the movie and the play is the plot used in both cases. Shakespeare’s original plot is relatively more realistic and is also very intensive which makes the tragic love story really tragic. In the case of the movie, the changes in the plot only led the movie to be a lesser success than the actual play. Attention to detail has been missing in the movie, for instance, in the movie there is no mention of Romeo’s love for Rosaline and when he sees Juliet, there is just a message that he was already upset about something, with no clear explanation of what. The rejection of Rosaline plays a very important role in the play and it is clear that the story is related and it is only because of the rejection did Romeo happen to see Juliet and fall in love with her (Shakespeare, 2004). The lack of his fact in the movie makes the plot incomplete and leaves holes in the story. Also if the missing differences had been covered by the producer then the movie would have been able to reach out to more audiences and there would be lesser loop holes in the plot. Another aspect of this was the ending where the families decide to build a Gold Statue of Juliet which simply went on to show that the Montague family had given up all the vengeance and were actually looking to reconcile the differences with the Capulet family. However the movie simply shows the families shaking hands and that they have come together. This lacks the intensity and dramatic nature of the actual plot which makes the story less believable in the movie. On an overall note, it can be said that although the producer of the movie has tried a lot to make the story as perfect and beautiful as the original play, the factors that have been discussed above have led to the lacking aspects of the movie. If a little more time and energy was given to the production of the movie, then there could be a better and more effective and successful movie. As explained very well by Samudrala, “The most brilliant aspect of the movie is the urban landscape setting, the lighting, and the cinematography. The movie is also funny at times, and Baz Luhrmanns direction is excellent. The acting is mixed: DiCaprio and Danes dont generate any chemistry on the screen, and further, they appear to have fundamental problems managing the Shakespearean dialogue. In fact, I thought many of the performers were unable to deliver the dialogue effectively and convincingly and I think this is the biggest flaw in the movie. It is as if the performers themselves dont understand what theyre saying and are just reciting lines from memory” (Samudrala, 2010). Although the actors of the movie are not an essential aspect of this differentiation, they also play a major part in the success of the movie and hence can be blamed for the lacking efforts in the movie. In conclusion, it can be clearly explained that the plot and story line is one which is dramatic, intense and very tragic. Making a movie of this kind should follow every line from the actual play and not try to blend it with the current generation. This caused a major reason for the low level of success that the movie received from the public when compared to the actual play (Shakespeare, 2004). References Samudrala, R. (2010). Romeo and Juliet . Retrieved May 3, 2010, from http://www.ram.org/ramblings/movies/romeo_juliet.html Shakespeare, W. (2004). Romeo and Juliet . Simon & Schuster. Read More