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Love in Romeo and Juliet

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Love in 'Romeo and Juliet'

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• M.A., Theater Studies, Warwick University
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The play "Romeo and Juliet" has become forever associated with love. It's a truly iconic story of romance and passion—even the name “Romeo” is still used to describe enthusiastic young lovers.

But while the romantic love between the titular characters is often what we think of when we consider the love theme in "Romeo and Juliet," Shakespeare ’s treatment of the concept of love is complex and multifaceted. Through different characters and relationships, he portrays some of the various types of love and the different ways it can manifest.

These are some of the expressions of love Shakespeare threads together to create the play.

Shallow Love

Some characters fall in and out of love very quickly in "Romeo and Juliet." For example, Romeo is in "love" with Rosaline at the start of the play, but it is presented as an immature infatuation. Today, we might use the term “puppy love” to describe it. Romeo’s love for Rosaline is shallow, and nobody really believes that it will last, including Friar Laurence:

Romeo: Thou chid'st me oft for loving Rosaline. Friar Laurence: For doting, not for loving, pupil mine. (Act Two, Scene Three)

Similarly, Paris’ love for Juliet is borne out of tradition, not passion. He has identified her as a good candidate for a wife and approaches her father to arrange the marriage. Although this was the tradition at the time, it also says something about Paris’ staid, unpassionate attitude toward love. He even admits to Friar Laurence that in his haste to rush the wedding, he hasn’t discussed it with his bride-to-be:

Friar Laurence: On Thursday, sir? the time is very short. Paris: My father Capulet will have it so; And I am nothing slow to slack his haste. Friar Laurence: You say you do not know the lady's mind: Uneven is the course, I like it not. Paris: Immoderately she weeps for Tybalt's death, And therefore have I little talked of love. (Act Four, Scene One)

Friendly Love

Many of the friendships in the play are as sincere as Romeo and Juliet’s love for one another. The best example of this is in Act Three, Scene One, where Mercutio and Romeo fight Tybalt. When Romeo attempts to bring peace, Mercutio fights back at Tybalt's slander of Romeo. Then, it is out of rage over Mercutio's death that Romeo pursues—and kills—Tybalt:

Romeo: In triumph, and Mercutio slain! Away to heaven, respective lenity, And fire-eyed fury be my conduct now.— Now, Tybalt, take the “villain” back again That late thou gavest me, for Mercutio’s soul Is but a little way above our heads, Staying for thine to keep him company. Either thou or I, or both, must go with him. (Act Three, Scene One)

It is out of friendly love for his companion that Romeo acts out.

Romantic Love

Then, of course, is romantic love, the classic idea of which is embodied in "Romeo and Juliet." In fact, maybe it is "Romeo and Juliet" that has influenced our definition of the concept. The characters are deeply infatuated with one another, so committed to being together that they defy their respective families.

Romeo: By a name I know not how to tell thee who I am. My name, dear saint, is hateful to myself Because it is an enemy to thee. Had I it written, I would tear the word. (Act Two, Scene Two)

Perhaps Romeo and Juliet's love is fate ; their love is given a cosmic significance, which suggests that the universe plays a role in the creation of deep romantic love. Despite their love being disallowed by the Capulet and Montague households , they inevitably—and irresistibly—find themselves drawn together.

Juliet: Prodigious birth of love it is to me That I must love a loathèd enemy. Act One, Scene Five)

All in all, Shakespeare presents romantic love as a force of nature, so strong that it transcends expectations, tradition, and—through the combined suicides of lovers who cannot live without one another—life itself.

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Literary Theory and Criticism

Home › Drama Criticism › Analysis of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet

Analysis of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet

By NASRULLAH MAMBROL on July 25, 2020 • ( 6 )

Shakespeare, more than any other author, has instructed the West in the catastrophes of sexuality, and has invented the formula that the sexual becomes the erotic when crossed by the shadow of death. There had to be one high song of the erotic by Shakespeare, one lyrical and tragi-comical paean celebrating an unmixed love and lamenting its inevitable destruction. Romeo and Juliet is unmatched, in Shakespeare and in the world’s literature, as a vision of an uncompromising mutual love that perishes of its own idealism and intensity.

—Harold Bloom, Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human

Romeo and Juliet, regarded by many as William Shakespeare’s first great play, is generally thought to have been written around 1595. Shakespeare was then 31 years old, married for 12 years and the father of three children. He had been acting and writing in London for five years. His stage credits included mainly histories—the three parts of Henry VI and Richard III —and comedies— The Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Taming of the Shrew, The Comedy of Errors, and Love’s Labour’s Lost. Shakespeare’s first tragedy, modeled on Seneca, Titus Andronicus , was written around 1592. From that year through 1595 Shakespeare had also composed 154 sonnets and two long narrative poems in the erotic tradition— Venus  and  Adonis   and  The  Rape  of  Lucrece.  Both  his  dramatic  and  nondramatic  writing  show  Shakespeare  mastering  Elizabethan  literary  conventions.  Then,  around 1595, Shakespeare composed three extraordinary plays—R ichard II, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Romeo and Juliet —in three different genres—history, comedy, and tragedy—signalling a new mastery, originality, and excellence.  With  these  three  plays  Shakespeare  emerged  from  the  shadows  of  his  influences and initiated a period of unexcelled accomplishment. The two parts of Henry IV and Julius Caesar would follow, along with the romantic comedies The Merchant of Venice, As You Like It, and Twelfth Night and the great tragedies Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth, and Antony and Cleopatra . The three plays  of  1595,  therefore,  serve  as  an  important  bridge  between  Shakespeare’s  apprenticeship and his mature achievements. Romeo and Juliet, in particular, is a crucial play in the evolution of Shakespeare’s tragic vision, in his integration of poetry and drama, and in his initial exploration of the connection between love and tragedy that he would continue in Troilus and Cressida, Othello, and Antony  and  Cleopatra.  Romeo  and  Juliet   is  not  only  one  of  the  greatest  love  stories in all literature, considering its stage history and the musicals, opera, music, ballet, literary works, and films that it has inspired; it is quite possibly the most popular play of all time. There is simply no more famous pair of lovers than Romeo and Juliet, and their story has become an inescapable central myth in our understanding of romantic love.

Despite  the  play’s  persistence,  cultural  saturation,  and  popular  appeal,  Romeo and Juliet has fared less well with scholars and critics, who have generally judged it inferior to the great tragedies that followed. Instead of the later tragedies of character Romeo and Juliet has been downgraded as a tragedy of chance, and, in the words of critic James Calderwood, the star-crossed lovers are “insufficiently endowed with complexity” to become tragic heroes. Instead “they  become  a  study  of  victimage  and  sacrifice,  not  tragedy.”  What  is  too  often missing in a consideration of the shortcomings of Romeo and Juliet by contrast with the later tragedies is the radical departure the play represented when compared to what preceded it. Having relied on Senecan horror for his first tragedy, Titus  Andronicus,  Shakespeare  located  his  next  in  the  world  of  comedy and romance. Romeo and Juliet is set not in antiquity, as Elizabethan convention dictated for a tragic subject, but in 16th-century Verona, Italy. His tragic protagonists are neither royal nor noble, as Aristotle advised, but two teenagers caught up in the petty disputes of their families. The plight of young lovers pitted against parental or societal opposition was the expected subject, since  Roman  times,  of  comedy,  not  tragedy.  By  showing  not  the  eventual  triumph  but  the  death  of  the  two  young  lovers  Shakespeare  violated  comic  conventions,  while  making  a  case  that  love  and  its  consequences  could  be  treated with an unprecedented tragic seriousness. As critic Harry Levin has observed, Shakespeare’s contemporaries “would have been surprised, and possibly shocked at seeing lovers taken so seriously. Legend, it had been hereto-fore taken for granted, was the proper matter for serious drama; romance was the stuff of the comic stage.”

Shakespeare’s innovations are further evident in comparison to his source material.  The  plot  was  a  well-known  story  in  Italian,  French,  and  English  versions. Shakespeare’s direct source was Arthur Brooke’s poem The Tragicall Historye of Romeus and Juliet (1562). This moralistic work was intended as  a  warning  to  youth  against  “dishonest  desire”  and  disobeying  parental  authority. Shakespeare, by contrast, purifies and ennobles the lovers’ passion, intensifies  the  pathos,  and  underscores  the  injustice  of  the  lovers’  destruction.  Compressing  the  action  from  Brooke’s  many  months  into  a  five-day crescendo, Shakespeare also expands the roles of secondary characters such as  Mercutio  and  Juliet’s  nurse  into  vivid  portraits  that  contrast  the  lovers’ elevated lyricism with a bawdy earthiness and worldly cynicism. Shakespeare transforms Brooke’s plodding verse into a tour de force verbal display that is supremely witty, if at times over elaborate, and, at its best, movingly expressive. If the poet and the dramatist are not yet seamlessly joined in Romeo and Juliet, the play still displays a considerable advance in Shakespeare’s orchestration of verse, image, and incident that would become the hallmark of his greatest achievements.

The play’s theme and outcome are announced in the Prologue:

Two households, both alike in dignity, In fair Verona, where we lay our scene, From ancient grudge break to new mutiny, Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean. From forth the fatal loins of these two foes A pair of star-cross’d lovers take their life; Whose misadventur’d piteous overthrows Doth with their death bury their parents’ strife.

Suspense over the lovers’ fate is eliminated at the outset as Shakespeare emphasizes the forces that will destroy them. The initial scene makes this clear as a public brawl between servants of the feuding Montagues and Capulets escalates to involve kinsmen and the patriarchs on both sides, ended only when the Prince of Verona enforces a cease-fire under penalty of death for future offenders of the peace. Romeo, Montague’s young son, does not participate in the scuffle since he is totally absorbed by a hopeless passion for a young, unresponsive beauty named Rosaline. Initially Romeo appears as a figure of mockery, the embodiment of the hypersensitive, melancholy adolescent lover, who  is  urged  by  his  kinsman  Benvolio  to  resist  sinking  “under  love’s  heavy  burden”  and  seek  another  more  worthy  of  his  affection.  Another  kinsman,  Mercutio, for whom love is more a game of easy conquest, urges Romeo to “be  rough  with  love”  and  master  his  circumstances.  When  by  chance  it  is  learned that Rosaline is to attend a party at the Capulets, Benvolio suggests that they should go as well for Romeo to compare Rosaline’s charms with the other beauties at the party and thereby cure his infatuation. There Romeo sees Juliet, Capulet’s not-yet 14-year-old daughter. Her parents are encouraging her  to  accept  a  match  with  Count  Paris  for  the  social  benefit  of  the  family.  Love  as  affectation  and  love  as  advantage  are  transformed  into  love  as  all-consuming, mutual passion at first sight. Romeo claims that he “ne’er saw true beauty till this night,” and by the force of that beauty, he casts off his former melancholic  self-absorption.  Juliet is  no  less  smitten.  Sending her nurse  to  learn the stranger’s identity, she worries, “If he be married, / My grave is like to be my wedding bed.” Both are shocked to learn that they are on either side of the family feud, and their risk is underscored when the Capulet kinsman, Tybalt, recognizes Romeo and, though prevented by Capulet from violence at the party, swears future vengeance. Tybalt’s threat underscores that this is a play as much about hate as about love, in which Romeo and Juliet’s passion is  increasingly  challenged  by  the  public  and  family  forces  that  deny  love’s  authority.

The  first  of  the  couple’s  two  great  private  moments  in  which  love’s  redemptive and transformative power works its magic follows in possibly the most famous single scene in all of drama, set in the Capulets’ orchard, over-looked by Juliet’s bedroom window. In some of the most impassioned, lyrical, and famous verses Shakespeare ever wrote, the lovers’ dialogue perfectly captures the ecstasy of love and love’s capacity to remake the world. Seeing Juliet above at her window, Romeo says:

But soft! What light through yonder window breaks? It is the East, and Juliet is the sun! Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon, Who is already sick and pale with grief That thou her maid art far more fair than she.

He overhears Juliet’s declaration of her love for him and the rejection of what is implied if a Capulet should love a Montague:

O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo? Deny thy father and refuse thy name! Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love, And I’ll no longer be a Capulet. . . . ’Tis but thy name that is my enemy. Thou art thyself, though not a Montague. What’s Montague? it is nor hand, nor foot, Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part Belonging to a man. O, be some other name! What’s in a name? That which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet .So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call’d, Retain that dear perfection which he owes Without that title. Romeo, doff thy name; And for that name, which is no part of thee, Take all myself.

In  a  beautifully  modulated  scene  the  lovers  freely  admit  their  passion  and  exchange vows of love that become a marriage proposal. As Juliet continues to be called back to her room and all that is implied as Capulet’s daughter, time and space become the barriers to love’s transcendent power to unite.

With the assistance of Friar Lawrence, who regards the union of a Montague and a Capulet as an opportunity “To turn your households’ rancour to pure  love,”  Romeo  and  Juliet  are  secretly  married.  Before  nightfall  and  the  anticipated consummation of their union Romeo is set upon by Tybalt, who is by Romeo’s marriage, his new kinsman. Romeo accordingly refuses his challenge, but it is answered by Mercutio. Romeo tries to separate the two, but in the  process  Mercutio  is  mortally  wounded.  This  is  the  tragic  turn  of  the  play  as  Romeo,  enraged,  rejects  the  principle  of  love  forged  with  Juliet  for  the claims of reputation, the demand for vengeance, and an identifi cation of masculinity with violent retribution:

My very friend, hath got this mortal hurt In my behalf; my reputation stain’d With Tybalt’s slander—Tybalt, that an hour Hath been my kinsman. O sweet Juliet, Thy beauty hath made me effeminate And in my temper soft’ned valour’s steel!

After killing Tybalt, Romeo declares, “O, I am fortune’s fool!” He may blame circumstances for his predicament, but he is clearly culpable in capitulating to the values of society he had challenged in his love for Juliet.

The lovers are given one final moment of privacy before the catastrophe. Juliet, awaiting Romeo’s return, gives one of the play’s most moving speeches, balancing sublimity with an intimation of mortality that increasingly accompanies the lovers:

Come, gentle night; come, loving, black-brow’d night; Give me my Romeo; and, when he shall die, Take him and cut him out in little stars, And he will make the face of heaven so fine That all the world will be in love with night And pay no worship to the garish sun.

Learning the terrible news of Tybalt’s death and Romeo’s banishment, Juliet wins her own battle between hate and love and sends word to Romeo to keep their appointed night together before they are parted.

As Romeo is away in Mantua Juliet’s parents push ahead with her wedding to Paris. The solution to Juliet’s predicament is offered by Friar Lawrence who gives her a drug that will make it appear she has died. The Friar is to summon Romeo,  who  will  rescue  her  when  she  awakes  in  the  Capulet  family  tomb.  The Friar’s message to Romeo fails to reach him, and Romeo learns of Juliet’s death. Reversing his earlier claim of being “fortune’s fool,” Romeo reacts by declaring, “Then I defy you, stars,” rushing to his wife and breaking society’s rules by acquiring the poison to join her in death. Reaching the tomb Romeo is surprised to find Paris on hand, weeping for his lost bride. Outraged by the intrusion  on  his  grief  Paris  confronts  Romeo.  They  fight,  and  after  killing  Paris, Romeo fi nally recognizes him and mourns him as “Mercutio’s kinsman.” Inside the tomb Romeo sees Tybalt’s corpse and asks forgiveness before taking leave of Juliet with a kiss:

. . . O, here Will I set up my everlasting rest And shake the yoke of inauspicious stars From this world-wearied flesh.

Juliet  awakes  to  see  Romeo  dead  beside  her.  Realizing  what  has  happened,  she responds by taking his dagger and plunges it into her breast: “This is thy sheath; there rest, and let me die.”

Montagues, Capulets, and the Prince arrive, and the Friar explains what has happened and why. His account of Romeo and Juliet’s tender passion and devotion shames the two families into ending their feud. The Prince provides the final eulogy:

A glooming peace this morning with it brings. The sun for sorrow will not show his head. Go hence, to have more talk of these sad things; Some shall be pardon’d, and some punished; For never was a story of more woe Than this of Juliet and her Romeo.

The  sense  of  loss  Verona  and  the  audience  feels  at  the  lovers’  deaths  is  a  direct  result  of  Shakespeare’s  remarkable  ability  to  conjure  love  in  all  its  transcendent power, along with its lethal risks. Set on a collision course with the values bent on denying love’s sway, Romeo and Juliet manage to create a dreamlike, alternative, private world that is so touching because it is so brief and perishable. Shakespeare’s triumph here is to make us care that adolescent romance matters—emotionally,  psychologically,  and  socially—and  that  the  premature and unjust death of lovers rival in profundity and significance the fall of kings.

Romeo and Juliet Oxford Lecture by Emma Smith

Analysis of William Shakespeare’s Plays

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Romeo and Juliet

William shakespeare, ask litcharts ai: the answer to your questions.

“These violent delights have violent ends,” says Friar Laurence in an attempt to warn Romeo , early on in the play, of the dangers of falling in love too hard or too fast. In the world of Romeo and Juliet , love is not pretty or idealized—it is chaotic and dangerous. Throughout the play, love is connected through word and action with violence, and Romeo and Juliet ’s deepest mutual expression of love occurs when the “star-crossed lovers take their life.” By connecting love with pain and ultimately with suicide, Shakespeare suggests that there is an inherent sense of violence in many of the physical and emotional facets of expressing love—a chaotic and complex emotion very different from the serene, idealized sweetness it’s so often portrayed as being.

There are countless instances throughout Romeo and Juliet in which love and violence are connected. After their marriage, Juliet imagines in detail the passion she and Romeo will share on their wedding night, and invokes the Elizabethan characterization of orgasm as a small death or “petite mort”—she looks forward to the moment she will “die” and see Romeo’s face reflected in the stars above her. When Romeo overhears Juliet say that she wishes he were not a Montague so that they could be together, he declares that his name is “hateful” and offers to write it down on a piece of paper just so he can rip it up and obliterate it—and, along with it, his very identity, and sense of self as part of the Montague family. When Juliet finds out that her parents, ignorant of her secret marriage to Romeo, have arranged for her to marry Paris , she goes to Friar Laurence’s chambers with a knife, threatening to kill herself if he is unable to come up with a plan that will allow her to escape her second marriage. All of these examples represent just a fraction of the instances in which language and action conspire to render love as a “violent delight” whose “violent ends” result in danger, injury, and even death. Feeling oneself in the throes of love, Shakespeare suggests, is tumultuous and destabilizing enough—but the real violence of love, he argues, emerges in the many ways of expressing love.

Emotional and verbal expressions of love are the ones most frequently deployed throughout the play. Romeo and Juliet wax poetic about their great love for each other—and the misery they feel as a result of that love—over and over again, and at great lengths. Often, one of their friends or servants must cut them off mid-speech—otherwise, Shakespeare seems to suggest, Romeo and Juliet would spend hours trying to wrestle their feelings into words. Though Romeo and Juliet say lovely things about one another, to be sure, their speeches about each other, or about love more broadly, are almost always tinged with violence, which illustrates their chaotic passion for each other and their desire to mow down anything that stands in its way. When Romeo, for instance, spots Juliet at her window in the famous “balcony scene” in Act 2, Scene 2, he wills her to come closer by whispering, “Arise, fair sun ”—a beautiful metaphor of his love and desire for Juliet—and quickly follows his entreaty with the dangerous language “and kill the envious moon, Who is already sick and pale with grief.” Juliet’s “sun”-like radiance makes Romeo want her to “kill” the moon (or Rosaline ,) his former love and her rival in beauty and glory, so that Juliet can reign supreme over his heart. Later on in the play, when the arrival of dawn brings an end to Romeo and Juliet’s first night together as man and wife, Juliet invokes the symbol of a lark’s song—traditionally a symbol of love and sweetness—as a violent, ill-meaning presence which seeks to pull Romeo and Juliet apart, “arm from arm,” and “hunt” Romeo out of Juliet’s chambers. Romeo calls love a “rough” thing which “pricks” him like a thorn; Juliet says that if she could love and possess Romeo in the way she wants to, as if he were her pet bird, she would “kill [him] with much cherishing.” The way the two young lovers at the heart of the play speak about love shows an enormously violent undercurrent to their emotions—as they attempt to name their feelings and express themselves, they resort to violence-tinged speech to convey the enormity of their emotions.

Physical expressions of love throughout the play also carry violent connotations. From Romeo and Juliet’s first kiss, described by each of them as a “sin” and a “trespass,” to their last, in which Juliet seeks to kill herself by sucking remnants of poison from the dead Romeo’s lips, the way Romeo and Juliet conceive of the physical and sexual aspects of love are inextricable from how they conceive of violence. Juliet looks forward to “dying” in Romeo’s arms—again, one Elizabethan meaning of the phrase “to die” is to orgasm—while Romeo, just after drinking a vial of poison so lethal a few drops could kill 20 men, chooses to kiss Juliet as his dying act. The violence associated with these acts of sensuality and physical touch furthers Shakespeare’s argument that attempts to adequately express the chaotic, overwhelming, and confusing feelings of intense passion often lead to a commingling with violence.

Violent expressions of love are at the heart of Romeo and Juliet . In presenting and interrogating them, Shakespeare shows his audiences—in the Elizabethan area, the present day, and the centuries in-between—that love is not pleasant, reserved, cordial, or sweet. Rather, it is a violent and all-consuming force. As lovers especially those facing obstacles and uncertainties like the ones Romeo and Juliet encounter, struggle to express their love, there may be eruptions of violence both between the lovers themselves and within the communities of which they’re a part.

Love and Violence ThemeTracker

Love and Violence Quotes in Romeo and Juliet

Two households, both alike in dignity, In fair Verona, where we lay our scene, From ancient grudge break to new mutiny, Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean. From forth the fatal loins of these two foes, A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life; Whose misadventured piteous overthrows, Doth with their death bury their parents' strife. The fearful passage of their death-mark'd love, And the continuance of their parents' rage, Which, but their children's end, nought could remove, Is now the two hours' traffic of our stage; The which if you with patient ears attend, What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.

Why then, O brawling love! O loving hate! O any thing, of nothing first created; O heavy lightness! serious vanity! Mis-shapen chaos of well-seeming forms!

Oh, she doth teach the torches to burn bright! It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night Like a rich jewel in an Ethiope's ear, Beauty too rich for use, for earth too dear. So shows a snowy dove trooping with crows As yonder lady o'er her fellows shows. The measure done, I'll watch her place of stand, And, touching hers, make blessèd my rude hand. Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight! For I ne'er saw true beauty till this night.

You kiss by th’ book.

My only love sprung from my only hate! Too early seen unknown, and known too late!

But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Juliet is the sun!

O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo? Deny thy father and refuse thy name; Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love, And I'll no longer be a Capulet.

'Tis but thy name that is my enemy; — Thou art thyself though, not a Montague. What's Montague? It is nor hand, nor foot, Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part Belonging to a man. O, be some other name! What's in a name? That which we call a rose, By any other word would smell as sweet; So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call'd, Retain that dear perfection which he owes Without that title: — Romeo, doff thy name; And for thy name, which is no part of thee, Take all myself.

I take thee at thy word: Call me but love, and I'll be new baptis'd; Henceforth I never will be Romeo.

O, swear not by the moon, the inconstant moon, That monthly changes in her circled orb, Lest that thy love prove likewise variable.

Good-night, good-night! Parting is such sweet sorrow That I shall say good-night till it be morrow.

Romeo, the hate I bear thee can afford No better term than this: thou art a villain.

Romeo: Courage, man; the hurt cannot be much. Mercutio: No, 'tis not so deep as a well, nor so wide as a church-door; but 'tis enough, 'twill serve: ask for me to-morrow, and you shall find me a grave man.

O, I am fortune's fool!

Come, gentle night, — come, loving black brow'd night, Give me my Romeo; and when he shall die, Take him and cut him out in little stars, And he will make the face of Heaven so fine That all the world will be in love with night, And pay no worship to the garish sun.

Wilt thou be gone? it is not yet near day. It was the nightingale, and not the lark, That pierc'd the fearful hollow of thine ear; Nightly she sings on yond pomegranate tree. Believe me love, it was the nightingale.

Is there no pity sitting in the clouds That sees into the bottom of my grief? O sweet my mother, cast me not away! Delay this marriage for a month, a week, Or if you do not, make the bridal bed In that dim monument where Tybalt lies.

Or bid me go into a new-made grave, And hide me with a dead man in his shroud - Things that, to hear them told, have made me tremble - And I will do it without fear or doubt, To live an unstain'd wife to my sweet love.

Then I defy you, stars!

O true apothecary! Thy drugs are quick. — Thus with a kiss I die.

Yea, noise, then I'll be brief; O, happy dagger! This is thy sheath; there rest, and let me die.

For never was a story of more woe Than this of Juliet and her Romeo.

Thesis Statement For Romeo And Juliet 

Introduction.

A thesis statement is a document to provide a jist for the arguments and original thought of a written piece to present and analyze data and findings. Many fans wonder what inspired Shakespeare to draft Romeo and Juliet which is still unclear because no source directly influences the play. Many suspect it has something to do with Arthur Brooke’s poem The Tragical History of Romeo and Juliet, This thesis statement acknowledges the societal factors that shape the characters’ decisions, as well as the consequences of those decisions. Let us see about the Thesis statement for Romeo and Juliet.

Thesis Statement for Romeo and Juliet 

Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is a timeless masterpiece that explores the complexities of love, fate, and society through its portrayal of two young lovers from warring families, revealing the tragic consequences of passion. It serves as a powerful commentary on the destructive nature of hate and the devastating consequences of impulsive actions driven by passion.    

Thesis Statement 

Romeo and Juliet is written by Shakespeare and is a novel about two people, Romeo and Juliet, who fell in love and went against their family’s wishes. The Capulets and Montagues are rivals in Verona wherein Mercutio who was a friend of Romeo had a brawl with Juliet’s cousin Tybalt. This led to the former’s murder, and a plague on both houses spread. Mercutio strongly believed that no one would back down from a fight, and did not tolerate Tybalt, wherein he got killed. The Capulets were at fault because Tybalt reached the scene full of pride and anger to speak to Romeo and Mercutio. He also took his entourage to them and led them saying that he was their leader and teaching the opposition a lesson by mocking Romeo and Montagues. 

The story has an amazing plot line wherein the opening prologue refers to Romeo and Juliet as star-crossed lovers which portray that the stars and the planets can control events. Many believe that Romeo and Juliet are inexplicably bound to be together, and nobody can separate them. At the end of the play, it is clear that they have to fight for their love. The most prevalent example of celestial imagery is evident in the prologue which points out to stars and heavens. Romeo does not refer to these powers and uses stars to talk about the glory of Juliet which portrayed his lovestruck comparison of her to the stars and Juliet’s wish to cut out Romeo from the stars when he dies. 

Role of Destiny

As the play goes on, they understand that destiny is not to be blamed for their future, but they are held responsible for it. They seem to have bad luck in the play causing Tybalt to fight with Romeo on his wedding day when a letter from Friar Lawrence goes missing after the start of the plague. Both of their parents and friends make the situation unbearable for them at their wedding. Their love, at first sight, was also dependent on the situations and their actions, not just on their fate. Romeo’s rash decisions certainly were at fault when causing trouble to both with his impulsiveness which is now a romantic icon. Shakespeare has been conscious enough to not put Romeo’s passion in a bad light. 

Role of the Main Characters 

Through his tumultuous actions, Romeo moves the play into more tragedy than any other character. He climbs Juliet’s wall at night and convinces her to marry him and he poisoned himself thinking she was dead. These decisions made by him lack foresight and thus drive them into turmoil. Juliet always varies in the speed of progress when she compares her Romeo and her love to lightning which occurred quickly but also vanished in the blink of an eye. Unlike Romeo, Juliet responds logically when she agrees to marry him to show his commitment. She believes Friar Lawrence’s plan and takes the poison hoping that would set things right. All of these choices end them up in trouble, though they have been made after careful inspections. It is only when she sees that Romeo is dead, that she tries to kill herself in grief.    

Rhyme Schemes 

Shakespeare employs a variety of rhyme schemes and meter in Romeo and Juliet to create a sense of musicality and rhythm in the language. For example, the sonnet that Romeo and Juliet share in Act I, Scene 5 is written in iambic pentameter, a poetic meter that consists of five pairs of stressed and unstressed syllables. Shakespeare uses language to convey the characters’ emotions and perspectives throughout the play. For example, in Act III, Scene 5, Juliet speaks in a series of oxymorons (“Beautiful tyrant! Fiend angelical! / Dove-feathered raven! Wolvish-ravening lamb!”) to express her conflicted feelings about Romeo’s banishment. 

Use of Language 

Shakespeare also uses language to reflect the social status of different characters in the play. For example, the Capulet family speaks in blank verse, a poetic form that does not rhyme but maintains a regular meter, while the lower-class characters, such as the servants and the Nurse, speak in prose. He also uses metaphor and imagery to create vivid and evocative descriptions of characters, settings, and emotions in the play. For example, in Act II, Scene 2, Romeo compares Juliet to the sun, saying “Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon / Who is already sick and pale with grief.” 

Feud Between the Families 

The feud between the two families is not only a conflict between individuals but also between two classes as a part of the aristocracy, wherein Montagues belong to the merchant class which is represented in the language and behavior. The rigid social hierarchy in the play makes Romeo and Juliet a sad tragedy. Gender norms shape society and the future where women are expected to be obedient to their husbands and not give much thought to their lives. Juliet is forced to marry another guy when she loves Romeo and her only escape from this was to fake their death. The play also gives insights into Juliet’s character as an independent woman who defies all odds. The Catholic Church in the Elizabethan Society is a major depiction of religion in Romeo and Juliet where the characters are deeply religious and Friar Laurence marries them in secret. The play critiques the hypocrisy of the church in many instances wherein he doesn’t deliver a major clue to Romeo.  

Theories of Love 

The play explores different kinds of love, including romantic love, familial love, and friendship. The romantic love between Romeo and Juliet is intense and passionate, while the love between family members is portrayed as more practical and duty-bound. The contrast between these different kinds of love helps to emphasize the unique and transformative nature of the love between Romeo and Juliet. Romeo and Juliet are often seen as a play about the conflict between passion and reason. Romeo and Juliet’s love is portrayed as passionate and intense, but also impulsive and irrational. The play suggests that love can be both a source of great joy and great tragedy and that the intensity of love can sometimes blind us to the consequences of our actions. 

Message to Society  

Romeo and Juliet challenge the idea that love constraints are a force that can be overcome by bringing people together in a society. Love is a source of transformation that is proved in the play Romeo and Juliet written by Shakespeare wherein love triumphs over hatred. Love can transform society as a whole, as seen in this play wherein Romeo and Juliet conquered violence in both families through a feeling of true love. Every person has the power to inspire and learn from mistakes made in the past and move on with love and compassion that should bring a revolution in the society that we live in. There is a huge role of passion, reason, trust, and compassion in the concept of love as stated by Shakespeare in many instances. 

There are different kinds of love in society, and the compassion in each varies at distant points of life where the world sometimes stands in opposition to a certain belief that is duty-bound and conflicts with the basic concept of love.   

Key Learnings From the Play 

• The portrayal of love in Romeo and Juliet, including the contrast between different kinds of love (e.g., romantic love vs. familial love), the role of passion and reason in love, and the idea of love as a force that transcends social barriers.
• The social context of Romeo and Juliet includes the role of class, gender, and religion in shaping the characters’ lives and decisions and how the play critiques or reinforces societal norms.
• The symbolism and imagery in Romeo and Juliet include the use of light and dark imagery, the significance of the various settings in the play, and the use of motifs such as death and violence.
• The language and literary techniques in Romeo and Juliet, including the use of rhyme, meter, and metaphor, and how Shakespeare uses language to convey the characters’ emotions and perspectives.

Conclusion 

In conclusion, Romeo and Juliet show how force in matters of love is a powerful concept, and there exists a reason for passion in love. The transcending idea of social barriers and overcoming them is a basic concept that Shakespeare followed in his beautiful play. Love helps the power to inspire growth as stated by Shakespeare in this tragedy of Romeo and Juliet. 

Love and Hate in Romeo and Juliet

By Chris Nayak Globe Education Learning Consultant

I love you! I hate you!

Have you ever said those words? Did you mean them? Have you had them said to you? How did that make you feel?

In Romeo and Juliet, the emotions of love and hate are the lifeblood of the play. Everything that happens seems to be caused by one, or both, of these two forces.  Shakespeare frequently puts them side by side: ‘Here’s much to do with love but more with hate’ , ‘my only love sprung from my only hate’ . Such juxtaposition of conflicting ideas is called antithesis, and Shakespeare loves using it. In every one of his plays, this clash of opposing ideas is what provides the dramatic spark to make the play come to life.

But in Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare makes frequent use of a particular type of antithesis: the oxymoron. This is when two conflicting ideas are contained within a single phrase, maybe in just two words.  We use oxymorons in everyday speech:

‘Act naturally’, ‘organised chaos…’

Romeo uses many of them:

‘Cold fire, sick health…’

Later, Juliet joins in:

‘Beautiful tyrant, fiend angelical…’

But this play has many more oxymorons that any other Shakespeare play. Why does he choose this literary technique for Ro meo and Juliet ?

For me, it’s the perfect way of capturing how you feel when you’re young. The extremes of new and worrying feelings and the fact that you can flip from one emotion to the opposite in a heartbeat.

How can you in one moment having  carefree and happing conversation with your parents, brother or sister or friend and then because of a look or a comment, you are filled with anger and hatred for people you know that you love/ Although it was a long time ago, this is exactly how I remember being as a teenager. And an oxymoron is just that – two extremes expressed in a second. Adults tend to qualify, quantify, and have more shades of grey. Perhaps they grow out of having feelings like this. But for some young people, this is how life is experienced.

Romeo shares this last viewpoint. When the Friar tells Romeo to see the positives in his banishment, Romeo attacks him, saying ‘thou canst not speak of that thou dost not feel’ . And why doesn’t the Friar feel this way? Because he’s old, says Romeo. ‘wert thou as young as I…then mightst thou speak’ .

The type of love and hate that Shakespeare is depicting in this play belongs to young people, and oxymorons are the way to show it. Of course, some of the older characters feel their version of these emotions (Lord Capulet and Lord Montague join the brawl in the first scene), but Shakespeare’s focus is on the younger generation.

But are love and hate really opposites?

Even though Shakespeare sometimes places them in opposition, maybe they are not as different as we might think. In the play, there seem to be a lot of similarities between people when they are full of love, and when they are full of hate.

Romeo’s describes the hate he feels when Tybalt kills his friend Mercutio as a fire raging inside him. ‘Fire-eyed fury be my conduct now’ he says. The Prince is similar, ordering the families to ‘quench the fire of your pernicious rage’ .

But Romeo uses similar imagery when burning with passion for Juliet. ‘She doth teach the torches to burn bright’ , he says. ‘Juliet is the sun’ , a ‘bright angel’ . Juliet also expresses her love in the same way: Romeo is her ‘day in night’ .

The author Elie Wiesel once said that ‘the opposite of love is not hate, but indifference’ . Despite all the opposites and contrasts in this play, maybe Shakespeare thinks the same.

What do you think?

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Romeo and Juliet Thesis Statements

Romeo and juliet thesis: brief summary of the work.

“Romeo and Juliet” is a work written around 1597 by the English writer and playwright William Shakespeare. Based on an Italian legend, it tells the story of two families from Verona confronted by old hatreds, the Montagues and the Capulets. In line with thesis statement for Romeo and Juliet, Romeo Montague falls in love with Juliet, the daughter of the Capulets. Knowing that their love is not going to be allowed by their families, they decide to plot a plan to get married in secret and escape together. But in a dispute, Romeo ends up killing Theobald, cousin of Juliet and is banished for it. Julieta then draws up a plan so that her entire family will believe her dead and thus be able to flee with her love. She drinks a potion that will let her sleep and is buried with the intention of being released later from her coffin and be free. But Romeo is not informed in time and believing really dead Juliet takes his life before his coffin. She, upon awakening from her dream and seeing that Romeo has committed suicide, chooses to do the same thing broken by the pain. After the death of the two young people, the families, impressed by what happened, decide to sign peace between them.

Personal essay on the novel and its main theme: thesis statements for Romeo and Juliet

“Romeo and Juliet” is one of the most popular works of its author; one of the most represented and most often has been versioned in theaters. It has become a symbol of passionate love and romanticism. According to the Romeo and Juliet thesis statement, there are many who say that the work is about the love that can do everything; others claim that it is a story about hatred and its destructive power; I believe that in a certain way, it could be said that it is a novel about the lack of communication and its fatal consequences.

Why do I defend that this novel should not be a symbol of romantic love? For start, Romeo falls in love with Juliet just seeing her. This, a constant in many novels, could not be considered love but only attraction since a real and deep love is based on the mutual knowledge and not on a physical attraction or on words in a dance. Throughout the work, there is very little time that both lovers have to meet and talk. His love is therefore a strong desire among adolescents strengthened only by the prohibition of being together. We all know that the forbidden is much more attractive to young people and can make them much more stubborn. Did Romeo and Juliet open up in love if they had carte blanche to express their feelings? It could be, but the opposite could also happen. We will never know. But what we do know is that they did not have enough time to discover it, much less to develop a feeling so strong that it pushes them to suicide. It would be, then, from my point of view, of youthful romantic rebellion and not of true love.

Is hatred then the real engine of history? This is what many defend, that “Romeo and Juliet” is a story about hate and its terrible consequences. It is hatred that makes the Montagues and the Capulets not understand each other. It is also the old grudges that lead Theobald, Juliet’s cousin, to kill Mercutio and Romeo to kill Theobald in revenge. But Romeo and Juliet do not die as a direct consequence of these hatreds that seem to invade all the characters in the story, but because of the misunderstandings that complicate their plan to be together. Although this evil feeling is present throughout the novel, it is not from my point of view the essence of it.

Why do I think then that it is the lack of communication that really triggers the whole story and its true soul? Let’s analyze thesis statement Romeo and Juliet:

The lack of communication is what makes Capulets and Montagues hate each other. We do not know the origin of their resentment, but we know that after the death of the two lovers the families talk and reconcile, realizing the absurdity of continuing to face each other. Hate is therefore a consequence of lack of communication and in the same way that there was an approach to the end of the story, it could have been much earlier if they had sat down to talk.

It is also the lack of communication that leads the two young people to love each other in secret. It is true that it is probable that they were not allowed to be together, at least not in principle, but it is also true that they did not try to explain their feelings to their families at any time, opting from the beginning for the secrets and lies that they ended up costing them their lives.

Finally, Juliet’s plan to run away with Romeo is truncated because Romeo does not receive the letter explaining that Julieta was not really dead. Again the lack of communication makes its appearance in history and it happens again because Romeo, thinking that his beloved has died, acts impulsively, without talking to anyone and therefore without possibilities for him to know the truth. He dies without reason, for ignoring the truth and not because his love was forbidden.

If the Montagues and the Capulets had sat down to talk and resolve their differences, there would not have been such a prolonged confrontation. It is evident from thesis for Romeo and Juliet that they were not irresolvable problems since finally, although too late for the lovers of Verona, if they could become friends again. If Julieta and Romeo had the courage to talk to each other, plot their plans together and not act each one on their own, neither would their story have had such a tragic end. That is why I defend that the true heart of history is the lack of communication and its dramatic consequences for men.

Argumentative Romeo and Juliet essay thesis

In the story of the play “Romeo and Juliet”, it is said that the families Montague (family of Romeo) and Capulet (family of Juliet) were enemy families for many generations. For this reason the two families did not agree with the relationship of Romeo and Juliet. In this thesis statement of Romeo and Juliet I am going to argue about why I am against the decision of both families to forbid the relationship of Romeo and Juliet.

I believe that they should not intervene in the relationship because Romeo and Juliet are free to decide what they want to do for their life. Families may be enemies, but that is no excuse to avoid a courtship. The fact that they are together does not mean that families have to be obligatorily friends, although it would be best for Romeo and Juliet.

Nor should they avoid this relationship because the relationship helps each one to raise their self-esteem. It helped a lot to Romeo to meet Juliet and to know that she loves him as much as he loves her, since in the story it turns out that Romeo was depressed because he could not stop thinking about Rosalinda. Speaking about thesis of Romeo and Juliet, one of the advantages of being in a relationship is that it makes you want more each day for who you are, since you know that there is a person who loves everything about you, from how you are with others to your own personality. It makes you feel appreciated, loved and at the same time flattered, which helps you feel better.

The last reason why I think that the Montague and Capulet families should not intervene or prohibit Romeo and Juliet to continue together or that they continue to see each other is because a relationship helps to learn to mature in different aspects faster. In this sense, their relationship helps Romeo gradually overcome Rosalinda and lets her know that she should only think about the present and the future she wants with the girl of her life, which is Julieta Capulets.

For this and other reasons is that I do not agree with the decision that the two families made regarding the relationship of Romeo and Juliet.

“Romeo & Juliet” producers condemn 'deplorable' racist backlash aimed at Tom Holland’s costar: 'This must stop'

Francesca Amewudah-Rivers will star as Juliet, opposite Holland's Romeo in the upcoming West End production.

The theater company behind an upcoming West End production of Romeo & Juliet is speaking out against the “deplorable racial abuse” directed towards one of its titular stars.

In an Instagram statement shared on April 5,  the Jamie Lloyd Company noted the “barrage” of hateful comments being directed at Francesca Amewudah-Rivers, who will headline the production alongside Spider-Man actor Tom Holland . Since the cast was announced one week ago, some claiming to be fans of the Marvel alum have directed vitriol at the young actress online.

“This must stop,” said a statement from the play’s producers. “We are working with a remarkable group of artists. We insist that they are free to create work without facing online harassment."

The company affirmed that it would "continue to support and protect everyone in our company at all costs," adding that any further abuse would be reported.

The statement continued, “Bullying and harassment have no place online, in our industry or in our wider communities. Our rehearsal room is full of joy, compassion, and kindness. We celebrate the extraordinary talent of our incredible collaborators. The Romeo & Juliet community will continue to rehearse with generosity and love, and focus on the creation of our production.”

It was announced in February that Holland would star as Romeo in the production of Shakespeare’s famous romantic tragedy, marking his first return to the stage since starring in Billy Elliot: The Musical as a child. Since then, his career reached new heights thanks to his role as Peter Parker in the MCU. Amewudah-Rivers is known for starring in two seasons of Jack Whitehall's Bad Education, along with theatre credits that include School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play at the Lyric Hammersmith theater and Macbeth at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre. With her role as Juliet, Amewudah-Rivers will make her West End debut. 

The cast also includes Freema Agyeman , Michael Balogun, Tomiwa Edun, Mia Jerome, Daniel Quinn-Toye and Ray Sesay. The play is directed by Jamie Lloyd, who previously helmed Sunset Boulevard , The Effect , and A Doll’s House .

Romeo & Juliet is set to run at the Duke of York's Theatre in London from May 11 through August 3 with rumors already circulating that the show will transfer to Broadway.

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'Romeo & Juliet' play starring Tom Holland and Francesca Amewudah-Rivers faces 'barrage of racial abuse'

The Jamie Lloyd Company has hit back after its production of Shakespeare’s “Romeo & Juliet” has been the subject of what they call a “barrage of deplorable racial abuse” aimed at an unnamed cast member.

The play, directed by Jamie Lloyd (“Sunset Boulevard”), stars “Spider-Man: No Way Home” star Tom Holland as Romeo and Francesca Amewudah-Rivers (“Sex Education”) as Juliet.

On Friday, the Jamie Lloyd Company  issued a statement , saying: “Following the announcement of our ‘Romeo & Juliet’ cast, there has been a barrage of deplorable racial abuse online directed towards a member of our company. This must stop.”

“We are working with a remarkable group of artists. We insist that they are free to create work without facing online harassment. We will continue to support and protect everyone in our company at all costs. Any abuse will not be tolerated and will be reported. Bullying and harassment have no place online, in our industry or in our wider communities. Our rehearsal room is full of joy, compassion and kindness. We celebrate the extraordinary talent of our incredible collaborators. The ‘Romeo & Juliet’ community will continue to rehearse with generosity and love, and focus on the creation of our production.”

“Romeo & Juliet” is due to play at London’s Duke of York’s Theatre May 23 through Aug. 3. The run is already sold out.

In 2021,  a landmark survey  titled “Race Between the Lines: Actors’ Experience of Race and Racism in Britain’s Audition and Casting Process and on Set” found that 64% of respondents experienced racist stereotyping in an audition and 55% experienced racist behavior in the workplace.

In March this year, two proposed “Black Out” London West End performances of Jeremy O. Harris‘ “Slave Play”  came under fire  from U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak‘s office.

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‘Romeo & Juliet’ Play Starring Tom Holland and Francesca Amewaduh-Rivers Faces ‘Barrage of Racial Abuse,’ Producer Says ‘This Must Stop’

By Naman Ramachandran

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The Jamie Lloyd Company has hit back after its production of Shakespeare’s “Romeo & Juliet” has been the subject of what they call a “barrage of deplorable racial abuse” aimed at an unnamed cast member.

The play, directed by Jamie Lloyd (“Sunset Boulevard”), stars “Spider-Man: No Way Home” star Tom Holland as Romeo and Francesca Amewaduh-Rivers (“Bad Education”) as Juliet.

On Friday, the Jamie Lloyd Company issued a statement , saying: “Following the announcement of our ‘Romeo & Juliet’ cast, there has been a barrage of deplorable racial abuse online directed towards a member of our company. This must stop.”

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“Romeo & Juliet” is due to play at London’s Duke of York’s Theatre May 23 through Aug. 3. The run is already sold out.

In 2021, a landmark survey titled “Race Between the Lines: Actors’ Experience of Race and Racism in Britain’s Audition and Casting Process and on Set” found that 64% of respondents experienced racist stereotyping in an audition and 55% experienced racist behavior in the workplace.

In March this year, two proposed “Black Out” London West End performances of Jeremy O. Harris‘ “Slave Play” came under fire from U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak‘s office.

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‘Too much to bear’: Black actors condemn racial abuse of Romeo & Juliet star

More than 800 performers sign letter of solidarity after Francesca Amewudah-Rivers was targeted online

More than 800 predominantly Black female and non-binary actors have signed an open letter in solidarity with Francesca Amewudah-Rivers, who has been targeted with online racial abuse after the announcement of her casting in a new production of Romeo & Juliet.

Lashana Lynch, Sheila Atim and Marianne Jean-Baptiste are among the 883 signatories of the letter, alongside actors Lolly Adefope, Freema Agyeman, Wunmi Mosaku, and Tamara Lawrance.

It reads: “Too many times, Black performers – particularly Black actresses – are left to face the storm of online abuse after committing the crime of getting a job on their own.”

It comes after a statement by the Jamie Lloyd theatre company condemning the “barrage of deplorable racial abuse” that has been directed at Amewudah-Rivers and saying further harassment would be reported.

The abuse, the company – run by the director Jamie Lloyd – said, followed the announcement of the show’s cast including Amewudah-Rivers as Juliet and Tom Holland as Romeo.

Wednesday’s letter, which was organised by Enola Holmes actor Susan Wokoma and the writer Somalia Nonyé Seaton, stated: “When news of Francesca Amewudah-Rivers’ casting in Jamie Lloyd’s production of Romeo and Juliet was announced so many people celebrated and welcomed this news. Many of us took to social media to shower our baby sis with love and congratulations – a huge deal for someone so young in their career. A huge rising talent.

“But then what followed was a too familiar horror that many of us visible Black dark skinned performers have experienced. The racist and misogynistic abuse directed at such a sweet soul has been too much to bear. For a casting announcement of a play to ignite such twisted ugly abuse is truly embarrassing for those so empty and barren in their own lives that they must meddle in hateful abuse.”

Lynch is best known for her roles in the Marvel Cinematic Universe films (MCU) as well as for playing MI6 agent Nomi in the 2021 James Bond film No Time to Die. Atim is a double Olivier award-winning Ugandan-British actor, singer, composer and playwright who has appeared in a number of stage and TV shows, while Jean-Baptiste came to prominence following her role in the 1996 film Secrets & Lies, for which she received Oscar, Golden Globe and Bafta nominations.

The signatories welcomed the theatre company’s statement and said they hoped it would “extend to committed emotional support for Francesca on her journey with the production”.

They added: “Too many times theatre companies, broadcasters, producers and streamers have failed to offer any help or support when their Black artists face racist or misogynistic abuse. Reporting is too often left on the shoulders of the abused, who are also then expected to promote said show.

“We want to send a clear message to Francesca and all Black women performers who face this kind of abuse – we see you. We see the art you manage to produce with not only the pressures that your white colleagues face but with the added traumatic hurdle of misogynoir. We are so excited to watch you shine.”

Romeo & Juliet runs at the Duke of York’s Theatre from 11 May to 3 August and marks Amewudah-Rivers’ West End debut. The actor has previously starred in Shakespeare plays Macbeth and Othello as well as Sophocles tragedy Antigone across London theatres. She also starred in two seasons of the Bad Education on BBC.

The play will also be the Spider-Man star Holland’s first big theatre role since his debut in Billy Elliot: the Musical .

Lloyd is known for mounting bold, megastar-led versions of classic plays such as Doctor Faustus with Kit Harington , Betrayal with Tom Hiddleston and The Seagull with Emilia Clarke . His new production of the musical Sunset Boulevard , with Nicole Scherzinger, recently ended a sold-out run at London’s Savoy theatre and is transferring to Broadway in September.

Last year Lloyd directed Taylor Russell and Paapa Essiedu in a revival of Lucy Prebble’s play The Effect at the National Theatre, before opening at the Shed in New York in March.

Romeo & Juliet is billed as “a pulsating new vision of Shakespeare’s immortal tale of wordsmiths, rhymers, lovers and fighters”.

• Online abuse
• Jamie Lloyd
• Romeo and Juliet
• Discrimination at work

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Director of tom holland-led ‘romeo & juliet’ responds to “deplorable racial abuse” of castmember.

Director Jamie Lloyd shared a statement condemning the harassment of an unnamed castmember following the production's full cast announcement.  

By Zoe G Phillips

Zoe G Phillips

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Jamie Lloyd, director of the Tom Holland -led West End revival of Romeo & Juliet , released a statement Friday condemning an incident of “deplorable racial abuse” against an unnamed castmember.

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A statement from the @JamieLloydCo . pic.twitter.com/C7j7g9ZZNE — Romeo and Juliet (@RomeoJulietLDN) April 5, 2024

News of the production first made headlines in February. The show will open at London’s Duke of York’s Theatre on May 23, and run through August. Francesca Amewudah-Rivers, known for her onscreen role in Bad Education , will play Juliet. The remaining cast includes Freema Agyeman (nurse), Michael Balogun (friar), Tomiwa Edun (Capulet), Mia Jerome (Montague), Daniel Quinn-Toye (Count Paris) and Ray Sesay (Tybalt).

Lloyd’s statement, released via the Duke of York’s Theatre’s social media, continued: “We will continue to support and protect everyone in our company at all costs. Any abuse will not be tolerated and will be reported. Bullying and harassment have no place, in our industry or in our wider communities.”

Online, the Romeo & Juliet Instagram page had also disabled comments as of this article’s publication Sunday. Lloyd also noted that the company “will continue to rehearse with generosity and love, and focus on the creation of our production.”

Holland began his acting career onstage, making a name for himself as one of the young stars of  Billy Elliot: The Musical  in the West End. Romeo & Juliet will be his first return to the stage since then.

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'Romeo & Juliet' director slams 'barrage of racial abuse' toward star Francesca Amewudah-Rivers

The theater company behind the upcoming Tom Holland and Francesca Amewudah-Rivers -led "Romeo & Juliet" play in London is speaking out after the lead actress faced "a barrage of racial abuse online."

" This must stop ," The Jamie Lloyd Company wrote in a lengthy statement shared across social media on Friday. "We are working with a remarkable group of artists. We insist that they are free to create work without facing online harassment. We will continue to support and protect everyone in our company at all costs."

Amewudah-Rivers has faced an onslaught of bullying online and in her comments section , ranging from racism to colorism to featurism for her casting opposite Holland after The James Lloyd Company announced the full cast on March 28.

The Jamie Lloyd theater company continued: "Any abuse will not be tolerated and will be reported. Bullying and harassment have no place online, in our industry or in our wider communities."

"We celebrate the extraordinary talent of our incredible collaborators. The 'Romeo & Juliet' community will continue to rehearse with generosity and love, and focus on the creation of our production," the statement concluded.

USA TODAY has reached out to representatives for Amewudah-Rivers.

Halle Bailey faced similar vitriol for her role as Ariel in  "The Little Mermaid ," with debates about the accuracy of casting Bailey – a Black woman – in the role of Ariel, who appeared as a light-skinned, redheaded mermaid in the 1989 animated film. Rachel Zegler also had pushback for her casting as the titular character in "Snow White" as a Latina actress portraying a princess described as "white as snow."

Over 800 Black actors sign open letter in support of Francesca Amewudah-Rivers

" The Woman King " stars Lashana Lynch and Sheila Atim , " Enola Holmes " actor Susan Wokoma and writer Somalia Nonyé Seaton are among the list of over 800 British actors who signed an open letter condemning the racism faced by Amewudah-Rivers and others. The letter was published on The Guardian Wednesday.

Wokoma and Seaton organized the effort, per the outlet.

"The racist and misogynistic abuse directed at such a sweet soul has been too much to bear. For a casting announcement of a play to ignite such twisted ugly abuse is truly embarrassing for those so empty and barren in their own lives that they must meddle in hateful abuse," the letter reads in part. "Too many times Black performers - particularly Black actresses - are left to face the storm of online abuse after committing the crime of getting a job on their own.

"We want to send a clear message to Francesca and all Black women performers who face this kind of abuse - WE see you. We see the art you manage to produce with not only the pressures that your white colleagues face but with the added traumatic hurdle of misogynoir. Those that came before you are by your side. Those waiting in the wings, are by your side," the letter continues.

The letter calls for actors facing abuse to "Allow yourself space to play and find joy in this role that your hard work and commitment has brought forth."

"We are so excited to watch you shine," the letter concludes.

What is Francesca Amewudah-Rivers known for?

Amewudah-Rivers has previously starred in William Shakespeare plays "Macbeth" and "Othello" as well as Sophocles tragedy "Antigone" across London theaters. She also starred in two seasons of "Bad Education" on BBC. Her role in "Romeo & Juliet" marks her debut in the West End, which is the London equivalent to New York City's Broadway.

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Holland shot to fame for his role as Peter Parker in three " Spider-Man " films and Marvel spin-offs . He has also shown his range in "The Devil All the Time," " The Crowded Room " and "Uncharted." This is his first time returning to the stage since he starred in "Billy Elliot: The Musical" as a child.

The Lloyd-directed "Romeo & Juliet" has also cast Freema Agyeman, Michael Balogun, Tomiwa Edun, Mia Jerome, Daniel Quinn-Toye, Nima Taleghani, Callum Heinrich, Kody Mortimer, Joshua-Alexander Williams and Ray Sesay.

The sold-out play is set for a limited run from May 11 to Aug. 3 at the Duke of York's Theatre in London.