CP/M/CPM_CDROM.iso/mbug/mbug186.arc/RJTHEMES.NTS

Text File | 1979-12-31 | 8KB | 208 lines

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By THEMES we refer to the ideas presented in a play. What does
the playwright think about certain topics? What message is he
trying to communicate to us about the world and about how
people behave?

Shakespeare's plays are still relevant to us today because his
themes are universal ones. His plays deal with love hate war
pride ambition racial prejudice the generation gap and many
more ideas which concern all of us today.

'Romeo and Juliet' is especially relevant to students because
it deals with young people and how they attempt to overcome
their problems.
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As in all of Shakespeare's works many different ideas are
presented. These notes deal with the main themes only as
listed below.

1. LOVE

2. FATE

3. THE GENERATION GAP

4. ORDER/DISORDER
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LOVE

'Romeo and Juliet' is a play about love - not just the romantic
love of the two young lovers but also love within families
between friends between parents and their children.

Romeo and Juliet's love
There is something special and spectacular about the love that
instantly develops between these two young people. It trans-
forms both of them into deeper more complex characters and is
so intense that no audience can doubt the reality of their
love.

Let us examine in more detail this famous romance.
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LOVE  (cont.)
The two meet on four separate occasions and each time
Shakespeare evokes the majesty and beauty of their love with
great poetry. It shines in contrast to love shown elsewhere in
the play as he uses imagery of light set against darkness.
(See IMAGERY for further notes on this).
For each their love is something very personal and unselfish.
Romeo ceases to think of himself and his misfortunes and is
prepared to sacrifice himself for Juliet's love.

She also is passionate enough to see separation from Romeo as a
kind of death. Her love is so stong that she can overcome her
fear of being locked in a tomb surrounded with dead bodies
just to be re-united with Romeo.
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LOVE  (cont.)
A modern audience raised to be more practical about such
matters may find it difficult to accept Romeo and Juliet's
love at first sight and the instant depth of their passion.
However there is something majestic and touching about the
way these two care so intensely for each other that nothing
else in the world seems to matter.

This is what has made their love the model of passionate young
love to be imitated both in literature and life for many
generations after Shakespeare's death.

Their love is shown up even more by contrasting it with other
types of love shown in the play.
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LOVE  (cont.)
Other characters in the play regard love more in physical
terms.
Notice the crude sexual references and violence of the two
Capulet servants at the beginning of the play.
Mercutio and the Nurse also think of love in terms of sex and
their speeches are sprinkled with bawdy humour.

Capulet and his wife on the other hand hardly consider
Juliet's true feelings at all; for them love and marriage is
more like a business partnership where one must consider the
wealth and suitability of your partner above all else.

Another type of love is love between friends.
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LOVE  (cont.)
Romeo has three good friends who are all concerned for his
welfare and who show their love for him in different ways.
Benvolio sensibly tries to find the cause of Romeo's sorrow
and gives thoughtful advice. (Act I)

Mercutio jokes and banters with him trying to cajole him
into a better frame of mind and rejoices when Romeo recovers
his old self. (Acts I & 3)

Friar Lawrence acts as a father figure tempering Romeo's
impulsive nature with cautious words of wisdom. (Acts II & 3)

All three show the love and loyalty of true friends.
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LOVE  (cont.)
The final type of love which must be mentioned is that between
parents and their children.

Romeo's parents seem to genuinely care for his well-being in
the first scene of the play. In the final scene we learn that
Lady Montague died of distress after Romeo was banished.

Juliet's parents on the other hand profess to love her but
show no thought for her feelings when they force her to marry
against her will. Both of them speak to her in a cruel
thoughtless way in Act III.
This type of love is mentioned again in the notes on the
Generation Gap which follow.
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FATE
The Prologue to the first Act uses the words:
star-crossed lovers
and
death-marked love.
Already the audience is warned to look out for the influence
of the stars or fate in the play.

An Elizabethan audience would have accepted much more readily
than a modern one that our life is mapped out in the stars
that certain things are bound to happen and that there is
little we can do to alter what life will bring us.
'Romeo and Juliet' supports this view because the tragedy
seems to be caused by a series of chances.
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FATE  (cont.)
Consider what might have happened if Capulet's servant had
been able to read if Friar John had not been detained if
Juliet had woken moments earlier etc.
It seems that fate or fortune was against them all along.

This idea is reinforced by numerous quotations from the play:
Some consequence still hanging in the stars (Iiv)
Thou art wedded to calamity (IIIiii)
I am Fortune's fool! (IIIi)
Then I defy you stars! (Vi)

The only way Romeo and Juliet can escape from the unkind
influence of the stars is to kill themselves.
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THE GENERATION GAP
The generation gap refers to a situation of conflict or lack
of understanding between children and their parents.

This is most clear in the play in the case of Juliet's clash
with her parents over her proposed marriage to Paris.

In Act I Juliet is seen to be an obedient and filial daughter.
She accepts (or seems to) her mother's suggestion that she look
at Paris with a view to marriage.

However after she has fallen in love with Romeo she cannot
communicate with her parents and feels that she has to hide
the truth from them and even deceive them.
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GENERATION GAP  (cont.)
In fact we see that Juliet is right to mistrust her parents
as they both show insensitivity to her feelings amounting to
great cruelty.
Lady Capulet retorts:
I would the fool were wedded to her grave.  (IIIv)
and Capulet threatens to throw her out of the house to starve.
The problem in Juliet's time as it does in ours stems from
the younger generation refusing to accept the traditional way
of doing things and the older generation not wishing to
accept change.
Shakespeare offers no solution to the problem except perhaps
greater love and understanding between the people involved.
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ORDER/DISORDER
This theme arises often in Shakespeare's plays as it was one
which the Elizabethans regarded very seriously.
Shakespeare's own view is clearly that civil disorder was
unacceptable and in fact you may view the play as being about
the tragic effects of disorder on the lives of innocent
characters.

In an ordered society there would have been little standing in
the way of marriage between Romeo and Juliet. In fact we know
Capulet regards him as:
a virtuous and well-governed youth
and an alliance between two noble families would usually be
regarded as highly satisfactory.
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ORDER/DISORDER  (cont.)
However at the beginning of the play society is not well
ordered and this leads directly to the tragedy.

Disorder is represented by the continued feud between the
Montagues and the Capulets which has already led to:
Three civil brawls bred of an airy word

Order in this case is represented by  Prince Escalus and you
will notice that in each of his three appearances in the play
he restores order after a scene of violence or death.
However you may like to consider the idea that Escalus has
himself contributed to the trouble in Verona by not being
strict enough with the two families.