An 1870 oil painting by Ford Madox Brown depicting Romeo and Juliet's famous balcony scene

Romeo and Juliet is a tragic play written early in the career of William Shakespeare about two teenage "star-cross'd lovers"^[1] whose untimely deaths ultimately unite their feuding households. 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 Ancient Greece. Its 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 1582. Shakespeare borrowed heavily from both, but developed minor characters, particularly Mercutio and Paris, in order to expand the plot. Believed to be written between 1591 and 1595, the play was first published in a quarto version in 1597. This text was of poor quality, and later editions corrected it, bringing it more in line with Shakespeare's original text.

Shakespeare's use of dramatic structure, especially such effects as switching between comedy and tragedy to heighten tension, his expansion of minor characters, and his use of subplots 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 form over the course of the play.

Romeo and Juliet has been adapted numerous times for stage, film, musical and opera. During the Restoration, it was revived and heavily revised by William Davenant. David Garrick's 18th-century version also modified several scenes, removing material then considered indecent, and Georg Benda's operatic adaptation omitted much of the action and added a happy ending. Performances in the 19th century, including Charlotte Cushman's, restored the original text, and focused on greater realism. John Gielgud's 1935 version kept very close to Shakespeare's text, and used Elizabethan costumes and staging to enhance the drama. In the 20th century the play has been adapted for screen and musical theatre in versions as diverse as West Side Story and Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet.

Characters

Main article: Characters in Romeo and Juliet

Ruling house of Verona

• Prince Escalus: Prince of Verona
• Count Paris: Kinsman of Prince Escalus; desires to marry Juliet.
• Mercutio: Another kinsman of Prince Escalus; a friend of Romeo.

Capulets

• Lord Capulet: Patriarch of the house of Capulet.
• Lady Capulet: Matriarch of the house of Capulet.
• Juliet: Daughter of the Capulets; the female protagonist.
• Tybalt: Cousin of Juliet, nephew of Lady Capulet.

Capulet Servants

• Nurse: Juliet's personal attendant and confidante.
• Peter: Capulet servant, assistant to the nurse.
• Samson and Gregory: Capulet servants.

Montagues

• Lord Montague: Patriarch of the house of Montague.
• Lady Montague: Matriarch of the house of Montague.
• Romeo: Son of the Montagues; the male protagonist.
• Benvolio: Cousin and friend of Romeo.

Montague Servants

• Abram and Balthasar: Montague servants.

Others

• Friar Lawrence: a Franciscan friar and Romeo's confidant.
• Chorus, who gives the opening prologue and one other speech.
• Friar John: Another friar who is sent to deliver Friar Lawrence's letter to Romeo.
• Apothecary: Druggist who reluctantly sells Romeo poison.
• Rosaline: unseen character with whom Romeo is in love before meeting Juliet.

Synopsis

"Two Households, both alike in dignity ..."

—Chorus^[2]

L’ultimo bacio dato a Giulietta da Romeo by Francesco Hayez. Oil on canvas, 1823.

The play begins with a street brawl between Montagues and Capulets. The Prince of Verona, intervenes and declares that the heads of the families will be held accountable for any further breach of the peace. Meanwhile, Count Paris talks to Lord Capulet about marrying his daughter, but Capulet is wary of the suit because Juliet is still too young. Capulet asks Paris to wait another two years and invites him to attend a planned Capulet ball. Lady Capulet tries to persuade her daughter to accept Paris' courtship. In this scene Juliet's nurse is introduced as a talkative and humorous character, who raised Juliet from infancy. After the brawl, Benvolio talks with his cousin Romeo, Lord Montague's son, over Romeo's recent depression. Benvolio discovers that it stems from unrequited love for a girl named Rosaline, one of Lord Capulet's nieces. Persuaded by Benvolio and Mercutio, Romeo attends the ball at the Capulet house in hopes of meeting Rosaline. Romeo and Juliet fall in love, not knowing that they are on opposite sides of the feuding families. After the ball, Romeo sneaks into the Capulet courtyard and overhears Juliet vowing her love to him in spite of her family's hatred of the Montagues. Romeo makes himself known to her and they agree to be married.

With the help of Friar Lawrence, who hopes to reconcile the two families through their children's union, they are married secretly the next day. Juliet's cousin Tybalt, however, is offended that Romeo snuck into a Capulet ball and challenges him to a duel. Romeo, considering Tybalt a kinsman to his wife, refuses to fight him. Mercutio is incensed by Tybalt's insolence, as well as Romeo's "vile submission", and accepts the duel on Romeo's behalf. Mercutio is fatally wounded and Romeo, angered by his friend's death, pursues and slays Tybalt. The Prince exiles Romeo from Verona for the killing. Lord Capulet, misinterpreting Juliet's grief, agrees to marry her to Count Paris and threatens to disown her when she refuses to become Paris's "joyful bride". Her mother coldly walks away from her when she pleads for her to delay it for even a month.

Juliet visits Friar Lawrence for help, and he offers her a drug which will put her into a death-like coma for "two and forty hours".^[3] She takes it and, when discovered apparently dead, she is laid in the family crypt. While she is sleeping the Friar sends a messenger to inform Romeo of the plan, so that he can rejoin her when she awakens.

The messenger, however, does not reach Romeo and he learns of Juliet's apparent death from his servant Balthasar. Grief-stricken, he buys poison from an apothecary, goes to the Capulet crypt. He encounters Paris who has come to mourn Juliet privately. Paris confronts Romeo believing him to be a vandal, and in the ensuing battle Romeo kills Paris. Still believing Juliet to be dead, he drinks the poison. Juliet then awakens and, finding Romeo dead, stabs herself with her lover's dagger. The feuding families and the Prince meet at the tomb to find all three dead. Friar Lawrence recounts the story of the two "star-cross'd lovers" and Montague reveals that his wife has died of grief after hearing of her son's exile. The families are reconciled by their children's deaths and agree to end their violent feud. The play ends with the Prince's elegy for the lovers: "For never was a story of more woe / Than this of Juliet and her Romeo."^[4]

Sources

Ask Me No More by Lawrence Alma-Tadema, depicting Pyramus and Thisbe. Oil on canvas, 1906.

Romeo and Juliet borrows from a tradition of tragic love stories dating back to antiquity. One of these is Pyramus and Thisbe, from Ovid's Metamorphoses, which contains parallels to Shakespeare's story: the lovers' parents despise each other, and Pyramus falsely believes his lover Thisbe is dead.^[5] The Ephisiaca of Xenophon of Ephesus, written in the mid-2nd century, also contains several similarities to the play, including the separation of the lovers, and a potion which induces a deathlike sleep.^[6]

The earliest known version of the Romeo and Juliet tale is the story of Mariotto and Gianozza by Masuccio Salernitano, in the 33rd novel of his Il Novellino published in 1476.^[7] Salernitano sets the story in Siena and insists its events took place in his own lifetime. His version of the story includes the secret marriage, the colluding friar, the fray where a prominent citizen is killed, Mariotto's exile, Gianozza's forced marriage, the potion plot, and the crucial message that goes astray. In this version, Mariotto is caught and beheaded and Gianozza dies of grief.^[6]

Frontispiece of Luigi da Porto's Giulietta e Romeo, 1530.

Luigi da Porto adapted the story as Giulietta e Romeo and included it in his Historia novellamente ritrovata di due Nobili Amanti published in 1530.^[8] Da Porto drew on Pyramus and Thisbe and Boccacio's Decameron. He gave it much of its modern form, including the names of the lovers, the rival families of Montecchi and Capuleti, and the location in Verona.^[7] He also introduces characters corresponding to Shakespeare's Mercutio, Tybalt, and Paris. Da Porto presents his tale as historically true and claims it took place in the days of Bartolomeo II della Scala (a century earlier than Salernitano). Montecchi and Capuleti were actual 13th-century political factions, but the only connection between them is a mention in Dante's Purgatorio as an example of civil dissention.^[9] In da Porto's version Romeo takes poison and Giulietta stabs herself with his dagger.^[6]

In 1554, Matteo Bandello published the second volume of his Novelle which included his version of Giuletta e Romeo.^[8] Bandello emphasises Romeo's initial depression and the feud between the families, and introduces the Nurse and Benvolio. Bandello's story was translated into French by Pierre Boaistuau in 1559 in the first volume of his Histories Tragiques. Boaistuau adds much moralizing and sentiment, and the characters indulge in rhetorical outbursts.^[6]

Frontispiece of Arthur Brooke's poem, Romeus and Juliet.

In his 1562 narrative poem The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet, Arthur Brooke translated Boaistuau faithfully, but adjusted it to reflect parts of Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde. There was a trend among writers and playwrights to publish works based on Italian novelles—Italian tales were very popular among theatre-goers—and Shakespeare may well have been familiar with William Painter's 1567 collection of Italian tales titled Palace of Pleasure.^[10] This collection included a version in prose of the Romeo and Juliet story named "The goodly History of the true and constant love of Rhomeo and Julietta". Shakespeare took advantage of this popularity: The Merchant of Venice, Much Ado About Nothing, All's Well That Ends Well, Measure for Measure, and Romeo and Juliet are all from Italian novelle. Romeo and Juliet is a dramatisation of Brooke's translation, and Shakespeare follows the poem closely, but adds extra detail to both major and minor characters (in particular the Nurse and Mercutio).^[6][11]

Christopher Marlowe's Hero and Leander and Dido, Queen of Carthage, both similar stories written in Shakespeare's day, are thought to be less of a direct influence, although they may have created an atmosphere in which tragic love stories could thrive.^[6]

Date and text

Title page of the First Quarto of Romeo and Juliet published in 1597.

It is unknown when exactly Shakespeare wrote Romeo and Juliet. Juliet's nurse refers to an earthquake which she says occurred 11 years ago.^[12] An earthquake did occur in England in 1580, possibly dating that particular line to 1591, although other earthquakes—both in England and in Verona—have been proposed in support of different dates.^[13] But the play's stylistic similarities with A Midsummer Night's Dream and other plays conventionally dated around 1594–95, place its composition sometime between 1591 and 1595.^[14] One conjecture is that Shakespeare may have begun a draft in 1591, which he completed in 1595.^[15]

Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet was published in two quarto editions prior to the publication of the First Folio of 1623. These are referred to as Q1 and Q2. The first printed edition, Q1, appeared in early 1597, printed by John Danter. Because its text contains numerous differences from the later editions, it is labelled a 'bad quarto'; the 20th-century editor T. J. B. Spencer described it as "a detestable text, probably a reconstruction of the play from the imperfect memories of one or two of the actors", suggesting that it had been pirated for publication.^[16] An alternative explanation for Q1's shortcomings is that the play (like many others of the time) may have been heavily edited before performance by the playing company.^[17] In any event, its appearance in early 1597 makes 1596 the latest possible date for the play's composition.^[13]

Title page of the Second Quarto of Romeo and Juliet published in 1599.

The superior Q2 called the play The Most Excellent and Lamentable Tragedie of Romeo and Juliet. It was printed in 1599 by Thomas Creede and published by Cuthbert Burby. Q2 is about 800 lines longer than Q1.^[17] Its title page describes it as "Newly corrected, augmented and amended". Scholars believe that Q2 was based on Shakespeare's pre-performance draft (called his foul papers), since there are textual oddities such as variable tags for characters and "false starts" for speeches that were presumably struck through by the author but erroneously preserved by the typesetter. It is a much more complete and reliable text, and was reprinted in 1609 (Q3), 1622 (Q4) and 1637 (Q5).^[16] In effect, all later Quartos and Folios of Romeo and Juliet are based on Q2, as are all modern editions since editors believe that any deviations from Q2 in the later editions (whether good or bad) are likely to arise from editors or compositors, not from Shakespeare.^[17]

The First Folio text of 1623 was based primarily on Q3, with clarifications and corrections possibly coming from a theatrical promptbook or Q1.^[16][18] Other Folio editions of the play were printed in 1632 (F2), 1664 (F3), and 1685 (F4).^[19] Modern versions—that take into account several of the Folios and Quartos—first appeared with Nicholas Rowe's 1709 edition, followed by Alexander Pope's 1723 version. Pope began a tradition of editing the play to add information such as stage directions missing in Q2 by locating them in Q1. This tradition continued late into the Romantic period. Fully annotated editions first appeared in the Victorian period and continue to be produced today, printing the text of the play with footnotes describing the sources and culture behind the play.^[20]

Analysis and criticism

Critical history

Samuel Pepys by John Hayls. Oil on canvas, 1666.

Critics have noted many weak points in Romeo and Juliet, but it is still regarded as one of Shakespeare's best plays. The earliest known critic of the play was diarist Samuel Pepys, who wrote in 1662: "it is a play of itself the worst that I ever heard in my life."^[21] Poet John Dryden wrote 10 years later in praise of the play and its comic character Mercutio: "Shakespear show'd the best of his skill in his Mercutio, and he said himself, that he was forc'd to kill him in the third Act, to prevent being killed by him."^[21] Criticism of the play in the 18th century was less sparse, but no less divided. Publisher Nicholas Rowe was the first critic to ponder the theme of the play, which he saw as the just punishment of the two feuding families. In mid-century, writer Charles Gildon and philosopher Lord Kames argued that the play was a failure in that it did not follow the classical rules of drama: the tragedy must occur because of some character flaw, not an accident of fate. Writer and critic Samuel Johnson, however, considered it one of Shakespeare's "most pleasing" plays.^[22]

In the later part of the 18th and through the 19th century, criticism centred on debates over the moral message of the play. Actor and playwright David Garrick's 1748 adaptation excluded Rosaline: Romeo abandoning her for Juliet was seen as fickle and reckless. Critics such as Charles Dibdin argued that Rosaline had been purposely included in the play to show how reckless the hero was, and that this was the reason for his tragic end. Others argued that Friar Laurence might be Shakespeare's spokesman in his warnings against undue haste. With the advent of the 20th century, these arguments were disputed by critics like Richard Green Moulton. He argued that accident, and not some character flaw, led to the lovers' deaths. Critics, however, remained divided on the issue of whether fate or recklessness was the driving force of the play. Another reading introduced early in the century argued that the tragedy is allowed to occur as a just punishment upon the two families, who are reconciled by the experience.^[23]

Dramatic structure

Romeo at Juliet's Deathbed by Johann Heinrich Füssli Oil on canvas, 1809.

In Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare employs several dramatic techniques that have garnered praise from critics. Chief among them intense shifts between comedy and tragedy, like the punning exchange between Romeo and Mercutio just before Tybalt arrives. Before Mercutio's death in Act three, the play is largely a comedy.^[24] After his accidental demise, the play suddenly becomes serious and takes on a tragic tone. When Romeo is banished, rather than executed, and Friar Lawrence offers Juliet a plan to reunite her with Romeo, the audience can still hope that all will end well. They are in a "breathless state of suspense" by the opening of the last scene in the tomb: If Romeo is delayed long enough for the Friar to arrive, he and Juliet may yet be saved.^[25] These shifts from hope to despair, reprieve, and new hope, serve to emphasise the tragedy when the final hope fails and both the lovers die at the end.^[26]

Shakespeare also uses subplots to offer a clearer view of the actions of the main characters. For example, when the play begins, Romeo is in love with Rosaline, who has refused all of his advances. Romeo's infatuation with her stands in obvious contrast to his later love for Juliet. This provides a comparison through which the audience can see the seriousness of Romeo and Juliet's love and marriage. Paris' love for Juliet also sets up a contrast between Juliet's feelings for him and her feelings for Romeo. The formal language she uses around Paris, as well as the way she talks about him to her Nurse, show that her feelings clearly lie with Romeo. Beyond this, the sub-plot of the Montague–Capulet feud overarches the whole play, providing an atmosphere of hate that is the main contributor to the play's tragic end.^[26]

Language

Shakespeare uses a variety of poetic forms throughout the play. He begins with a 14-line prologue in the form of a Shakespearean sonnet, spoken by a Chorus. Most of Romeo and Juliet is, however, written in blank verse, and much of it in strict iambic pentameter, with less rhythmic variation than in most of Shakespeare's later plays.^[27] In choosing forms, Shakespeare matches the poetry to the character who uses it. Friar Lawrence, for example, uses sermon and sententiae forms, and the Nurse uses a unique blank verse form that closely matches colloquial speech.^[27] Each of these forms is also moulded and matched to the emotion of the scene the character occupies. For example, when Romeo talks about Rosaline earlier in the play, he attempts to use the Petrarchan sonnet form. Petrarchan sonnets were often used by men to exaggerate the beauty of women who were impossible for them to attain, as in Romeo's situation with Rosaline. This sonnet form is used by Lady Capulet to describe Count Paris to Juliet as a handsome man.^[27] When Romeo and Juliet meet, the poetic form changes from the Petrarchan (which was becoming archaic in Shakespeare's day) to a then more contemporary sonnet form, using "pilgrims" and "saints" as metaphors.^[27] Finally, when the two meet on the balcony, Romeo attempts to use the sonnet form to pledge his love, but Juliet breaks it by saying "Dost thou love me?"^[28] By doing this, she searches for true expression, rather than a poetic exaggeration of their love.^[27] Juliet uses monosyllabic words with Romeo, but uses formal language with Paris.^[29] Other forms in the play include an epithalamium by Juliet, a rhapsody in Mercutio's Queen Mab speech, and an elegy by Paris.^[27] Shakespeare saves his prose style most often for the common people in the play, though at times he uses it for other characters, such as Mercutio.^[27]

Themes and motifs

Scholars have found it extremely difficult to assign one specific, over-arching theme to the play. Proposals for a main theme include a discovery by the characters that human beings are neither wholly good nor wholly evil, but instead are more or less alike,^[30] awaking out of a dream and into reality, the danger of hasty action, or the power of tragic fate. None of these have widespread support. However, even if an overall theme cannot be found it is clear that the play is full of several small, thematic elements which intertwine in complex ways. Several of those which are most often debated by scholars are discussed below.^[31]

Love

Romeo and Juliet is sometimes considered to have no unifying theme, save that of young love.^[30] Romeo and Juliet have become emblematic of young lovers and doomed love. Since it is such an obvious subject of the play, several scholars have explored the language and historical context behind the romance of the play.^[33]

On their first meeting, Romeo and Juliet use a form of communication recommended by many etiquette authors in Shakespeare's day: metaphor. By using metaphors of saints and sins, Romeo was able to test Juliet's feelings for him in a non-threatening way. This method was recommended by Baldassare Castiglione (whose works had been translated into English by this time). He pointed out that if a man used a metaphor as an invitation, the woman could pretend she did not understand him, and he could retreat without losing honour. Juliet, however, participates in the metaphor and expands on it.

In the later balcony scene, Shakespeare has Romeo overhear Juliet's soliloquy, but in Brooke's version of the story her declaration is done alone. By bringing Romeo into the scene to eavesdrop, Shakespeare breaks from the normal sequence of courtship. Usually a woman was required to be modest and shy to make sure that her suitor was sincere, but breaking this rule serves to speed along the plot. The lovers are able to skip a lengthy part of wooing, and move on to plain talk about their relationship—developing into an agreement to be married after knowing each other for only one night.^[33] In the final suicide scene, there is a contradiction in the message—in the Catholic religion, suicides were often thought to be condemned to hell, whereas people who die to be with their loves under the "Religion of Love" are joined with their loves in paradise. Romeo and Juliet's love seems to be expressing the "Religion of Love" view rather than the Catholic view. Another point is that although their love is passionate, it is only consummated in marriage, which prevents them from losing the audience's sympathy.^[34]

The play arguably equates love and sex with death. Throughout the story, both Romeo and Juliet, along with the other characters, fantasize about it as a dark being, often equating it with a lover. Capulet, for example, when he first discovers Juliet's (faked) death, describes it as having deflowered his daughter.^[35] Juliet later erotically compares Romeo and death. Right before her suicide she grabs Romeo's dagger, saying "O happy dagger! This is thy sheath. There rust, and let me die."^[36][37]

Fate and chance

Scholars are divided on the role of fate in the play. No consensus exists on whether the characters are truly fated to die together or whether the events take place by a series of unlucky chances. Arguments in favour of fate often refer to the description of the lovers as "star-cross'd".^[1] This phrase seems to hint that the stars have predetermined the lovers' future.^[39] John W. Draper points out the parallels between the Elizabethan belief in the four humors and the main characters of the play (for example, Tybalt as a choleric). Interpreting the text in the light of humours reduces the amount of plot attributed to chance by modern audiences.^[40] Still, other scholars see the play as a series of unlucky chances—many to such a degree that they do not see it as a tragedy at all, but an emotional melodrama.^[40] Ruth Nevo believes the high degree to which chance is stressed in the narrative makes Romeo and Juliet a "lesser tragedy" of happenstance, not of character. For example, Romeo's challenging Tybalt is not impulsive, it is, after Mercutio's death, the expected action to take. In this scene, Nevo reads Romeo as being aware of the dangers of flouting social norms, identity and commitments. He makes the choice to kill, not because of a tragic flaw, but because of circumstance.^[41]

Light and dark

Scholars have long noted Shakespeare's widespread use of light and dark imagery throughout the play. Caroline Spurgeon considers the theme of light as "symbolic of the natural beauty of young love" and later critics have expanded on this interpretation.^[41][42] For example, both Romeo and Juliet see the other as light in a surrounding darkness. Romeo describes Juliet as being like the sun,^[43] brighter than a torch,^[44] a jewel sparkling in the night,^[45] and a bright angel among dark clouds.^[46] Even when she lies apparently dead in the tomb, he says her "beauty makes / This vault a feasting presence full of light."^[47] Juliet describes Romeo as "day in night" and "Whiter than snow upon a raven's back."^[27][48] This contrast of light and dark can be expanded as symbols—contrasting love and hate, youth and age in a metaphoric way.^[41] Sometimes these intertwining metaphors create dramatic irony. For example, Romeo and Juliet's love is a light in the midst of the darkness of the hate around them, but all of their activity together is done in night and darkness, while all of the feuding is done in broad daylight. This paradox of imagery adds atmosphere to the moral dilemma facing the two lovers: loyalty to family or loyalty to love. At the end of the story, when the morning is gloomy and the sun hiding its face for sorrow, light and dark have returned to their proper places, the outward darkness reflecting the true, inner darkness of the family feud out of sorrow for the lovers. All characters now recognise their folly in light of recent events, and things return to the natural order, thanks to the love of Romeo and Juliet.^[42] The "light" theme in the play is also heavily connected to the theme of time, since light was a convenient way for Shakespeare to express the passage of time through descriptions of the sun, moon, and stars.^[49]

Time

Time plays an important role in the language and plot of the play. Both Romeo and Juliet struggle to maintain an imaginary world void of time in the face of the harsh realities that surround them. For instance, when Romeo swears his love to Juliet by the moon, she protests "O swear not by the moon, th'inconstant moon, / That monthly changes in her circled orb, / Lest that thy love prove likewise variable."^[51] From the very beginning, the lovers are designated as "star-cross'd"^[1] referring to an astrologic belief associated with time. Stars were thought to control the fates of humanity, and as time passed, stars would move along their course in the sky, also charting the course of human lives below. Romeo speaks of a foreboding he feels in the stars' movements early in the play, and when he learns of Juliet's death, he defies the stars' course for him.^[40][52]

Another central theme is haste: Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet spans a period of four to six days, in contrast to Brooke's poem's spanning nine months.^[49] Scholars such as G. Thomas Tanselle believe that time was "especially important to Shakespeare" in this play, as he used references to "short-time" for the young lovers as opposed to references to "long-time" for the "older generation" to highlight "a headlong rush towards doom".^[49] Romeo and Juliet fight time to make their love last forever. In the end, the only way they seem to defeat time is through a death which makes them immortal through art.^[53]

Time is also connected to the theme of light and dark. In Shakespeare's day, plays were often performed at noon in broad daylight. This forced the playwright to use words to create the illusion of day and night in his plays. Shakespeare uses references to the night and day, the stars, the moon, and the sun to create this illusion. He also has characters frequently refer to days of the week and specific hours to help the audience understand that time has passed in the story. All in all, no fewer than 103 references to time are found in the play, adding to the illusion of its passage.^[27][54]

Context and interpretation

Psychoanalytic

Psychoanalytic critics focus largely on Romeo's relationships with Rosaline and Juliet, as well as the looming image of inevitable death.^[55] Romeo and Juliet is not considered to be exceedingly psychologically complex, and sympathetic psychoanalytic readings of the play make the tragic male experience equivalent with sicknesses.^[56] The first line of criticism argues that Romeo is in love with Rosaline and Juliet because they represent the all-present, all-powerful mother which fills a void. According to this theory, this void was caused by the negligence of his mother. Another theory argues that the feud between the families provides a source of phallic expression for the male Capulets and Montagues. This sets up a system where patriarchal order is in power. When the sons are married, rather than focusing on the wife, they are still owed an obligation to their father through the feud. This conflict between obligation to the father (the family name) and the wife (the feminine), determines the course of the play. Some critics argue this hatred is the sole cause of Romeo and Juliet's passion for each other. The fear of death and the knowledge of the danger of their relationship is in this view channelled into a romantic passion.^[55]

Feminist

Romeo and Juliet with Friar Laurence by Henry William Bunbury. Pen and ink with watercolor wash, 1792–96.

Feminist critics argue that the blame for the family feud lies in Verona's patriarchal society. In this view, the strict, masculine code of violence imposed on Romeo is the main force driving the tragedy to its end. When Tybalt kills Mercutio, for example, Romeo shifts into this violent mode, regretting that Juliet has made him so "effeminate".^[57] In this view, the younger males "become men" by engaging in violence on behalf of their fathers, or in the case of the servants, their masters. The feud is also linked to male virility, as the numerous jokes about maidenheads aptly demonstrate.^[58] Juliet also submits to a female code of docility by allowing others, such as the Friar, to solve her problems for her. Other critics, such as Dympna Callaghan, look at the play's feminism from a more historicist angle. They take into account the fact that the play is written during a time when the patriarchal order was being challenged by several forces, most notably the rise of Puritanism. When Juliet dodges her father's attempt to force her to marry a man she has no feeling for, she is successfully challenging the patriarchal order in a way that would not have been possible at an earlier time.^[55]

Gender studies

Gender studies critics question the sexuality of Mercutio and Romeo, comparing their friendship with sexual love. Mercutio, in friendly conversation, mentions Romeo's phallus, suggesting traces of homoeroticism.^[55] An example is his joking wish "To raise a spirit in his mistress' circle ... letting it there stand / Till she had laid it and conjured it down."^[59][60]

Romeo's homoeroticism is identified in his attitude to Rosaline, also: she is distant and unavailable, bringing no hope of offspring. As Benvolio argues, she is best replaced by someone who will reciprocate. Shakespeare's procreation sonnets describe another young man who, like Romeo, is having trouble creating offspring and who is homosexual. Gender critics believe that Shakespeare may have used Rosaline as a way to express homosexual problems of procreation in an acceptable way. In this view, when Juliet says "...that which we call a rose [or Rosaline] / By any other name would smell as sweet",^[61] she may be raising the question of whether there is any difference between the beauty of a man and the beauty of a woman.^[62]

Influences

Romeo and Juliet has had a strong influence on subsequent literature, and was followed by countless similar stories.^[63] Until this play romance had not even been viewed as a worthy topic for tragedy.^[64] The play directly influenced several literary works, both in Shakespeare's own day through the works of Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher,^[65] and later works such as those of Charles Dickens.^[66]

The play has also influenced world culture, specifically with regard to romance and relationships. For example, the word "Romeo" has become synonymous with "male lover" in English, especially one who goes to great lengths for love.^[67] The juliet cap, worn either close to the scalp as a small headpiece or as a wedding headband to hold the bridal veil, was so named because of the actresses who wore it on stage in performances of the play.^[68][69] It has inspired the name of a (later discredited^[70]) psychological problem between couples, called "the Romeo and Juliet Effect". This title is used to describe relationships which suffer divisions because of hatred between partners' parents.^[71] More recently, scholars have described the play as having a unique adaptive and iconic ability, allowing its characters to transcend the original text and project themselves into the modern world. Both characters have become symbols of love, teenage struggles, resistance to authority, and doers of the forbidden.

Performances and adaptations

Shakespeare's day

Richard Burbage, probably one of the first actors to portray Romeo.^[72]

Romeo and Juliet ranks with Hamlet as one of Shakespeare's most-performed plays.^[73] Its many adaptations have made it one of his most enduring and famous stories.^[73] Even in Shakespeare's lifetime it was extremely popular. Gary Taylor measures it as the sixth most popular of Shakespeare's plays, in the period after the death of Marlowe and Kyd but before the ascendancy of Jonson during which Shakespeare was London's dominant playwright.^[74] The exact date of the first performance of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, however, is unknown. The First Quarto, printed in 1597, says that "it hath been often (and with great applause) plaid publiquely", setting the first performance prior to that date. The Lord Chamberlain's Men were certainly the first to perform it. Besides their strong connections with Shakespeare, the Second Quarto actually names one of its actors, Will Kemp, instead of Peter in a line in Act five. Richard Burbage was probably the first Romeo, being the company's leading actor, and Master Robert Goffe (a male) the first Juliet.^[72]

Mary Saunderson, probably the first woman to play Juliet professionally.

Restoration and 18th-century theatre

All theatres were closed down by the puritan government on 6 September 1642 during the Commonwealth. Upon the restoration of the monarchy in 1660, two patent companies (the King's Company and the Duke's Company) were established, and the existing theatrical repertoire divided between them.^[75]

Sir William Davenant of the Duke's Company staged a 1662 production in which Henry Harris played Romeo, Thomas Betterton was Mercutio, and Betterton's wife Mary Saunderson played Juliet: she was probably the first woman to play the role professionally.^[76][77]

Versions immediately following this were changed to tragicomedies, where the two lovers did not die in the end.^[77] For example, Thomas Otway's adaptation The History and Fall of Caius Marius, one of the more extreme of the Restoration versions of Shakespeare, debuted in 1680. The scene is shifted from Renaissance Verona to ancient Rome; Romeo is Marius, Juliet is Lavinia, the feud is between patricians and plebeians; Juliet/Lavinia wakes from her potion before Romeo/Marius dies. Otway's version was a hit, and was acted for the next seventy years. It altered the sexual language of the play as well, toning down the Queen Mab speech, for example.^[77]

Theophilus Cibber mounted his own adaptation in 1744, followed by David Garrick's in 1748. Both Cibber and Garrick used variations on Otway's innovation in the tomb scene.^[78] These versions also eliminated elements deemed inappropriate at the time. For example, Garrick's version transferred all language describing Rosaline to Juliet, in order to heighten the idea of faithfulness and downplay the love-at-first-sight theme.^[79][80] In 1750 a "Battle of the Romeos" began, with Spranger Barry and Susannah Maria Arne (Mrs. Theophilus Cibber) at Covent Garden versus David Garrick and George Anne Bellamy at Drury Lane.^[81]

19th-century theatre

The American Cushman sisters, Charlotte and Susan, as Romeo and Juliet in 1846

Garrick's altered version of the play was very popular, and ran for nearly a century.^[77] Not until 1845 did Shakespeare's original return to the stage in the United States with the sisters Susan and Charlotte Cushman as Romeo and Juliet, respectively,^[82][83] and then in 1847 in Britain with Samuel Phelps at Sadler's Wells Theatre.^[84] Cushman actively reverted Garrick's additions and changes to the original, and adhered to Shakespeare's version, beginning a string of eighty-four performances. Her portrayal of Romeo was considered genius by many, as she called more attention to Romeo's character than other's, making the play largely his tragedy. Cushman's success broke the Garrick tradition and paved the way for later performances to return to the original storyline.^[77]

Henry Irving's 1882 production at the Lyceum Theatre is considered an archetype of his "pictorial" style, placing the action on elaborate sets. Irving himself played Romeo, and Ellen Terry played Juliet.^[85] In 1895, Sir Johnston Forbes-Robertson took over from Irving, and laid the groundwork for a more natural portrayal of Shakespeare that remains popular today. Forbes-Robertson avoided the showiness of Irving and instead portrayed a down-to-earth Romeo, expressing the poetic dialogue as realistic prose and avoiding melodramatic flourish.^[77]

Meanwhile, American actors began performing the play, eventually rivalling their British counterparts with the likes of Edwin Booth (brother to John Wilkes Booth) and Mary McVicker (soon his wife). The sumptuous Booth's Theatre with European-style stage machinery with an air conditioning system unique in the city, opened on 3 February 1869, with one of the most elaborate productions of Romeo and Juliet ever seen in America, according to some reports.^[86] The Booth–McVicker Romeo and Juliet was quite possibly one of the most popular productions of Romeo and Juliet in America, running for over six weeks and earning upwards of $60,000.^[87] The programme of Booth's production noted that: "The tragedy will be produced in strict accordance with historical propriety, in every respect, following closely the text of Shakespeare."^[88] This suggests that other versions of Romeo and Juliet were common, such as the 120 year-old but still popular adaptation by David Garrick. The play found popularity throughout continental Europe, as well.^[77]

20th-century theatre

John Gielgud, who was among the more famous 20th-century actors to play Romeo, Friar Laurence and Mercutio on stage

John Gielgud's New Theatre production in 1935 featured Gielgud and Laurence Olivier as Romeo and Mercutio, exchanging roles six weeks into the run, with Peggy Ashcroft as Juliet.^[89] Gielgud used a scholarly combination of Q1 and Q2 texts, omitting only minor portions of the originals, such as the second Chorus. He also organised the set and costumes to match as closely as possible to the Elizabethan period. His efforts were a huge success at the box office, and set the stage for increased historical realism in later productions.^[77] Guthrie McClintic produced a 1935 Broadway staging in which Katharine Cornell had a triumph as Juliet opposite Basil Rathbone as Romeo and Edith Evans (who had also played the role in the Gielgud production) as the Nurse.^[90] Cornell later revived the production with Maurice Evans as Romeo and Ralph Richardson as Mercutio, both making their Broadway debuts.^[91] Peter Brook's 1947 version was the beginning of a different style of Romeo and Juliet performances. Brook was less concerned with realism, and more concerned with translating the play into a form that could communicate with the more modern world. He argued, "A production is only correct at the moment of its correctness, and only good at the moment of its success."^[77] Franco Zeffirelli mounted a legendary staging for the Old Vic in 1960 with John Stride and Judi Dench that served as the basis for his 1968 film.^[92] Zeffirelli borrowed from Brook's ideas, altogether removing nearly a third of the play's text in order to make it more accessible to a contemporary audience. He also paid close attention to detail, making sure that nothing which would add to the realism of the performance was neglected.^[77]

The Riverside Shakespeare Company, an Equity theatre company based on Manhattan's Upper West Side opened with a tour of Romeo and Juliet throughout the parks of Manhattan in the summer of 1977, leading eventually to the creation of The Shakespeare Center.^[93] Eight years later the company mounted a second outdoor production of this play, sponsored by Joseph Papp and the New York Shakespeare Festival on an expanded tour to the five boroughs of New York City.^[94] Romeo and Juliet has proved to be one of the most popular Shakespeare plays in New York theatre history, second only to Hamlet in the number of Broadway productions.^[95]

More recent professional performances have grown ever more adaptive to the contemporary world. For example, the Royal Shakespeare Company performed the play in 1986, set in contemporary Verona. Switchblades replaced swords, feasts and balls became drug-laden rock parties, and Romeo committed suicide by hypodermic needle.^[77] In 1997, the Folger Shakespeare Theatre produced a modern version set in a typical suburban world. Romeo sneaks into the Capulet barbecue to meet Juliet, and Juliet discovers Tybalt's death while in class at school.^[77]

Other contemporary performances give the play a well-known historical setting, enabling audiences to understand, and perhaps to reflect upon, the underlying conflicts. For example, adaptations have been set in the midst of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,^[96] in the apartheid era in South Africa,^[97] and in the aftermath of the Pueblo Revolt.^[98] Among the most famous of such adaptations is Peter Ustinov's 1956 comic adaptation, Romanoff and Juliet, set in a fictional mid-European country in the depths of the Cold War.^[99] A mock-Victorian revisionist version of Romeo and Juliet 's final scene (with a happy ending, Romeo, Juliet, Mercutio and Paris restored to life, and Benvolio revealing that he is Paris's love, Benvolia, in disguise) was also included as the conclusion of Part One of the 1980 stage-play The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby.^[100]Shakespeare’s R&J, by Joe Calarco, spins the classic in a modern tale of gay teenage awakening.^[101]

Ballet, opera and musicals

At least 24 operas have been based on Romeo and Juliet.^[102] The earliest, Romeo und Julie in 1776, a Singspiel by Georg Benda, omits much of the action of the play and most its characters, and has a happy ending. It is occasionally revived. The best-known is Gounod's 1867 Roméo et Juliette (libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré), a critical triumph when first performed and frequently revived today.^[103][104] Bellini's I Capuleti e i Montecchi is also revived from time to time, but has sometimes been judged unfavourably because of its perceived liberties with Shakespeare; however, Bellini and his librettist, Felice Romani, worked from Italian sources—principally Romani's libretto for an opera by Nicola Vaccai—rather than directly adapting Shakespeare's play.^[105]

The play has also had a number of musical theatre adaptations, the most famous of which is West Side Story with music by Leonard Bernstein and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. It débuted on Broadway in 1957 and in London's West End in 1958, and became a popular film in 1961. This version updated the setting to mid-20th century New York City, and the warring families to ethnic gangs.^[106] Other musical adaptations include Terrence Mann's 1999 rock musical William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, co-written with Jerome Korman,^[107] Gérard Presgurvic's 2001 Roméo et Juliette, de la Haine à l'Amour and Riccardo Cocciante's 2007 Giulietta & Romeo.^[108] Several ballet versions have also been composed; the best-known is Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet, first performed in 1938.^[109]

Roméo et Juliette by Berlioz is a "symphonie dramatique", a large scale work in three parts for mixed voices, chorus and orchestra, premiered in 1839.^[110] The Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture (1869, revised 1870 and 1880), by Tchaikovsky is a long symphonic poem, containing the famous melody known as the "love theme".^[111]

Screen

Main article: Romeo and Juliet on screen

Romeo and Juliet may be the most-screened play of all time.^[112] The most notable theatrical releases were George Cukor's multi-Oscar-nominated 1936 production, Franco Zeffirelli's 1968 version, and Baz Luhrmann's 1996 MTV-inspired Romeo + Juliet. The latter two were both, in their time, the highest-grossing Shakespeare film ever.^[113] Romeo and Juliet was first filmed in the silent era, by Georges Méliès, although his film is now lost.^[112] The play was first heard on film in The Hollywood Revue of 1929, in which John Gilbert recited the balcony scene opposite Norma Shearer.^[112]

Shearer and Leslie Howard, with a combined age over 75, played the teenage lovers in George Cukor's 1936 film version. Producer Irving Thalberg cast screen actors, rather than stage actors, but shipped in East Coast drama coaches, with the unfortunate consequence that actors previously adored for their naturalism gave stilted performances.^[112] The budget reached $2 million: at that time, MGM's most expensive movie.^[112] Neither critics nor the public responded enthusiastically. Cinemagoers considered the film too "arty", staying away as they had from Warner's A Midsummer Night Dream a year before: leading to Hollywood abandoning the Bard for over a decade.^[114]

Renato Castellani won the Grand Prix at the Venice Film Festival for his 1954 film of Romeo and Juliet.^[115] The major supporting roles were vastly reduced, including those of the nurse, Mercutio and Friar Laurence.^[116] Castellani's most prominent changes related to Romeo's character, cutting back or removing scenes involving his parents, Benvolio and Mercutio in order to highlight Romeo's isolation, and inserting a parting scene in which Montague coldly pulls his banished son out of Lady Montague's farewell embrace.^[117]

Stephen Orgel describes Franco Zeffirelli's 1968 Romeo and Juliet as being "full of beautiful young people, and the camera, and the lush technicolour, make the most of their sexual energy and good looks."^[118] Zeffirelli's young leads were already experienced actors: Leonard Whiting (then 17) had been the youngest member of the National Theatre, and Olivia Hussey (aged 15) had starred opposite Vanessa Redgrave in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie in the West End.^[119][120] In contrast to Castellani, Zeffirelli highlighted Romeo's positive relationships with the Friar, Balthazar and Mercutio. Zeffirelli's handling of the duel scene has been particularly praised,^[121] and his device later adopted by Baz Luhrmann. Taking his cue from Benvolio's "...For now these hot days is the mad blood stirring"^[122] Zeffirelli depicts the dry, oppressive heat of the little town, and presents the duel as bravado getting out-of-control.^[119] The film courted controversy by including a nude wedding-night scene^[123] while Olivia Hussey was only fifteen.^[124]

Baz Luhrmann's 1996 Romeo + Juliet and its accompanying soundtrack successfully targeted the "MTV Generation": a young audience of similar age to the story's characters.^[125] Far darker than Zeffirelli's version, the film is set in the "crass, violent and superficial society" of Verona Beach and Sycamore Grove.^[126] Leonardo DiCaprio was Romeo. Claire Danes, as Juliet, was praised for portraying a poise and wisdom beyond her years, and as the first screen Juliet whose speech sounded spontaneous.^[127] Miriam Margolyes played the nurse for laughs,^[127] and Paul Sorvino—a veteran of numerous Mafia movies—played Capulet as a typical gangland patriarch.^[128]

The play has been widely adapted for TV and film. In 1960, Peter Ustinov's cold-war stage parody, Romanoff and Juliet was filmed.^[129] The 1961 film of West Side Story—set among New York gangs–featured the Jets as white youths, equivalent to Shakespeare's Montagues, while the Sharks, equivalent to the Capulets, are Puerto Rican.^[130] In 2006, Disney's High School Musical made use of Romeo and Juliet's plot, placing the two young lovers in rival high school cliques instead of feuding families.^[131]

Film-makers have frequently featured characters performing Romeo and Juliet, or scenes from it.^[132] Films as diverse as Carry on Teacher (1959) and Shakespeare Wallah (1965) have used this device.^[133] The conceit of dramatising Shakespeare writing Romeo and Juliet has been used several times,^[134][135] including John Madden's 1998 Shakespeare in Love, in which Shakespeare writes the play against the backdrop of his own doomed love affair.^[136][137]

References

Notes