Writing a Romeo and Juliet essay provides an opportunity to reconsider the core elements of this famous play and get a new perspective on the events depicted. The process of working on a Romeo and Juliet essay also allows developing the basic skills of writing literature essays, which is an important element of one’s education. Being able to distinguish the key themes of the literary work, a student achieves knowledge of thinking critically and becomes ready to face a large variety of daily challenges.
Romeo and Juliet Essay
The tragedy of the story depicted by William Shakespeare in his Romeo and Juliet has become one of the most famous concepts in the history of the world literature and is generally considered the greatest love story of all time. The romantic nature of love between Romeo and Juliet is one of the numerous subjects of this play, and they interrelate with the respective events. Each particular generation perceives themes illustrated by Shakespeare in its own way, depending on the relevance of these subjects in a specific epoch, and today readers usually focus on the motives of love, doubleness, and gender as the central ones in the play.
Love
Love is an integral thematic element of the play, and it is presented in many different forms. Therefore, Shakespeare speaks about sensual love, physical love, contractual love, and romantic love between Romeo and Juliet, which serves as a central component of the story. The entire story represents the ways in which the characters express their feelings and what particular role love plays in their lives. Eventually, the characters’ feelings lead to specific consequences, which form the main part of the plot and explain the nature of their conduct.
Doubleness
The manner in which Shakespeare presents occurrences that the characters experience throughout the play demonstrates the doubleness of our world. One may notice this element presented in Shakespeare’s depiction of various objects and elements, which mainly includes the nature of symbols and the characters themselves. Even the aforementioned concept of love represents its dualistic nature and portrays its both positive and negative sides. This approach helps the reader to rethink his/her own perception of the phenomena described by the author.
Gender
Considering the themes of Romeo and Juliet from the modern perspective, it seems obvious that Shakespeare focuses reader’s attention of the subject of gender as well. Today, people may find several examples of stereotypical representation of masculinity, which partly still exists today. The actions performed by male characters, especially those of Romeo, are often criticized due to their insufficiency regarding the generally considered norms of masculine conduct.
In conclusion, it is important to point out that the richness of the play written by Shakespeare allows the reader to consider his/her own view on the events depicted. Being defined as a central theme in this play, love, however, is not the only subject that Shakespeare tells the reader about, as the events depicted could be interpreted in several different ways. It seems that this is the main reason why the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet still impresses its reader after all this time.
References
Belsey, C. (2014). Romeo and Juliet: Language and Writing. A&C Black.
Feyerabend, K. (2013). A History of English Literature. Books on Demand.
Godden, M. & Lapidge, M. (2013). The Cambridge Companion to Old English Literature. Cambridge University Press.
McEachern, C. (2013). The Cambridge Companion to Shakespearean Tragedy. Cambridge University Press.
Shakespeare, W. (2013). Romeo and Juliet. Callisto Media Inc.