罗密欧与朱丽叶论文
《英国文学史及选读》
期末论文
E0801
1805080511
刘建慧
Discussion on Causes of the Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet
Abstract: The author, by means of analyzing some decisive characters who have significant impacts on the lovers’ death in this play, will discuss the possible causes of the Love Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, one of Shakespeare’s famous tragedies.
Key words: Shakespeare, Romeo, coincidence
Introduction:
About the author:
Shakespeare (1564-1615) is generally considered the greatest dramatist and the most popular author the world has ever known. He wrote 37 plays and 154 sonnets in his lifetime.
Living in Renaissance period, he had got a moral thought of humanists, which was presented in his works as an understanding of human nature and his insights into the wide range and depth of human emotions. He is able to create characters and dramatic situations that are timeless in their impact and related to real human beings as they struggle with life’s challenges. He is also among the few playwrights who exce lled in both tragedy and comedy. The four tragedies are Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth, and the four comedies, A Midsummer Night's Dream, As you like it, Twelfth Night and The merchant of Venice.
There are a number of other famous works and Romeo and Juliet is on the list.
About the play:
Romeo and Juliet belongs to a tradition of tragic romances stretching back to antiquity. Its plot is based on an Italian tale, translated into verse as The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet①by the English poet Arthur Brooke (died circa 1563) in 1562
①Brooke, Arthur, d. 1564, Brooke’s Romeus and Juliet, being the original of Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of
and retold in prose in Palace of Pleasure by English author William Painter①(1540? – February, 1594, London) in 1582. Shakespeare borrowed heavily from both but, to expand the plot, developed supporting characters, particularly Mercutio and Paris. Believed written between 1591 and 1595, the play was first published in a quarto version in 1597. This text was of poor quality, and later editions corrected it, bringing it more in line with Shakespeare's original. And then in 1595 came one of great British playwright Shakespeare’s famous works, Romeo and Juliet.
In Verona, Italy, in the late 1500’s, there are two huge family groups, the Montague family and the Capulet family, between whom arouse a series of new struggles. However, they give birth to a pair of unfortunate lovers, Romeo and Juliet, who fall in love with each other deeply at the first sight. In the garden, with the moonlight, they express their love and get married secretly. A few hours later, however, they would depart that Romeo is to be banished because he has killed Juliet’s cousin who killed Romeo’s good friend. Juliet is in great sorrow and is forced to marry the Duke Paris. Before the marriage, Juliet takes the sleeping death medicine following the advice of a priest named Friar Lawrence, who sends a letter to Romeo to tell the fact. Unfortunately, Romeo doesn’t receive the message. With poison, he comes to the tomb and out of great desperation and madness; he kills himself by taking the poison, a few minutes of which, Juliet wakes up and commits suicide at once after seeing her husband’s death. When the priest Friar Lawrence tells their loving story to their family members, the two families finally break their barriers.
The conflict between fuel and love
The feud between the two families was one factor that contributed to the love of Romeo and Juliet being destined for destruction. "From ancient grudge break to new mutiny".②The two families, Montagues and Capulets, had many problems. There was hate between the two families so much so that even the servants hated each other.
Romeo and Juliet newly edited by J. J. Munro. London, Chatto and Windus; New York, Duffield and company, 1908. Reprinted in 1978.
①Encyclop?dia Britannica
②Romeo & Juliet, Prologue, pg.2 l.3
This feud would have caused many problems for Romeo and Juliet: These two young lovers knew this and this is why they kept their marriage a secret. If their parents discovered their secret, they would have made their children's lives miserable. Romeo and Juliet would not have been able to see each other. Both of these families were very stubborn and there was hardly any thing that would have made them become friends. In the prologue we learn that the only way the "strife" could be ended was by the deaths of Romeo and Juliet. "Doth with their death bury their parent's strife".①Neither of the Montagues or the Capulets would have accepted the marriage. Keeping the marriage a secret caused Romeo and Juliet to turn to other people for help. Sometimes these people gave them the wrong advice or just betrayed them. If the two families had stopped feuding earlier, the two lovers’ lives could have been saved. Shakespeare warns us that hate in the last generation can ruin the next generation.
Passion
Romeo and Juliet is a play about love and passion between two young people. People are not isolated, especially for the leading role in a play; living in specific environments, people tend to inherit character traits from their surroundings (Qiao Li, 2005②). And their character decides their wills, under which they take all kinds of actions. As the old Chinese saying goes, one takes on the attributes of one's associates. Here, the author wants to take the example of Mencius in his childhood. As a little boy, Mencius was easily influenced by the out sidings, which had played such a bad role in his behavior that his family moved several times until they settled down nearby a school. Since then, Mencius began to gain knowledge from the school and do a large amount of reading and several years later, he become one of the most influential politicians and philosophers in ancient China. From this story we can draw the conclusion that environment decides pa rt of one’s character as in the play Romeo and Juliet. Brought up in a family which bears a feud with the other huge family, Romeo
①Romeo & Juliet, Prologue, l.8
②乔丽,2005，《牡丹亭》与《罗密欧与朱丽叶》戏剧冲突之比较J，《全国中文核心期刊艺术百家》第3期.
can easily get rash and never think of the results. This feature of characters is reflected after the death of Mercutio when he takes revenge upon Tabalt. Meanwhile, Romeo and Juliet are too hasty to get married; they never think about what could go wrong. They do not take the time to get to know each other and rush into a deep intimate relationship four days later after their first meeting on the ball. The plots of the story are quite well-knitted and the quick pace of its development corresponds to the character features of the play, energetic and fast-moving.
Mercutio’s Death
Mercutio, Romeo’s best friend, is a bit eccentric and enjoys having a good time. Killed by Tabalt in a duel, he is quite a courageous character who remains faithful to Romeo. Pushed by passion, he fought with Tabalt for Romeo, who is the person that Tabalt wants and yet Romeo doesn’t want to fight. Before the duel, Mercutio has fierce dialogues with Tabalt, from which, we can see the angry feeling in their hearts. The duel is irresistible. In Act Three, Scene One, Tabalt and Mercutio are taunting each other. When Romeo enters, Tabalt tries to provoke him, but Romeo who has just married Tablet’s cousin Juliet, refused to be provoked.Mercutio, angered by Romeo’s submissiveness, provokes Tybalt, and the two get into a fight. In an attempt to restore peace, Romeo throws himself between the combatants, which lead to Tytalt killing Mercutio and Romeo killing Tytalt later after. Realizing his friend dies, Romeo loses his consciousness and the angry fire of avenge for his friend is blaming in his heart, which results in his killing Tybalt impulsively. At that time, he never considers his hasty behavior will bury his love and Juliet to be an empty dream. What’s worse, he could never expect Juliet is forced to marry Paris two days after his banishment and Juliet’s pretending to die which he knows nothing about the plan. Therefore, he killed himself when seeing Juliet lying in the tomb. Were it not for his friend’s fight and death, the story that follows will not happen and the two lovers may find a solution to their families’ permission. If so, a love comedy will come out into the world instead of a tragedy.
Juliet’s Suicide
As for Juliet’s death, several persons are responsible for it, like her parents, the nurse, Friar Lawrence and her own character. In the play we can conclude that Juliet is estranged from her parents and is on intimate terms with the nurse, and therefore, when her father forces her to marry the Duke the day after Romeo’s exile and after the nurse betrays her, she has no choice but turn to the cleric Friar Lawrence for help. Friar is a kindhearted cleric who helps Romeo and Juliet throughout the play. He performs their marriage and gives generally good advice, especially in regard to the need for moderation.But Friar Lawrence is also the most scheming and political of characters in the play: he marries Romeo and Juliet as part of a plan to end the civil strife in Verona; he spirits Romeo into Juliet’s room and then out of Verona; he devises the plan to reunite Romeo and Juliet through the deceptive ruse of the sleeping potion.T hough Friar Lawrence’s p lans all seem well conceived and well intentioned, they serve as the main mechanisms through which the fated tragedy of the play occurs. Readers should recognize that Friar is not only subject to the fate that dominates the play—in many ways he brings that fate about.
On the other hand, Juliet’s character is doomed to the tragedy of her death in that she has grown into a self-determined, strong and sober-minded woman from an obedient, sheltered, na?ve child during the days she gets along with Romeo. (to nurse)―Well, thou hast comforted me marvelous much/Go in; and tell my lady I am gone/having displeas'd my father, to Lawrence' cell/to make confession and to be absolv'd.‖①On hearing the news that she is going to be married to the Duke, she immediately seeks solutions from Friar Lawrence instead of complaining or crying doing nothing.
When Friar claimed he had got a solution, she cried out surprisingly, ―O, bid me leap, rather than marry Paris/From off the battlements of yonder tower/Or walk in thievish ways; or bid me lurk /Where serpents are; chain me with roaring bears/Or shut me nightly in a charnel-house/O'er-cover'd quite with dead men's rattling bones/With reeky shanks and yellow chapless skulls/Or bid me go into a new-made grave/And
①Romeo and Juliet, Act Ⅲ,Scene V
hide me with a dead man in his shroud/Things that, to hear them told, have made me tremble/And I will do it without fear or doubt/To live an unstain'd wife to my sweet love‖ ①, and after Friar brought about the idea of drinking potion and the whole plan, Juliet said, ―Give me, give me! O, tell not me of fear!‖(Friar) ―Hold; get you gone, be strong and prosperous/in this resolve: I'll send a friar with speed/To Mantua, with my letters to thy lord.‖ (Juliet) ―Love gives me strength! And strength shall help afford.‖ ②From this we can see, she has more faith to love than to death. It is no wonder when she wakes up only to find Romeo’s dead body and commits suicide immediately. Love gives her strength and her loyalty composes a paean of love.
Rash Romeo
In the play Romeo and Juli et, Romeo’s actions are rash throughout the play. For example, Romeo does not consider the consequences of his actions when he insists on marrying Juliet. Also, Romeo shows rashness when he kills Tybalt. Finally, Romeo is rash when he kills himself. Rashness is a quality that haunts Romeo throughout the play.
One of Romeo’s acts that shows his rashness is his marrying Juliet. After Juliet says that she does not want to marry Romeo, he persists and says that he wants ―Th’ exchange of thy love’s faithful vow for mine‖ ③. Romeo does not consider the consequences of their marriage. He simply wants his wish fulfilled. He is rash because he wants to rush into a marriage for which he is not ready. Romeo’s rashness persists throughout the play and leads to his downfall.
Another example of Romeo’s rash personality is when he kills Tybalt. At the beginning of the fighting between Tybalt and Mercutio, Romeo’s best friend, Romeo was trying his best to stop the two and had no any idea of getting involved it. Seeing Merc utio’s death, however, great sadness grasped him and drew him into madness, which lead to the duel with Tybalt, who was killed under Romeo’s blindness with
①Romeo and Juliet, Act Ⅲ,Scene V
②Romeo and Juliet, Act Ⅲ,Scene V
③Romeo and Juliet, 2.2.134
anger and hate.―Alive in triumph/ and Mercutio slain/ Away to heaven respective lenity /And fire-ey'd fury be my conduct now!‖①From his words we can conclude he brought the duel to life and death.
A third rash act lies in his killing himself after seeing his ―dead‖ wife. In fact, he had made his mind to commit suicide by taking poison with him after hearing the news of his wife’s death. Therefore, when he saw Juliet lying on the cold tomb lonely, he made away with himself by drinking poison to be together with his wife in another world. ―O, here /Will I set up my everlasting rest/and shake the yoke of inauspicious stars /from this world-wearied flesh. Eyes look your last! /Arms, take your last embrace/ and, lips, O you/The doors of breath, seal with a righteous kiss / A dateless bargain to engrossing death!‖ ②
Until then, the tragedy was eventually created a few minutes later when Juliet was back to life and to find her lord was dead. If Romeo was not so hasty after hearing the death of Juliet, and not so hasty to rush to the tomb and killed himself out of desperation, what a happy ending it would be! Just as Lu Xun, a Chinese literary master, has ever said that the real tragedy is to turn the good things destroyed.
Coincidence
When considering the destruction of Romeo and Juliet the most significant fact you must think about is fate. Fate, above all, destroyed Romeo and Juliet. Many instances in the play reveal that the love of Romeo and Juliet would end in death. "A pair of star-crossed lovers takes their life".③From the very beginning it is evident that they were destined by the stars to bad fortune. Some people may think that there is no way to control fate or change what is in the stars. It could be that the love of Romeo and Juliet was destined for death so that their parent's feud would be over. Also, in the prologue it states that the dreadful course of their love was destined for death. "The fearful passage of their death marked love".④Both of these quotes show us that the
①Romeo and Juliet, ACT III. sceneⅠ
②Romeo and Juliet, Act Ⅴ, scene Ⅲ.
③Romeo & Juliet, pg.2, Prologue, l.6
④Romeo & Juliet, pg.2, Prologue, l.9
love of these two was destined to end tragically. The masquerade party was above all the most important aspect of fate. The fact that Romeo was wearing a mask and his face was hidden allowed Juliet to fall in love with him before she saw who it was. If Juliet had known who Romeo was she would probably have not fallen in love with him. Fate could not have been changed whatever was meant to be would happen and no one could change that.
In conclusion, from the very beginning, the love of Romeo and Juliet was destined to be destroyed. It is tragic that both these people had to die. There were circumstances throughout the course of their lives that led up to their deaths. If their parents had not been feuding, if the Nurse had not betrayed Juliet, if Friar Lawrence did not give the medicine to Juliet and if Romeo did not miss the letter which tells the truth of Juliet’s death and so me other ―if‖s, the outcome of this story would have been different, although fate could not be changed. This was the most important factor in the lives of Romeo and Juliet. Overall, the quote that accurately summarizes this play is, "For never was there a story of more woe, than this of Juliet and her Romeo."①
Conclusion
From this tragic play, we can see Shakespeare makes it plain that although the story of the young lovers is a tragedy, despite their passion, they are in no way to blame for the fate that befalls them. Instead, the responsibility for the deaths of Romeo and Juliet is assigned to their warring families. Clearly, absent the long-standing and pointless feud between the Capulets and the Montagues, Mercutio and Tybalt would not have died and Romeo would not have been exiled from Verona. Within the families, Tybalt and Juliet's father, Old Capulet, are responsible for the immediate dilemma that the lovers confront. But beyond this, the Prince of Verona bears a portion of the blame for his failure to strictly enforce the ban on dueling between the two families. By the same token, Friar Laurence shoulders part of the responsibility;
①Romeo & Juliet, V, iii, p. 138, ll.309-310
he agreed to the conduct the clandestine marriage of the teenagers realizing the dangers, and it is he who concocts the scheme of Juliet's feigning death. At the end of the play, the Prince asserts that "some will be pardon'd and some punished"①for the deaths of Juliet and her Romeo. But he does not mete out responsibility, and in the end, the issue of "who" is to blame remains open-ended. On the other hand, the tragic death of Romeo and Juliet represents the victory of new value of humanism, and a society where people get rid of unnecessary hatred and strife. In Verona, people get an important lesson that love is more powerful than hatred; even death can not conquer or destroy it. In this sense, Romeo and Juliet is an optimistic tragedy and it is the odes to youth and love. With this further investigation of the reasons, we gain a more direct view of love tragedies.
Reference
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①Romeo & Juliet, V, iii, l.308