Romeo and Juliet

Romeo and Juliet has become forever associated with love, the play is an iconic story of love and passion. Shakespeare presents the theme of love in different way; he uses the relationships of different characters to embody different forms of love throughout the play. All three poems from my anthology also express this theme, of love and loving relationships, however each are expressed in a different ways based on the purpose in which they were written. For example Shakespeare’s demonstrates a parental loving relationship throughout the play through the character of “Lord Capulet”, he does this effectively by using structural devices such as iambic pentameter (10 syllables per line) to display love and affection towards his daughter, Juliet. The poem from my anthology also creates emotional voices as they use metaphors and other emotive language to portray this theme successfully... In this essay I will be comparing Romeo and Juliet to poems I have selected to gather a clearer understanding of the meaning behind each of the pieces of writing.
In Act 1 Scene 2 Shakespeare signals the role of an Elizabethan father through a conversation between Capulet and Paris, this tells the readers how fathers dictated who their daughter’s married based on the reputation of the eligible husband. However, Shakespeare implies his fondness towards his daughter when he says, “My child is yet a stranger in the world” this highlights the loving relationship between father and daughter as Capulet tells Paris he thinks Juliet is too young for marriage. Although Benjamin Jonson’s on my first Sonne is an autobiographical poem which explores the parental emotions of losing a child. Jonson compares the loss of his son to the losing a limb in the opening verse of the poem, “Farewell, thou child of my right hand”. Jonson opened the poem in the way to demonstrate his love towards his lost son by implying the emotional and physically pain he is feeling. The metaphorical opening he also is implying how life will be difficult without his son as it would be living without a limb.
Later on in the scene Shakespeare further develops the loving relationships between Capulet and Juliet first imposed at the start of the scene. Shakespeare uses rhyming couplets at the end of Capulet first response to Paris, “Let two more summers wither in their pride, Ere we may think her ripe to be a bride?”, he does this to portray Capulet’s importance he has when deciding a suitable husband for Juliet and also to emphasize his parentally authority. This gives the reader the initial thought that Capulet is a caring, non-traditional Elizabethan father, which is further explored towards the end of the scene when Shakespeare writes “My will to her consent is but apart”, this highlight the respect Capulet has for his daughter’s judgement and that he will stand by her with her decision with the marriage proposal. This is later reinforced when Capulet says “An she agree, within her scope of choice Lies my consent and fair according voice”.
Whereas Jonson is highlighting the Religious influences on Elizabethan England by writing “Seven years thou wert lent to me, and I thee pay, Exacted by the fate, on the just day.” By Jonson implying that his son was leant to him demonstrates that his imprecation of life; that it is a gift from God and losing his son was repaying a debt he owed back to God for granting him the gift of life. By Jonson structuring this with a rhyming couplet further emphasizes the meaning behind what he has just written but also to create an emotive, sorrowful tone to the poem.
In Act 3 Scene 4 Romeo has killed Tybalt (Juliet’s Cousin) Shakespeare demonstrate that Capulet does not deal with death very well so implies he wants to move on quickly.