Romeo and Juliet Essay
Sunday, July 4th, 2010Writing Romeo and Juliet Essays
No work of a great writer and literary critic after Shakespeare, it seems, is complete without a reference to Shakespeare and an analysis of his oeuvre. T.S. Eliot sharpened his critical tools criticizing Hamlet for an absence of ‘objective co-relative’, S.T.Coleridge wrote a Romeo and Juliet essay where he argues in detail a lack of harmonization, that despite “all the parts were present, but were not united with the same harmony”. Even the famous Shakespearean scholar A.C.Bradley went so far as to neglect the play entirely in his well-known collection of lectures on the great tragedies, Shakespearean Tragedy.
If you are expected to write Romeo and Juliet essays as term papers or master’s dissertation, you must write essays that are more than a mere rehash of the play or a casual interpretation to it. A standard academic essay requires proper citation and in-depth analysis in context to the remarks of literary critics. Let us brief you on some of the critical analyses taken up by various literary critics and assist you in approaching the essay questions.
1) Can Romeo and Juliet be called a tragedy? What are the comic elements present in the play that makes it more comic than tragic?
Bring to light Shakespeare’s concept of tragedy and comedy with respect to Romeo and Juliet. The opening of the play and the theme of family feud, young lovers versus authority is common to many comedies like As You Like it and The Winter’s Tale. Your Romeo and Juliet essay can be an evaluation of Romeo and Juliet as a transitional play where the comic and the tragic merge. Many critics insist that the mixture of styles-the tragic and the comic- hurts the play and exposes the immaturity of the playwright. Your essay can be a personal comment on this aspect.
2) Does the absence of inner turmoil, common in tragedies like Macbeth; Hamlet, makes Romeo and Juliet less forceful tragedy than other Shakespearean tragedies?
It is the psychological crisis at the heart of the Shakespearean tragic hero that makes the plays truly forceful and great. The Hamletan dilemma “to be or not to be” or the Lady Macbethan dagger scene lends the tragedies a sense of psychological realism. Your essay can be a comment on the absence of inner turmoil and the way it affects the mood of the play.
3) What are the elements in the play Romeo and Juliet that makes it an Aristotelian Tragedy?
Like all the Shakespearean tragic heroes with an Aristotlean tragic flaw, Romeo too is born with one- impetuousness. Discuss other features in the play- unity of time, place and action, pity and fear, catharsis- that are common to the rules of tragedy laid down by Aristotle. You can also choose to review Aristotle’s concept of tragedy with respect to that of Shakespeare.
If you are looking for an academic assignment that is worthy of being published as a research paper, our writers can help you analyze the play and write Romeo and Juliet essays from various unexplored approaches. Get in touch with us for any of Shakespeare Essays.
