Particular Place: Verona, Italy in Romeo and Juliet
Authors incorporate numerous literary techniques in their works to make them more interesting and relatable to their audience. Additionally, literary devices play a key role in the plot and characters’ development. One of the most critical devices in literature is setting, as it provides the readers with information on where and when the events in the literary work happened. Likewise, setting influences Shakespeare’s play, Romeo and Juliet. The tragic play is set in Verona, an Italian town. Non-essential Notably, although the play’s characters live in the town, their view and understanding of the town are different from? In what ways? Why is this difference important? . Consequently, the play’s characters’ thoughts, feelings, and experiences influence their understanding of their hometown, Verona. A very broad statement: all the characters? All their thoughts, feelings and experiences? How does this influence work? What are their understandings? Your claim must be specific and important to an interpretation.
To begin with, Mercutio views Verona as a place of love and associates it with intense romantic passion. Mercutio, Romeo’s best friend and confidant, is portrayed as an anti-romantic character whose notion of romantic love contradicts Romeo’s. these two previous sentences seem at odd with one another. However, Mercutio’s attitude and view of Romeo show that he views Verona as a place of romantic passion. For instance, when Mercutio sees Romeo coming, he alludes to one of the most famous Italian poets, known for his romantic poems, “Now is he for the numbers that Petrarch flowed in” (Shakespeare 211-212). Mercutio’s allusion points out Romeo and Juliet’s impossible Italian love, similar to Petrarch’s obsession with Laura but never having his love reciprocated. Given that Mercutio lives in Verona and witnesses Romeo and Juliet’s intense love, he views the town as a place of intense passion, does this logic hold? as Petrarch and Romeo do not give up on their lovers. Is Mercutio being serious or ironic in his reference to Petrarch?
Contrastingly, Romeo’s intense love for Juliet makes him view Verona as his whole world. Usually, people get attached to places they find love, happiness, and fulfillment. Asking such people to leave these places would translate to tearing out a piece of them. Likewise, Romeo and Juliet fall in love despite their families’ existing and continuing feuds. Their intense romantic passion makes Romeo feel quite happy and fulfilled in Verona. Consequently, when he is banished after murdering Tybalt, Romeo is reluctant to leave the town, “There is no world without Verona walls/…Hence ‘banished’ is ‘banished from the world'” (Shakespeare 258). Although Romeo’s banishment was a lenient sentence for murder, Romeo prefers being executed rather than banishment as it would separate him from his love, Juliet “…Heaven is here/Where Juliet lives…” (Shakespeare 259). Unlike Mercutio, who views Verona as a place of love, Romeo considers Verona his whole world, as it hosts the love of his life. The difference between Mecutio and Romeo is unclear, as stated in this paragraph. Thus, Romeo’s love for Juliet makes him view Verona as the only habitable and happy place in the world. A sound claim, but can it go any deeper, beyond the apparent?
Finally, Prince Escalus sees Verona as an unruly and uncontrollable town in dire need of reconciliation and peace. Prince Escalus, Verona’s Prince, struggles to control the feuds between the Montague and Capulets families. For instance, when the Prince hears of the two families’ street brawls and fights, he refers to them as “Rebellious subjects, enemies to peace… (who) have thrice disturbed the quiet of our streets” (Shakespeare 130-131). The Prince’s inability to control the streets further reinforces his inability to address Verona’s residents’ love and hate passions. Although the Prince knows that Romeo and Juliet’s love encounter will breed hate, he cannot solve it, leading to the two lovers’ untimely death. Therefore, the feud between the Montagues and Capulets makes the Prince view Verona as an unruly town.
Overall, the play’s characters’ views of Verona differ significantly depending on their experiences. Although the play is primarily set in Verona, the characters’ experiences are different. Mercutio considers Verona a place of love as he sees Romeo’s struggle to be with Juliet. On the other hand, Romeo and Prince Escalus’s view of Verona differs as Romeo loves Verona as it is his lover’s home, while Escalus sees it as an unruly place as the residents barely obey his rule and keep on fighting.
This paper stays pretty close to the surface, describing rather than arguing what Verona means to different people. Your task in these paper is to go beyond description, to interpret the differing senses of the city in a way that creates new meaning for our reading of the play. Conversely, you can explore how ONE character understands their place—but in either case, you need to close-read the language, not just observe where place is mentioned. C+
Works Cited
Shakespeare, William, and René Weis. Romeo and Juliet. Arden Shakespeare, 2012.