Of the 2 central characters, with whom does the audience most sympathise? Free Essay Example

Of the 2 central characters, with whom does the audience most sympathise? How does Shakespeare shape this response?

In William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, a play in which two “star-cross’d lovers take their life,” one would expect both central characters to claim similar, if not equal amounts of our sympathy. However, it is often the case that our sympathy is directed far more at Juliet than Romeo.

The prologue, which informs the audience that Romeo and Juliet will die, encourages sympathy for both characters from the beginning, as it gives the events of the play an air of being fated to happen, since we know at the beginning of the play what will happen.

When we first meet Romeo in Act I Sc. I, we feel very little sympathy for him. He uses overly-elaborate language and dramatic oxymorons such as “heavy lightness!” and “cold fire”, and laments over his dilemma – that the girl he is in love with has rejected him.

However, the audience can see that Romeo is really not in love with Rosaline at all; he simply enjoys playing the part of the rejected lover. He speaks constantly about love, and of the dreadful suffering it involves. Even when he sees evidence of a fight, and asks what happened, he works the conversation back to his favourite topic – “here’s much to do with hate, but more with love”. This makes him seem quite ridiculous, and at this point in the play we can neither admire nor pity him.

We meet Romeo again in Sc. II, when he is again love-struck and thinking of nothing else. He describes his ability to read as his “fortune in [his] misery” and talks about his love for Rosaline as a “devout religion”, both of which serve to annoy the audience, as we have already ascertained that he is enjoying the attention he gains from his fabricated sorrow. This gains him no sympathy with the audience, and merely increases our conviction that he is simply being self indulgent.

Our first meeting with Juliet, however, shows her to be a polite girl, eager to please her parents. When we see how little affection Juliet’s mother affords her daughter, for instance when she is told to “speak briefly” on the subject of whether or not she can love Paris, we feel a certain degree of sympathy for her at this point, though she does not seem especially upset with her own situation. She replies to her mother that she will “look to like”, meaning that she will try to like Paris because her parents want her to. These good manners encourage us to like Juliet, although her immediate submission does make her seem rather weak-willed.

The next time we meet the characters is on the evening of Capulet’s feast. Romeo continues to behave in the melodramatic manner which we have come to expect, saying “I have a soul of lead” and other such histrionic assertions. However, this time he is in the company of Mercutio, who often ridicules him, saying things like “If love be rough with you, be rough with love”. This encourages the audience to feel similarly, with the result that we have very little respect for him at this point.

When Romeo sees Juliet, one would expect a similar type of irritating drivel and nonsensical language as when he speaks about his love for Rosaline. However, his language when talking about Juliet is very different. In Sc. I, Romeo uses words such as “siege”, “brawling” and “assailing” to describe his courtship of Rosaline, which give the impression of love being something violent and war-like. Much of the language he uses suggests he sees women as conquests or trophies, and leaves the audience feeling as though he does not truly know what love is. In Act II Sc. III, when Romeo asks Friar Laurence to marry them, our suspicions about Rosaline are confirmed when Romeo complains “Thou chid’st me oft for loving Rosaline,” to which Laurence replies, “For doting, not for loving.”

In contrast, the language he uses when talking about Juliet is full of images of light and beauty, making her sound ethereal and heavenly. Words and phrases such as “bright”, “rich jewel” and “blessed” encourage us to believe that perhaps Romeo has fallen in love with Juliet already, even though they have not yet spoken. This is partly because his language suggests a reverence and awe that seemed lacking from his attitude towards Rosaline. He sees Juliet as a “holy shrine” and himself as a humble worshipper. This evidence of love gives us some sympathy with him, especially since we know that both Romeo and Juliet will ultimately die.

When Romeo and Juliet eventually speak, it is in the form of a sonnet, a traditional form of poetry about love. They seem to share a bond, as their lines flow into each other, and they create a sonnet together even though they have never even met before. Their love seems immediately genuine, and this increases our belief in the existence of love at first sight and thus our sympathy with both of them.

When each of them learns who the other is, they are both ill at ease, though the audience senses that Juliet takes the situation more seriously than Romeo. This is because Romeo concentrates on the present, saying “my life is my foes debt”, whilst Juliet seems more aware of the possible ruinous effects of her love, stating that it is “prodigious” to her.

When Romeo and Juliet meet again, it is in Capulet’s orchard. They both at first speak to themselves; Romeo talks primarily about Juliet’s beauty, comparing her eyes to stars and calling her “bright angel”, whilst Juliet ponders her distressing situation, wishing that Romeo was not a Montague. This makes Juliet seem more thoughtful and heedful than Romeo, who is portrayed as being poetic yet unrealistic. He pays no regard to their bleak circumstances, focusing instead on sweet-sounding romanticisms. This encourages our sympathy with Juliet, who can see all the difficulties ahead and is understandably upset by them. When Romeo speaks, his elegant speeches sound almost rehearsed, as many of the things he says are quite impersonal and could really be said to any other woman, leading us to question his genuineness. Juliet, on the other hand, speaks specifically about her own situation, speaking all the time about Romeo and his name. Whilst we do sympathise with Romeo, our compassion lies predominantly with Juliet at this point.

This is also the case during their conversation. As soon as Juliet realises who Romeo is, her thoughts immediately turn to the danger of his being within Capulet’s grounds (“the place death, considering who thou art”), whereas Romeo overlooks these risks and continues in a romantic vein, saying only that “stony limits cannot hold love out”. When Romeo tries to swear that his love is true, we can see Juliet becoming a little annoyed by his over-fanciful language when she exclaims “O, swear not by the moon.” This bolsters our esteem for her, not least because we are also finding Romeo rather annoying at this point.

In Act II Sc. V, we return to Capulet’s orchard and Juliet, who is desperate for news of Romeo. We feel sympathy for her at this point, as she has such a great wish for tidings and yet there is nothing she can do but sit and wait. When the Nurse arrives but will not give Juliet the news she longs for (“I am a-weary, give me leave awhile”) we feel acutely Juliet’s frustration, and are ourselves frustrated with the Nurse and thus we sympathise with Juliet even more.

After Romeo and Juliet’s wedding, we meet again with Benvolio and Mercutio in Act III Sc. I. When Romeo arrives and finds Tybalt wanting to fight him, we feel a great deal of sympathy for him, as fighting Tybalt would mean upsetting Juliet, yet Tybalt seems intent upon violence, insisting that Romeo “turn and draw”.

However, when Romeo begins with “Tybalt, the reason that I have to love thee Doth much excuse the appertaining rage to such a greeting,” we can see that he has not thought about the consequences of his words. Tybalt is enraged by what he sees as Romeo mocking him, and Mercutio is similarly displeased by what he sees as a “vile submission”. Inflamed, they fight, and Mercutio dies. With his best friend dead, our sympathy for Romeo climaxes. What Romeo does next, however, whilst being passionate and indeed provoked, is nonetheless very unwise, and so we feel less sympathy for him when he has killed Tybalt. We start to see the dangers of this type of intense love – it makes Romeo impetuous and irrational and ultimately seems incompatible with the world of Verona.

We then meet Juliet again, innocent of all that has passed between her husband and her cousin. She speaks of her love for Romeo, and we feel sympathy for her as we know that soon she will find out about what has happened. Juliet’s sees sex as something beautiful; a true expression of incredible feeling. This is presented in her language, as such words as “loving” and “gentle” give the impression of sex being a tender act between people who love each other. Her use of the word “rites” associates sex with religious ritual, investing it with a spiritual importance. When this is compared with the crude views on sex held by many of the characters (for instance in Act 1 Sc. 1 when Sampson and Gregory talk about “thrusting [Montague’s] maids to the wall”), the juxtaposition of these two viewpoints draws us closer to Juliet, as we want to believe in her view of sex because she makes it seem so much more wonderful and meaningful. When her nurse does come, we are annoyed by her because she thoughtlessly leads Juliet to believe that Romeo is dead, saying only “he’s dead!”, and not answering Juliet when she asks “hath Romeo slain himself?”. Our sympathy for Juliet thus grows as she is mourning an event which has not taken place.

When Juliet prises the full truth from her Nurse, we again feel great sympathy for her as she is torn between her love for Romeo and her love for Tybalt, and furious that Romeo killed her cousin. Her ambivalence is shown in her language when she resorts to oxymorons such as “beautiful tyrant!” and “fiend angelical!”. When Romeo used this type of language, we felt no sympathy for him, however, we can see that Juliet is really distraught, and so we feel differently. When she calms down a little, and even blames herself for speaking “ill of him that is [her] husband”, we feel very sympathetic towards Juliet, whose sadness, it seems, can never end.

In the next scene, when Romeo finds out that he is banished, we do at first feel sympathetic towards him, but this sympathy is quickly diminished as he over-reacts to the news, claiming that “there is no world without Verona walls,” and wishing that he were dead rather than banished. We feel that this reaction is irrational, because he should be feeling grateful that his life has been spared, and that he has a chance of seeing Juliet again, and yet he will not accept that he is lucky to have escaped with his life.

When Juliet finds out, in Act III Sc. V, that she is to marry Paris, we feel very sympathetic towards her, as she is seemingly in a situation from which there is no escape. And when, in addition to this, her Nurse counsels her to marry Paris, our sympathy is even more increased as it seems to Juliet that her only friend has deserted her. When the nurse has left, Juliet is furious with her, saying “thou and my bosom henceforth shall be twain”. This, coupled with her mother’s rejection (“do what thou wilt, for I have done with thee”) evokes a sense of her absolute isolation.

At the beginning of Act IV, when Juliet speaks to Paris in Friar Laurence’s cell, we feel admiration for Juliet, as even in her grief and anger, she manages to reply to all that Paris says without lying or giving away her love for Romeo. After Paris has left, we can feel acutely Juliet’s desperation which leads her to thoughts of suicide, when she cries “past hope, past cure, past help!”. Although this is again similar to the way Romeo acted at the beginning of the play, the audience sympathises with Juliet because we cannot see any escape for her either.

In Act IV Sc. III, when Juliet takes the concoction which the friar has given to her, her great fear encourages us to sympathise with her even more. As she speaks of all the things which are scaring her, we see her gradually get more and more hysterical. She begins with quite a rational fear; that the friar will have given her poison in order to save himself, “lest in this marriage he should be dishonoured”. This progresses to a terror that, in her own fear, she will go mad, and “dash out [her] desperate brains” with a bone from one of the bodies in the tomb. This delirium encourages our sympathy with Juliet, as we feel that the wildness of her distress is completely unfeigned.

Act V Sc. I takes us to Mantua, where Romeo is waiting for news from Verona. When Balthasar arrives, Romeo is overjoyed, and immediately begs for news. When Balthasar speaks, however, he informs Romeo that Juliet has died, and that “her body sleeps in Capel’s monument”. As we felt sympathy for Juliet when she thought Romeo was dead, we currently sympathise with Romeo, as he now believes that she has died. Romeo wastes no time in deciding on his course of action, which is to go to Juliet and die with her. This could seem rash, however by this point in the play we believe that they are indeed in love, and so we can only sympathise with him when he cries out “I defy you, stars!” and plans his own death.

In Act V Sc. III, we return to Romeo, who is entering Juliet’s grave when Paris makes his presence known. Though his intentions are well-meaning, the audience’s sympathy remains with Romeo when Paris dies, as we have seen little of Paris which has endeared him to us, and Romeo is one of the central protagonists. We also sympathise with Romeo because he tells Paris to leave him alone (“tempt not a desperate man”), yet Paris persists, (“I do defy thy conjurations”) and so we feel that he almost deserves to die for disturbing Romeo at such a time. When Romeo eventually drinks the poison, our sympathy for him is very high, as we now know that he does indeed love Juliet enough to die for her.

When Juliet wakes with the friar, she is initially full of hope, asking after Romeo. We feel great sympathy for her when friar Laurence hastily explains everything with very little regard for her emotions, telling her that he will “dispose of her among a sisterhood of holy nuns,” which is not what anyone would wish to be told upon finding that their husband is lying dead beside them. Unsurprisingly, Juliet refuses to move, and our sympathy for her peaks as she becomes alone in the tomb with her dead husband. Like Romeo before her, Juliet decides to kill herself very quickly, and does so with Romeo’s dagger, saying “This is thy sheath; there rust, and let me die”.

We feel some degree of sympathy for Juliet throughout the play, and though our sympathy for Romeo is at the end very great, it is Juliet nonetheless who ultimately claims the majority of it. The reason we warm to her is ultimately because she seems to embody a balance between sensible thoughtfulness and impetuous passion. She is capable of intense love but remains a little more rational and practical than Romeo. The play suggests a need for such balance, as Romeo often seems too emotional and intense, yet the callous indifference of Lady Capulet seems almost inhumanly cold.