Douglas Cole, in an introduction to Twentieth Century Interpretations of
Romeo and Juliet: A Collection of Critical Essays, edited by Douglas Cole,
Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1970, pp. 1-18.
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Franklin M. Dickey
[Dickey asserts that fate, divine will, and the lovers' passion are inseparably linked in Romeo and Juliet and all of these agents contribute to the catastrophe. According to the critic, the work is "a carefully wrought tragedy which balances hatred against love and which makes fortune the agent of divine justice without absolving anyone from his responsibility for the tragic conclusion." In this sense, Dickey contends, Romeo and Juliet reflects the Elizabethan concept of moral responsibility, a tenet which stressed that all sinners must endure the punishment of God, whose will is carried out through the operation of fate.] |
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Lorentz Eckhoff
[Eckhoff maintains that Romeo's and Juliet's tragic deaths result from their own impulsiveness. The critic then provides several examples from the play to substantiate this claim.] |
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Irving Ribner
[Ribner provides a Christian interpretation of Romeo and Juliet in which he contends that the lovers' deaths are ordained by God to reconcile the feuding families. The critic notes how Shakespeare altered the play into something more meaningful than both a traditional Senecan tragedy, where arbitrary destiny causes the catastrophe, and a tragedy of character, in which the lovers are punished for their reckless passion (the term Senecan tragedy derives from the Roman statesman and philosopher Seneca, who in the first century A. D. wrote a number of violent, catastrophic dramas that later became models for Renaissance tragedy). According to Ribner, Romeo and Juliet mature as they experience evil, ultimately realizing that the world is in fact ruled by a benevolent God. Further, the lovers' suicides reflect their acceptance of death, resulting in the restoration of order and a "rebirth of love" in Verona.] |
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Harold S. Wilson
[Wilson regards Romeo and Juliet as a tragedy of fate involving "two lovers whose destiny it is to be sacrificed to the healing of their families' strife." Furthermore, the critic claims, the feud is the central concern of the play. Wilson argues that Shakespeare marred this design, however, by making his hero and heroine so attractive that the audience loses interest in the dramatic action once they are dead, thus ignoring the true culmination of the play in the resolution of the feud.] |
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Clifford Leech
[Leech discusses Romeo and Juliet in terms of what he views as the three principal elements of dramatic tragedy: (1) the events of the plot proceed from no discernible cause; (2) the story focuses on an agonizing situation that cannot be corrected; and (3) at least one of the central characters represents humankind's capacity for evil and the destruction it engenders. Romeo and Juliet cannot properly be termed "tragic," the critic argues, because it violates all three of these conditions. Specifically, the drama diverges from tragedy because it fails to fully establish an element of "mystery" in the action, thereby forcing the reader to attribute the progression of events to the operation of fate; the play suggests, through the "moral lesson" at the end, that the lovers' deaths will reconcile the feuding families; and finally, it presents only "ordinary" individuals, none of whom are truly evil.] |
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Leonora Leet Brodwin
[Brodwin studies Romeo and Juliet in relation to the courtly love tradition in Elizabethan romance. Courtly love is a philosophy that was prominent in chivalric times and had a significant influence on Renaissance literature. Though the precise origins of this tradition are not known, the ideas on which it was based were summarized by Andreas Capellanus at the end of the twelfth century in his The Art of Courtly Love. Capellanus explained the doctrine of courtly love in thirty-one "rules." In essence, it is illicit and sensual and is accompanied by great emotional suffering. The lover, usually a knight, falls in love at first sight and, until his love is reciprocated, agonizes over his situation. Once his affection is returned, he is inspired to perform great deeds. Moreover, the lovers pledge their fidelity to one another and vow to keep their union a secret. The ideas of courtly love, were frequently expressed by the fourteenth-century Italian poet Petrarch in his love sonnets. His exaggerated comparisons and oxymora (the pairing of contradictory terms) describing the suffering of the lover and the beauty of the lady have come to be known as "Petrarchan conceits." In the excerpt below, Brodwin details the aspects of Romeo and Juliet that conform to the conventions of courtly love: Romeo and Juliet fall in love at first sight; their love is intensified by the feud that threatens it; they meet secretly; and, although they marry, they see each other only at night lending an illicit dimension to their love. In addition, they quickly resolve to commit suicide upon learning of each other's death. The critic stresses, however, that Romeo and Juliet transcends these stock conventions through its dramatization of the "spiritual mystique" of the hero and heroine's passion. Shakespeare depicts Romeo and Juliet's love as divine, Brodwin asserts, for the protagonists approach death cheerfully, confident that they will at last achieve peace and freedom from the restrictions of mortal existence. Furthermore, their faithfulness in love is virtuous because their deaths bring about an end to the feud.] |
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Mark Van Doren
[Van Doren contrasts Romeo and Juliet's attitude toward love with that of the other characters. While the hero and heroine view love as holy and solemn, the critic observes, Mercutio considers it bizarre , the Capulets prudent, and the Nurse practical, though, unlike the Capulets, with a "certain prurient interest." According to Van Doren, the Friar comes closest to sharing Romeo and Juliet's perception of love, though he speaks of it in terms that are foreign to them.] |
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E. C. Pettet
[Pettet examines how imagery reinforces two of the central concerns of Romeo and Juliet: the role of fate in determining the lovers' tragedy and the feud between the families. The influence of fate, the critic argues, is developed through the use of star imagery, in which stars serve as a metaphor (an implied analogy which imaginatively identifies one object with another) for destiny, and through the "pilot" imagery which is used to describe Romeo's maturation and attempts to control his own destiny. Pettet also demonstrates how the paradox (a statement which while seemingly contradictory or absurd may actually be well-founded and true) of Romeo and Juliet's love arising out of the hatred between the Montagues and the Capulets is accentuated by the repeated references to opposition and contradiction, particularly the contrasts between love and death and between light and darkness.] |
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Alice Shalvi
[Shalvi asserts that although Romeo and Juliet appears to be a tragedy of fate in which the protagonists are "helpless, innocent victims of arbitrary powers," the play can be more properly regarded as a tragedy of character. In the critic's opinion, Shakespeare designed the tragic outcome to be the result of the lovers' "passionate rashness," and particularly Romeo's "passionate nature and his lack of moderation." Noting that Elizabethans considered moderation essential to balancing one's passion and maintaining one's rational senses, Shalvi discusses Romeo's failed attempt to follow this course after his marriage to Juliet. Once he abandons restraint and avenges Mercutio's death by killing Tybalt, the critic observes, he is governed by passionate recklessness throughout the rest of the play. As a result, Romeo's "lack of moderation, the readiness with which he succumbs to all forms of passion, his failure to guide and protect his young wife, bring both of them to their untimely death." Despite Romeo's flawed nature, Shalvi continues, both he and Juliet have our full sympathy, for their experience ultimately conveys the beauty and sincerity of young love.] |
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Francois Laroque
Tradition and Subversion in Romeo and Juliet |
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