Romeo and Juliet

Why Romeo and Juliet was so popular in Shakespeare’s time and why even

William Shakespeare was born on April 23, 1564 in the town of Stratford-upon-Avon, England to Mary Arden and John Shakespeare. He was the third of eight children. He went to a local grammar school, where his studies included Latin and Greek (Debnam).

At the age of eighteen he married Anne Hathaway who was eight years older than he. Their marriage was hurried because Anne was already pregnant (The Tragedies, 16). Shakespeare was the father of three children, two daughters and one son, Hamnet. At this time, Shakespeare was twenty-one, and the way he supported his family is unknown. In August of 1596, Hamnet died at the age of eleven (Shakespeare’s History).

Stories say that Shakespeare began his career by holding horses outside the theaters. More reliable information indicates that he acted in plays, many of his own. From acting Shakespeare progressed to writing plays both for the theater and for court performances (The Tragedies, 17).

Shakespeare didn’t attend college, so in order to broaden his education, he studied the ways of a gentleman and read widely. He looked to Cambridge

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He expresses his lover through his actions by never giving up hope and staying faithful to his wife, whom he has been banished from. When he was thirty-five, Shakespeare was a member of the syndicate responsible for building the first Globe theater, in Southwark, in 1599 (General Into). On March 25, 1616, while he was in fine health, Shakespeare made a will. He goes on to suggest that "Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet has come down to us with a physical feature attached to it which for Shakespearian tragedy is unique" (Romeo and Juliet as an Experimental Tragedy, 14). Although exquisite and moving, Romeo and Juliet is perhaps not among Shakespeare’s most profound tragedies. They desire to cast themselves as Romeo and Juliet so they can experience what true love does to the mind, body, and soul. Laurence entrusts his letter to Friar John ( a new character introduced inelegantly late in the play), and hapless John is trapped for a while in a house at Padua because there has been an outbreak of plague - an outbreak of which there has been no mention previously. A month later, after a trip to London, he suddenly became ill and died on his birthday, at the age of fifty-two. This, along with many other characteristics that Romeo and Juliet posses are what has kept us drawn to this play and plays like it for 400 years. Frank Harris does just this in The Man Shakespeare. Seeing her lying motionless inside the family tomb makes him lose his strength and will to live. Haines declares:

[Romeo and Juliet] contains some of Shakespeare’s most beautiful lines. People want to be able to relate to the couple’s love for each other and repeatedly want to compare it to their own love. For example: in Act 1, Capulet entrusts the party invitations to a messenger who is unable to read; the messenger therefore consults a passer-by, who just happens to be Romeo; Romeo thus learns of the festivities, and decides to attend them in order to see Rosaline; and thus he chances to encounter Juliet. They are performed more often than those of any other playwright.

Approximate Word count = 2007
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)

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