Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" is one of the most famous plays in the world and has withstood hundreds of years of changes in almost all aspects of the world, despite not one word of the play changing. One of the main reasons that the play was able to do this was because of the importance it puts on the love between Romeo and Juliet, which is a timeless idea. Shakespeare illustrates the love between these two characters very well, which is extremely important in allowing the play to have the impact that it has had on the world. One way that Shakespeare was able to be so successful in his portrayal of Romeo and Juliet's true love for each other was the fact that they are extremely similar to one another, which was shown in the scenes that my group performed for our analysis.
My group performed the section of Act 2 Scene 2 with Romeo speaking to Juliet in her balcony, while she does not see or hear him. The majority of Act 3 Scene 2, where Juliet speaks to herself about her passionate love for Romeo and then is informed by the Nurse that Romeo was banished after he killed Tybalt, was performed by my group to help illustrate this idea. My group also acted Act 3 Scene 3 out, which is where Romeo is told by Friar Lawrence that he was banished by the Prince as punishment for murdering Tybalt as opposed to being executed.
My group used a double monologue to help illustrate the similarities of Romeo and Juliet. This double monologue was done by Romeo, played by Bryn, and Juliet, who I played, performed two separate monologues at the same time. These monologues came from separated scenes where we talk about our love for each other without being heard by any other character, which shows that the two characters were speaking honestly and from their hearts. When either Romeo or Juliet would say anything extremely important or related to the other character' dialogue, the person playing that character would say their lines louder and turn on the block where we were citing to face the audience. This put an emphasis on certain lines, such as when Juliet says "Think true love acted simple modesty./Come, night; come, Romeo; come, thou day in night;" about the idea that Juliet thinks that the true love she has for Romeo is not very ostentatious, but she is extremely excited to see Romeo (lines 16-18). These lines also answer the previous lines Romeo said which he said in a louder voice and sat towards the audience. This lines were "I am too bold, 'tis not to me she speaks," where Romeo inks that Juliet is talking to him from her window, but realizes that she is not talking to him, which corresponds well to Juliet's other lines from this section of the scene.
There were points where both characters paused in the double monologue, which played an important role in supporting the idea that Romeo is very similar to Juliet. These were very important as they helped line up sections of dialogue from both characters. This allowed Romeo and Juliet to almost have a conversation using unrelated and unconnected lines. These pauses allows the double monologue illustrates the idea that Romeo thinks very similarly to Juliet, as they both talk about similar topics and ideas when they are not with the other or any one else.
The costumes used also played an important role in supporting the idea that Shakespeare created the Romeo and Juliet as very similar characters. Both Romeo and Juliet wore red Medieval clothing to help illustrate the relation. Juliet's dress was a deeper shade of red and also had some gold scents to it. This was very different from Romeo, who wore a darker shade of red and black pants. The similar colors compares to the counselor, who wore a white robe, shows the similarities in the traits that they have, versus the other characters throughout the play. The darker colors that Romeo also reflects the idea that Juliet is a more innocent character than Romeo, as she has not killed anyone as Romeo has, but that they still love each other despite this and the challenges they faced.
The set pieces used is an example of an aide to show that Juliet is a similar character to Romeo. There was a rehearsal block used for the double monologue placed in the center. This divided the stage into two separate halves, one belonging to Romeo's scene with the convector and the other for Juliet's scene with him. This represented in another visual way the two characters' common traits, as on both of their sides the only set pieces used was one bed on each side that was an almost exact mirror image of one another.
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