Analysis and interpretation of the drama ”Romeo and Juliet”
Analysis and interpretation of the drama ”Romeo and Juliet”
In the following essay I will take the point of departure in an analysis and interpretation of
William Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” (1594). First, I will make a characterization of
William Shakespeare and the renaissance. Afterwards, I will make a characterization of the protagonists and explain their relationship with focal point on the themes love and death.
Furthermore, I will include the astronomy phenomenon’s. Subsequently, I will compare
Baz Luhrmann’s interpretation of “ Romeo and Juliet” to Shakespeare’s drama.
William Shakespeare:
William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616) was at his time the greatest English dramatist. He crowned the renaissance literature by creating modern drama, which are still being played around the world. In England the theatre had a flowering period under the reign of Queen
Elizabeth (1558 - 1603) and is often considered to be a “Golden Age” in English history.
This was also the time during which Elizabethan theatre grew and William Shakespeare composed plays that broke away from England’s past style of plays. The Elizabethan age is also a time of unrest and upheaval where an old world is going under and a new one begins.
Out of this crack in the history there grows appalling tragedies and amusing comedies.
In the Middle Ages God was above man and the divine hierarchy persisted. Then, during the renaissance, the human being became focal point of worship, giving rise to humanism.
Man ascended though the hierarchy and took place almost next to God. The individual was no longer being subject to outer authorities. It is that dynamic world Shakespeare wants to show. In the works of Shakespeare the old orders fights against the new; old authorities falls and chaos is threatened. A drama does not tell and explain this process, rather it expresses it on the stage. The great thing about Shakespeare is that he gives flesh and blood to the renaissance’s dynamic and
In the following essay I will take the point of departure in an analysis and interpretation of
William Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” (1594). First, I will make a characterization of
William Shakespeare and the renaissance. Afterwards, I will make a characterization of the protagonists and explain their relationship with focal point on the themes love and death.
Furthermore, I will include the astronomy phenomenon’s. Subsequently, I will compare
Baz Luhrmann’s interpretation of “ Romeo and Juliet” to Shakespeare’s drama.
William Shakespeare:
William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616) was at his time the greatest English dramatist. He crowned the renaissance literature by creating modern drama, which are still being played around the world. In England the theatre had a flowering period under the reign of Queen
Elizabeth (1558 - 1603) and is often considered to be a “Golden Age” in English history.
This was also the time during which Elizabethan theatre grew and William Shakespeare composed plays that broke away from England’s past style of plays. The Elizabethan age is also a time of unrest and upheaval where an old world is going under and a new one begins.
Out of this crack in the history there grows appalling tragedies and amusing comedies.
In the Middle Ages God was above man and the divine hierarchy persisted. Then, during the renaissance, the human being became focal point of worship, giving rise to humanism.
Man ascended though the hierarchy and took place almost next to God. The individual was no longer being subject to outer authorities. It is that dynamic world Shakespeare wants to show. In the works of Shakespeare the old orders fights against the new; old authorities falls and chaos is threatened. A drama does not tell and explain this process, rather it expresses it on the stage. The great thing about Shakespeare is that he gives flesh and blood to the renaissance’s dynamic and