ROMEO AND JULIET

I believe that the existence of a family in everything and for everyone cannot be destroyed even if you have to draw a war that like a conflict things become emergent to the gesture and affliction of love that by the circumstances I say that there are no borders between a passion that perhaps due to a certain benevolence things are destined and certainly cause an impact on the mind of the human being that, due to his unforgettable prison, everything can be undone by the mere pleasure of a conquest that by the salient life, things are animated by the mere pleasure of being know even when there is a mismatch of a family between both issues that are caught between a nightmare that is determined by any order of the throne to the dispensable role that makes facing and encouraging a story that would be romantic and very tragic if we are talking here about two young people who whose death ends up uniting their families, once on a war footing that it all started between friends who, for the sake of simplicity of life, would meet in the streets of the city to play where the bourgeoisie did not seem to buy their rights to live in what, above all, they were hid a benevolent flame of a very pretty girl with white skin and green eyes who conserved her contagious beauty over a half-life imprisoned perhaps by fate that for some time turns into a story of deep and tragic love that we can understand here how everything can turn out . have started and we can tell you a few things here.

Romeo and Juliet, the tragic love story of two young people, is the title of a tragedy by Shakespeare (1597), an immortal work of literature, which begins: "Two remarkable families of beautiful Verona, where the story takes place , turn old disagreements into war, staining their hands with blood.

Romeo and Juliet belongs to a tradition of tragic romances that goes back to antiquity. Its plot is based on a tale from Italy, translated into verse as The Tragic Story of Romeo and Juliet by Arthur Brooke in 1562, and revived in prose as Palace of Pleasure by William Painter in 1582. Shakespeare drew on both, but reinforced the action of secondary characters, especially Mercutio and Paris , in order to expand the plot. The text was first published in a quarter of 1597, but this version was considered to be of poor quality, which spurred many other later editions that brought consonance with the original Shakespearean text.

Romeo and Juliet is probably the most famous romantic tragedy in world literature, and the bard was inspired by a popular 1559 poem by Arthur Brooke. The poem had an express moral which was that children must obey their parents, under penalty of falling into disgrace, as happened to a young couple.

The name of the combination refers to the famous work of the English writer William Shakespeare. But the nickname only caught on in the 60s, long after the invention. At the time, an advertising campaign for a guava brand featured Cebolinha and Mônica, from Turma da Mônica, as Romeo and Juliet.

It is customary to say that Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare's play, is a tragic love story between two young people who are prevented from being together due to the rivalry between their families and who, therefore, end up committing suicide.

As we can see that certain things in life between both people that we can find on a wide arbiter even if they are and remain in perfect unions the true love between both people that for perhaps an inability or bad occurrence not all the surfaces of an idea cannot to be well done due to a distorted habit that can be nullified with the true love conceived.

Verona is the scene of the historical conflict between two traditional families: the Montecchio and the Capuleto . By a misfortune of fate, Romeo, only son of the Montecchio family , and Juliet, only daughter of the Capuleto family , meet during a masquerade ball and fall madly in love.

We can see the pain of high knowledge that can deeply inhibit us about all the things that even when we don't exist we know firmly because I believe that the will is a self value that esteems us and the conscience makes us react under all the incapacities of life when not we may miss something about our wills that just might tell us something relatively valuable.

I believe that we are going through a dispensation from life that fatally things seem to be saying that we are going to the bottom of the well when the answer should be more clearly and firmly under control and we can define the contradiction of living and dying when in everything there is simply a union that we practically cannot escape from this uncertainty because we are still united by a bond of deep love and there is no indifference about what we think and death wants to inhibit us deeply in our hearts that love between both families cannot be silent as soon as he himself has to know himself because it would be conceivable for love to be fallible to the mere pleasure of living even if he has been silenced and imprisoned by any cruel factor in life, but he would never stop holding hands even if he is dying because here I tell that Romeo and Juliet really met and fled from everyone to survive and that they were the target of a tragedy both issues of love and suffering that made Romeo poison himself, In the meantime, however, Romeo received the news that Juliet had killed herself and for not knowing about Friar Lourenço's trick, he decided to kill himself by drinking poison on the grave of his beloved. And so he did. When Juliet woke up, she saw Romeo's body and stabbed herself with a blade, also dying that took her own life. Paris is a suitor of Juliet. Handsome, wealthy, and a relative of Prince Escalus . He is also an aristocrat and a higher social order and it all happened after the death of Paris, Romeo takes the poison. When Juliet awakens and realizes that Romeo has taken the poison, she kills herself with her lover's dagger. Finally, forbidden to live this love story, they choose death. Faced with this, the families that previously lived in discord, go through a moment of peace and thus ends a tragic love story between both families that we can certainly see today and have a more prudent logic about a notion of living that simply between two ties came together two people that we can understand that love is an expression of attachment that nothing can break ahead of the truth between both ties of a love that turned into a fatal tragedy in which we can understand that love will always exist anyway that he has to be tried and he meets the fearless danger that life is said to be morbid about the feelings of someone who loves and nothing equals the unforgettable love however much it is imprisoned about any question about life everything rises about the life as simply the value of living and being happy when you truly love someone and you will certainly not fear death and simply show yourself more alive and faithful to the disadvantages that life faces and so here with much love and expression the story of two young people who loved each other too much and who died for love and that life is simply something relative when there is existence that transforms us into life and so is certainly the love that when someone is united on a true bond in which they unite on equality of getting to know each other and loving each other and here I tell the story of those who left and who learned to love and who fought for the realistic honesty of knowing each other that became a love story.

I simply want to show here a beautiful and esteemed biography that in everything and for everything begins as an intro to a beautiful and unforgettable book of romance that tells the story of two young people who struggled against an inability to know each other and who loved each other until their death. death.

History:

Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy written between 1591 and 1595, in the early days of William Shakespeare's literary career, about two teenagers whose death ends up uniting their families, once at war. The play was among the most popular in Shakespeare's time and, alongside Hamlet, is one of his works most taken to the stages of the whole world. Today, the relationship of the two young people is regarded as the archetype of youthful love.

The dramatic structure used by Shakespeare—especially generic effects such as switching between comedy and tragedy to heighten tension; the focus on more minor characters and the use of subplots to embellish the story—has been praised as an early sign of his dramatic ability and artistic maturity. Furthermore, the play assigns different poetic forms to the characters to show that they evolve; Romeo, for example, becomes more versed in the sonnets as the plot progresses.

In more than five centuries of making, Romeo and Juliet has been adapted in the infinite fields and areas of theater, cinema, music and literature. While William Davenant tried to reinvigorate it during the English Restoration, and David Garrick modified scenes and removed material considered indecent in the 18th century, Charlotte Cushman , in the 19th century, presented to the public a version that preserved Shakespeare's text. The play became memorable on Brazilian stages with the interpretation of Paulo Porto and Sônia Oiticica in the main roles, and served as an influence for Visconde de Taunay in his Inocência, also based on Amor de Perdição, by Camilo Castelo Branco, considered the " Lusitanian Romeo and Juliet". In addition to proving to be influential in Portuguese ultra-romanticism and Brazilian naturalism, Romeo and Juliet remains famous in current cinematographic productions, notably in Zeffirelli 's 1968 version , nominated for best film, and in Luhrmann's more recent Romeo + Juliet, which brings its plot to the present.

Characters:

Romeo and Juliet depicts the interaction between three prominent families in Verona:

House of Capulet

Capulet is the father of Juliet and patriarch of the Capulets .

Lady Capulet is the wife of Capulet .

Juliet is the only child of the Capulets and the female protagonist of the play.

Tybalt is Juliet's cousin, and the son of Lady Capulet 's brother .

Ama is Juliet's confidante and nanny.

Peter and Gregory are the servants of the Capulets .

Government:

Prince Escala is the Prince of Verona

Paris is a young nobleman, a relative of the prince, and suitor of Juliet.

Mercutio is a relative of the prince and a friend of Romeo.

House of the Montagues

Montecchio is the patriarch of the house of Montecchios .

Senhora Montaquio is the matriarch of the house of the Montecchios .

Romeo is the only child of the Montecchios , and the play's male protagonist.

Benvolio is Montecchio 's nephew and Romeo's cousin.

Abraham and Baltasar are the servants of the Montecchios .

Others:

Frei Lourenço is Romeo's confidant and a Franciscan.

Friar João is the one who would deliver Friar Lourenço's letter to Romeu.

An Apothecary, who sells the fatal potion to Romeo.

Rosalina is an invisible character, Romeo's suitor before he met Juliet and her cousin on her father's side.

Synopsis:

“Two families, equal in dignity…”

- Choir:

Romeo's Last Kiss on Juliet by Francesco Hayez . Oil on canvas, 1823.

The play opens on a street with the disagreement between the Montecchios and the Capulets . The Prince of Verona intervenes and declares that he will punish with death those people who collaborate in yet another quarrel between both families. Later, Paris talks to Capulet about marrying his daughter to him, but Capulet is confused by the proposal because Juliet is only thirteen years old. Capulet asks Paris to wait two years and invites him to a planned ballet party that will be held in the house. Lady Capulet and Juliet's Nurse try to persuade the girl to accept Paris ' courtship . After the fight, Benvolio meets with his cousin Romeu, son of the Montecchios , and talks about the young man's depression. Benvolio ends up discovering that she is the result of an unrequited love for a girl named Rosalina, one of the Capuleto 's nieces . Persuaded by Benvolio and Mercutio , Romeo accepts the invitation to the party that will take place at the Capulet house in hopes of meeting Rosalina. However, Romeo falls madly in love with Juliet. After the feast, in the famous "balcony scene", Romeo climbs over the wall of the Capulets ' courtyard and listens to Juliet's declarations of love despite her hatred of the Montecchios . Romeo and Juliet decide to get married.

With the help of Frei Lourenço - hopeful of the reconciliation of the families through the union of the two young people - they manage to secretly marry the next day. Teobaldo, Juliet's cousin, feeling offended by the fact that Romeo had fled the party, challenges the young man to a duel. Romeo, who now considers Theobald his companion, refuses to fight him. Mercutio is encouraged to accept the duel on Romeo's behalf because of his "calm submission, vile and insulting". During the duel, Mercutio is fatally wounded and Romeo, angered by his friend's death, continues the confrontation and kills Teobaldo. The Prince decides to exile Romeo from Verona for the murder, noting that if he returns, he will have his last hour. Capulet , misinterpreting Juliet's grief, agrees to marry her immediately to Count Paris and threatens to disinherit her when she refuses to become Paris ' "joyful bride" . When she then asks for an advance on the marriage, her mother rejects her. When it gets dark, Romeo secretly spends the entire night in Juliet's room, where they consummate their marriage.

The Reconciliation of the Montecchios and Capulets Before the Death of Romeo and Juliet, by Frederic Leighton , 1855

him for help to escape the marriage, and the Friar offers her a small flask, advising: "... numbing, without the pulse beating continuing in its normal course, stopping soon..." The vial, if ingested, causes the person to sleep and be in a state similar to death, in a coma for "forty-two hours". With the apparent death, the relatives will think that the girl is dead and, thus, she will not marry unintentionally . Finally, Lourenço promises that he will send a messenger to inform Romeo — still in exile — of the plan that will unite them and, thus, make him return to Verona at the same time that the young woman awakens. The night before the wedding, Juliet takes the medicine, and when they discover that she is "dead", they place her body in the family crypt.

The message, however, ends up being lost and Romeo thinks that Juliet is really dead when the servant Baltasar tells him what happened. Bitterly, the protagonist buys a fatal poison from an apothecary he meets midway and heads to the Capulet crypt . There, he faces the figure of Paris. Believing Romeo to be a vandal, Paris confronts the unknown and, in battle, Romeo murders him . Still believing that his beloved is dead, he drinks the potion. Juliet ends up waking up and, discovering Romeo's death, commits suicide with his dagger, seeing that the young man's potion did not have a single drop. The two families and the Prince meet at the tomb and discover the three dead. Friar Lourenço retells the story of the young people's impossible love for the two families who are now reconciled by the death of their children. The play ends with the Prince's elegy for the lovers: "No story was ever so painful / Than that of Juliet and her Romeo."

Textual sources:

Caxton 's translation of Ovid's Tale of Pyramus and Thisbe , 1480.

Romeo and Juliet belongs to a tradition of tragic romances that go back to antiquity. One of these romances is the story of Pyramus and Thisbe , from Ovid's Metamorphoses, whose plot contains parallels with Shakespeare's story: the parents of the two lovers detest each other, and Pyramus ends up believing that Thisbe is dead. Contemporary translators of this narrative poem often refer to the plot of Pyramus and Thisbe as "the Romeo and Juliet of old". Xenophon's Ephesian Tales, written in the mid-3rd century, also has many elements similar to the play, including the drastic separation of the protagonists, and the flask whose drink induces a state of apparent death.

The most recent known version of the tale of Romeo and Juliet is the story of Mariotto and Gianozza by Masuccio Salernitano , in tale 33 of his Il Novellino , published in 1476. Salernitano sets his story in Siena and implants some locations from his own life into the events of the story. His version includes elements such as the secret marriage, the Friar's collusion, the fight that ensues from the murder of a citizen, Mariotto 's exile, Gianozza 's forced marriage , the flask, and the crucial message at the end. In this version, Mariotto is captured and beheaded, while Gianozza dies of grief.

Luigi da Porto adapted this story as Giulietta and Romeo and included it in his Historia novelly rhythm say due Nobili Amanti published in 1530, joining the tale of Pyramus and Thisbe with Giovanni Boccaccio's Decameron . Da Porto contributed a lot to the modern conception, as in addition to elaborating the names of the lovers and their rival families such as Montecchi and Capuleti , he also placed the location of the piece in Verona. He also created characters that today correspond to Shakespeare's Mercutio , Tybalt and Paris . Da Porto presents his tale as historically true and claims that it took place in the time of Bartolomeo II della Scala (a century before Salernitano ). The Montecchios and the Capulets were political factions in the 13th century, but the only dissident link that has occurred between them is the one mentioned in Dante's Purgatorio. In da Porto's version, Romeo drinks the poison and Giulietta is wounded by her lover's dagger.

Title page of the poem Romeo and Juliet by Arthur Brooke

In 1554, Matteo Bandello published the second volume of his Novelle including his own version of Giulietta e Romeo. Bandello emphasizes Romeo's initial sadness at the beginning of the play and the strife between the families, in addition to introducing Benvolio and the Nurse in the work. The plot produced by Bandello was translated into the French language by Pierre Boaistuau in 1559 in the first volume of his Histories Tragiques . Boaistuau added morality and sentiment, as well as a bit of rhetorical language, to the work's characters' dialogues.

As there was a tendency among poets and playwrights to publish works based on famous Italian novelles — tales from Italy were among the most popular in the theater at the time — Shakespeare took advantage of this popularity in the following works (all derived from Italian novelles ): The Merchant of Venice, Much Ado About Nothing, All's Well That Ends Well, Measure for Measure, and Romeo and Juliet. The English bard may have been all too familiar with William Painter's 1567 collection of short stories entitled The Palace of Pleasure, which includes a prose version of the Romeo and Juliet story entitled "The Goodly History of the true and constant love of rhomeo and Julietta " . _ _ _ _ _ faithful to Boaistuau 's version .

It is believed that Romeo and Juliet is a dramatization of this Brooke translation, and that Shakespeare faithfully follows the text, however adding greater emphasis to most of the minor characters, especially the Nurse and Mercutio . Dido , Queen of Carthage and Hero and Leader—both poems written in Shakespeare's day by his contemporary Christopher Marlowe —perhaps were direct influences on the story of Romeo and Juliet, even if the endings of both have the atmosphere in which the tragedies love stories could thrive, unlike the play's tragic ending.

Date and text:

Cover of the Second Bedroom of Romeo and Juliet published in 1599

Scholars don't know exactly when Shakespeare wrote Romeo and Juliet. However, we can acquire certain clues: Juliet's Nurse refers to an earthquake that had occurred 11 years earlier. Considering that an earthquake occurred in England in 1580, it is possible to determine that the play takes place in 1591 or that this is the year in which Shakespeare wrote the work, although many other earthquakes, both in England and in Verona, occurred before or after, causing different dates to be proposed.

Also considering that scholars point to similarities in the artistic style used in Romeo and Juliet to A Midsummer Night's Dream and other plays conventionally dated 1594-95, tradition holds that Romeo and Juliet was composed between 1591 and 1595. that the play was still a project recently started in the year 1591, completed by Shakespeare in 1595.

Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet was published in two quarto editions before the publication of the First Folio in 1623. The two versions are referred to as Q1 and Q2, respectively. The first printed edition, Q1, appears in early 1597, held by John Danter . As its text contains many differences compared to the last editions, it is known as a 'bad room'. Publisher TJB Spencer explained in the 20th century that the version "has detestable text, probably a reconstruction of the play from the imperfect memories of one or more actor(s)", suggesting that it was pirated for publication. A possible explanation for these shortcomings of Q1 is that the play (like many others of its time) may have been edited before the theater company performed. In any case, its appearance at the beginning of 1597 makes 1596 the latest date for the composition of the work.

Facsimile of the first page of Romeo and Juliet, in the First Folio published in 1623

The second edition, Q2, is called The Most Excellent and Lamentable Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet and represents a superior text than the previous version (Q1). Printed in 1599 by Thomas Creede and published by Cuthbert Burby , it has about 800 more lines than the Q1. Its cover describes it as "newly corrected, enlarged and altered". Based on this information, it is believed that Q2 was based on Shakespeare's pre -enactment design (known as his " foul" ). papers "), since there are textual curiosities such as the various rubrics for characters and "false starts" for speeches that were presumably ripped out by the author but erroneously preserved by the editor. Its text is more complete and reliable, and so it was reprinted in 1609 (Q3), 1622 (Q4) and 1637 (Q5) Indeed, all the later rooms and folios of Romeo and Juliet are based on Q2, as all modern editions and their editors believe that any defect in editions prior to the Q2 (good or bad) were caused by their respective printers and/or the printers and publishers of the time, not by William Shakespeare.

The First Folio text of 1623 is based primarily on Q3, with clarifications and corrections taken from a playbook or from Q1. Further Folio editions of the play were printed in 1632 (F2), 1664 (F3), and in 1685 (F4). Modern versions - featuring the various folios and quarters - first appeared in playwright Nicholas Rowe 's 1709 edition , followed by Alexander Pope's 1723 version . add some stages of stage and scene positions, since Q2 lacked those directions, present, however, in Q1.

The tradition continued to be used into the period of Romanticism. Editions with more footnotes first appeared in the Victorian era and continue to be produced today, where there are a wide variety of footnotes throughout the text highlighting and explaining the origins and culture behind the play.

Theme:

Critics have found it somewhat difficult to attribute a specific theme or one best presented in the play of Romeo and Juliet. The proposals that emerged as main themes are: the discovery that the characters make about human beings, understanding that they are neither totally good nor totally bad and that, instead, they are a bit of both; the awakening of oneiric fantasy and the entrance to reality; the danger that exists in rash action without any kind of rationalization, and the power that exists in tragic fate. Although this set of themes forms a complex plot for critics to define a main theme, the play is full of several thematic elements that intertwine. The ones that are most often debated by scholars are addressed below:

Love

Romeo:

If my hand profanes the reliquary, in remission I accept penance: my lip, solitary pilgrim, will show, with plenty, reverence.

Juliet:

You offend your hand, good pilgrim, who has shown herself to be devout and reverent. In the hands of the saints takes the paladin. This is the holiest and most convenient kiss.

Romeo and Juliet, Act I, Scene V

Romeo and Juliet is sometimes considered a work without themes, with the exception that it deals with the love between two young people in love. These two young people have, over time, become emblematic of young lovers who are condemned by their love. Since the theme presents itself very clearly in the play, there is a great deal of exploration of the language and historical context behind this novel. On their first meeting, Romeo and Juliet use a form of communication recommended by many critical authors of Shakespeare's time: the metaphor. Using metaphors of saints and sins, Romeo was given the opportunity to test Juliet's feelings for him in a non-threatening way. This stylistic method was recommended by the Italian diplomat and courtier Baldassare Castiglione (whose works had been translated into English at the time). Castiglione remembers that if a man uses a metaphor as an invitation, the woman can pretend that she didn't understand what he said, and then he can back off without losing face. Juliet, however, participates in the metaphor of her beloved and collaborates for its development, expanding it. Religious metaphors such as "sanctuary", "pilgrim" and "saint" were in the poetic fashion of the time and were consecutively more likely to be understood as something romantic, rather than nonsense or blasphemy, as the concept of sanctity became associated later on through of Catholicism.[36] Later, Shakespeare removes the boldest allusions he found in Brooke's story of Romeo and Juliet, such as one about Christ's resurrection.

Frank Dicksee depicts the terrace scene in Romeo and Juliet, 1884

In the famous terrace scene, Shakespeare has Romeo overhearing Juliet's soliloquy, although in Brooke's version the girl's statement is made without anyone listening. By approaching Romeo in the scene to listen to his lover, Shakespeare breaks with the traditional court sequence: normally, women were forced to be shy and modest to make sure that their suitors were sincere towards them. The (intentional) breaking of this rule only serves to advance the theatrical plot a little, however.

Lovers are able to skip the declaration of love part and move on to talking about their relationship—like when they decide to get married after meeting for just one night. If we focus on the final suicide scene, we can see a contradiction in the message: in the Catholic religion, suicides were condemned to live and suffer in hell; however, there was also the concept that if they died through the "Religion of Love", alongside their love, they would be united with him in paradise. Therefore, the love between Romeo and Juliet seems to express the "Religion of Love" rather than the Catholic view. Another interesting point to highlight is that, although their love is passionate, it was only consummated in marriage, which prevents them from losing the public's sympathy.

Arguably, Shakespeare links sex and love with death. For example: throughout the story, both Romeo and Juliet, as well as the other characters, personify it as a dark event, often equating it with Eroticism: when discovering the (false) death of Juliet, for example, Capulet says that her daughter was "deflowered", a simple allusion to the end of female virginity. Juliet also erotically compares Romeo to death, and even before her suicide, she takes hold of Romeo's dagger and says: "Oh! be welcome, dagger! Your scabbard is here. Rest there very still and leave it alone." die me."

bad luck and luck

O, I am the jester of fortune!

Romeo:

Scholars are divided as to the role of luck in the play. There is no consensus among them about whether the protagonists are really fated to die together or if the events occur through a series of unlucky hypotheses. Arguments in favor of fate often refer to the two as "hapless lovers". This expression points out that the stars predetermine the future of lovers. Scholar John W. Draper believes that there is a parallel between the Elizabethan belief of the "four humours" and the main characters in the play ( Tybald being a hypochondriac). Interpreting the text through moods reduces the plot value assigned to chance by modern audiences.

Still on this theme, other scholars find in the play a plot wrapped in a lot of bad luck, placing it not as a tragedy, but as an emotional melodrama. Ruth Nevo believes that the high degree to which opportunity is stressed in the narrative makes Romeo and Juliet the most futile of tragedies in its events, but not in its characters: when Tybalt challenges Romeo to a fight, for example, he is not being impulsive, that is, after the death of Mercutio , the most expected action at the moment and his choice ends up being taken. In this scene, Nevo reads Romeo as a young man aware of the dangers that disrespecting social norms, identity and commitments can entail and, therefore, he decides to commit murder not because of a "tragic failure", but due to the circumstance.

Duality:

According to Caroline Spurgeon , "... in Romeo and Juliet the dominant image is light, and all forms and manifestations thereof: the sun, moon, stars, fire, lightning, gunpowder flashes and the light that reflects beauty and love, while on the other hand we have night, darkness, clouds, rain, mist and smoke."

Füssl's painting Romeo on Juliet's Deathbed , 1809.

Indeed, scholars have long critiques and analyzes of the extensive use of "light" and "darkness" that Shakespeare was keen to use in the play. This use is a stylistic technique very easily found in the literature to describe a sensory experience in descriptive language. Caroline Spurgeon considers this theme of light to be "a symbol of the natural beauty of youthful love" and this interpretation has served as an argument for other critics. In summary, we can say that Romeo and Juliet see themselves as a light in the surrounding darkness: the first describes the beloved as if she were the sun; brighter than a torch; a jewel that shines in the dark of nights, and a shining angel among dark clouds. Even when Juliet is (seemingly) dead, he says: "...the insignia of beauty on thy lips and cheeks is still crimson, the pale pennant of death not having made progress..." Juliet, in turn, describes Romeo as "day into night" and "whiter than snow on a crow."

This contrast between light and dark present in their dialogue can be a clear metaphor for love and hate, youth and maturity. Sometimes these metaphorical interweavings create what is called today dramatic irony, since the love of Romeo and Juliet is a light in the midst of the hatred of their relatives, which would be darkness, even if the two young people live a passionate relationship in the light of night, while your relatives quarrel in broad daylight. Once these supposed paradoxes exist in the play, an atmosphere of moral dilemma is created that the lovers will have to face: to be faithful to the family or to be faithful to love?

At the end of the story, when "the morning is gloomy and the sun hides its face with sadness", in the words of the Prince of Verona himself, light and darkness return to their proper places, and this reflects the true inner darkness of the struggle. between families in the face of sadness for the lovers. The characters then acknowledge their mistakes in light of recent events, and everything returns to its natural order, "thanks to the love of Romeo and Juliet". In addition, the theme of "light" and "darkness" can also be interpreted as a form linked to time, and so the playwrights of sixteenth-century England expressed the passage of time through descriptions of the sun, moon and stars, in short.

Time:

This time of grief is not conducive to making court.

Paris :

Time in Romeo and Juliet plays an important role in the play's language and plot, as both Romeo and Juliet struggle to maintain an imaginary world in the face of the harsh reality that surrounds them. When Romeo swears his love for Juliet to the moon, she protests: "Do not swear by the moon, that inconstant one, whose circular outline changes every month, lest it appear that your love, too, is thus changeable." From the beginning, the lovers are designated as crossed stars, based on an astrology belief associated with time. According to this belief, the stars control the destiny of humanity and, as time passes, the stars move along their course in the sky, also tracing the course of lives of the beings below them. Romeo, for example, says early in the play that he has a hunch based on the movements of the stars, and when he thinks Juliet is dead, he defies the course they have in store for him.

Another central (and very visible) theme is the speed with which events develop: Shakespeare's work spans a period of four to six days, while Brooke's poem takes place over nine months. Scholars such as G. Thomas Tanselle , believe that timing was "especially important to Shakespeare" in this play, as he used "short-term" references for the young lovers, while using "long-term" references for the older generation. highlighting a likely "headlong rush to perdition". Romeo and Juliet fight against time to make their love last forever. In the end, the only way to defeat time seems to be through death which makes them immortal through art.

Time is also linked to the theme of light and dark developed in the previous subsection : in Shakespeare's time, plays were usually performed during the day, and this forced the playwright to use words to create the "illusion" of day and night. in your parts.

In addition to referring to time through dialogues, which mention the sun, moon, stars, day, night, the actors also referred to days of the week and specific times to help the audience understand the environment of the play. . In Romeo and Juliet alone, for example, one can find exactly 103 clear references to time.

Criticism and interpretation:

Historical context

Portrait of the play's first critic, Samuel Pepys , by John Hayls . Oil on canvas, 1666.

Critics have noted many weaknesses in Romeo and Juliet, but it is still regarded as one of Shakespeare's finest. The play's most famous critic was Samuel Pepys , a naval administrator and Member of Parliament known for the historical accounts he wrote in his personal diary. These accounts include events in the Great Plague of London, the Second Anglo-Dutch War and the Great Fire of London. As for the plot of Romeo and Juliet, Pepys wrote in 1662: "it is the worst play I have ever seen in my whole life." Ten years later, the poet John Dryden praised the play and the character of Mercutio : "Shakespeare demonstrated the best of his artistic ability in his Mercutio , and he himself said that he was obliged to kill him in the third act to avoid being killed by him. " Criticism of the play in the 18th century was less scattered, but no less divided: the editor Nicholas Rowe was the first critic to reflect on the work's theme, concluding that the tragic ending was just punishment for the two feuding families. In the middle of the same century, the writer Charles Gildon and the philosopher Lord Kames argued that the play was an artistic failure, as it did not follow the "classical rules" of the theater: "the final tragedy must occur because of some error of the characters involved in the plot, and not by an accident of fate." Samuel Johnson, however, considered it Shakespeare's most enjoyable play.

In the late 18th century and through the 19th century, criticism centered on debates over the play's moral message. The adaptation by actor and playwright David Garrick , made in 1748, excluded the character Rosaline, because Romeo's abandonment of Juliet was seen as inconstant and imprudent. Critics such as Charles Dibdin claimed that the inclusion of Rosalina, however, was deliberate to show how reckless the hero was, and that this was the real reason for his tragic end. Others argue that Friar Lawrence may have been the mouthpiece that Shakespeare used to demonstrate his warnings against undue haste. With the advent of the 20th century, all these arguments about the play's morality were challenged by critics such as Richard Green Moulton . He believed that the accident, not the characters' fault, was what led to their deaths.

Dramatic structure:

Romeo and Juliet and Friar Lawrence by Henry Bunbury , 1792-96

In Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare employs several dramatic techniques that have garnered much praise from critics. The technique most notably highlighted is the abrupt genre shifts from comedy to tragedy (as, for example, the exchange of paranomasia between Romeo and Mercutio just before Tybalt enters ). Before Mercutio 's death in Act III, the play is basically a comedy, but after his death, the work suddenly takes on a serious tone and takes on tragic elements. When Romeo is punished by the Prince and goes into exile, the fact that protagonist has not been executed and that Frei Lourenço offers a plan to bring the two together, the audience/reader can still hope that the lovers will end well. At this stage, the audience/reader is in a "breathless state of suspense" until the opening of the last scene in the tomb, after all, if Romeo is late enough for the Friar to appear, he and Juliet will still be able to save themselves. These sudden changes of state (from hope to despair, then reprieve, and then hope again) are simply elements that serve to underscore the tragedy, until the final hope is gone and the protagonists die.

Shakespeare also uses sub-plots to provide a clearer view of the main characters' actions: when the play opens, Romeo is in love with Rosaline, who has refused the young man's entire court. This affection that Romeo has for Rosaline is a striking contrast to his later love for Juliet. This contrast allows a comparison between both relationships through which the audience (or reader) has the chance to believe in the seriousness of the love and marriage between Romeo and Juliet. Paris 's affection for Juliet also establishes, in turn, a contrast between the girl's feelings for him and her feelings for Romeo. The formal language she uses when in Paris ' presence , as well as the way she talks about him to her Nurse, show that her feelings lie with Romeo. Furthermore, the sub-plot of the feuds between the Montecchios and the Capulets provides an atmosphere of hatred that becomes the main contributor, according to some critics, to the tragic ending of the play.

Language:

Romeo by Bianchini, one of the characters who uses the sonnet in his lines

The poetic forms used by Shakespeare throughout the work are very varied, which makes Romeo and Juliet rich in poetry (despite the Portuguese translations having insisted on prose). It opens with a 14-line prologue in the form of a Shakespearean sonnet, recited by a chorus. Most of the text of Romeo and Juliet is, however, written in blank verse, much of it within iambic pentameter , with less rhythmic variation than most of his later pieces. Shakespeare chooses his poetic forms according to the character who will speak. Frei Lourenço, for example, uses the forms of the sermon and the synthesis, and the Nurse uses only blank verse, strictly corresponding to colloquial speech. Each of these shapes is also shaped to the emotion of the scene the character occupies. Romeo, for example, at the beginning of the play tries to use Petrarch's sonnet to talk about Rosaline - probably because this form was often used by men who had the intention of praising the beauty of women whose love was impossible to achieve due to the lack of reciprocity, like his situation with Rosalina. This sonnet form is also used by Lady Capulet when she tries to convince her daughter what a wonderful man Count Paris is.

When Romeo and Juliet meet, the poetic form changes: from the Petrarchan sonnet (which was becoming archaic in Shakespeare's time), we have a more contemporary sonnet form, using metaphors such as "pilgrim" and "saints". Finally, when the two meet on the terrace, Romeo tries to use the sonnet form to sensitize his love, but Juliet breaks the technique by saying: "Do you still love me?" In doing so, she seeks a true and heartfelt expression, rather than a poetic exaggeration of their love. In Juliet's lines, Shakespeare uses monosyllable words when she is facing Romeo, and formal language when facing Paris . Other poetic forms used in the play are the epithalamium (in Juliet); the rhapsody (in the dialogue Mercutio quotes a Queen Mab ), and the elegy (in Paris ). In the play's language, Shakespeare conserves his prosaic style, using it more frequently in the lines of poorer characters, although he uses it in others as well, as in Mercutio . Humor, in turn, is an important element in the work: scholar Molly Mahood identified at least 175 puns in the text. Many of these puns are jokes of a sexual nature, especially those involving Mercutio and the Nurse.

Psychoanalysis:

The first psychoanalytic critics of the play saw a major problem in the plot of Romeo and Juliet: Romeo's impulsive personality, stemming from a supposed " ill-controlled and underhanded aggression", which led Mercutio to his death and also the suicide of the lovers. Romeo and Juliet is not considered a psychologically complex play, and its psychoanalytical reading pays attention to the tragic male experience with the disease. Norman Holland , writing in 1966, considered "Romeo's dream" to be a "realistic wish that fulfills the fantasy of both in terms of Romeo's adult world and his hypothetical oral, phallic, and oedipal phases in childhood so frequent in psychosexual development" . Hollanda takes advantage and recognizes that a dramatic character is not a human being with mental processes separate from those of the author. Critics such as Julia Kristeva focus on the hatred between the two families, arguing that this hatred is the cause of Romeo and Juliet's passion, and stresses that this understanding of theirs is manifested very clearly in the language of the two: Juliet, for example, says "my only love was born of my only hate" and often expresses his passion by anticipating Romeo's death. These interpretations lead to speculation about the playwright's psychology, in particular the mourning that, psychoanalysts say, Shakespeare was forced to assume in the face of the death of his son Hamnet .

Feminism:

The feminist critic argues that the fault of the feud between Verona's families lies in the system of its patriarchal society. For Coppélia Kahn, for example, the strictly masculine code of violence imposed on Romeo is the main driving force of his tragedy; when Theobald kills Mercutio , Romeo becomes violent, lamenting that Juliet has made him "effeminate". In this perspective, young males "become men" through violence in the name of their parents or, in the case of employees or servants, their bosses or masters. In the play, rivalry is also linked to male virility, as his numerous jokes about "male heads" demonstrate. Julieta also delegates a code of female docility, allowing others, like the Friar, to solve her problems for her. Other critics such as Dympna Callaghan , sees feminism in the play from a historical angle, underlining that when the play was written and performed, the feudal order was contested by the English government, which was increasingly centralized and influenced by capitalism; at the same time, the new Puritan ideas about marriage were less concerned with the evils of "female sexuality" than those of earlier times, and more sympathetic to plays that dealt with the theme of love: thus, when Juliet avoids the attempt her father forcing her to marry a man she has no feelings for, she would be challenging this patriarchal order in a way that would not have been possible at an earlier point in history.

Homosexual Theory:

Theory is a theory of gender identity that asserts that individuals' sexual orientation and sexual or gender identity are the result of a social construct and that, therefore, there are no essentially or biologically inscribed sexual gender social roles in nature. human, rather socially variable forms of playing one or more sexual roles. Based on these foundations, scholars pay attention to the issue of the sexuality of Mercutio and Romeo, comparing their friendship with sexual love: Mercutio , in a friendly conversation, mentions Romeo's phallus, suggesting traces of homoeroticism between the two. An example is when he says: "What hurt him was to invoke a strange spirit in the beloved's circle and leave it there until she had exorcised it." Romeo's homoeroticism can also be found in his attitude towards Rosalina, a woman who is distant and doesn't want anything to do with him, and who doesn't show any hope of offspring. Benvolio even argues that it's better to replace her with someone who is reciprocal. Shakespeare's "procreation sonnets" describe another young man who, like Romeo, is having difficulty having children and who is homosexual. Critics of this theory believe that Shakespeare may have used Rosaline as a way of expressing the intimate problems that homosexuals face because of their lack of procreation. In this perspective, when Julieta says "What we call rose [the critics say she alludes to Rosalina, under another designation it would have the same perfume", perhaps she is raising the question of whether there is any difference between the beauty of a man and the beauty of a woman.

History of stagings

Shakespeare's age

Richard Burbage , the actor who most likely played Romeo for the first time.

Romeo and Juliet features — along with Hamlet — a space that places it as one of the most staged, known and adapted Shakespearean plays in the entire planet. Its various adaptations have made it one of the most famous and most powerful stories in all of literature and art in general. Even in Shakespeare's day the play was extremely popular. Scholar Gary Taylor called it Shakespeare's sixth most famous play (the five most famous are, in descending order, Henry VI, Part 1, Richard III, Pericles, Prince of Tyre, Hamlet, and Richard II), in the period after the deaths of Christopher Marlowe and Thomas Kyd , but before the popularity of Ben Jonson , who was the most prestigious playwright in all of London in Shakespeare's time.

The date of the first staging of the play is unknown. The First Quarter (Q1), printed in 1597, says that "it has often been staged and acquired a large audience", which gives us the clue that stagings took place before that date. the lord chamberlain's Men was certainly the first group to stage it. In addition to his strong connection to Shakespeare, William Kempe is named in the Second Quarter (Q2) as Peter in a line from Act V.

Richard Burbage was probably the first actor to play Romeo, as he was the leader of the company and played the roles of the protagonists, and Master Robert Goffe (a male) was probably the first Juliet, as women were forbidden at the time. play any kind of role. Through this line-up, it is believed that the play's first premiere took place at "The Theatre ", with other productions later held at "The Curtain ". Furthermore, Romeo and Juliet is one of the first Shakespearean plays to be performed outside England: a brief version of the work was produced in Nördlingen in 1604.

XVIII century

All English theaters were closed by the Puritan government on September 6 , 1642. After the restoration of the monarchy in 1660, two patent theater companies (the Duke's Company and King's Company ) came together, and the theatrical repertoire was divided between the two.

Mary Saunderson , probably the first professional actress to play the role of Juliet.

William Davenant of Duke's Company , staged a 1662 adaptation in which actor Henry Harris played the role of Romeo; Thomas Betterton was Mercutio , and Betterton 's wife , Mary Saunderson , was Juliet—she was probably the first woman to play the role professionally. Another, later version followed Davenant 's adaptation closely and was regularly produced by Duke's Company . It was a kind of tragicomedy made by James Howard, where the two main lovers end up surviving in the end.

The History and fall of caius Thomas Otway 's Marius , one of the restoration's most extreme Shakespearean adaptations, premiered in 1680. The plot is entirely different from the Shakespearean original: the scene is set in ancient Rome rather than Renaissance Verona; Romeo came to be called Mario and Juliet of Lavinia; the feud is between the patricians and the plebeians and Juliet/Lavinia wakes up from her apparent death after Romeo/Mario dies. This version of Otway was a success, and it continued to be performed for the next seventy years. His final scene innovation was even more enduring, being used over 200 years: the 1744 adaptation of Theophilus Cibber and David Garrick in 1748 took advantage of variations on the final scene created by Otway . These last two versions, however, eliminated elements considered inappropriate in their times: Garrick , for example, transferred all the language referring to Rosalina to Juliet, with the aim of reinforcing the idea of fidelity and minimizing the theme of love-to-be. first sight.

The first production of the play known in North America was amateur: on March 23 , 1730, a physicist named Joachimus Bertrand announced in the Gazeta Newspaper, in New York, that he would promote a production in which he would play the role of an apothecary. However, the first professional stagings in North America were those produced by the Hallam Theater Company .

XIX century

Garrick 's version — which altered much of the plot — was quite popular, being used for nearly a century. However, no staging of Shakespeare's original text had returned to the United States until sisters Susan and Charlotte Cushman performed it in 1845, both as Romeo and Juliet, respectively, and then in 1847 in Britain with Samuel Phelps at the Wells Theatre. The Cushmans respected Shakespeare's version, which began with a run of eighty-four performances, and their portrayal of Romeo was hailed as genius by many critics: The Times, for example, wrote at the time: "For too long Romeo has been very conventional. Miss Cushman 's Romeo is creative, lively, lively, a very fiery being." Queen Victoria, for her part, wrote in her journal that "no one could imagine that she was a woman". The Cushman Success it broke with the tradition first established by Garrick and paved the way for later reenactments to begin to focus on Shakespeare's original story.

In the mid-nineteenth century, professional performances of Shakespeare's works (including Romeo and Juliet) had two particular characteristics: first, they were generally vehicles that actors found to gain greater prestige in their careers, with the help of roles. secondary characters often marginalized to give greater prominence and focus to the central characters (and mainly to the actors who played them); secondly, they were "pictorial", whose action took place on spectacular and elaborate stages (requiring long pauses to change scenes) where the tableaux technique was frequently used. Henry Irving produced Romeo and Juliet in 1882 at the Lyceum Theater (he was Romeo and Ellen Terry was Juliet) whose staging has been characterized as "the archetype of pictorial style." In 1895, Johnston Forbes-Robertson took over from Irving, and laid the groundwork for a more natural image of Shakespeare that remains popular even today, eschewing Irving's ostentation and portraying poetic dialogue as realistic prose intended to avoid melodramatic performances.

In Japan, George Crichton Miln produced perhaps the country's first professional staging of the play: his theater company toured throughout Yokohama in 1890. Throughout the 19th century, Romeo and Juliet had been one of Shakespeare's most popular plays, if you will. focus on the number of professional stagings that have taken place giving new versions of the play. In the twentieth century, the work would become Shakespeare's second most popular, behind only Hamlet.

20th century

Paulo Porto and Sônia Oiticica as Romeo and Juliet, in the most prestigious production of the play in Brazil

Even if not professionally, in 1904 the play was already staged in Brazil, in São Paulo, with Eurico Cuneo in the direction and, among the cast, there was the actress Itália Fausta. With the production of Teatro Universitário, in 1945, in Rio de Janeiro, Nicette Bruno staged the play alongside other names such as Sérgio Britto and Sérgio Cardoso, directed by Esther Leão.

The Brazilian version that deserves attention, however, is the 1938 version, produced at Teatro São Caetano, also in Rio de Janeiro, which had a cast with names like Antônio de Pádua, Paulo Ventania Porto and Sônia Oiticica (debuting on stage). In this production, Itália Fausta (the one who played Juliet in the 1904 staging), directed and coordinated the text translated by Domingos Ramos, with the soundtrack by the musician F. Chiafitelli . Such version — which anticipated in several procedures the advent of modern staging in Brazilian territory — won, in particular, the public and critics of the time (both from Minas Gerais and São Paulo), in addition to receiving several national and international awards, as well as being presented in London, Germany, Madrid, and the Globe itself Theatre , where Shakespeare's theatrical company gave the first performances of his works. For playing Juliet in this production, Sônia is known today as the first Brazilian actress to play the role. In addition, his interpretation earned him enormous prestige on the Brazilian stage. There was a recontextualization of this production, directed by Gabriel Villela 54 years later.

John Gielgud , one of the most famous actors of the 20th century who played Romeo, Friar Lawrence and Mercutio

In 1935, John Gielgud staged a production at Noël Coward Theater where he was Romeo and Laurence Olivier was Quicksilver, although both switched roles during the six-week run, with Peggy Ashcroft as Juliet. Gielgud used an academic combination of the Q1 and Q2 texts, arranging the location and the costumes to try to make his staging as close as possible to the productions that were made in Elizabethan theatre. Their efforts were hugely successful at the box office, and they bequeathed a certain historical realism to subsequent productions. Olivier later compared his performance with that of Gielgud , and said: "John, wholly spiritual, wholly witty, was the height of beauty, a summary of all abstract things; and I was like all those on Earth, with blood , humanity... I always felt that John had lost the inferior or human side of the characters, and that made me take on that other part... But however it was, when I was playing Romeo and I was carrying a torch, I was trying to sell the realism that exists in Shakespeare."

In 1947, Peter Brook's version marked a different style of staging Romeo and Juliet: it was less concerned with realism, while turning its attention to adapting a production that spoke directly to its modern world. As for this, Brooke once reported, "A production is only right at the time of its correction, and it is only good at the time of its success." In the text of her stage production, Brooke excluded the final reconciliation of the two families.

Throughout the 20th century, cinema-influenced audiences became less and less willing to accept actors who were different and older than juvenile and adolescent actors to play the protagonist duo of lovers. A significant example of youth casting was in the production of the Old Vic , directed by Franco Zeffirelli , in 1960, with John Stride and Judi Dench, which served as the basis for his very famous 1968 film . text of the play, in order to make it more accessible and suitable for its production. In an interview with The Times, Zeffirelli stated the following: "In the play, the theme of love and the breakdown between two generations has an extremely contemporary relevance."

More recent stagings have defined, in a certain way, the contemporary way of producing Romeo and Juliet: in 1986, for example, the Royal Shakespeare Company placed the plot of the play in a modern Verona, substituting daggers or swords for switchblades, balls and ceremonies traditional rock parties, while Romeo commits suicide via a hypodermic needle. In 1997, Shakespeare's Folger Bookshop , which brings together a vast printed collection of the playwright's works, produced a version placing the plot in a suburban world, where Romeo jumps over the barbecue in Juliet's building to meet her, and where Juliet also discovers Tebaldo 's death when he was in his class at school.

Israeli -Palestinian conflict, in apartheid South Africa, and in the aftermath of the Pueblo Revolt . . Likewise, Peter Ustinov , in 1956, adapted the play (now under the name of Romanoff and Juliet) for a comic side, whose location is a fictional country in Europe that is in the depths of the Cold War.

In 1980, a revisionist version of Romeo and Juliet included a happy ending in the plot, where Romeo, Juliet, Mercury and Paris do not die, and where Benvolio , disguised as a woman, says that the last of these four is his true passion.

Joel Calarco , in his Shakespeare's R&J, adapts the plot to a modern tale of two homosexual teenagers who love each other.

Artistic influence:

Music

"Romeo loved Juliet

Juliet felt the same

When he put his arms around her

He said Julie, baby, you're my flame

Thou givest fever ..."

—" Fever " sung by Peggy Lee's .

About 24 operas were based on Romeo and Juliet. The earliest, Romeo und Julie of 1776, a Singspiel by Georg Benda , omits much of the play's action and most of its characters, and has a happy ending. It is occasionally reassembled. The best known is Gounod 's 1887 Roméo et Juliette (libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré), a triumph in terms of criticism when it was first performed, it is always re-edited today. Bellini's I Capuleti ei Montecchi is always performed from time to time, but is sometimes disparaged because of its notorious liberties with Shakespeare; however, Bellini and his librettist, Felice Romani, worked from Italian sources—most notably Romani's libretto for an opera by Nicola Vaccai —rather than adapting directly from Shakespeare's play.

Berlioz 's Roméo et Juliette is a "dramatic symphony", a pharaonic work in three parts for mixed voices, chorus and orchestra, which premiered in 1839. Piotr 's fantasy overture illitch Tchaikovsky (1869, revised 1870 and 1880) is a long symphonic poem, which contains the famous melody known as the "love theme". Tchaikovsky 's invention of repeating the same musical theme in the ball, in the terrace scene, in Juliet's room and in the tomb was used by directors who followed him: for example Nino Rota's theme of love is used similarly in the 1968 film about the play, as well as Kissing Des'ree's You in the 1996 film. Other classical composers influenced by the play include Svendsen (Romeo og Julie, 1876), Delius (A Village Romeo and Juliet, 1899–1901) and Stenhammar (Romeo och Julia, 1922).

The best known ballet version is Prokofiev 's "Romeo and Juliet" . Originally assigned to the Kirov Ballet , it was rejected by them, when Prokofiev tried to write a happy ending, and was rejected again due to the experimental nature of its music. It later acquired an "immense" reputation and was choreographed by John Cranko (1962) and Kenneth MacMillan (1965), among others.

The piece influenced many jazz works, including Peggy Lee's Fever . Such Sweet Duke Ellington's Thunder contains a piece entitled "The Star- Crossed Lovers " in which the couple are represented by alto and tenor saxophones: critics noted that Juliet's saxophones dominate the play, rather than offering an image of equality. The play has often influenced popular music, including works by The Supremes , Bruce Springsteen, Tom Waits and Lou Reed The most famous track of this type is the Dire Straits song "Romeo and Juliet" .

The most famous musical theater adaptation is West Side . Story with music by Leonard Bernstein and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. It debuted on Broadway in 1957 and on the West End in 1958, and became a popular film in 1961. This version updated the play to mid-twentieth-century New York, and from warring families to racial gangs. Other musical adaptations include the 1999 rock musical William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet by Terrence Mann's , in partnership with Jerome Korman , Roméo et Juliette, de la Haine à l'Amour by Gérard Presgurvic , from 2001, and Giulietta & Romeo by Riccardo Cocciante , from 2007.

literature and art

Romeo and Juliet has attributed a profound influence on later literature to her. Previously, however, the plot had never been seen as worthy of tragedy. In the words of Harold Bloom, Shakespeare "invented the formula by which the sexual element became associated with the erotic element when passing through the shadows of death." Of Shakespeare's works, Romeo and Juliet has generated the most varied adaptations, whether in works produced in narrative verse or in prose, and also in drama, opera, orchestra and ballet, cinema, television and painting. In the English language, the word "Romeo" has become synonymous with "male lover".

Original cover of Inocência (1872), by Visconde de Taunay, the novel considered "O Romeu e Julieta sertanejo"

Romeo and Juliet was parodied in Shakespeare's time: in The Two Angry Women of Abingdon (1598) by Henry Porter and in Blurt , Master Constable (1607) by Thomas Dekker, there is the balcony scene, where a virgin heroine says indecent words. In another perspective, the Shakespearean play influenced, later on, other literary works, such as Nicholas Nickleby , by Charles Dickens. In Portugal, Camilo Castelo Branco published, in 1862, Amor de Perdição, considered a kind of "Lusitanian Romeo and Juliet". Perhaps this is due to the fact that the work belongs to Portuguese Ultra-Romanticism, having similarities with the Shakespearean play in the sense of narrating the enmity between the families of Simão and Tereza, who love each other hopelessly, and end up having a tragic end.

Exactly ten years after the publication of Amor de Perdição, Inocência was published, a regionalist novel by Visconde de Taunay, which has many connections with the work of Castelo Branco (such as the character Inocência being inspired by Teresa).

Taunay's work — in addition to opening each chapter with quotations from Goethe, Rosseau , Cervantes, Ovídio, Molière, Walter Scott, Euripides, and Shakespeare himself — is often called "The sertanejo Romeo and Juliet". Both Taunay's book and Castelo Branco's book have structures similar to Shakespeare's play: the protagonists participate in a reciprocal love, however impossible, and, in addition to ending in a tragic ending, they have the help of a third person who wants to see them. them together. In Brazil, in 1978, a parodic version of Turma da Mônica, Mônica e Cebolinha – No Mundo de Romeu e Julieta was released, which was published in comics, theater, television and LP.

Of all Shakespeare's works, the play of the two lovers is one of his most illustrated works. The first known illustration of the play was a woodcut depicting the tomb scene, which perhaps belonged to Elisha. Kirkall , first printed in 1709, in an edition of William Shakespeare's plays produced by Nicholas Rowe . In the 18th century, the Boydell Shakespeare Gallery commissioned five paintings of the play depicting each of the five acts of the plot. In the 19th century, the fashion for producing " pictorial " theatrical stagings led to directions that took inspiration from paintings produced especially for scenes in the play, which, in turn, influenced painters to draw actors and theater scenes. In the 20th century, the play's visual icons derived from famous film productions.

Movie theater:

Romeo and Juliet is perhaps the piece most transported to cinematographic structures of all time. The most famous productions were George Cukor's 1936 production, which won more than one Oscar, director Franco Zeffirelli 's 1968 version , and Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet. These last two were, in their time, the productions that dealt with Shakespeare that most broke sales records. Romeo and Juliet was first filmed in the silent film era by Georges Méliès , although its video is now lost. The first film version of the play in talkies was in The Hollywood Revue . of 1929, where John Gilbert and Norma Shearer performed the balcony scene.

Shearer and Leslie Howard, over 75 combined, played teenage lovers in George Cukor's 1936 version. Both the public and the critics disapproved of this version. Critics considered the film too "artificial", being left out like A Midsummer . Night's Dream (1935) had stayed a year earlier: leading Hollywood to abandon Shakespeare adaptations for a decade. Renato Castellani won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival for his 1954 version. Laurence Harvey, as Romeo, was already an experienced screen actor. Susan Shentall , however, like Juliet, was an anonymous secretary discovered by the director, who said he was interested in hiring her.

Scholar Stephen Orgel describes director Franco Zeffirelli 's 1968 Romeo and Juliet as "full of beauty and youth, with lush cameras and lighting, which added to the impression of the play's sexual energy and good looks." In this film, the protagonists Leonard Whiting and Olivia Hussey were already experienced actors. Zeffirelli was highly praised for this production, especially in the duel scene where the bluster gets out of hand.

The film also created some controversy due to the appearance of the actors nude in the honeymoon scene, mainly due to the fact that Olivia Hussey , Juliet, was only sixteen years old at the time the film was filmed.

Baz Luhrmann, with his Romeo + Juliet (1996) and its soundtrack, attracted a very young audience to the cinemas. Darker than Zeffirelli 's version , the film focuses on the "crass, violent, shallow society" of Verona Beach and Sycamore Grove. Leonardo DiCaprio played Romeo, and Claire Danes, as Juliet, was praised by critics for having wisely portrayed the character despite her little screen experience, in addition to being hailed as "the first Juliet in cinema whose speeches sounded spontaneously". .

In 2005, Brazilian Bruno Barreto directed the comedy O Casamento de Romeu e Julieta, which featured Luana Piovani and Marco Ricca in the lead roles. In this production, which took place in São Paulo, the families of each one were also rivals, but because they supported different teams: Julieta's family supported Palmeiras, while Romeu's family supported Corinthians. Although it was freely inspired by the play, the film is also based on a short story by Mario Prata, "Palmeiras, Um Caso de Amor". The film received reasonable reviews, which did not call it a great film, but "fun, just like a football game is." Other critics considered Ricca to be an average actor in the area of comedy, and that his relationship with Piovani's Juliet "leaves a lot to be desired."

Disney's High School Musical utilized the Romeo and Juliet storyline, replacing the feuding families with two high school cliques. Directors have often used characters to act out certain scenes from Romeo and Juliet.

The concept of dramatization of the Shakespearean play has been widely used over time, as happened in 1998, with the release of Shakespeare in Love, by director John Madden , in which the character Shakespeare ends up finishing the work because of his own love for a woman. young.

Historical evidence:

"See, careless one, in such affliction,

Capelletti and Montecchi saddened.

Monaldi and Filippeschi , target of rage."

(Dante, The Divine Comedy — Purgatory, Canto VI, Line 106)

"House of Juliet", in Verona, Italy, which attracts thousands of visitors every year

Verona — the city that Shakespeare chose for his play — is one of the most prosperous in northern Italy. The city attracts more and more young people, couples, and lovers, for having gained the reputation of "city of Romeo and Juliet". Possessing a well-preserved architectural and historical heritage, Verona has in its territory a Roman amphitheater, a castle from the Middle Ages, palaces and medieval churches. In addition to these attractions, and others, such as Castelvecchio , Verona has the "House of Juliet" which, although it does not carry any proof that the Montecchios and Capulets really lived there, attracts many visitors. Construction of the house began in the 18th century, and may have been owned by the Cappellos . Inside the building there is a bronze statue of Juliet, frescoes from the play, and a balcony with a bit of Shakespeare's biography. The legend was created that it is lucky in love to touch the right breast of the statue of Juliet.

Indeed, the question of whether Romeo and Juliet, and consecutively the Montecchios and Capulets , existed is an old one. Perhaps one of the reasons for the great doubt about the historical veracity of the play is the fact that the plot passed through the centuries until it was better used by Shakespeare, as we saw in the Textual sources section. There are records that Giralomo della Corte, an Italian who lived at the same time as Shakespeare, claimed that the young lovers' relationship took place in 1303, although this is not certain. The only proven element is that the Montecchi and Capuleto families really existed, although it is not known if they lived in the Italian Peninsula, or if they were rivals.

Other literary sources that allude to the two families are The Divine Comedy, by the Italian Dante Alighieri, written between 1308 and his death in 1321. In this poem, Dante cites the Montecchi and Capuleto as participants in a commercial and political dispute that took place in Italy .[198] In Dante, both families are in Purgatory, sad and desolate. Many scholars disagree that these families ever existed, but historian Olin Moore believes that it was a design for two important political parties that were rivals in Italian territory: the Ghibellines and the Guelphs. Another literary source is found in Luigi da Porto (already mentioned in Textual sources), who also mentioned the families as rivals, and Lope de Vega, as well as Matteo Bandello , who enriched the fable and the plot.

There is no evidence regarding all these suspicions, kept in Italian literature and in Shakespeare. But the various citations to the two families have excited the public and critics alike to investigate the issue. For the historic Rainer Sousa, "the tragic and excessive love of Romeo and Juliet seems to establish an archetype of an ideal love, often far from the affective experiences experienced on a daily basis." Rainer still claims that "perhaps because of this, so many believe (or at least hope) that a love without measures like the Shakespearean couple had happened."

I want here in this wonderful historical context to show indefinitely a literary romance story that has become one of the best love and tragedy films that is classified as a romance between two young people who met and loved each other until the last day of their lives for a lifetime . simple tragedy due to two remarkable families from beautiful Verona, where the story takes place, they turn old disagreements into war, staining their hands with blood and I want to thank you for this beautiful work that I can describe and I want to thank everyone who follows me and I wish with much love and respect my hugs. Thanks!

By: Roberto Barros