Introduction
Summary & Background Information
- tragedy about star-crossed lovers whose death results in the conclusion of their families‘civil feud
- written around 1594 or 1595 by William Shakespeare, the most renowned playwright of Elizabethan theatre
- published in 1597 around the same time as A Midsummer Night‘s Dream and Love‘s Labour‘s Lost
- the plays all focus on the themes of love, courtship, and marriage
- first performance in 1594
- first performances in English playhouses after a long period of the plague that had enforced the closure of playhouses in general
- reference to the plague in Romeo and Juliet: Friar Lawrence‘ message about Juliet‘s planned marriage with Paris can‘t reach Romeo who is in Mantua at that time
- men played the roles of the female characters as women did not legally appear on stages until the 17th century
- one of Shakespeare‘s most popular plays that has been adapted multiple times in theatre, film and musical
- title characters‘ names are still used as stereotypes for lovers
- the story was inspired by an Italian poem which was translated by Arthur Brooks into English verse
- Shakespeare‘s play was enriched with more characters and more detailed information on the characters
- reduced the timeframe from certain months to four days - indication of the short time within which Romeo and Juliet find each other and actually marry
- Juliet‘s age is reduced from 16 to 13 in order to accent her youth
- adding scenes: Mercutio‘s speech about Queen Mab, his meeting with the Nurse, Capulet moving the wedding with Paris from thursday to wednesday
- assigned the characters specific forms of poetry (Romeo often uses sonnets in order to describe his feelings and actions)
- special use of language
- characters curse and vow oaths, speak very articulate (use of action verbs)
- use of stylistic devices: oxymorons, puns, paradoxes, innuendos