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Romeo and Juliet queestion

can you read this essay question i have written and give it a mark out of 30. any feedback would be great as my exam is on Tuesday.
Starting with this speech, explore how Shakespeare presents attitudes towards love in Romeo and Juliet?
Shakespeare presents attitudes towards love in Romeo and Juliet in act 3 scene 2 through Juliet eagerly waiting for her husband. Throughout this extract Juliet expresses her love through biblical references as she calls Romeo the ‘face of heaven’; the purpose of this was to point out to the readers that Juliet has fallen in love with Romeo and compares him to nature suggesting that no one is equal to Romeos beauty. Juliet’s love for Romeo is further shown when she says ‘give me my Romeo’; this almost sounds like a command as she is eager to meet him at any cost. This is significant as during the Elizabethan Era, it was common to worship your husband as women were seen as domestic while men were seen as superior and the one with more power. Therefore for the audience to see Juliet strongly in love with Romeo suggests she fits into society and that she is truly faithful. Similarly Romeo and Juliet’s love is presented in the same way throughout the extract, for example in act 2 scene 2, this is the second meeting of Romeo and Juliet after they had met at the Capulet’s party, Juliet expressed her love for Romeo by accepting that she’ll ‘no longer be a Capulet’. This is significant as she is willing to give up her family loyalty and name just to be with Romeo, this shows how blindly Juliet is in love with Romeo as she has fallen for him with just meeting him once, therefore this suggests that Romeo and Juliet’s love is because of appearance and beauty.
Moreover, Juliet expresses her love for Romeo in this speech through the repetition of ‘night’; this could perhaps suggest that their love can only take place at night as this is the only time where the two can meet without getting caught, adding to this the readers can gather that Romeo and Juliet always meet at night which could suggests that their love will only happen at night, so therefore their love won’t last. However another interpretation could be that night foreshadows that something bad may happen as it is set during the night time atmosphere. The audience can guess that Romeo and Juliet will not last perhaps because death is written in their fate and they also realise that from the prologue it was hinted that Romeo and Juliet are ‘star-crossed lovers’ which means their love is doomed and there is no chance of the two being together. During the Elizabethan society many would disagree with what Romeo and Juliet are doing as they are breaking family loyalty to be together. Similarly in act 3 scene 3, Romeo expresses his love for Juliet through the banishment in Friar Lawrence’s cell seeking advice. In this scene Romeo is expressing his love by stating ‘where Juliet lives, and every cat and dog…may look at her’, this suggests that all animals can see Juliet but her, this can perhaps suggest that Romeo is calling himself an animal as this is how desperate he has become from staying away from Juliet.
Lastly, Shakespeare has presented love in this scene through a dramatic monologue in which Juliet speaks regarding seeing Romeo as she ‘wilt lie upon the wings of night’, this shows how Juliet is like ‘an impatient child’ waiting for Romeo so that she can celebrate her wedding night with him. The purpose of the use of ‘wings of night’ makes the audience realise that their love is not temporary as the love is taken to the next stage. Similarly in act 3 scene 3 love is presented through the Friar advising Romeo to ‘ascend her chamber, hence and comfort her’. This shows that Romeo and Juliet are showed to the audience as mature regardless of Juliet only being 13; this is significant as during the Elizabethan era many would celebrate their wedding night the same way Romeo and Juliet did.
Reply 1
i would say you are in the top levels with this excellent response. I would talk a little about Shakespeare's attitude towards love a bit more. 25+/30 WELL DONE
Reply 2
Original post by dcurry13
i would say you are in the top levels with this excellent response. I would talk a little about Shakespeare's attitude towards love a bit more. 25+/30 WELL DONE


Thank you for reading and giving me a mark, generally in school i get 10/30 because the school grade boundaries are soo high. xx
Hi there :wavey:
I've moved your thread to the English exams and study help forum where hopefully you'll get more answers :smile: In future, it's best to select the subject from the list here and create a thread in there instead :yep: If you want to see where threads belong, check out this thread :smile:

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