Mike Murphy
Shakespeare Thesis Paper
Honors English I
Period 6
5/16/13
Shakespeare has been part of curricula for centuries. His messages have held up throughout the ages because he understood humans. He knew exactly what it meant to be human and he wrote that explicitly into his plays. For example, in The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet the characters are exaggerated versions of human emotions we all deal with like lying, lust, loyalty, and anger. Shakespeare has sustained relevance solely because he had the ability to put human emotions in writing.
Romeo and Juliet, in a nutshell, is a play in which two teenagers fall madly in love and plotted to run away together. The characters as basic as they seem, are quite the opposite. Shakespeare modeled each character after very relatable emotions. Romeo, for example, is symbolic of love, impulse, the lacking of self-control, and naivety. The obvious emotion is love. The love Romeo feels for Juliet is meant to be understood as pure love; not lust, malicious, or untrue. Shakespeare shows the bliss of pure love through Romeo, it was very identifiable and very relatable. His lines in the play are nothing less than poetry, and Shakespeare did this on purpose. He wanted to show the audience real emotion, but at the same time exaggerate it to the point where drastic events occur like murder and suicide. The other emotions Romeo stands for are somewhat harder to identify. Impulse is an instant decision that people can choose to ignore or act upon it. The impulsive love he has for Juliet, the rash decisions he makes about his marriage, and his acceptance of murder so quickly are all examples of his poor impulse control. The ingenious concept of Romeo’s character is that he is shown to be very two-dimensional because he seems somewhat naive and he makes poor decisions, but at the same time having such a complex assortment of symbolism and emotions (Romeo and Juliet Character Analysis).
Juliet, Daughter of the...