Directions: Using the rough draft you composed in the last blog, please refine your initial response into a fully processed essay. In class, we will work on thesis statements, transitions, and formatting Shakespearean language. When your piece is completed, please post it to Turnitin.com for a formal grade.
Formatting Help
Dueling Dualities: Romeo's Devolution into Violence through Love and Hate
Introduction with thesis statement:
In William Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, dramatic irony is used by telling the readers the ending of the play before it begins. In the prologue, the Chorus tells the audience of the family feud between the Capulets and Montagues and that it has been going on for generations. The readers learn that “A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life,/Whose misadventured piteous overthrows/Doth with their death bury their parents strife”(Prologue). This play is meant to further describe how two lovers took their lives and how the family feud was put to rest. Since Shakespeare used dramatic irony in Romeo and Juliet, certain lines are written so that the audience has more knowledge than the characters, creating suspense for the audience while waiting for certain events to occur. Through using dramatic irony to create suspense and highlight the thoughts and actions of its main characters, Shakespeare has caused the audience to examine the balancing forces of fate and freewill in his work.
Formatting quotations under two lines:
Romeo feels that “Some consequence, yet hanging in the stars,/Shall bitterly begin his fearful date” and only cause him more heart ache. Although Romeo feels this way, he is able to let “the steerage of this course/Direct my sail!”(I.iv.117-120).
Formatting longer passages:
The Nurse clearly cares greatly about Juliet but she seems not to trust Juliet's judgment; this lack of trust is a serious problem in any society or story. The Nurse grows to approve of the couple but after Romeo is banished, it seems that this approval was tenuous and simply awaiting another when she says:
Faith, here it is.
Romeo is banish'd; and all the world to nothing,
That he dares ne'er come back to challenge you;
Or, if he do, it needs must be by stealth.
Then, since the case so stands as now it doth,
I think it best you married with the county...
I think you are happy in this second match,
For it excels your first: or if it did not,
Your first is dead; or 'twere as good he were,
As living here and you no use of him (III.v.228-237)
That he dares ne'er come back to challenge you;
Or, if he do, it needs must be by stealth.
Then, since the case so stands as now it doth,
I think it best you married with the county...
I think you are happy in this second match,
For it excels your first: or if it did not,
Your first is dead; or 'twere as good he were,
As living here and you no use of him (III.v.228-237)
The Nurse forgets Romeo in the blink of an eye, forgetting how devoted Juliet is and making the mistake of losing Juliet's trust by attempting to steer her wrong.
