Romeo And Juliet By William Shakespeare (1564 – 1616) Essay, Research Paper
Perhaps Shakespeare’s most famous play,
Romeo and Juliet combines the contrasting elements of humor and sorrow,
bawdiness and civil strife, and innocent love and ignorant hate to rouse
an amazing depth of mixed tenderness and tension. Although a Chorus begins
the play by notifying the audience that these near-perfect lovers will
in the end take their own lives, an irrational sense of hope remains that
somehow they might escape their destiny. But the pride-hardened hatred
between the feuding families leads the play to its inevitable tragic end.
Moreover, though the drama is one of ultimate
reconciliation, ironically, both families lose their only children – neither
family line will be carried on. In a sense Shakespeare is suggesting that
war and hate lead, not to victory for either side, but to spiritual annihilation.