Preview

Comparing the Love Scenes - Romeo and Juliet and Much Ado About Nothing.

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1276 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Comparing the Love Scenes - Romeo and Juliet and Much Ado About Nothing.
Comparing the Love Scenes

Introduction

William Shakespeare was noted for his marvellous works in making plays such as Much Ado about Nothing and Romeo and Juliet. It is these two plays that will be analysed, comparing the love scenes, and showing how women, love, power and marriage in the time of Shakespeare, as his plays have a reflection on some aspects of the culture at his time.

Romeo and Juliet

In Romeo and Juliet, the lovers which were Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet, had a secret, albeit forbidden relationship, due to their families in an ongoing feud with each other. Juliet, at the young age of 13, was pressured, and eventually commanded to (or else she would be disowned), marry Count Paris. This shows that around the time of Shakespeare, parents could 'make' their daughter, even at young ages, marry a man even if they didn't want to.

When Romeo and Juliet first glanced eyes on one another, fell in love and got married, showed how Juliet, defied her father's wishes for her to marry someone. That he had chose for whatever reason. This showed that women were, at the time of Shakespeare, moving from a male dominated system, to a system where females were becoming self-dependant on their choices, showed when she chose Romeo over Prince Paris.

As Capulet discovered the body of Juliet (when she faked her death) her father calls it as having it 'deflowered' his daughter. Deflowered can be taken in two definitions as dictated in the dictionary:

_1._ _To take away the virginity of (a woman)._

_2._ _To destroy the innocence, integrity, or beauty of; ravage._

_The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2003. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved._

In this situation, it can be taken as both, but is more directed towards the second meaning, that Juliet had not reached the full age of a person, robbing her innocence of her young age, robbing her of

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Juliet’s personality and character is one of the most obvious and significant element that has been recontextualised. In Shakespeare’s play, Juliet is described to be more than just a pretty face; she’s smart, witty, determined and mature. She knows what she wants, and she gets it as it is Juliet who proposes to Romeo not the other way around. In the text, she is written to be thirteen years of age and begins the play as a naïve child who has thought little about love and marriage, but she grows up quickly upon falling in love with Romeo. Being a girl from a high social class family, she has none of the freedom Romeo has to roam around the city or climb over walls at midnight. However she shows amazing courage in trusting her life and future to Romeo, refusing to believe the worst reports about him and even willing to shut important people out of her life (nurse) the moment they turn against Romeo. "And when I shall die, take him and cut him up in little stars, and he will make the face of heaven so fine that the entire world will fall in love with night and pay no worship to the garish sun." Juliet’s role in society is very minor and simple. She is the pretty, ‘prized’ daughter of the Capulets and is expected to be obedient of men in their families. In the novel, she receives little guidance and help from her family and is expected to marry Paris as her father decided. This gives a clear example of women’s role and its unimportance.…

    • 896 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, written by William Shakespeare, marriage customs are very strict with high expectations. In the time period of Romeo and Juliet, people had numerous dating styles leading to marriage, they married for different reasons, and had various wedding planning events.…

    • 604 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Hasty action on too little planning. Juliet has no idea who may see her 'dead' and do just what Romeo did-- anyone could have plopped her in a tomb, really.…

    • 447 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company…

    • 1251 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    ‘Othello’ and ‘Romeo and Juliet’ were both written by Shakespeare between the 1590’s and the 1600’s; both were plays to excite and please the audience of the Elizabethan era with the theme of love and conflict. Shakespeare presents love in various ways; since love is complex, there are many forms of it: sexual, platonic, medieval courtly, familial, romantic and destructive love. With so many forms, Shakespeare is able to present love as both passionate and volatile to entertain the Elizabethan audience…

    • 494 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The woeful tale of Juliet and her Romeo ended with numerous casualties, casualties that could have been avoided if not for mistakes made by characters in the play. In light of Romeo and Juliet’s suicide, Prince Escalus declares, “some shall be pardoned, and some punishèd” for their mistakes. (V.iii.319) Among the punished should stand those who played the largest role in the suicides, and among the pardoned should stand those who deserve absolution.…

    • 903 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Many people see Romeo and Juliet as a tragic love story. Shakespeare writes Romeo and Juliet to show the world he lives in that love can empower and change. The death of the young couple is tragic but their death enriches and touches the lives of those who survive the violence unleashed into the society by the bitterness and vengeful circumstances surrounding them. Because of this, the love story is triumphant and not tragic. It turns the tragedy into one of gain, not lost.…

    • 782 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    In the play, William Shakespeare demonstrates the beauty of love and how said love, could in turn, resolve the bitter rivalry between the two families. The love between Romeo and Juliet is sublimely beautiful. Not only do they feel deeply for each other; ‘Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight! / For I ne'er saw true beauty till this night’ , but they also respect each other. Neither attempts to impose his or her will on the other; neither places his or her welfare above the other. Juliet’s feelings towards Romeo: ‘My bounty is as boundless as the sea, / My love as deep; the more I give to [Romeo], / The more I have, for both are…

    • 1328 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    point is made clear by Borachio "Go then; find me a meet hour to draw Don Pedro…

    • 847 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    As illustrated by the two plays Romeo and Juliet and Much Ado About Nothing, William Shakespeare was a true romantic. In each play, his characters suffer great hardship, but in the end, he delivers them to a life of eternal love. Characters plot against each other in each play. The relationships of the people in his plays are not always what they seem. Whether it be a tragedy or a comedy, Shakespeare encompasses three elements into his plays: love, intrigue, and identity.…

    • 574 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Best Essays

    References: American Heritage, 2000. American Heritage dictionary of the English Language: Houghton Mifflin Company {Online}. Available at:…

    • 1524 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Good Essays

    This essay talks about the role of love as it used in Shakespeare’s comedies. It directly talks about “Much Ado about Nothing” and “Twelfth Night”, and how they use love in their stories. “Shakespeare expects us to accept wonder as having some kind of value in itself and in its relations to the action that has gone before. We are presented with the wonderful as an incitement to knowledge and to pleasure; and we are asked also to consider the dramatic fact that those who participate in the happy ending must be ready to set aside their human confinement to the probable and accept an intrusion of the improbable into their lives.” (262-263) Wonder and love are on equal footing in Shakespeare. He expects us to accept that the characters fall in love with each other as well. Love is a vital part of every romantic comedy whether it’s a play written by Shakespeare or a movie like “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days”. The essay also makes a note of how the characters change through the plays and compares how it works in both stories. The author of the essay…

    • 301 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    When a person becomes a parent, their ultimate goal in life is to protect and provide for their child. Juliet had the ideal childhood environment; her parents sheltered her from the negative of the world and provided her with the best in life. Yet sometimes parents’ best intentions are not suitable for their child. Juliet’s view of marriage at the beginning was naïve, “It is an [honor] that I dream not of” (1.3.71). The thought of marriage…

    • 794 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Most people think of Romeo and Juliet, by William Shakespeare, as a love story. But as the title suggests, The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet is just that: a tragedy. The narrative is about the struggles of Romeo and Juliet’s love despite the century-long feud between their families. Like many tragedies, which end with fatality, the play ends with the deaths of the “star-crossed lovers.” Throughout the play, Shakespeare conveys strong feelings, or moods. In Act Five, Scene Three of Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare uses imagery, irony, and symbolism to create a tragic mood.…

    • 645 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The play Romeo and Julliet is a tragedy about two lovers that both die. The play written by Romeo and Juliet consists of a lot of double meaning from William Shakespeare. Like how Juliet tells her parents that’s she’s grieved of the death. Romeo gets banished from Verona and he’s very disappointed about having to leave Romeo and Juliet. Juliet makes it seem like she hates Romeo when she really doesn’t.…

    • 441 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays