Romeo and juliet 9

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OVERVIEW ON ROMEO, JULIET, NURSE, MOTHER AND FATHER (JULIET'S) ROMEO: In the play 'Romeo and Juliet', we see many aspects of Romeo's personality and character. There is a link between all of his personalities; they are all severely extreme personalities e.g.: · At the start of the play, we see that he is a 'wet drip' he is depressed and miserable because of his infatuated love for Rosaline but it is unrequited love from Rosaline. This mood of his goes to the extreme- he does not go out during daytime only at night, he weeps, and he locks himself out from all light and talks of his misfortune.

· After this, he is happy and joking around in the square, this creates a huge affect in change of nature in his personality. Romeo was the one who started off the joking with "Here's goodly gear A sail, a sail" This is not usually like Romeo, as all the joking and micky taking is left to Mercutio.

You might expect on Romeo to be prying on everyone who walks past because of the messenger, but instead he is joking - this might be because he doesn't want anyone else to know about the marriage OR that he is to excited.

Shortly after this, he changes back to serious when he is talking to Nurse about the marriage.

· He still is joyful towards the marriage scene and at the marriage scene he takes the extreme again - he acts like he has not seen Juliet for years, they can't wait to get there hands on each other - kissing, Friar Laurence had to separate them.

Once they are married, he visits Tybalt and Mercutio in the square; he is misunderstood by Tybalt when he says how he loves him. Mercutio reacts with laughing thinking that it is a wind-up and Tybalt is annoyed and wishes to fight, Romeo refuses and Mercutio steps in and fights - this leads to his death.

· Romeo becomes violent and aggressive in this scene; he wants Tybalt killed no matter the cost. Tybalt was shocked when he saw the blood on his sword which suggests that he did not mean to do it, and it was really in a way Romeo's fault for coming in the way but he doesn't realise this. When he and Tybalt fight he kills him (we cannot be sure if it was by mistake when Tybalt fell on the sword because Shakespeare does not say). I do not think that Romeo knew what he was doing because it may have been out of rage, and that Tybalt was much older than he, Tybalt is also the best fighter and that may be why he was throwing a tantrum. This points out the extreme of Romeo's personality - taking on Tybalt.

· In the next scene after it has been confirmed that he is to be banished he goes to Friar Laurence (he goes to him like Juliet goes to Nurse) here he throws his tantrum of a 4 year old this shows the side of him that is still a child. He is acting childish and is crying; he needs an adult to put him right. Romeo almost commits suicide by trying to stab himself; this is the first of two attempts of death from Romeo. It is here that he has messed up everything, i.e. hidden love for Juliet's family. Friar Laurence throws an amazing outburst to Romeo, saying that if you hadn't of killed him; he would have killed you. This is another one of Romeo's extreme moods when he tries to kill himself.

· Once the marriage is consummated, you can see the superlative and deep love between the couple. Romeo was risking his life just to be with Juliet for two more minutes, and we also see Juliet's intense reactions from Romeo leaving. Their love is very extreme.

· When in the end he dies for Juliet, mistakenly not knowing of the set-up, you can see that life without the other one is not worth living- that's why he kills himself.

I think the reason why he killed himself with the poison and Juliet with the dagger (the weapons are reversed girls normally use the poison and boy's with daggers). A reason for this might be because Love and Hate are mixed up in the play so the weapons are aswell.

NURSE: Throughout the play, we have seen Nurse as a comedy character, or in some parts (like Tybalt's death) a serious character. Her character as a whole would be like a 'silly-nice' type of person because she is 'scatty' and disorganised which makes her silly and that she is a nice person as whole. She is also a garrulous person in some places and a fluttery character. A more comical view to Nurse's character would be that she is a 'potato head' because she is constantly silly and getting things wrong.

Nurse is not an extravagant/extreme reactive character like Romeo; it is not because she may be old because she does not act like she is old and if she were old, she would not be rushed about.

We know that nurse cares for Juliet because she was protecting and answering back to old Capulet when he was throwing his frantic anger on Juliet's decision. When lady Capulet was talking to Juliet about marriage - she first sent Nurse out and then in again because she knows that Juliet feels more comfortable with Nurse; Nurse was also protecting Juliet when she was talking to Romeo about the marriage and warning him if he mocked her around. We even saw in the video when she found Juliet dead (but not knowing of the set-up) and her reactions to it - she was in state of panic and shock - not like a regular servant would be.

When Nurse said that she (Juliet) should marry Paris, it is a bit of a selfish move; this is because Nurse is a 'daisy' and a 'romantic' so obviously to say marry another person is an unwise move. This could have been Nurse's natural spontaneous reaction although Juliet has spent the night with Romeo and are in love where as she does not love Paris. Another reason why it was a disagreeable reply was because in them days if you were married to two people you would be committing adultery, they would believe it as a sin and you would go to hell, you would also be excommunicated from the church.

JULIET: At the start of the play, we see Juliet as a child, she did not know of love and marriage and obeys her parents every consent, she was a dutiful daughter. It all began to change at the party. When she met Romeo, it was 'love-at-first-sight' this is the amazing speed of the play they touch and kiss and then say they would die if they cannot marry each other and then start talking of marriage; and this was in less then 3 hours! When she sends Nurse to ask Romeo about the marriage, Juliet is in a panicking state she keeps on asking herself what has happened to Nurse, she tries to reassure herself that the problem is with Nurse and avoids all possibilities that Romeo has said no. She was in a desperate state, she wanted to know the answer immediately - We have never seen this side of Juliet, it is not extreme like Romeo's moods but extreme in the sense of love. She was willing to give up her family name, the money and life of paradise and her life to be with Romeo. I think why she was like this was because she is young and has never experienced it - that is why she is impetuous in love.

When Tybalt was killed you might expect Juliet to be crying for the loss of her cousin but instead she is asking about Romeo's well being. It may be understandable in the morning when Romeo departed and her mother was talking to her, because she lost her love and they would never see each other again, but I thought she would be crying for Tybalt as Nurse was.

We can see why this was the most tragic love story because they both gave up everything for each other and they said "Life without the other one is not worth living"- that is why they both died.