This paper discusses the language of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.
This paper discusses how it is it is Shakespeare’s masterful use of language that makes “Romeo and Juliet” a remarkable play. It shows how Shakespeare’s language is used to create characters, to add emotion and to express meaning in the play. The author explores each use of language, how the different characters speak, the use of imagery and how Shakespeare uses language to add emotion and heighten the romance of the play.
The first consideration is how Shakespeare uses language to create characters. The characters in the play come from many different classes and backgrounds and have different characteristics. The challenge for Shakespeare was to capture the characteristics of these characters without having to describe them. Shakespeare manages this by paying careful attention to how characters speak. It is noted here that the importance is on not just what they say, but how they say it, a factor many other works are not as aware of. As one author says, speaking of Romeo and Juliet, the character is discovered through the verse (Van Tassel, xvi).