The work of the great playwright William Shakespeare can be divided into several periods. The first of them is characterized by early tragedies, the texts of which are imbued with faith in justice and hope for happiness. Next comes the transitional stage. And finally, the period of late dark tragedies.

If you analyze the play “Romeo and Juliet”, then the poet’s negative moods can be observed quite clearly here. After all, in the play, life, as they say, is in full swing; in the foreground are good people defeating the forces of evil. However, the inhumanity shown by the playwright is not so unarmed. She darkens life, threatens it and takes revenge.

The appearance of the play "Romeo and Juliet" became a significant event in the history of not only English, but also world literature. It was the beginning of a new, so-called Shakespearean stage.

An analysis of the dramatic work “Romeo and Juliet” suggests that social issues became the basis of the tragedy. Showing these relationships in the play reveals its historical significance.

History of creation and time

The play "Romeo and Juliet" is one of those works by the author that were written by him in the earliest period of his work. Shakespeare created his famous play between 1591 and 1595.

Consider the plot of Romeo and Juliet. The analysis of the work very briefly describes the story proposed by the playwright. It tells us about the imaginary death of the main character, the news of which led to the suicide of the young man she loved. This was the reason that the girl also took her own life.

A similar plot was first described long before the creation of this play. It was found in the poem “Metamorphoses”, created by the ancient Roman writer Ovid. The work was written in the 1st century BC. It tells the story of two lovers - Pyramus and Phiobe, who lived in Babylon. The parents of the young people were against their meetings, and then they agreed on a night date. Fioba came first and saw a lion there hunting bulls, whose muzzle was covered in blood. The girl decided that a formidable predator had torn apart the young man she loved, and ran away, dropping her handkerchief along the way. The lion tore this handkerchief and smeared it with blood. After this, the young man came and, deciding that Fioba was dead, he himself stabbed himself with a sword. The girl returned to the appointed place, saw the dying Pyramus, and immediately rushed to the sword.

This story was used by Shakespeare when writing his comedy A Midsummer Night's Dream. Only there the plot about two lovers was presented to the audience by an amateur theater.

This plot wandered from work to work. Thus, it was described in one of the Italian short stories, and then moved into an English poem created in 1562 by Arthur Brooke. And only a little later Shakespeare became interested in this story. He slightly modified the English version of the ancient Roman poem. Its duration was reduced from nine months to five days. At the same time, the time of year during which the events took place changed. If initially it was winter, then in Shakespeare it turned into summer. The great playwright also added a number of scenes. But the most basic difference from all previous options lies in the deeper content of the plot. This allowed the play to take its rightful place in the history of world literature.

Plot

So, what is the story told in the play Romeo and Juliet? An analysis of the work can briefly introduce us to this plot. The entire period during which the tragic events unfold covers, as already mentioned, only five days.

The beginning of the first act was marked by a brawl between servants belonging to two different families, who are in a state of enmity with each other. The hosts' surnames are Montagues and Capulets. Next, representatives of these two houses join the servants' brawl. Heads of families are not left out either. Tired of the strife that had lasted for days, the townspeople had difficulty separating the fighters. The Prince of Verona himself arrives at the scene with a call to stop the clash, threatening the violators with death.

Montague's son, Romeo, also comes to the square. He is not involved in these feuds. His thoughts are entirely occupied with the beautiful girl Rosalina.

The action continues in the Capulet house. Count Paris comes to the head of this family. He is a relative of the Prince of Verona. The Count asks for the hand of Juliet, who is the only daughter of the owners. The girl is not yet fourteen years old, but she is obedient to the will of her parents.

Plot development

A carnival ball is organized in the Capulet house, into which young men from the house of Benvolio and Montague enter, wearing masks. This is Mercutio and Romeo. Even on the threshold of the house, Romeo was seized by a strange anxiety. He told his friend about it.

During the ball, Juliet met Romeo's gaze. This struck both like lightning, sparking love in their hearts.

From the nurse Romeo learned that the girl was the daughter of the owners. Juliet also learned that the young man was the son of the sworn enemy of their house.

Romeo carefully climbed over the wall and hid in the greenery of the Capulet garden. Soon Juliet came out onto the balcony. The lovers talked to each other and swore an oath of love, deciding to unite their destinies. The feeling consumed them so much that all the actions of the young people were carried out with extraordinary firmness.

They told their story to Romeo's confessor, Friar Lorenzo, and to Juliet's confidant and nurse. The clergyman agrees to conduct a secret wedding ceremony for the newlyweds, hoping that this union will finally force the two warring families - the Montagues and the Capulets - to reconcile.

Unexpected turn of events

Next, the plot tells us about a skirmish that happened on the street between Juliet's cousin Tybalt and Mercutio. There was an exchange of caustic barbs between them, which was interrupted by the appearance of Romeo. The latter, having married Juliet, believes that Tybalt is his relative, and tries with all his might to avoid a quarrel. This is despite the fact that Juliet's cousin insults Romeo. Mercutio comes to his friend's defense. He attacks Tybalt with his fists. Romeo comes between them. However, Tybalt manages to deal a fatal blow to Mercutio.

Romeo loses his best friend, who died defending his honor. This infuriates the young man. He kills Tybalt, who appears in the square, for which he faces execution.

The terrible news reached Juliet. She mourns the death of her brother, but at the same time justifies her lover.

Friar Lorenzo convinces Romeo that he should hide until forgiveness is granted. Before he leaves, he meets with Juliet, but they manage to spend only a few hours together. The coming dawn, along with the trills of the lark, informed the lovers that they would be separated.

Meanwhile, Juliet’s parents, who know nothing about their daughter’s wedding, start talking about the wedding again. Count Paris is also rushing things. The wedding is scheduled for the very next day, and all the daughter’s pleas to her parents to wait a little remain unanswered.

Juliet is in despair. She goes to Lorenzo. The monk invites her to use a trick and pretend to be submissive to her father’s will. In the evening, she needs to take a miraculous drug that will plunge her into a state similar to death. Such a dream should last forty-two hours. During this time, Juliet will already be taken to the family crypt, and Lorenzo will tell Romeo about everything. The young will be able to escape somewhere until better times.

Before the decisive step, Juliet was overcome with fear. However, she drank the entire bottle.

Tragic ending

In the morning, the parents discovered that their daughter was dead. The whole family plunged into inconsolable mourning. Juliet was buried in the family crypt.

At this time, Romeo is hiding in Mantua and waiting for news from the monk. However, it was not the messenger Lorenzo who came to him, but the servant Balthazar. He brought terrible news about the death of his beloved. The monk, Lorenzo's messenger, never met Romeo. The young man buys poison at a local pharmacy and goes to Verona.

The last scene takes place in the tomb. Romeo curses the evil forces that took Juliet from him, kisses her for the last time and drinks poison.
Friar Lorenzo was literally one moment late. He could no longer revive the young man. At this time, Juliet awakens. She immediately asks him about Romeo. Having learned the terrible truth, she plunged a dagger into her chest.

At the end of the story, the Montagues and Capulets forgot about their enmity. They extended their hands to each other and together began to mourn their dead children. They decided to place golden statues on their graves.

Love theme

So, we briefly learned the plot of the poem “Romeo and Juliet”. Analysis of the work tells us that its author, describing the tragedy of man, turned first of all to the greatest human feeling. The poem is literally imbued with the poetry of love. Moreover, the high feeling acquires an increasingly powerful sound as the action approaches the finale.

We continue our acquaintance with the play “Romeo and Juliet”. Analysis of the work allows us to understand that it is nothing more than the pathos of love. After all, from the monologues of the main characters it is clear that young people not only admire each other. In their speeches, love is recognized as a divine feeling, receiving proud, solemn and rapturous recognition.

Moral Issues

What else did Shakespeare want to tell the world? “Romeo and Juliet” (analysis of the work directly points to this) raises many moral problems. They are not at all limited to depicting love that inspires and unites two young people. This feeling develops and further strengthens against the background of other options that show us the relationship between a woman and a man. And Shakespeare told us about them with different accents of artistic expression. Romeo and Juliet (analysis of the work makes this clear to us) have a high feeling, the grandeur and purity of which contrasts with other forms of relationships.

The viewer sees the most primitive version at the beginning of the play. These are very rude expressions of the servants that women are created only so that they can be pinned to the wall.

Further, a brief analysis of the tragedy “Romeo and Juliet” tells us that there are other carriers of this moral concept. The author assigns such a role to the nurse, who expresses similar thoughts, but only in a softer form. She persuades her pupil to forget Romeo and marry Paris. This clash of morals leads to open conflict between the girl and the nurse.

What else does the analysis of Romeo and Juliet show us? Shakespeare does not accept another version of the relationship between a man and a woman. It is described in Paris's request to old Capulet. For that time, this method of creating a family was quite common. Paris asks for Juliet's hand without even asking about her feelings. The analysis of Romeo and Juliet shows us this quite clearly. Shakespeare in the second scene of the first act, through the mouth of old Capulet, says that before asking for a girl’s hand, you must immediately court her. However, further, Juliet’s father himself guarantees Paris the favor of his daughter, being confident in her submission to her parents.

We continue to study the poem “Romeo and Juliet”. Analysis of the work tells us that the count never told the girl about his love. Paris's behavior changes somewhat after the supposed death of his bride, although at the same time the chill of the conventions that took place in those days creeps into his actions and statements.

The comedy of the play

What else can a brief analysis of Romeo and Juliet tell us? Shakespeare combines in his work the romantic side of love with the quirks of passion and some oddities. The author points out that a high feeling does not allow a person to continue living in his usual rhythm, making him different from what he was before.

Analysis of "Romeo and Juliet" (8th grade) clearly indicates that in some scenes the main character is simply ridiculous. The author shows the reader the intolerant and passionate feeling of a girl who knew love for the first time. At the same time, Juliet in comic scenes is faced with the cunning of the nurse. The inexperienced girl demands from the maid a story about Romeo's actions. However, she, citing fatigue or bone pain, constantly postpones the conversation.

Where else is comedy present in the play Romeo and Juliet? Analysis of the work allows us to draw clear conclusions that it contains more humor and cheerfulness than other Shakespearean tragedies. The author constantly produces a release of growing tragedy. At the same time, the love story ceases to be high romance. He seems to land and move into the plane of ordinary human relationships, but at the same time he is not at all belittled.

Shakespeare expresses an unprecedented breadth of views on love in his work Romeo and Juliet. An analysis of the play confirms that almost all the characters in one way or another express their attitude towards the feeling that arose between Romeo and Juliet. At the same time, the assessment of the love of the young is given by the characters depending on their own positions. But, nevertheless, the artist himself proceeds from the fact that this high feeling has all-pervading power and is universal. At the same time, it is purely individual, unique and unique.

The power that changes a person

An analysis of Shakespeare's tragedy "Romeo and Juliet" also proves the fact that love is a demanding feeling that forces a person to become a fighter. There is no cloudless idyll in the play. The feeling that has arisen between young people is subjected to a severe test. However, neither the boy nor the girl even thinks for a second about whether they should choose love or choose hatred, which traditionally defines the relationship of the Montague and Capulet families. Romeo and Juliet seem to merge in one impulse.

However, even a brief analysis of “Romeo and Juliet” convincingly proves the fact that, despite the high feeling, the individuality of the young people did not dissolve in it. Juliet is not at all inferior to Romeo in determination. However, Shakespeare endowed his heroine with more spontaneity. Juliet is still a child. She is two weeks away from her fourteenth birthday. Shakespeare inimitably recreated this young image.

Juliet has not yet learned to hide her feelings. She sincerely loves, grieves and admires. She is not familiar with irony and sincerely does not understand why the Montagues should be hated. With this the girl expresses her protest.

All the immaturity of Juliet's feelings and behavior disappears with the advent of love. She grows up and begins to understand relationships between people much better than her parents. Being the daughter of Capulet, she was able to rise above class prejudices. Juliet chose to die, but did not marry an unloved man. These were her intentions, and this is how she began to act.

An analysis of the tragedy “Romeo and Juliet” clearly indicates that with the advent of love, the girl’s actions become more and more confident. She was the first to start talking about the wedding and demanded that Romeo not put things off, and the very next day he became her husband.

Tragedy of love

Studying the analysis of the work based on the play “Romeo and Juliet” (8th grade), one can be convinced that the high feelings of young people are surrounded by enmity.

The girl dies, having practically never known the happiness of the love she created and dreamed about. There is no person who could replace Romeo for her. Love cannot happen again, and without it, life will simply lose its meaning.

However, after a brief analysis of the work “Romeo and Juliet,” we can say with confidence that the reason for the girl’s suicide was not only the death of her lover. Waking up from the spell of the potion given to her by the monk, she realized that the young man had killed himself only because he was sure of her death. She simply needed to share his fate. In this Juliet saw her duty. This was her last wish.

Yes, the characters in the play took their own lives. However, in doing so, they pronounced a harsh verdict on existing inhumanity.

That light of love that was lit by Romeo and Juliet has not lost its strength and warmth in our time. There is something close and dear to us in the constancy and energy of their characters, as well as in the courage of the actions they committed. We warmly welcome the nobility of their souls, which found expression in their rebellious behavior and desire to assert their own freedom. And this topic, without any doubt, will not lose its relevance and will worry people forever.

Who was the rebellion against?

Some literary scholars believe that the play shows us the clash between fathers and sons. At the same time, the conflict flares up between inert parents and progressive-minded young people. However, this is not at all true. It is no coincidence that Shakespeare created the image of young Tybalt. This young man is so blinded by malice that he has no other goal than the extermination of the Montagues. At the same time, old Capulet, unable to change anything, admits that it is time to end the hostility. In contrast to the image of Tibelti, he longs for peace, not a bloody war.

The love of Romeo and Juliet is opposed to misanthropy. Young people not only expressed their protest against old views and attitudes. They showed everyone an example that you can live completely differently. People should not be separated by enmity. They should be united by love. This high feeling in Shakespeare's play is opposed to the bourgeois inertia that dominates the Capulet family. Such great love is born from faith in the greatness of a person, from admiration for his beauty, from the desire to share the joys of life with him. And this feeling is deeply intimate. It connects only a boy and a girl. However, their first irresistible attraction to each other becomes their last due to the fact that the world around them is not yet ripe for love.

Nevertheless, the play does not leave us with hope that everything will change for the better. In Shakespeare's tragedy there is still no feeling that freedom has been destroyed and evil has conquered all aspects of life. The heroes do not experience the feeling of undivided loneliness that later overcomes Othello, Lear and Coriolanus. Romeo and Juliet are surrounded by faithful friends, the noble monk Lorenzo, the servant Balthazar, and the nurse. Even a hero like the Duke, despite the fact that he banished Romeo, still pursued a policy aimed against the existence and further incitement of civil strife. In this tragedy, power does not oppose the main character and is not a force hostile to him.

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Time and history of creation

Romeo and Juliet is one of Shakespeare's early tragedies, written between 1591 and 1595.

The plot of the imaginary death of a girl, which led to the suicide of her lover, and then to the suicide of the girl herself, first appears long before William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.

In the poem “Metamorphoses” by the ancient Roman writer Ovid, written in the 1st century. AD, tells the story of lovers who lived in Babylon - Pyramus and Thisbe. Pyramus and Thisbe's parents were against their relationship. The lovers decided to meet secretly at night. Thisbe was the first to arrive at the meeting place. She saw a lion with a bloody muzzle hunting bulls. Thinking that the lion had torn her lover to pieces, Thisbe ran away, dropping her handkerchief, which the lion tore. Pyramus, who arrived soon, saw Thisbe’s bloody handkerchief and, deciding that his beloved was dead, stabbed himself with a sword. Thisbe returned and saw that Pyramus was dying. Then she also threw herself on the sword.

Shakespeare used this story in his comedy A Midsummer Night's Dream, where the play of Pyramus and Thisbe is presented by an amateur theater.

Half a century before Shakespeare, the Italian writer Luigi da Porto addressed this topic in his short story “The Story of Two Noble Lovers.” He moves the action to Verona and gives the characters the names of Romeo and Juliet. They belong to the warring houses - Montague and Cappelletti. And further in the story the plot develops in the same way as it will later be told in Shakespeare.

Another quarter of a century later, this plot came to England - in 1562, Arthur Brooke wrote the poem “Romeo and Juliet”. So the plot wandered, changing form: an ancient Roman poem became an Italian short story, turned into an English poem, until a brilliant playwright became interested in the plot. The English poem served as Shakespeare's source for the play. He shortened the development of the action from 9 months to 5 days, changed the time of action from winter to summer, and added a number of scenes. But the main thing is that he filled the plot with deeper content.

The tragedy spans five days.

The first act begins with a brawl between servants who belong to two warring families - the Montagues and the Capulets. The servants are quickly joined by noble representatives of the two houses, and then by their heads themselves. The townspeople, tired of the strife, have difficulty separating the fighting. The Prince of Verona arrives and orders the clash to end on pain of death.

Romeo, son of Montague, appears in the square. He is far from these feuds - his thoughts are occupied with the beautiful Rosaline.

The action moves to the Capulet house. The owner of the house is visited by the prince's relative, Count Paris, who asks for the hand of the owners' only daughter. Juliet is not yet fourteen, but her father agrees to the proposal. The girl is obedient to her parents' will.

The young people of the Montague house, Benvolio, Mercutio and Romeo, enter the carnival ball in the Capulet house under masks.

On the threshold of the Capulet house, Romeo is gripped by a strange anxiety:

I don't expect anything good. Something unknown, Which is still hidden in the darkness, But will be born from this ball, Will shorten my life untimely...

At the ball, the eyes of Romeo and Juliet meet, and love strikes them like blinding lightning.

Romeo learns from the nurse that she is the daughter of the owners. A few minutes later, Juliet finds out that Romeo is the son of their sworn enemy!

Romeo silently climbs over the wall and hides in the dense Capulet garden. Juliet comes out onto the balcony. The conversation between the two lovers ends with an oath of love and a decision to unite their destinies. Romeo and Juliet act with extraordinary firmness and courage, completely submitting to the love that has consumed them.

They trust their feelings to the monk Friar Lorenzo, Romeo's confessor, and the nurse, Juliet's confidante. Lorenzo agrees to secretly marry the lovers: he hopes that the union of the young Montagues and Capulets will force the two families to reconcile.

On the street there is a clash between Tybalt, Juliet's cousin, and Mercutio. The exchange of caustic barbs is interrupted by the arrival of Romeo. “Leave me alone! “Here is the man I need,” Tybalt declares and insults Romeo. The same one, after his wedding with Juliet, considers Tybalt to be his relative and seeks to avoid a quarrel. But Tybalt regards this as cowardice. Enraged, Mercutio rushes at him. As they fight, Romeo throws himself between them. Tybalt stabs Mercutio from under his hand and then quickly disappears. Mercutio dies in Romeo's arms. The last words he whispers: “Plague take both of your families!”

Romeo lost his best friend: he died because of him when he defended his honor... “Thanks to you, Juliet, I am becoming too soft...” says Romeo in a fit of remorse and rage. Tybalt appears in the square again. They are fighting. A few seconds later Tybalt falls dead. Romeo faces execution.

Juliet learns about the terrible news from the nurse. Her heart contracts with mortal melancholy. Grieving over the death of her brother, she at the same time justifies Romeo.

Friar Lorenzo urges Romeo to go into hiding until he is granted forgiveness. Romeo yearns for Juliet. They manage to spend several hours together. The trill of a lark at dawn notifies lovers that it is time for them to part.

Meanwhile, Juliet’s unsuspecting parents are again talking to their daughter about the wedding: Count Paris is in a hurry, and the father has already decided on the wedding the next day. The girl begs her parents to wait, but they are adamant.

Juliet goes to Lorenzo in despair. He offers the only way to salvation: she must pretend to be submissive to her father’s will, and in the evening take a miraculous solution. Afterwards, she will plunge into a state reminiscent of death, which will last exactly forty-two hours. Juliet will be buried in the family crypt. And at this time, Lorenzo will let Romeo know about everything, he will arrive at the time of her awakening, and they can disappear until better times...

“Give me the bottle! Don’t talk about fear,” Juliet cuts him off.

While the Capulet house is preparing for the wedding, Juliet is overcome with fear before her decisive act. But she drinks the bottle to the bottom.

In the morning it is discovered that Juliet is dead. The family plunges into inconsolable mourning. Juliet is buried in the family crypt.

Romeo, hiding in Mantua, awaits news from the monk. But instead of the messenger Lorenzo, Romeo's servant Balthazar appears, bearing the terrible news of Juliet's death. But the monk whom Lorenzo sent to Romeo did not meet him. Romeo buys poison from a local pharmacist and rushes to Verona.

The last scene takes place in the tomb of the Capulet family. Romeo appears and is left alone in front of Juliet's coffin. Cursing the evil forces that took away this most perfect of earthly creatures, he kisses Juliet for the last time and with the words “I drink to you, love!” drinks poison.

Lorenzo is a moment late, but he is no longer able to revive the young man. He arrives just in time for Juliet's awakening. When she sees the friar, she immediately asks about Romeo. Lorenzo, afraid to tell her the terrible truth, hurries her to leave the crypt. Juliet does not hear his words. Seeing Romeo dead, she only thinks about how to die herself as quickly as possible. She is annoyed that Romeo drank all the poison alone. The girl plunges a dagger into her chest.

The Montagues and Capulets, forgetting about old feuds, extended their hands to each other, inconsolably mourning their dead children. It was decided to place a golden statue on their graves.

The tragedy ends with the words that the story of Romeo and Juliet will remain the saddest in the world.

Poetics, composition, idea

The genre of the work is high tragedy. This genre has been described this way since the time of Aristotle: tragedy, evoking feelings of compassion and fear, leads viewers to moral purification. Characters in tragedy must captivate not only with passion, but also with thought.

In Shakespeare's tragedy, two forces collide in their irreconcilability. On the one hand, there are irreconcilably hostile people, the Montagues and Capulets, frozen in their hatred. The most ardent follower of the principle of blood feud is young Tybalt, burning with hatred for all Montagues. He hates them simply because they belong to a hostile family.

On the other hand, there are people who strive to live by different laws. This desire is a natural living feeling. Thus, the mutual love of young Montague and young Capulet suddenly breaks out. Romeo and Juliet forget about the enmity of their families: the feeling that has taken possession of them instantly breaks the wall of enmity and alienation. Young Juliet, having fallen in love with Romeo, argues that his belonging to a hostile family does not matter to her. And Romeo is ready to easily give up his family name if it turns out to be an obstacle to his love for Juliet. Friar Lorenzo supports the lovers. He undertakes to help Romeo and Juliet, hoping that their marriage will serve as the beginning of reconciliation of the childbirth. Such is the conflict of tragedy.

The death of Romeo and Juliet leads to reconciliation. But the price paid to end the feud is too high. The death of children is a tragic lesson, forcing parents to understand the cruel senselessness of their enmity. The love of Romeo and Juliet triumphs over the inhuman custom of blood feud.

Romeo and Juliet is not just a beautiful tragic love story. Shakespeare's work affirms the principles of humanism in life.

The presentation of moral problems in the play is not limited to the depiction of love that inspires and unites Romeo and Juliet. This love develops and strengthens against the background of other options for relationships between a man and a woman - options developed with varying degrees of artistic expressiveness, but each time in a new way and always contrastingly emphasizing the purity and greatness of the feeling that gripped the main characters of the tragedy.

The viewer encounters the most primitive of these options at the very beginning of the play, observing a very rude buffoonery of servants, colored with outright obscenities, who believe that women exist only to be pinned against the wall: “That’s right! That’s why women, meager vessels, are always pushed against the wall.” (I, 1, 15--17). Subsequently, the bearer of this moral concept, although in a much milder form, turns out to be the nurse. And therefore, it is quite natural that in one of the most intense moments of the play, when Juliet is looking for ways to remain faithful to Romeo, the morality of the heroine and the morality of the nurse, who persuades her pupil to forget Romeo and marry Paris, come into open conflict.

Another option for relationships with women that is no less unacceptable for Shakespeare is Paris and old Capulet. This is the usual, official way of solving matrimonial problems for that time. Paris begins negotiations on marriage with Juliet's father, without even bothering to ask the bride herself about her feelings. This is quite clearly evidenced by the conversation between Paris and Capulet in the 2nd scene of Act I, where the old Capulet, having listened to Paris’s proposal, advises the young man to first look after his daughter (I, 2, 16--17).

But then, at another meeting with Paris, Capulet himself guarantees him the love of his daughter, being confident that Juliet will submit to his choice

“Sir, I can completely assure you

For the feelings of my daughter: I’m sure

That she will obey me"

(III, 4,12-14).

Juliet's refusal to marry Paris (III, 5) evokes a reaction from Capulet so completely consistent with Domostroevsky traditions that it does not need any comments.

The only time the audience is present is during the conversation between Paris and Juliet in the cell of brother Lorenzo. Having by this time secured the final consent of Capulet to marry his daughter to him and knowing about the day of the upcoming wedding, Paris gains some eloquence. But again, in this conversation, Paris essentially says nothing to Juliet about love, although, as is clear from his words at the beginning of the scene, he had not been able to really tell the bride anything about his feelings.

True, Paris's behavior changes after the imaginary death of Juliet. But even here, in his words and actions, we can feel the chill of courtly conventions.

Only the last dying words of Paris with a request to be placed next to Juliet bring a warm tone to the restrained palette that Shakespeare used when creating this image.

It is much more difficult to establish the author's attitude to the ethical concept, the bearer of which is Mercutio in the play. The simplest explanation is offered by researchers who believe that “Mercutio’s foul language,” as well as “Capulet’s severity” and “the unprincipled opportunism of the nurse,” aims to highlight the purity of Romeo’s attitude towards Juliet. However, an analysis of the role assigned by the playwright to the image of Mercutio does not allow us to agree with such a statement.

As is known, Shakespeare, from the sources available to him, could only learn the name of Mercutio and the description of this young man as a model of courtliness and a successful hunter of ladies' hearts. Mercutio’s significance for the development of the plot both in the poem and in the short story is limited to the fact that at the ball Juliet preferred the warm hand of Romeo to Mercutio’s ice-cold hand; after this, Mercutio no longer participates in the action. Such a fleeting episode was needed only to motivate the beginning of the conversation between Romeo and Juliet during the holiday; it was precisely omitted by Shakespeare. Therefore, researchers have every reason to believe that the image of Mercutio that appears before the viewer of Shakespeare’s tragedy - “a model of a young gentleman of that time, refined, affectionate, noble Mercutio” - completely belongs to the creative imagination of the playwright.

Analyzing the composition of the tragedy, one can easily notice that in Shakespeare’s work, the development of the image of Mercutio is not caused by considerations of plot order. Although Mercutio is on stage for quite a long time, he actively acts only once - at the moment of his collision with Tybalt. But even in this case, the duel between Tybalt and Mercutio introduced by Shakespeare into the play is not necessary in order to cause a duel between the main character of the tragedy and Juliet’s cousin; the dull hatred contained in Tybalt himself is in itself a sufficient prerequisite for a clash between him and Romeo to occur at any moment. Therefore, it is quite natural to assume that Shakespeare assigned an important function not to the plot, but to the ideological plan, to the image of Mercutio. The most important means for fulfilling this function is the above-mentioned duel between Mercutio and Tybalt. Although both characters exchange their first remarks only immediately before the fight, their clash is prepared in advance by the playwright as a fundamental conflict of ideological antagonists. By this time, the viewer already imagines the characters and views of the duel participants. Mercutio is the only character in the play who speaks so sharply negatively about the frantic young Capulet. This pronounced antipathy simultaneously serves as a characteristic of Mercutio himself as a man of the Renaissance, to whom Tybalt’s medieval morality is hostile.

Therefore, the duel between Mercutio and Tybalt far outgrows the scope of a street fight started by young people from decent families - a phenomenon very common for those times. The duel between Mercutio and Tybalt is the broadest generalization, symbolizing the collision of the old principle, embodied in Tybalt, and the free, life-loving spirit of the Renaissance, the brilliant bearer of which is Mercutio.

The symbolic nature of this duel is emphasized by the last words of the dying Mercutio. Feeling the fatal blow, Mercutio understands that he did not just die from the blow of a vile nonentity, who could nevertheless kill a person. The dying curse he sends to both houses:

“Plague, plague on both your houses!

Because of them I will go to worms for food,

Disappeared, died.

A plague on both your houses!” (III, 1.103 - 105)-

proves that Mercutio himself considers himself a victim of senseless medieval enmity.

The similarity of the ideological positions of Romeo and Mercutio suggests significant similarities in the ethical platforms of these characters. How, then, can we explain the rather obvious fact that the outwardly ethical attitudes of the two friends diverge very far - so far that some scientists come to the conclusion that the ethics of Mercutio and the ethics of Romeo are opposed?

The answer to this question is given by Mercutio's death itself. The playwright removes him from the play at the very beginning of the development of the main conflict. Mercutio dies without knowing about Romeo's love for Juliet.

In Shakespeare's comedies, the inspiration of love, its romantic side is combined with the oddities and quirks of passion, since it takes a person out of the normal rhythm of life, makes him “sick” and funny. In the tragedy "Romeo and Juliet" love is also not devoid of comedy, despite the fact that it is identified with the sublime, with the beautiful in life.

Juliet is funny in some scenes. The passionate and impatient feeling of a girl who has experienced love for the first time collides comically with the cunning of the nurse. Juliet demands from the experienced servant that she quickly tell about Romeo’s actions, and the nurse either refers to pain in her bones or fatigue, deliberately delaying the message. It turns out very funny.

The ardent Romeo falls under the cold stream of prudence of his mentor Lorenzo.

Thanks to humor, more cheerful than in any other tragedy, the growing tragedy is discharged, the love story from the sphere of high romance descends onto the soil of living human relationships, “lands” in the good sense of the word, and is not belittled. The plot of Shakespeare's tragedy is opposed to the very stories of knightly love, which is portrayed in the medieval novel as a feeling detached from social reality. Petrarch, on the one hand, and Boccaccio, on the other, destroyed the feudal-knightly idea of ​​unearthly, “ideal” love and the church’s view of love as a sinful feeling. The poet of the Italian Renaissance, in his sonnets dedicated to Laura, revived the image of the lady of the heart, dried up in the chivalric romance. The author of the Decameron contrasted the simple joys of love with the dishonest game of the clergy in piety.

In Shakespeare we see a synthesis of both trends: in Romeo and Juliet the high pathos of Petrarch is combined with the love of life of Boccaccio. What is also new is that Shakespeare has an unprecedented breadth of vision. All or almost all characters express their attitude towards the love of Romeo and Juliet. And they are evaluated depending on their position. The artist proceeds from the fact that true love has an all-pervading power, it is a universal feeling. At the same time, she is individual, unique, unique.

Romeo at first only imagines that he loves Rosaline. This girl is not even shown on stage, so her absence emphasizes the illusory nature of Romeo's passion. He is sad, he is looking for solitude. He avoids friends and shows, in the words of the wise Lorenzo, “stupid ardor.” Melancholy Romeo is not at all like a tragic hero, he is rather funny. His comrades Benvolio and Mercutio understand this very well and cheerfully make fun of him.

The meeting with Juliet transforms the young man. Romeo, having imagined love for Rosaline, disappears. A new Romeo is born, completely surrendered to real feelings. Lethargy gives way to action. Views change: before he lived by himself, now he lives by Juliet: “My heaven is where Juliet is.” For her he exists, for her sake - and thereby for himself: after all, he is loved too. It is not languid sadness for the unrealizable Rosaline, but living passion that inspires Romeo: “All day long some spirit carries me high above the earth in joyful dreams.”

Love transformed and cleansed a person’s inner world; it miraculously influenced his relationships with people. A hostile attitude towards the Capulet family, a blind hatred that could not be justified by any reasoning, was replaced by courageous restraint.

You have to put yourself in the position of young Montague to understand what his peacefulness cost him when the pugnacious Tybalt insulted him. Never in his life would the former Romeo forgive the arrogant nobleman for his causticity and rudeness. A loving Romeo is patient. He will not rashly get involved in a duel: it could end in the death of one or even both participants in the battle. Love makes Romeo reasonable, wise in his own way.

Gaining flexibility does not come at the expense of losing hardness and durability. When it becomes clear that the vengeful Tybalt cannot be stopped with words, when the enraged Tybalt pounces like a beast on the good-natured Mercutio and kills him, Romeo takes up arms. Not out of vindictive motives! He is no longer the old Montague. Romeo punishes Tybalt for murder. What else could he do?

Love is demanding: a person must be a fighter. In Shakespeare's tragedy we do not find a cloudless idyll: the feelings of Romeo and Juliet are severely tested. Neither Romeo nor Juliet think for a minute what to give preference to: love or hatred, which traditionally defines the relationship between the Montagues and the Capulets. They merged in one impulse. But individuality did not dissolve in the general feeling. Not inferior to her beloved in determination, Juliet is more spontaneous. She's still just a child. The mother and nurse establish precisely: there are two weeks left on the day when Juliet turns fourteen. The play inimitably recreates this age of the girl: the world amazes her with its contrasts, she is full of vague expectations.

Juliet did not learn to hide her feelings. There are three feelings: she loves, she admires, she grieves. She is not familiar with irony. She is surprised that one can hate a Montague just because he is a Montague. She protests.

When the nurse, who knows about Juliet’s love, half-jokingly advises her to marry Paris, the girl becomes angry with the old woman. Juliet wants everyone to be constant like her. So that everyone will appreciate the incomparable Romeo. The girl has heard or read about the fickleness of men, and at first she dares to tell her beloved about this, but immediately rejects all suspicion: love makes you believe in a person.

And this childishness of feelings and behavior is also transformed into maturity - Romeo is not the only one growing up. Having fallen in love with Romeo, she begins to understand human relationships better than her parents.

According to the Capulet spouses, Count Paris is an excellent groom for their daughter: handsome, noble, courteous. They initially believe that Juliet will agree with them. For them, one thing is important: the groom must be suitable, he must comply with the unwritten code of decency.

Capulet's daughter rises above class prejudices. She prefers to die rather than marry someone she doesn't love. This is, firstly. She will not hesitate to tie herself in marital ties with the one she loves. This is second. These are her intentions, these are her actions.

Juliet's actions become more confident. The girl is the first to start a conversation about marriage and demands that Romeo, without delaying matters, becomes her husband the very next day.

Juliet's beauty, the strength of her character, the proud awareness of being right - all these traits are most fully expressed in relation to Romeo. To convey the tension of high feelings, high words were found:

Yes, my Montague, yes, I am reckless,

And you have the right to consider me flighty.

But trust me, friend, and I will be more faithful

Everyone who knows how to behave cunningly. (II, 2, 45)

Where, when did a girl declare her love with such dignity? To express the poetry of love, its intimacy, delicate colors were also found:

It's getting light. I would like you to leave

Lets fly on a thread,

Like a captive in chains

And again he pulls the silk towards himself,

I am jealous of her freedom from love. (II, 2, 48)

Meanwhile, alarming sounds are heard. The love of Romeo and Juliet is surrounded by enmity. Juliet dies, having barely experienced the happiness of the love she dreamed of and created. No one can replace the poisoned Romeo. Love does not repeat itself, and without it, life loses its meaning for Juliet. Such was the time, such was Juliet's position.

However, besides this darkness, which replaced the bright time of love, there was another reason that forced Juliet to use Romeo’s dagger.

She knew that Romeo had committed suicide, convinced of her death. She had to share his fate. She saw this as her duty, and this was her desire. Having taken their own lives, the heroes of the tragedy pronounced a sentence of inhumanity much more severe than that passed by the Duke of Verona Escalus.

The light of love, lit by Romeo and Juliet, has not lost its warmth, its life-giving power in our time. There is something familiar to us in the energy and constancy of their characters, in the courage of their actions. Their rebellion and desire to assert their freedom also expresses the properties of noble souls that will forever excite people.

Who did they rebel against?

Others believe that in the play shows the clash between fathers and children, inert parents and progressive-minded young people. This is wrong. It is no coincidence that Shakespeare paints the image of young Tybalt, blinded by malice and having no other goal than the extermination of the Montagues. On the other hand, old Capulet, although he is unable to change anything, admits that it is high time to put an end to the hostility. In contrast to Tybalt, he wants peace with the Montagues, not a bloody war.

Love is opposed to misanthropy. Romeo and Juliet not only rebelled against old views and their relationship. They gave an example of a new life. They are not divided by enmity, they are united by love. Love is opposed to the bourgeois inertia that the Capulets are in the grip of. This is all-human love, born from admiration for beauty, from faith in the greatness of man and the desire to share the joy of life with him. And this is a deeply intimate feeling that connects a girl and a boy. The first irresistible attraction, which should be the last, because the world surrounding Romeo and Juliet is not yet ripe for love.

There is hope that he will change. In Shakespeare's tragedy there is still no feeling that freedom has been trampled upon and evil has penetrated into all pores of life. The heroes do not have the feeling of painful loneliness that Othello, Lear, and Coriolanus will later experience. They are surrounded by devoted friends: Benvolio and Mercutio, ready to give their lives for Romeo, the noble Lorenzo, the nurse, Balthazar. The Duke, despite the fact that he expelled Romeo, pursued a policy that was aimed against inciting civil strife. “Romeo and Juliet” is a tragedy in which power does not oppose the hero, is not a force hostile to him.

Poetic images of people appear, beautiful and humane, full of life and strength, thirsting for happiness, which outdated prejudices sometimes prevent them from achieving.

This is the ideological content of the famous tragedy written by Shakespeare in the early period of his work - “Romeo and Juliet” (see its summary and full text). This is a highly poetic play about love by free choice. She depicts the clash of such animated love with tribal enmity and the arbitrariness of parents.

Romeo and Juliet. 2013 film

The play takes place in the Italian city of Verona. Although its problems are inspired by English reality, the nature and entire situation of Italy perfectly suits its lyrical plot.

An ancient family feud between two noble families - the Montagues and the Capulets - blocks the path to happiness for two young people - Romeo and Juliet, who fell in love with each other. Having learned that the one she fell in love with is the enemy of her family, Juliet says:

What does the name mean? A rose smells like a rose
Either call it a rose or not.
Romeo by any name would be
The height of perfection that he is.
(Translated by B. Pasternak)

Love by free choice appears in this tragedy as a great feeling that binds people for life, a feeling for which even death is not an obstacle. The fight for their love against the oppression of the family pushes both lovers to desperate, reckless actions.

The tragedy is full of lyricism. Love is expressed in it with enormous poetic power. Particularly striking moments in this regard are Juliet’s first confession from the balcony, when she is unexpectedly heard by Romeo, who has made his way into the garden, and the lovers’ farewell. In these lyrical scenes there is a wonderful subtle revelation of feelings.

Friar Lorenzo, a philosopher who studies nature, helps the lovers as a wise older friend. He strives to end the family feud. Another bright positive image is the cheerful Mercutio, Romeo's friend, with his sparkling wit. The untimely death of Mercutio in a duel with Tybalt cries out against the bloody enmity of which he becomes a victim. Shakespeare's faith in a wise monarch was manifested in the depiction of the just prince Escalus, condemning strife and bloodshed.

The images of the tragedy are depicted deeply and comprehensively. Juliet is characterized not only by love, but also by wit, willpower, and determination; Romeo - violent impulses, unrestrained feelings. The characters of both change over the course of the play. Juliet is a carefree girl at first. She doesn’t even think of contradicting her mother when she first proposes Paris to her as a groom. The struggle for love turns her into an independent and heroic woman. In the first scenes, Romeo indulges in far-fetched courtly sighs for a certain Rosaline. Only having fallen in love with Juliet, having learned the power of true feeling, does he become mature, and his love acquires heroic strength.

Stills from the feature film “Romeo and Juliet” (1968) with immortal music by Nino Rota

Juliet's father is depicted in a versatile and realistic manner - a man of the old patriarchal way of life, autocratic in the family and at the same time a good-natured hospitable person, a joker who loves his daughter in his own way, as well as a nurse with her rude, selfish understanding of love and at the same time sincere affection for Juliet .

Federal Agency for Education

State educational institution of higher professional education

Yaroslavl State Pedagogical University named after K.D. Ushinsky

TEST

by discipline:

Foreign literature

Analysis of the work William Shakespeare " Romeo and Juliet'

Performed:

Part-time student

FRFiK YSPU

Specialty "Philological

education"

Bestaeva Marina Sergeevna

Yaroslavl, 2009

Introduction

The theme of love in Shakespeare's works

Tragedy of love

The death of enmity

Problems of "Romeo and Juliet"

Conclusion

List of used literature

Introduction

William Shakespeare was born on April 23, 1564 in the small town of Stretford-upon-Avon. The writer's mother belonged to an impoverished noble family, and his father came from peasants. In addition to the eldest son William, the family had three more sons and four daughters.

Shakespeare studied at Stretford Grammar School, where education was emphatically humanitarian in nature. It is believed that due to financial difficulties in the family, William, as the eldest son, had to be the first to leave school and help his father.

William Shakespeare had the opportunity to attend touring performances of London theaters in his hometown. James Burbage's troupe, where Shakespeare subsequently worked for more than twenty years, had very talented actors. First of all, we should note here the outstanding tragedian Richard Burbage, who played the roles of Burbage, who played the roles of Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, and the wonderful comedian William Kemp, the best performer of the role of Falstaff. They had a significant influence on the fate of Shakespeare, to some extent predetermining his great role - the role of a playwright “of the people.”

In the work of the great playwright, several periods are traditionally distinguished: early tragedies, in which faith in justice and hope for happiness can still be heard, a transitional period and the dark period of later tragedies.

Shakespeare's tragic worldview was formed gradually. A turning point in his mentality, clearly evident in Julius Caesar and Hamlet, was brewing in the 90s. We are convinced of this by the tragic motives that sometimes sound in funny comedies. New moods emerged even more clearly in Romeo and Juliet and The Merchant of Venice. Life is in full swing, good people defeat the forces of evil, but in both plays inhumanity is not at all as unarmed as in the comedies Much Ado About Nothing and Twelfth Night, or Whatever. It threatens, it takes revenge, it is rooted in life.

"Romeo and Juliet" marks the beginning of a new, Shakespearean stage in the development of English and world literature. The historical significance of the play about Romeo and Juliet lies primarily in the fact that social issues have now become the basis of the tragedy. Even before Shakespeare, elements of social characterization of characters were characteristic of the best works of English drama; One cannot but agree, for example, with A. Parfenov, who asserts that “the realism of Marlowe’s late plays... is distinguished by the individual and social concretization of images.” However, only in Romeo and Juliet did social issues become a factor determining the pathos of the tragedy.

The theme of love in Shakespeare's works

Having made a man the hero of the tragedy, Shakespeare first of all turned to depicting the greatest human feeling. If in “Titus Andronicus” the voice of love, barely audible at the beginning of the play, was drowned out by the cries of inhuman hatred, then in “Romeo and Juliet” the poetry of love, which permeates the entire work, acquires an increasingly powerful sound as the end of the tragedy approaches; “The pathos of Shakespeare’s drama Romeo and Juliet,” wrote V. G. Belinsky in 1844, “is the idea of ​​love, and therefore, in fiery waves, sparkling with the bright light of stars, enthusiastic pathetic speeches pour from the lips of lovers... This is the pathos of love, because in the lyrical monologues of Romeo and Juliet one can see not only admiration for each other, but also a solemn, proud, ecstatic recognition of love as a divine feeling.”

The problem of love as the most important ethical problem was brought to the fore by the ideology and art of the Renaissance.

The fact that this problem worried Shakespeare throughout his entire career is evidenced by comedies of the first period, works created after 1599, and plays of the last period. However, Shakespeare's early works bear a special stamp that characterizes the means and ways of posing the problem of love in artistic terms. It is in these works that Shakespeare seems to strive, so to speak, for an aesthetic analysis of the problem of love in its pure form, without complicating it with such side ethical aspects as jealousy, social inequality, vanity, etc.

Particularly illustrative material in this sense is provided by Shakespeare’s poems written shortly before Romeo and Juliet. In them, Shakespeare creates four - albeit unequal in artistry - paintings, depicting different versions of the relationship between a man and a woman. A brief analysis of these paintings can be carried out without taking into account the chronology of publication of the poems, for it is quite obvious that during the creation of “Venus and Adonis” and “Dishonored Lucretia” the poet was guided by a single set of moral and ethical views.

Tragedy of love

The presentation of moral problems in the play is not limited to the depiction of love that inspires and unites Romeo and Juliet. This love develops and strengthens against the background of other options for relationships between a man and a woman - options developed with varying degrees of artistic expressiveness, but each time in a new way and always contrastingly emphasizing the purity and greatness of the feeling that gripped the main characters of the tragedy.

The viewer encounters the most primitive of these options at the very beginning of the play, observing a very rude buffoonery of servants, colored with outright obscenities, who believe that women exist only to be pinned against the wall: “That’s right! That’s why women, meager vessels, are always pushed against the wall.” ( I , 1, 15 -17). Subsequently, the bearer of this moral concept, although in a much milder form, turns out to be the nurse. And therefore, it is quite natural that in one of the most intense moments of the play, when Juliet is looking for ways to remain faithful to Romeo, the morality of the heroine and the morality of the nurse, who persuades her pupil to forget Romeo and marry Paris, come into open conflict.

Another option for relationships with women that is no less unacceptable for Shakespeare is Paris and old Capulet. This is the usual, official way of solving matrimonial problems for that time. Paris begins negotiations on marriage with Juliet's father, without even bothering to ask the bride herself about her feelings. This is quite clearly evidenced by the conversation between Paris and Capulet in the 2nd scene of Act I, where the old Capulet, having listened to Paris’s proposal, advises the young man to first look after his daughter ( I , 2, 16-17).

But then, at another meeting with Paris, Capulet himself guarantees him the love of his daughter, being confident that Juliet will submit to his choice

“Sir, I can completely assure you

For the feelings of my daughter: I’m sure

That she will obey me"

( III , 4,12-14).

Juliet's refusal to marry Paris ( III , 5) evokes a reaction from Capulet so completely consistent with Domostroevsky traditions that it does not need any comments.

The only time the audience is present is during the conversation between Paris and Juliet in the cell of brother Lorenzo. Having by this time secured the final consent of Capulet to marry his daughter to him and knowing about the day of the upcoming wedding, Paris gains some eloquence. But again, in this conversation, Paris essentially says nothing to Juliet about love, although, as is clear from his words at the beginning of the scene, he had not been able to really tell the bride anything about his feelings.

True, Paris's behavior changes after the imaginary death of Juliet. But even here, in his words and actions, we can feel the chill of courtly conventions.

Only the last dying words of Paris with a request to be placed next to Juliet bring a warm tone to the restrained palette that Shakespeare used when creating this image.

It is much more difficult to establish the author's attitude to the ethical concept, the bearer of which is Mercutio in the play. The simplest explanation is offered by researchers who believe that “Mercutio’s foul language,” as well as “Capulet’s severity” and “the unprincipled opportunism of the nurse,” aims to highlight the purity of Romeo’s attitude towards Juliet. However, an analysis of the role assigned by the playwright to the image of Mercutio does not allow us to agree with such a statement.

As is known, Shakespeare, from the sources available to him, could only learn the name of Mercutio and the description of this young man as a model of courtliness and a successful hunter of ladies' hearts. Mercutio’s significance for the development of the plot both in the poem and in the short story is limited to the fact that at the ball Juliet preferred the warm hand of Romeo to Mercutio’s ice-cold hand; after this, Mercutio no longer participates in the action. Such a fleeting episode was needed only to motivate the beginning of the conversation between Romeo and Juliet during the holiday; it was precisely omitted by Shakespeare. Therefore, researchers have every reason to believe that the image of Mercutio that appears before the viewer of Shakespeare’s tragedy - “the example of a young gentleman of that time, refined, affectionate, noble Mercutio” - completely belongs to the creative imagination of the playwright.

Analyzing the composition of the tragedy, one can easily notice that in Shakespeare’s work, the development of the image of Mercutio is not caused by considerations of plot order. Although Mercutio is on stage for quite a long time, he actively acts only once - at the moment of his collision with Tybalt. But even in this case, the duel between Tybalt and Mercutio introduced by Shakespeare into the play is not necessary in order to cause a duel between the main character of the tragedy and Juliet’s cousin; the dull hatred contained in Tybalt himself is in itself a sufficient prerequisite for a clash between him and Romeo to occur at any moment. Therefore, it is quite natural to assume that Shakespeare assigned an important function not to the plot, but to the ideological plan, to the image of Mercutio. The most important means for fulfilling this function is the above-mentioned duel between Mercutio and Tybalt. Although both characters exchange their first remarks only immediately before the fight, their clash is prepared in advance by the playwright as a fundamental conflict of ideological antagonists. By this time, the viewer already imagines the characters and views of the duel participants. Mercutio is the only character in the play who speaks so sharply negatively about the frantic young Capulet. This pronounced antipathy simultaneously serves as a characteristic of Mercutio himself as a man of the Renaissance, to whom Tybalt’s medieval morality is hostile.

Therefore, the duel between Mercutio and Tybalt far outgrows the scope of a street fight started by young people from decent families - a phenomenon very common for those times. The duel between Mercutio and Tybalt is also the broadest generalization, symbolizing the clash of the old principle, embodied in Tybalt, and the free, life-loving spirit of the Renaissance, the brilliant bearer of which is Mercutio.

The symbolic nature of this duel is emphasized by the last words of the dying Mercutio. Feeling the fatal blow, Mercutio understands that he did not just die from the blow of a vile nonentity, who could nevertheless kill a person. The dying curse he sends to both houses:

“Plague, plague on both your houses!

Because of them I will go to worms for food,

Disappeared, died.

A plague on both your houses!” ( III , 1,103 - 105)-

proves that Mercutio himself considers himself a victim of senseless medieval enmity.

The similarity of the ideological positions of Romeo and Mercutio suggests significant similarities in the ethical platforms of these characters. How, then, can we explain the rather obvious fact that the outwardly ethical attitudes of the two friends diverge very far - so far that some scientists come to the conclusion that the ethics of Mercutio are opposed to the ethics of Romeo?

The answer to this question is given by Mercutio's death itself. The playwright removes him from the play at the very beginning of the development of the main conflict. Mercutio dies without knowing about Romeo's love for Juliet.

In Shakespeare's comedies, the inspiration of love, its romantic side is combined with the oddities and quirks of passion, since it takes a person out of the normal rhythm of life, makes him “sick” and funny. In the tragedy "Romeo and Juliet" love is also not devoid of comedy, despite the fact that it is identified with the sublime, with the beautiful in life.

Juliet is funny in some scenes. The passionate and impatient feeling of a girl who has experienced love for the first time collides comically with the cunning of the nurse. Juliet demands from the experienced servant that she quickly tell about Romeo’s actions, and the nurse either refers to pain in her bones or fatigue, deliberately delaying the message. It turns out very funny.

The ardent Romeo falls under the cold stream of prudence of his mentor Lorenzo.

Thanks to humor, more cheerful than in any other tragedy, the growing tragedy is discharged, the love story from the sphere of high romance descends onto the soil of living human relationships, “lands” in the good sense of the word, and is not belittled. The plot of Shakespeare's tragedy is opposed to the very stories of knightly love, which is portrayed in the medieval novel as a feeling detached from social reality. Petrarch, on the one hand, and Boccaccio, on the other, destroyed the feudal-knightly idea of ​​unearthly, “ideal” love and the church’s view of love as a sinful feeling. The poet of the Italian Renaissance, in his sonnets dedicated to Laura, revived the image of the lady of the heart, dried up in the chivalric romance. The author of the Decameron contrasted the simple joys of love with the dishonest game of the clergy in piety.

In Shakespeare we see a synthesis of both trends: in Romeo and Juliet the high pathos of Petrarch is combined with the love of life of Boccaccio. What is also new is that Shakespeare has an unprecedented breadth of vision. All or almost all characters express their attitude towards the love of Romeo and Juliet. And they are evaluated depending on their position. The artist proceeds from the fact that true love has an all-pervading power, it is a universal feeling. At the same time, she is individual, unique, unique.

Romeo at first only imagines that he loves Rosaline. This girl is not even shown on stage, so her absence emphasizes the illusory nature of Romeo's passion. He is sad, he is looking for solitude. He avoids friends and shows, in the words of the wise Lorenzo, “stupid ardor.” Melancholy Romeo is not at all like a tragic hero, he is rather funny. His comrades Benvolio and Mercutio understand this very well and cheerfully make fun of him.

The meeting with Juliet transforms the young man. Romeo, having imagined love for Rosaline, disappears. A new Romeo is born, completely surrendered to real feelings. Lethargy gives way to action. Views change: before he lived by himself, now he lives by Juliet: “My heaven is where Juliet is.” For her he exists, for her sake - and thereby for himself: after all, he is loved too. It is not languid sadness for the unrealizable Rosaline, but living passion that inspires Romeo: “All day long some spirit carries me high above the earth in joyful dreams.”

Love transformed and cleansed a person’s inner world; it miraculously influenced his relationships with people. A hostile attitude towards the Capulet family, a blind hatred that could not be justified by any reasoning, was replaced by courageous restraint.

You have to put yourself in the position of young Montague to understand what his peacefulness cost him when the pugnacious Tybalt insulted him. Never in his life would the former Romeo forgive the arrogant nobleman for his causticity and rudeness. A loving Romeo is patient. He will not rashly get involved in a duel: it could end in the death of one or even both participants in the battle. Love makes Romeo reasonable, wise in his own way.

Gaining flexibility does not come at the expense of losing hardness and durability. When it becomes clear that the vengeful Tybalt cannot be stopped with words, when the enraged Tybalt pounces like a beast on the good-natured Mercutio and kills him, Romeo takes up arms. Not out of vindictive motives! He is no longer the old Montague. Romeo punishes Tybalt for murder. What else could he do?

Love is demanding: a person must be a fighter. In Shakespeare's tragedy we do not find a cloudless idyll: the feelings of Romeo and Juliet are severely tested. Neither Romeo nor Juliet think for a minute what to give preference to: love or hatred, which traditionally defines the relationship between the Montagues and the Capulets. They merged in one impulse. But individuality did not dissolve in the general feeling. Not inferior to her beloved in determination, Juliet is more spontaneous. She's still just a child. The mother and nurse establish precisely: there are two weeks left on the day when Juliet turns fourteen. The play inimitably recreates this age of the girl: the world amazes her with its contrasts, she is full of vague expectations.

Juliet did not learn to hide her feelings. There are three feelings: she loves, she admires, she grieves. She is not familiar with irony. She is surprised that one can hate a Montague just because he is a Montague. She protests.

When the nurse, who knows about Juliet’s love, half-jokingly advises her to marry Paris, the girl becomes angry with the old woman. Juliet wants everyone to be constant like her. So that everyone will appreciate the incomparable Romeo. The girl has heard or read about the fickleness of men, and at first she dares to tell her beloved about this, but immediately rejects all suspicion: love makes you believe in a person.

And this childishness of feelings and behavior is also transformed into maturity - Romeo is not the only one growing up. Having fallen in love with Romeo, she begins to understand human relationships better than her parents.

According to the Capulet spouses, Count Paris is an excellent groom for their daughter: handsome, noble, courteous. They initially believe that Juliet will agree with them. For them, one thing is important: the groom must be suitable, he must comply with the unwritten code of decency.

Capulet's daughter rises above class prejudices. She prefers to die rather than marry someone she doesn't love. This is, firstly. She will not hesitate to tie herself in marital ties with the one she loves. This is second. These are her intentions, these are her actions.

Juliet's actions become more confident. The girl is the first to start a conversation about marriage and demands that Romeo, without delaying matters, becomes her husband the very next day.

Juliet's beauty, the strength of her character, the proud awareness of being right - all these traits are most fully expressed in relation to Romeo. To convey the tension of high feelings, high words were found:

Yes, my Montague, yes, I am reckless,

And you have the right to consider me flighty.

But trust me, friend, and I will be more faithful

Everyone who knows how to behave cunningly. ( II , 2, 45)

Where, when did a girl declare her love with such dignity? To express the poetry of love, its intimacy, delicate colors were also found:

It's getting light. I would like you to leave

Lets fly on a thread,

Like a captive in chains

And again he pulls the silk towards himself,

I am jealous of her freedom from love. ( II , 2, 48)

Meanwhile, alarming sounds are heard. The love of Romeo and Juliet is surrounded by enmity. Juliet dies, having barely experienced the happiness of the love she dreamed of and created. No one can replace the poisoned Romeo. Love does not repeat itself, and without it, life loses its meaning for Juliet. Such was the time, such was Juliet's position.

However, besides this darkness, which replaced the bright time of love, there was another reason that forced Juliet to use Romeo’s dagger.

She knew that Romeo had committed suicide, convinced of her death. She had to share his fate. She saw this as her duty, and this was her desire. Having taken their own lives, the heroes of the tragedy pronounced a sentence of inhumanity much more severe than that passed by the Duke of Verona Escalus.

The light of love, lit by Romeo and Juliet, has not lost its warmth, its life-giving power in our time. There is something familiar to us in the energy and constancy of their characters, in the courage of their actions. Their rebellion and desire to assert their freedom also expresses the properties of noble souls that will forever excite people.

Who did they rebel against?

Others believe that the play shows a clash between fathers and sons, inert parents and progressive-minded young people. This is wrong. It is no coincidence that Shakespeare paints the image of young Tybalt, blinded by malice and having no other goal than the extermination of the Montagues. On the other hand, old Capulet, although he is unable to change anything, admits that it is high time to put an end to the hostility. In contrast to Tybalt, he wants peace with the Montagues, not a bloody war.

Love is opposed to misanthropy. Romeo and Juliet not only rebelled against old views and their relationship. They gave an example of a new life. They are not divided by enmity, they are united by love. Love is opposed to the bourgeois inertia that the Capulets are in the grip of. This is all-human love, born from admiration for beauty, from faith in the greatness of man and the desire to share the joy of life with him. And this is a deeply intimate feeling that connects a girl and a boy. The first irresistible attraction, which should be the last, because the world surrounding Romeo and Juliet is not yet ripe for love.

There is hope that he will change. In Shakespeare's tragedy there is still no feeling that freedom has been trampled upon and evil has penetrated into all pores of life. The heroes do not have the feeling of painful loneliness that Othello, Lear, and Coriolanus will later experience. They are surrounded by devoted friends: Benvolio and Mercutio, ready to give their lives for Romeo, the noble Lorenzo, the nurse, Balthazar. The Duke, despite the fact that he expelled Romeo, pursued a policy that was aimed against inciting civil strife. “Romeo and Juliet” is a tragedy in which power does not oppose the hero, is not a force hostile to him.

The death of enmity

Escalus, Duke of Verona, sees a terrible scene. In the Capulet family crypt lie the dead bodies of Romeo, Juliet and Paris. Yesterday the young people were alive and full of life, but today they were taken away by death.

The tragic death of the children finally reconciled the Montague and Capulet families. But at what cost was peace achieved! The ruler of Verona makes a sad conclusion: “There is no sadder story in the world than the story of Romeo Juliet.”

It seems that not even two days have passed since the Duke was indignant and threatened Romeo with “cruel retribution” when Tybalt and Mercutio were killed. You cannot punish the dead; it was necessary to punish at least one survivor.

Now the Duke, sincerely regretting what happened, still stands his ground: “Forgiveness for some, punishment awaits others.” Who is he going to pardon, who is he going to punish? Unknown. The monarch spoke out and expressed his will for the edification of the living.

He was unable to prevent the tragedy through government measures, and now that it has happened, his severity will not change anything. The Duke hoped for strength. With the help of weapons, he wanted to stop lawlessness. He believed that the fear of imminent punishment would stop the Montagues from raising their hand against the Capulets, and the Capulets who were ready to rush at the Montagues.

So, was the law weak or the Duke was unable to take advantage of it? Shakespeare believed in the possibilities of the monarchy and did not expect to debunk it. The memory of the War of the Scarlet and White Roses, which brought so much devastation to the country, was still alive. Therefore, the playwright tried to show the keeper of the law as an authoritative person who does not throw words to the wind. If we keep in mind the author's intention, then our attention should be drawn to the correlation of the struggle of patrician families with the interests of the state. Unbridledness, self-will, vindictiveness, which became the principles of life of the Montagues and Capulets, are condemned by life and power.

Actually, this is the political and philosophical meaning of those scenes in which the Duke acts. The plot branch, which at first glance is not so significant, allows us to understand more deeply the battle for free life and human rights waged by Romeo and Juliet. The tragedy takes on scale and depth.

The play resists the popular belief that it is a tragedy of love. On the contrary, if we mean love, then it triumphs in Romeo and Juliet.

“This is the pathos of love,” wrote V. G. Belinsky, “because in the lyrical monologues of Romeo and Juliet one can see not only admiration for each other, but also a solemn, proud, ecstatic recognition of love, divine feeling.” Love is the main sphere of life of the heroes of the tragedy; it is the criterion of their beauty and humanity. This is the banner raised against the cruel inertia of the old world.

Problems of "Romeo and Juliet"

The basis of the problematics of “Romeo and Juliet” is the question of the fate of young people, inspired by the affirmation of new high Renaissance ideals and boldly entered into the struggle for the protection of free human feelings. However, the resolution of the conflict in the tragedy is determined by the clash of Romeo and Juliet with forces that are characterized quite clearly in social terms. These forces that hinder the happiness of young lovers are associated with old moral norms, which are embodied not only in the theme of tribal enmity, but also in the theme of violence against the human person, which ultimately leads the heroes to death.

The fact that Shakespeare, like many Renaissance humanists, at a certain stage of his creative development saw the main source of evil that hinders the victory of new relations between people in the forces associated with old norms cannot be called either a delusion or a tribute to illusions. A new morality could make its way only in the fight against the old way of life, hostile to this morality. And this is precisely the source of Shakespearean realism in Romeo and Juliet.

Belief in the invincibility of new norms and in the triumph of these norms, which must come or has come at the moment of the collapse of the old forces, entailed the need to include in the fabric of the work the moment without which the tragedy could not have occurred at all - the intervention of fate, whose external expression was the role of a case unfavorable to Juliet and her lover. Fatal coincidence of circumstances occupies a much larger place in early tragedy than in mature Shakespearean works of the same genre.

Some of the aspects of Shakespeare's mature concept of the tragic, which first appeared in Julius Caesar, were later embodied in various ways in works created in the first decade of the 17th century. During the second period of Shakespeare's work, his tragic concept underwent such significant changes that we have the right to consider each of the works of this period, in essence, a new step in the development of this concept. However, with all the differences within the cycle of mature Shakespearean tragedies, these works, taken together, can be contrasted in a number of ways with Shakespeare's early tragedy.

Changes in the social and literary situation in England at the end of the 16th century, together with the writer’s increased attention to the cardinal problems of our time, which is confirmed by the material of comedies and chronicles, caused a sharp shift in Shakespeare’s dramaturgy, which is naturally seen as a transition to the tragic period of creativity. The essence of this transition becomes especially clear in the course of studying the qualitative changes that Shakespeare's concept of the tragic underwent from Romeo and Juliet to Julius Caesar.

In Romeo and Juliet, as in most other Shakespearean works of the first period, the subject of artistic comprehension was the reality and trends of the past - albeit uncertain, albeit conditionally distant, but nevertheless the past in its major correlation with the present. In “Julius Caesar,” although this tragedy is built on a historical plot, the author and his audience face the most difficult problems of our time in their relationship to the future. In Romeo and Juliet, the source of evil that the heroes of the tragedy face are forces organically connected with the past. In “Julius Caesar,” the forces of evil that predetermine the death of the positive hero of the tragedy are inevitably associated with new trends emerging in society that are replacing the Renaissance.

Conclusion

Shakespeare courageously fought for human rights, believed in its dignity, and gave all his strength to glorify its beauty. Thus, he became a contemporary of all generations fighting for the complete emancipation of humanity.

He is our ally and like-minded person. This explains its growing popularity among readers and viewers of all times and peoples. Among those who are inspired by Shakespeare are playwrights, poets, directors, and actors, for whom the English artist is a demanding teacher. Shakespeare's craft is the best of literary schools.

Romeo and Juliet depicts the path from the past to the present, the path along which the norms of humanistic morality triumphed over the principles of the old society. Therefore, in the death of heroes, victorious in its very essence, chance and the intervention of fatal forces play such a large role. In “Julius Caesar,” the path from a difficult present to an unclear future that does not promise a quick victory for good is the path on which the death of a hero fighting for humanistic ideals becomes an inevitable pattern, stemming from the very essence of the tragedy.

The illusions that are reflected in “Romeo and Juliet” and associated with the specifics of Shakespeare’s work during the first period consist of something else - in the playwright’s belief, indicative of this period, that as soon as the old way of life is defeated, the time will come for the triumph of the new, humanistic morality that determines relations between free people. These illusions left a decisive imprint on some features of the poetics of Romeo and Juliet. The most important of these features is that the conflict and its resolution, ending in the moral victory of the new humanistic forces, just like the conflicts of the comedies created in the first period, are depicted as a picture of events that took place in the past, and are presented to an audience living already in conditions for the triumph of new relationships. This is precisely the source of that peculiar optimism that distinguishes Romeo and Juliet from all other Shakespearean tragedies, although many of them should also be recognized as optimistic works.

When Shakespeare poses and solves the great problems of the era, when he reveals the laws of history in the actions and experiences of his heroes, he thereby not only creates wonderful works of art, but also proclaims principles of creativity that have endured for centuries. These principles, along with the nationality of the assessments given to characters and situations, form the basis of the modern aesthetics of realism. Shakespeare's humanistic ideas are alive, his artistic vision of the world and changing reality retains its sharpness.

It seems that Goethe was the first to predict Shakespeare’s immortality: “There will be no end to him.”

Humanity is developing, its views are becoming deeper, its tastes are becoming more demanding. But Shakespeare remains just as inexhaustible, still just as generous. It brings joy, makes you think about time, become cleaner, fight, act.

A man is 400 years old, but he lives. And he doesn't age...

List of used literature

1. Dubashinsky I. A. William Shakespeare: an essay on creativity. M., 1965

2. Mikhoels S. Modern stage revelation of Shakespeare’s tragic images. M., 1958

3. Morozov M. Shakespeare, ed. 2. M., 1966

4. Nels S. Shakespeare on the Soviet stage. M., 1960

5. Samarin R. M. Shakespeare’s realism. M., 1964

6. W. Shakespeare: selected works./ Compilation, preface and comments by V. I. Korovin - M., 1996

7. Shvedov Yu. F. Evolution of Shakespearean tragedy. M., 1975