Facharbeit Shakespeare Romeo Julia

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being", that reached from God to inanimate objects. This hierarchy did not only exist in society as a whole, but it was also characteristic of Juliet's family and her father's dominant role. Romeo and Juliet is set in Verona, and that Verona is marked by its patriarchal order results in the female characters of the play being dominated by the male characters. The most important decisions, for example the question of who the daughter is going to marry, are made by the male part of the family. Since social stability was thus based on tradition and convention, both in Verona and Elizabethan England, marriages were arranged according to social status and wealth.² 2 However, with these socio-economic changes and developments outlined above new ideas and views about the important things in life emerged. Love is definitely one of them, and it is the one I am going to focus on in this paper.³ In Shakespeare's time there was an abundance of different concepts of love. Some concepts, which were present at that time, influenced each other and many poets. One of them was the concept of Petrarchan Love. I will also speak briefly about the concept of Bawdy Love, as it possesses an important role in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. In this For futher reading: Lawrence Stone, The Family, Sex and Marriage in England: 1500-1800, London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1977 2 cf. Bruce R. Smith: The Cambrige guide to the Worlds of Shakespeare- Shakespeare's World: 1500- 1660, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2016 3 cf. Elisabeth Beck- Gernsheim and Ulrich Beck, Das ganz normale Chaos der Liebe, Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp Verlag, 1990 3 paper I will discuss the different concepts in detail, and I will reflect on how they are carried out in the play. In my opinion there is no doubt that Shakespeare's plays address issues that were relevant not only in his time, but also in our time, and that they attracted an immense number of people back in his time as well as in ours, because he was an avid observer of his surroundings. Thus, discussing the juxtaposition of the mentioned concepts of love that Shakespeare implements in his Romeo and Juliet will facilitate our understanding of what has been marked the greatest love-story in literature as well as our belief of love today. The aim of my paper is to find out if Romeo is a Petrarchan lover in the Elizabethan age by discussing the other concept I mentioned above and by analysing the character's behaviour and their use of language. 2 Love concepts in Romeo and Juliet 2.1 Petrarchan Love The Petrarchan love concept is one of the many concepts of love we can find in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. It is a concept which predominantly focussed on the unrequited feelings of the male lover for his female beloved. For the male lover, the beloved was an ideal which was both physically and emotionally unattainable. Thus, the lover is captivated by melancholy. We can see this pattern in Romeo and Juliet, when Lord Montague and Benvolio talk about Romeo's emotional state before he appears in the play, confirming the fact that he indeed is in deep sorrow and searching for solitude: Away from light steals home my heavy son, And private in his chamber pens himself, Shuts up his windows, locks fair daylight out And makes himself an artificial night. (1.1.135-138) 5 4 Sasha Roberts, William Shakespeare- Romeo and Juliet, Plymouth: Northcote House Publishers Ltd., 1998, 82-83 5 William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, London: Bloomsbury Arden Shakespeare, 2012,134 (all further quotations will be used from this edition) 4 Looking at Romeo's first entrance in the play we notice his withdrawn and melancholic behaviour when he answers Benvolio's question of why he is so sad with the phrase: "Not having that which, having, makes them short." (1.1.162). Obviously, here Romeo represents an embodiment of the Petrarchan lover, craving the love of a cruel lady and shunning friends and family. Additionally he uses numerous oxymora, which were stylistic devices typically used in the Petrarchan sonnets, next to witty conceits, wordplays, hyperboles and repetitions : Why then, O brawling love, O loving hate, O anything of nothing first create, O heavy lightness, serious vanity, Misshapen chaos of well-seeming forms, Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health, Still-waking sleep that is not what it is. (1.1.174-179) Romeo uses these oxymora when he is speaking with Benvolio about his beloved Rosaline, who becomes his unattainable female beloved. The beloved woman in this concept is only mentioned by name. She never possesses any character traits, yet she is, next to the lover, the most important person in Petrarchan love. Francesco Petrarch's beloved Laura only appeared once by name in his rhymes. He is copiously talking about her, yet she does not possess any personal traits. Rosaline's name is also scarcely mentioned, nevertheless Romeo is always referring to her in the beginning of act I, when he is talking to his friends about his feelings for her. Her name only appears a few times in the whole play, for example, when Romeo reads out the guest list for Capulet's ball (1.2.69), when Romeo and Benvolio talk about her after reading out the guest list (1.2.84) and when the Friar scolds Romeo for his sudden shift of affection in the second act (2.3.62, 66). She is the main topic of his conversations, yet we learn very little about her. All we get to know about her is that she is chaste, fair and beautiful: A right good markman, and, and she's fair I love. 6 Sasha Roberts, William Shakespeare- Romeo and Juliet, Plymouth: Northcote House Publishers Ltd., 1998, 83 7 Florian Neumann, Francesco Petrarca, Reinbeck bei Hamburg: Rowohlt Taschenbuch Verlag GmbH, 1998, 42 5 [...] And in strong proof of chastity well armed From love's weak childish bow she lives uncharmed. [...] O, she is rich in beauty, only poor That when she dies, with beauty dies her store. (1.1.204, 208-209, 213-214) The use of Greek mythology, in particular the imagery of Cupid shooting arrows into the eyes of the lovers, was a frequently used metaphor in Petrarch's sonnets. Romeo makes use of this metaphor in conjunction with comparing Rosaline to Diana, the goddess of chastity in Greek mythology, to emphasise the emotional distance of Rosaline: [...] She'll not be hit With Cupid's arrow. She hath Dian's wit, And in strong proof of chastity well armed From love's weak childish bow she lives uncharmed. (1.1.206-209) 9 The metaphor of the flying arrow is also used by Juliet, when she is talking to her mother about the likelihood of her loving her suitor Count Paris. But unlike Romeo, Juliet combines the metaphor of Cupid's arrow with the imagery the eye. This combination seems to have the effect of creating an ironic prediction of what the audience already knows: namely that the arrow will not hit Paris, but Romeo instead. When Lady Capulet asks her if she “[…] can […] like of Paris' love" (1.3.97), Juliet answers : I'll look to like, if looking liking move, But no more deep will I endart mine eye Than your consent gives strength to make it fly. (1.3.98-100) 8 Nicholas Mann, Petrarch, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1984, 63 ⁹ Inge Leimberg, Shakespeares Romeo und Julia, München: Wilhelm Fink Verlag, 1968, 140 6 The imagery of light and darkness is typical for Petrarchan poetry and is also very important in Romeo and Juliet, as it is used, for example by Romeo, in many key scenes in the play. Romeo, still in his melancholic mood, introduces the imagery of light, which here has the function of discerning and enlightenment,¹0 in combination with the imagery of the eye, when he enters Capulet's ball in the beginning of act four: Give me a torch. I am not for this ambling, Being but heavy I will bear the light. [...] A torch for me. Let wantons light of heart Tickle the senseless rushes with their heels, For I am proverbed with a grandsire phrase: I'll be a candleholder and look on, (1.4.11-12, 35-38) Romeo is experiencing this enlightenment the moment he sees Juliet. His use of the light imagery is supporting his awakening from his sorrowful mood: O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright. [...] Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight, For I ne'er saw true beauty till this night. (1.5.43, 51-52) Romeo and Juliet play complementary roles in this metaphor with Romeo being the torch bearer and Juliet being the torch.¹¹ Hearing these sentences it is clear, that Romeo, at first sight, is no longer interested in the distant and unreachable Rosaline, but in Juliet, who seems to return his feelings. This metaphor is very striking, because we can discover the same metaphor in act five, after Juliet commits suicide to be reunited with her love in death: This is the place, there where the torch doth burn. (5.3.172) 10 Inge Leimberg, Shakespeares Romeo und Julia, München: Wilhelm Fink Verlag, 1968, 142 11 Inge Leimberg, Shakespeares Romeo und Julia, München: Wilhelm Fink Verlag, 1968, 143 7 The imagery of darkness is not as negative as one might think. In this play the connotation of darkness is changing in different situations. We first encounter it in the conversation between Lord Monatgue and Benvolio about Romeo's state of mind in the beginning of act one: Shuts up his windows, locks fair daylight out And makes himself an artificial night. (1.1.137-138) But in the balcony scene, in act two, darkness becomes positive, allowing the lovers to enjoy each other's company in privacy. Romeo enters Capulet's orchard "bescreened in night" (2.2.52) to see his beloved Juliet and escapes Juliet's kinsmen by wearing "night's cloak to hide me from their eyes" (2.2.75).¹2 But then, again, before Juliet is about to take the sleeping potion, the Friar gave her, darkness becomes negative and terrifying again. The reason for that change lies in Juliet's doubts in the potion. She fears she will wake up too early and alone in Capulet's tomb and will be driven mad by her dead ancestors, which are buried in the tomb: How if, when I am laid into the tomb, I wake before the time that Romeo Come to redeem me? There's a fearful point. Shall I not then be stifled in the vault, To whose foul mouth no healthsome air breathes in, And there die strangled ere my Romeo comes? Or if I live, is it not very like The horrible conceit of death and night, Together with the terror of the place (4.3.30-38) Love at first sight is experienced in this play by the main characters Romeo and Juliet, 13 but is also typical for Petrarchan sonnets, as Petrarch himself instantly fell in love the 12 Susie Campbell: Blind Cupid and Death. In: Longman Critical Essays- Romeo and Juliet, Essex: Longm Nicholas Mann, Petrarch, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1984, 59-60an Group UK Limited, 1991, 87 13 Nicholas Mann, Petrarch, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1984, 59-60 8 moment he saw Laura. But since Romeo experienced this love at first sight twice, his falling in love with Juliet is questionable. The Friar, who last heard Romeo yearn for Rosaline, voices his scepticism about his sudden shift of affection: Holy Saint Francis, what a change is here! Is Rosaline, that thou didst love so dear, So soon foresaken? Young men's love then lies Not truly in their hearts but in their eyes. Jesu Maria, what a deal of brine Hath washed thy sallow cheeks for Rosaline! (2.3.61-66) The concept of Petrarchan Love is, in my opinion, a very distant kind of love, because the male lover only shows his affections from afar and accepts the distance between him and his beloved and also the fact that she is unreachable for him, which normally should not be a part of love. It is a concept, which takes different fields into consideration, like for example Greek mythology, and uses specific metaphors, for instance the imagery of light and dark, which are present in many of Petrarch's sonnets. Regarding the criteria many authors provide us to understand the concept of Petrarchan Love, it is easy to point out Romeo as the Petrarchan lover in this play. Nevertheless, he gives up behaving according to the pattern of a Petrarchan lover the moment he catches sight of Juliet. By giving up the role of the Petrarchan lover, Romeo develops and represents another concept of love, which is thoroughly different from the first one 2.2 Bawdy Love Thinking about bawdiness in Romeo and Juliet, one thinks instantly of the Nurse and Mercutio. These two characters contrast Rome's and Juliet's view of love, as they see love only as a means of sexual pleasure. 9 14 Keeble describes the Nurse as a woman, to whom morality and high feeling means little and who sees sex as the essential thing in the relationship between men and women. During her conversation with Juliet and Lady Capulet we realise that the Nurse enjoys sexual puns and innuendos, as she repeats the anecdote of little Juliet not understanding a sexual pun three times. She talks very often and openly about sex. She likes slipping sexual images into her talk. We can encounter this in her anecdote about little Juliet, falling down, when she says: A bump as big as a young cockerel's stone (1.3.54) Unlike Juliet, she is not interested in marriage, but only in its physical aspect, as she tells Juliet shortly before her wedding with Romeo: Hie you to church; I must another way, To fetch a ladder by the which your love Must climb a bird's nest soon when it is dark. I am the drudge and toil in your delight, But you shall bear the burden soon at night. (2.5.72-76) She has no sense of moral values. First she praises Romeo as the ideal husband for her protégé, but as soon as she hears of Capulet's plan of marrying Juliet off to Paris, she suddenly favours Paris and seems to have forgotten that Juliet is already married and that marrying Paris would be forbidden. She does not understand Juliet's deep feelings for Romeo, and urges her to marry Paris: Then, since the case so stands as it now doth, I think it best you married with the County. O, he's a lovely gentleman! Romeo's a dishclout to him. An eagle madam, Hath not so green, so quick, so fair an eye As Paris hath. Beshrew my very heart, For it excels your first; [...] (3.5.217-224) 14 N. H. Keeble, Romeo and Juliet, Essex: Longman Group UK Limited, 1980, 83 10 According to her any man will do as a partner provided he is virile enough. This could also be an indicator of why she suddenly changed her mind about Romeo and Paris. Mercutio has a similar function to that of the Nurse. He mocks Romeo's attempt to compose poetry in Petrarchan form, when he was in love with Rosaline. He contradicts Romeo's idealising of Rosaline by repeatedly stressing the sexual and physical nature of love: I conjure thee by Rosaline's bright eyes, By her high forehead and her scarlet lip, By her fine foot, straight leg, and quivering thigh And the demesnes that there adjacent lie, That in thy likeness thou appear to us. (2.1.17-21) His long Queen Mab speech, shortly before Capulet's ball, assembles a number of examples of man's ability to deceive himself into thinking that whatever he desires most is most valuable to him ¹5. He continuously makes fun of Romeo, who in his deep melancholy is speaking in the pattern of Petrarchan poetry. [...] Now is he for the numbers that Petrarch flowed in. Laura to his lady was a kitchen wench- marry, she had better love to berhyme her- Dido a dowdy, Cleopatra a gypsy, Helen and Hero hildings and harlots, Thisbe a grey eye or so, but not to the purpose. (2.4.38-43) Bawdy talk is as essential to Romeo and Juliet as Petrarchan Love, as both play off and contrast each other, representing the reader two different views of love. It differs from all other concepts I have so far talked about. For me, it cannot be titled as a concept of love, as this kind of love only accentuates the physical desires of a relationship and leaves out, 15 N. H. Keeble, Romeo and Juliet, Essex: Longman Group UK Limited, 1980, 56 11 or even ignores, the emotional part. Yet, bawdy love is an essential part of this play, as it distances itself from the other concepts and accentuates the importance of both physical and emotional desire in a relationship. 3 Conclusion We have seen that before, during and after the Elizabethan era different love concepts emerged and evolved. These were not only important in the past, but are also in our time inevitable to overlook, as the works of many authors; which are still being read and analysed in school, university or even at home. However, these concepts are not exclusively important in the field of literature. Motion pictures, as well as TV series make use of these concepts to entertain and capture their audience and to give them an understanding of how these concepts can be realised. Yet, these concepts can not only be found in the field of literature or the entertainment industry, but also in different cultures all over the world. One of these love concepts, which might be considered as archaic in one culture, might still be the norm in another. The aim of my paper was to find out if Romeo is a Petrarchan lover in the Elizabethan age by discussing two different concepts of love in the play first, and afterwards analysing the character's language and behaviour according to these concepts. Before trying to find out, if Romeo is a Petrarchan lover in the Elizabethan age, I definitely would not have classified him as a Petrarchan lover. But as I gathered information on the characteristics of this kind of love, I realised that this is not entirely true. Romeo is not particularly a Petrarchan lover, but we can find specific characteristics in his passion, which are evidently Petrarchan. I think that the story of the tragic lovers is timeless, because this kind of love they share existed before and will always exist. This mixture of love concepts in one play shows us the different sides of love one can experience and turns this play in a page-turner. 12 4 Bibliography Primary Literature: Shakespeare, William. Romeo and Juliet. Edited by Jill L. Levenson. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000, Print. Shakespeare, William. Romeo and Juliet. Edited by René Weis. London: Bloomsbury Arden Shakespeare, 2012, Print. Secondary Literature: Beck, Ulrich and Beck- Gernsheim, Elisabeth. Das ganz normale Chaos der Liebe. Stuttgart: Suhrkamp Taschenbuch Verlag, 1990, Print. Keeble, N.H.. Romeo and Juliet. Essex: Longman Group UK Limited, 1980, Print. Leimberg, Inge. Shakespeare's Romeo und Julia. Müchen-Allach: Wilhelm Fink Verlag, 1968, Print. Mann, Nicholas. Petrarch. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1984, Print Neumann, Florian. Francesco Petrarca. Reinbeck bei Hamburg: Rowohlt Taschenbuch Verlag GmH, 1998, Print. Roberts, Sasha. William Shakespeare- Romeo and Juliet. Plymouth: Northcote House Publishers, 1998, Print. Smith, Bruce R.. The Cambrige guide to the Worlds of Shakespeare- Shakespeare's World: 1500-1660. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2016, Print. Stone, Lawrence. The Family, Sex and Marriage in England: 1500-1800. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1977, Print. 13 Internet sources: https://www.sparknotes.com/nofear/shakespeare/romeojuliet/page 106/#:~:text=0%20f lesh%2C%20flesh%2C%20how%20art, but%20not%20to%20the%20purpose. https://youtu.be/i3y4xnGOIzs https://youtu.be/pdbuYbxMy8A https://youtu.be/c21cMSmaC8g 14 5 Plagiatserklärung Hiermit erkläre ich, dass ich die vorliegende Arbeit selbstständig und ohne unzulässige Hilfe Dritter und ohne Benutzung anderer als der angegebenen Hilfsmittel angefertigt habe. Insbesondere versichere ich, keinerlei entgeltliche Hilfe für die Themenfindung, - aufbereitung oder -recherche sowie für die Abfassung und Endredaktion meiner Arbeit in Anspruch genommen zu haben. Die aus anderen Quellen direkt oder indirekt übernommenen Daten und Konzepte sind unter Angabe der Quelle gekennzeichnet. 15