Understanding Romeo And Juliet

The tragedy of Romeo and juliet - the greatest love story ever.

Offers a literary analysis of the classic play and includes discussions of its performance history, historical context, and modern interpretations. Hager (English, the State University of New York-Cortland) draws from both historical and contemporary materials to examine the classic play from many perspectives. He explores subjects as specific as copycat suicide based on fictional models, and as general as the nature of vendetta and group violence. Following a literary analysis, there are commentary and primary documents on its narrative backgrounds, and discussions of its performance history, historical context, and modern interpretations such as the recent film with Leonardo DiCaprio. The tragic love story of Romeo and Juliet has touched the hearts of young and old for nearly four hundred years. In this work, Alan Hager has compiled a rich collection of primary and contemporary materials ranging from information about the earliest performances of Romeo and Juliet to discussions of suicide in the 1990s. Designed to help students of the play, Understanding Romeo and Juliet highlights many different aspects of the play's context. Such aspects include a discussion about religions of love in the East and West, an examination of vendetta and collective violence, and an analysis of the play in the context of classical and medieval thought. Hager relates the work to issues as recent as the so-called Werther Syndrome (copycat suicide based on fictional models) and as remote as the notion of reincarnated love such as that of Rama and Sita in the Sanskrit epic Ramayana.

Originally published in 1993. Presenting excerpts and articles on the themes and characters from the most famous story of young lovers, this collection brings together scholarship relating to the language, performance, and impact of the play. Ordered in three parts, the chapters cover analysis, reviews and interpretation from a wide ranging array of sources, from the play’s contemporary commenters to literary critics of the early 1990’s. The volume ends with an article by the editor on the action in the text which concludes the final section of 8 pieces looking at the story as being a product of Elizabethan Culture. It considers the attitude to the friar, to morality and suicide, the stars and fate, and gender differences. Comparisons are made to Shakespeare’s source as well as to productions performed long after the Bard’s death.

Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare early in his career about two young star-crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately reconcile their feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular plays during his lifetime and along with Hamlet, is one of his most frequently performed plays. Today, the title characters are regarded as archetypal young lovers. Romeo and Juliet belongs to a tradition of tragic romances stretching back to antiquity. The plot is based on an Italian tale translated into verse as The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet by Arthur Brooke in 1562 and retold in prose in Palace of Pleasure by William Painter in 1567. Shakespeare borrowed heavily from both but expanded the plot by developing a number of supporting characters, particularly Mercutio and Paris. Believed to have been written between 1591 and 1595, the play was first published in a quarto version in 1597. The text of the first quarto version was of poor quality, however, and later editions corrected the text to conform more closely with Shakespeare's original. Shakespeare's use of his poetic dramatic structure (especially effects such as switching between comedy and tragedy to heighten tension, his expansion of minor characters, and his use of sub-plots to embellish the story) has been praised as an early sign of his dramatic skill. The play ascribes different poetic forms to different characters, sometimes changing the form as the character develops. Romeo, for example, grows more adept at the sonnet over the course of the play.

Romeo and Juliet is one of the greatest plays ever written--but let's face it..if you don't understand it, then you are not alone. If you have struggled in the past reading Shakespeare, then we can help you out. Our books and apps have been used and trusted by millions of students worldwide. Plain and Simple English books, let you see both the original and the modern text (modern text is underneath in italics)--so you can enjoy Shakespeare, but have help if you get stuck on a passage.