Tragedy is a dramatic form that allows the audience to reflect on the complexities of the human condition. William Shakespeare’s 1597 play, The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, explores the fatal consequences that come about when two sworn enemies fall in love. The work was inspired by Elizabethan England and its viewpoint on duty towards family, gender roles, and ideas of love. Through this tragedy of universal significance, Shakespeare masterfully explores struggles of loyalty, selfishness within relationships, and the way love impairs rationality.
The struggle between devotion to one’s family and devotion to one’s heart reveals the complexities of human nature. During the Elizabethan era, there was an expectation for children to demonstrate
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Shakespeare's portrayal of romance reflects how marriage for love, instead of for social standing or money, was a novel concept of the time, with audiences being interested in characters driven by emotion and impulsiveness. Act 4, Scene 1 exhibits this idea as Juliet goes to extreme lengths after finding out she has to marry Paris. At the beginning of the scene, stichomythia is used in the exchange between Juliet and Paris, alternating lines of intense emotion and heightening feelings of conflict while demonstrating how Juliet desires to be with Romeo. Furthermore, Juliet utilises hyperbole in “or bid me lurk/Where serpents are; chain me with roaring bears,” to convey she would rather do anything than marry Paris, emphasising how she is driven by emotion and impulsiveness and offering insight into how she puts her love for Romeo over everything else. Additionally, Juliet uses monosyllabic words in “Give me, give me! O, tell not me of fear!” to stress what she is saying, highlighting her desperation to take the potion as she sees it as her only way out of the situation. This demonstrates how love has altered her behaviour to the point where she is willing to fake her own death no matter the consequences, indicating the feelings which led to her demise. It is therefore evident that love has the ability to impair rationality and alter behaviour, as explored through the elements of a