Romeo and Juliet is a classic in the vigorous love story of love at first sight. This is Shakespeare's most popular work. Romeo and Juliet, the hero and heroine in the book, were born in two feudal families, but they met by chance at a dance and fell in love. Therefore, Romeo did not hesitate to venture to the garden to prepare for a tryst with Juliet in the future, and they also arranged their lives quickly and secretly. But this relationship was seriously interrupted by the family from the beginning. Romeo was exiled and Juliet was forced by her parents to marry another person. "Underground lovers" eventually died in a series of accidents and misfortunes, but their perseverance and sincere persistence in love deeply infected countless people who struggled for free love in the future. They are the most fearless love fighters and deserve our deep admiration and praise.
As the hero and heroine of the story, nature is the two most original characters in Shakespeare's works, and their image-building itself is a very vivid and vivid example. As far as the love they pursue is concerned, we can clearly see that they love freedom, oppose bondage and are loyal to each other. This is also the key point that their stories have brought us great psychological shock. Whether it's a ball encounter, a balcony tryst, or a private marriage, we are completely absorbed in the story by their freedom, courage and true feelings in the process, and the readers have experienced a great time in a series of processes.
Similarly, we can also find that the speed of the story in the process of time is very fast. The two have only known each other for a few days, and even if it is extended to the maximum, it will not exceed January. In such a short time, such a huge and profound conflict broke out, and an important factor to promote the progress of the story is the impulsive character of the hero and heroine, and their love at first sight at the dance has been shown:
Once, Romeo kissed Juliet twice, and this impulse was also reflected in Juliet. For example, after the dance, she said without knowing Romeo's identity:
Later, the two vividly interpreted this impulse. After the extremely impulsive thing that two people got married privately, both of them practiced their "impulse" for a long time: Romeo killed his good friend Mo in a rage because of Xun Bao (Juliet's cousin, who hated Romeo's family), and he was also killed in a rage. Juliet, on the other hand, asked Elder Lawrence for a medicine that could "fake death" when she was forced to get married by her parents. When she woke up, she found that Romeo had been double martyred, so she resolutely chose double martyrdom, which shows that their impulsive personality is distinct. As far as their age is concerned, Romeo is a young image, and he shows the impulse of young people's blood; Juliet, on the other hand, represents the image of a 14-or 15-year-old girl who has just entered youth, and she is innocent.
In the play, apart from the love story between Romeo and Juliet, we also noticed two figures with rational spirit-Elder Lawrence and Grand Duke, who can be said to be the spokesmen of Shakespeare's intentional shaping-that is, the embodiment of typical figures in the Renaissance, who belonged to the new religion and new noble at that time respectively. Although there are many feudal factors in their identity, they also embody the emerging values in the embryonic period of capitalism. It is a new force bred in the old environment. For example, Elder Lawrence held a private wedding for the couple, and then he has been making suggestions for Romeo and Juliet. When Romeo committed the capital crime of murder, the Grand Duke himself secretly reduced his punishment, only expelled him from the city and personally intervened in the contradiction between the two families. It can be seen that they are also inclined to support Romeo and Juliet's free love in their thoughts and feelings.
Interestingly, they were also the religious leaders and rulers of the city of Van Rona, and they had the power to rule the society at that time-religious rights and urban dominance. From this, we can also see the great appeal of Shakespeare's emerging capitalist values in the Renaissance and the dawn of change revealed from it.
Aside from Shakespeare's portrayal of the characters in the play, from the lines, that is, the script text we read, we can also find its irreplaceable role in scene depiction and decoration, which is typically reflected in Romeo's sweet talk scene when he sneaked into the garden and suddenly saw Juliet appear in the upstairs window:
And that month light on Juliet's face at that moment, Romeo couldn't help it again:
In this bridge, the lines use exaggerated descriptions and compare Juliet to the descriptions of the sun, the moon and the stars, which greatly magnifies the perfect image of Juliet in Romeo's eyes at this time, which is difficult to achieve even with advanced live effects. Today, technology can directly express this effect, but it loses its connotation-that is, it ignores the audience's indirect imagination of the "ideal world" shaped in language description.
The role of lines in drama is indeed very important. One of the most striking features of Shakespeare's works is that lines are poetic. It can be said that every character "comes with the poem and goes with it". Whether talking or talking to himself, he expresses himself in the form of poetry, thus volatilizing the lyric function of the poem itself to the greatest extent, making almost every sentence aesthetic, such as "Balcony tryst"
Just as Romeo explained to Banfuliu (his cousin) what love is:
Speaking of what love is, in the article, when Romeo first met the elder Lawrence, there was also a metaphor in the monologue of the elder, which was also a poem, and even hinted at the tragic fate of Romeo and Juliet here:
Judging from the rhythm and emotional expression, Shakespeare is almost perfect. Between the lines of the script, we all appreciate the unity brought by Andante Poetica, which is manifested in two aspects: first, the sense of rhythm has reached the formal unity; Second, emotional lines string together the diversity of content. Of course, if we expand our horizons to the east and the west, we will find that the effect of poetry is somewhat different in essence. Although Shakespeare's poems in the play have lyrical elements, we find that they generally serve the narrative of words, which is essentially related to the "narrative tradition" of poetry established in Homer's epic of ancient Greece. The romantic imagination of God in Homer's epic also greatly expands the narrative space of western poetry, so the main characteristics of their poems are: directness, frankness, sincerity, bold praise of emotions, reckless, and warm and shocking power beauty.
Oriental realistic poetry, which originated in The Book of Songs, pays more attention to lyricism, especially the indirect emotional expression in all aspects of daily life-that is, the principle of "Fu Bi Xing" in The Book of Songs. Of course, it is directly discussed in the preface of the poem:
Of course, this also highlights the artistic characteristics of oriental poetry, that is, it generally pays attention to "innuendo" and sadness. Obviously, this is completely different from the characteristics of western poetry, but they all have their own aesthetic characteristics and cannot be confused.
Back to this love tragedy, like detectives, we must find out who is the culprit who "destroyed" the love between Romeo and Juliet and created this human tragedy. Combined with the above analysis of Romeo and Juliet's personality, we can easily see that their impulsive personality is actually the direct cause of their ultimate double suicide tragedy.
Of course, apart from the dramatic coincidence deliberately set by Shakespeare as an author in his drama, especially in his tragic creation, we should further analyze this work and its creation age. Romeo and Juliet was written in 1579. At this time, the west entered the era of "great navigation" with the great geographical discovery. The industrial and commercial economy created by the ocean has impacted the traditional feudal economic structure, and capitalist factors are accumulating. A group of the earliest bourgeoisie, represented by urban industrialists and businessmen, bankers and a group of emerging aristocrats, began to step onto the historical stage, trying to seek the right to speak in order to publicize bourgeois values conducive to their own development, which had far-reaching influence. However, the western society at this time is still dominated by traditional feudal factors, and the huge contradiction between them is inevitable, which is reflected in the fact that Romeo and Juliet belong to two feudal families respectively, just as Juliet's parents love their daughter from the bottom of their hearts, but their "vicious" treatment of Juliet in such important matters as marriage choice also directly shows that the feudal system has overcome the sad reality of family ties, so this is keenly captured by Shakespeare, the feudal system.
Coincidentally, comparing the eastern and western classics, we find that there are also love tragedies such as Butterfly Lovers and Peacock Flying Southeast in China's classics, which are the same as Romeo and Juliet. The hero and heroine in them all went to double suicide because of the obstruction of their respective feudal families and the imprisonment of the whole feudal social system, but in the end the overall tone of their feelings was different: Romeo and Juliet were hope, but
Admittedly, this is also caused by the relative strength of feudal factors. After all, the western feudal society was only 1000 years, while China lasted for more than 2,000 years. In the face of the overwhelming advantage of feudal factors, even the male and female protagonists dare not openly confront themselves, and finally they have to complain silently with death. Moreover, in Romeo and Juliet, there are people who understand the situation of the male and female protagonists (Elder Laurence and Grand Duke), while in Butterfly Lovers and Peacock Flying Southeast, the male and female protagonists are helpless and struggle against the whole feudal ethics alone, and even their deaths are secretly "covered up" by mythical things such as become a butterfly.
If China's two love stories are permeated with the tragic color of China's feudal love story, then the love in Romeo and Juliet is a well-deserved "field of hope" where the feudal system is gradually dissolving and freedom and democracy are dawning. Although it is a tragedy, it is always a tragedy. Although it is a double suicide, it is always affectionate.