R&J Quiz Act 4&5

(A)

In Act 4, Juliet is not the girl who obeys to her parents anymore, shows more interesting in controlling her own life. There were no complaints from Juliet in Act 2 when lady Capulet tells her about Paris. But in act 4, she directly says she will rather die than marrying with Paris to Friar Lawrence. She does not want to be forced to take actions or waits for other people like Romeo or Nurse to solve the problem for her, so she takes her own actions - she goes to Friar Lawrence. Friar Lawrence is a man in between the two families so Juliet sees him as an outsider to help her. Also, Juliet makes her own decision about following Friar Lawrence's’ plan or and brave enough to drink the unknown veil. From these, I see Juliet becomes more and more independent. She wants to be independent because her life was under too much control. She trusts Friar Lawrence rather than Nurse because she does not want people in her family to control her life anymore. In total, the character of Juliet becomes more active in Act 4.

In the same time, Romeo is taking his banishment in Mantua. Romeo has to wait for messages from Friar Lawrence, so he can not do anything. Romeo was taking the dominant part of his relationship with Juliet, but now Juliet has the control. Shakespeare suggesting the power of women from this. In the “normal” world Shakespeare presented for audiences, women is always in a lower position and obey to men. Then Juliet controls herself in Act 4 and makes many actions, which shows a new “world” where women have more rights and equal to men. In total, Shakespeare suggesting the equality of men and women from Juliet’s actions in Act 4.

(F)

In the 1996 film Romeo + Juliet, Leonardo DiCaprio’s Romeo is very charming, emotional and mature.

The film shows Romeo as a very handsome and charming person through many close shots. For example, the first time Romeo shows up is at the beach, with the sunsets as background. Then there was 5 minutes long close shots on Romeo, this quickly gives audiences a message that Romeo is a handsome young man. This is also faithful to the original play because Nurse says Romeo is charming in Act 2 when she returns from the first meeting with Romeo. Leonardo DiCaprio’s Romeo is also full of emotion. I clearly remember the scene when Romeo heard the news of Juliet’s death from Balthazar, he nails down on the ground and faces to the sky. He shouts first without any words, then he shouts out the line about causing the god. The line is from the original play, but the movie adds the nailing scene in order to show Romeo’s sadness and depressed more. This helps audiences to feel Romeo as a real person who with emotion. Also, it is easier to bring audiences into the play because of Romeo’s emotion infusions audience's’ emotion by the shouting. Lastly, Romeo shows more of his mature parts in the film. He is calms most of the time. For example, he accepts the facts of being banished and decides to wait for better time to meet with Juliet. Also, Romeo appears thinking a lot. Like he is writing the poem at the beginning, and questioning about the god at the end.

In total, the film highlights these characteristics in order to show a more real Romeo and let audiences feel more for Romeo in the film. AS result, the ending appears more tragedy.

(C)

The ending of the play is definitely a tragedy because audiences care more about Romeo and Juliet than the city's natural order.

In my opinion, audiences think the story of Romeo And Juliet as a play more than a true story, so we have less emotion towards the safe of the city of Verona in the play.Also, the city serves as a background information in the play, its natural order is less important than the fates of the two leading characters - Romeo & Juliet. These two leading characters attract most of the audiences’ attention in the play. With the supports of dialogues and actions, Romeo and Juliet are more real for audiences and audiences want to think as they are these two characters. For example, the dialogues of Romeo and Juliet in the balcony scene. Both of the characters express their love for each other. They have a first sight love and deeply loving each other. Because of this, audiences are attracted to them and likely to think about them. Then audiences like to have a first sight love like them, and they will dream about having a relationship like that. As a contrast, both of Romeo and Juliet die because of they love each other. This makes a huge impact on audiences’ emotion, which make us call Romeo And Juliet as a tragedy. The play gives us hope like true love and ending in death. More hopes make the depression worse. As a result, the tragedy ending makes us feel more sad about Romeo and Juliet than the better future of the city.

In total, the audiences care more about the characters rather than the vague setting of a peaceful city.