Literary Analysis Essay on Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet is a love tragedy that is written by William Shakespeare. It is about two young lovers whose ultimate deaths reconcile their battling families. This play by Shakespeare is both a comedy and tragedy. Romeo and Juliet are a very long dispute between the Capulet family and the Montague family. This feud disrupts the whole city of Verona and eventually leads to the tragic end for Romeo and Juliet. Love, revenge and the secret marriage make the young lovers grow up quickly. The fate makes them commit suicide due to despair. This play is filled with contrast and conflicts that run throughout hence regarded as one of the most romantic tragedies. The objective and purpose of this assignment are to critically analyze the play and elaborate on what makes it better than the other kinds. Also, the task involves identification of weakness in the play and how it changes the readers judgment.

One of the significant factors that make the play Romeo and Juliet better than other plays and works of Shakespeare is the fact that the play comes out as a comedy as well as a tragedy. It is both sad and the same time happy. The first half of the play is filled with jokes, masked ball, and love poetry. This makes the play initially seem like a Shakespearean comedy rather than a tragedy. It is only after Tybalt kills Mercutio at the middle point of the play that things become tragic. As stated above, Shakespeare creates a world of generational conflict and violence in the play, Romeo, and Juliet, in which the two people fall in love and unfortunately commit suicide and die because of love. The story presented by Shakespeare is rather extraordinary since the typical problems that young lovers face here are enormous and out of the ordinary.

Another weakness in the play is the fact that the future of the two lovers just relies on fate. From the beginning of the play, it is evident that Juliet and Romeo will eventually end in tragedy. The reader also knows that the tragic end will not be as a result of their defects instead from the fate that has already marked them for sorrow. The Prologue emphasizes on the very fact that fate controls the destinies of Romeo and Juliet as it states that the relationship is death marked.

This story is exciting since these two young lovers try all means possible to protect their true love. The families of Romeo and Juliet do not approve of their love, in fact, these two families are on the opposing sides in a bloody dispute as they try to kill each other. This true love that was instituted at first sight has been taken too far by Shakespeare. The author wants the reader to believe love, at first sight, can make someone kill themselves. This is seen when Romeo is banished and Juliet knows that the only way that she can avoid being married to another person is to take a portion that kills her so that her body can be buried with those of her dead relatives. The development of the story from love at first sight to the union of the lovers in death is an exaggeration and extraordinary.