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Social Classes In William Shakespeare's Romeo And Juliet

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In William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, a character’s style of speech identifies their social rankings and situational emotions. Wealthy or royal higher classes have a formal approach to language when the lower, servant and civilian classes have an informal approach to speech. The wealthy, higher classes can speak in sonnets to show a connection between two characters. Additionally, the type of dialogue Shakespeare creates with each character in different parts of the tragedy determine the emotions and inner feelings of the character that cannot be expressed with asides, stage directions, or the emotions of the actor. The higher, wealthy and royal class of characters in Romeo and Juliet calmly with Iambic pentameter in a form known as blank …show more content…

The connection between the two characters is shown by the two speaking in a sonnet and completing the other’s lines of iambic pentameter. The 14 lines of a sonnet are in iambic pentameter and the ending words of each line follow an “ABABCDCDEFEFGG” rhyme scheme. In their meeting scene, Romeo says “To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss,” and Juliet completes this line with her line “Good pilgrim, you do wrong with your hand too much,” (I.v.105-107). The sonnet segment here follows the same rules as iambic pentameter, but the next line in this sonnet will rhyme with “kiss.” The characters share the sonnet with each other to show their instantaneous love and connections. The iambic pentameter used in the sonnet shows that the two members of wealthy, higher-class families are at a time of peace. Another sonnet, shown at the beginning of Act II demonstrates how sonnets can be used at times of intense emotions. “Now old desire doth in his deathbed lie, / And young affection gapes to be his heir. / That fair for which love groaned for and would die,” (II.i.1-3). Notice how the lines follow the strict rules of iambic pentameter as well as rhyming the words “lie” and “die” in the ABAB rhyme scheme. The sonnet portrays the idea of love being to die for, a feeling of profound

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This type of sonnet is used by Shakespeare and contains the rhyme scheme abab, cdcd, efef, gg. The comfort and rhythmic effect of the rhyme scheme allows for an easier understanding of the emotions the narrator is trying to convey. The rhyming pattern that occurs at the end of the poem captures the entire meaning of the sonnet in its final two lines, “Such permanence is terrifying. / So I touch them in the dark; but touch them, trying.”

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Act 1 Passage Quiz This passage has the structure of a sonnet since it is written in iambic pentameter, has the same rhyming scheme and the correct number of lines. For starter, the passage is written in iambic pentameter, which means that one syllable is unstressed, while the other is stressed. An example of this is in line 4, the word to, is unstressed, while smooth is stressed, and the pattern continues... In addition, the passage includes the correct rhyming pattern of a sonnet.

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Class and agency are arguably some of the most important factors in Shakespeare's plays. For example, because the capulets and the montagues are both noble houses, they are able to have enough interaction with each other that they have a strong hatred. Class and agency influence the characters’ education and actions in shakespeare's romeo and juliet because many of the events would not have happened without class and class affected much of who the person was during the renaissance. Romeo and Juliet would not have even met if they had different classes, let alone get married and die for eachother. For example, in act I scene II in Shakespeare’s romeo and Juliet, a Capulet servant asks Romeo “Perhaps you learned it without book ,but I pray, can you read?”.

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For instance, when Romeo says, “Come, bitter conduct, come, unsavoury guide!/Thou desperate pilot, now at once run on/The dashing rocks thy sea-sick weary bark!/Here's to my love!” This demonstrates how solitary Romeo feels and how he immensely wants to be with Juliet. Therefore,

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786 Words | 4 Pages

Because this poem is a Shakespearean sonnet, the rhyme scheme not only works to create fluidity from each idea, but also from the thoughts of the speaker and the responses from the echo. In line 3, the rhyme between the end of the question “heart”, and the echo’s response “art”, creates the idea that whatever resides in the speaker’s heart could be used as an individual piece of art. This idea is important because it implies that every single part of the speaker, from the idea of love once lost, to the answers provided by the echo, creates a piece of art that will be interpreted differently by different people. This enhances the meaning of the poem because it shows that even though the speaker is close to dying, the life the speaker had will be seen differently by each person that has been affected by it. In line 14, the speaker states that the echo knows if happiness resides in death.

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In Act 1, Scene 5 of Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare writes to show the intense chemistry between the two lovers upon their first meeting. Shakespeare develops this attraction through a sonnet. Two of the lines in the verse state, “This holy shrine, the gentle fine in this… Which mannerly devotion shows in this,” which shows how Juliet imitates Romeo’s language. She is only 13 years old, so she uses his dialect as an example of how to speak. Romeo and Juliet express their affection towards each other by relating it to religion.

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It is very interesting to examine how people who belong to different social classes address each other and additionally to discover the social meanings which are assigned to pronouns of address in such interactions. The most typical example of a socially unequal relationship is that between a servant and his/her master. In Romeo and Juliet (Act I, Scene Three), Lady Capulet, the mother of Juliet, addresses the nurse using the pronoun thou. She seems to be following the norms of society since she is considered to be socially superior and it is customary to use the pronoun thou to an inferior. On the other hand, the nurse, as an inferior, is obliged to show her respect towards somebody who belongs to a higher class than her and as a result, she

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"Romeo and Juliet" is a timeless tale that explores themes of love, fate, loyalty, and conflict. These themes resonate with our own experiences and relationships, shaping our personal journeys. This narrative essay will delve into my own encounters, drawing parallels to the themes portrayed in Shakespeare's play. Through specific examples and reflections, I will explore how societal expectations, miscommunication, reconciliation, have influenced my life and how they relate to the profound narrative of "Romeo and Juliet." Similar to the characters in "Romeo and Juliet," I have faced situations where societal expectations and family pressures influenced my relationships and decisions.

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“My bounty is as boundless as the sea, My love as deep; the more I give to thee, The more I have, for both are infinite.” ― William Shakespeare from Romeo and Juliet. In Romeo and Juliet, Romeo is a Montague and Juliet is a Capulet, which are two rivaling high class families. This story is a great example of how the social class system works with the Montagues and Capulets being high class and having servants while those servants have nothing but their jobs. This was written in European literature which was later brought to America.

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Millay makes it clear when she writes: “Yet many a man is making friends with death, Even as I speak, for lack of love alone”, trying to give her readers the point of view that men can die without love. A lovelorn man is closer to death. Line eight really changes the direction of this sonnet because, at first, Millay’s definition of love was worthless and now the reader notices that she starts restoring the significant importance of love. The next lines begin with “It well may be”, which introduces the reader to a hypothetical situation being “Pinned down by pain and moaning for release, Or nagged by want past resolution’s power”. These two lines influence how the reader portrays love because nothing is more important then filling that hole in our heart when love is missing.

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In these short poems, the authors utilize particular rhetorical techniques and methods to reflect the speakers’ personality and motivation. Therefore, presenting the speaker becomes the main focus of the authors. In Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18 and Robert Browning’s “My Last Duchess,” both poems reflect the speakers’ traits through monologue, figurative language, and symbolism. However, these two speakers’ personalities are different due to their attitude toward their beloved. The speaker in Sonnet 18 is gentle and delighted but frustrated because the ideal metaphor comparison of summer is not perfect for describing his beloved; the poem thus suggests that the way you love others reflects how you feel about yourself.

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1403 Words | 6 Pages

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1945 Words | 8 Pages

It is in this setting we discover the protagonist occupied with a difficult day of tiring work. The tone of the sonnet amid the first stanza is tense, as though the protagonist is continually helping herself to remember the amount she needs to do in the day, and posting the errands in her mind so she doesn 't neglect to do any of them. The stanza also begins with “I’ve” which shows the necessity of her getting the work completed. It also shows how unwilling and forced she is to do the work. It appears that she is worried by her day by day schedule.

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