what is the role of sonnets in the play "Romeo and Juliet" by Shakspeare?

Question

There are countless sonnets in the play Romeo and juliet. I want to know what the role of sonnets in that play is?

And by the way i want to know what YOU THINK!!! not what wikipedia says...if i wanted to know what wikipedia and other places thought i would have gone there instead and not to yahoo answers! notice how the first response was wikipedia...thats a no no... remember...what YOU think...not wiki...

Answer 1

According to Wikipedia:
"Like most of Shakespeare's plays, the greater part of Romeo and Juliet is written in iambic pentameter. However, the play is also notable for its copious use of rhymed verse, notably in the sonnet contained in Romeo and Juliet's dialogue in the scene where they first meet (Act I, Scene v, Lines 95-108). This sonnet figures Romeo as a blushing pilgrim (palmer) praying before an image of the Virgin Mary, as many people in early-sixteenth-century England did at shrines such as the shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham. Because of its use of rhyme, its extravagant expressions of love, its Italian theme, and its implausible plot, Romeo and Juliet is considered to belong to Shakespeare's "lyrical period", along with the similarly poetic plays A Midsummer Night's Dream and Richard II."

Answer 2

"Countless" sonnets? I'm not aware of so many. I know that when R&J meet for the first time at the party, their dialogue together emerges in sonnet form.

Think of it this way: Shakespeare's plays are written mostly in "blank verse;" that is, unrhymed iambic pentameter. Even for an audience unfamiliar with the ins-and-outs of that verse form, there is a clearly discernible BEAT and RHYTHM to the language. If, all of a sudden, the verse becomes more FORMAL (i.e., the sonnet form), the audience will similarly register the fact that SOMETHING OUT OF THE ORDINARY is happening. And that's the effect I think the playwright intended. Whether we "get" it consciously or not, we detect that, in that meeting, something magical is afoot.

Answer 3

The change to the more poetic sonnet form when Romeo meets Juliet makes us forget what else is happening in the play and focus on just this moment; such as is happening to them, as they ignore the party going on around them.

(I thought this moment was nicely illustrated in West Side Story, when the dance disappears and it's just the two of them.)

Answer 4

Since I came here from the country, I have not seen her close. Tell me, is-- is she beautiful? Thomas, if I could write with the beauty of her eyes, I was born to look in them and know myself. A-A-And her lips? Her lips? The early morning rose would whither on the branch if it could feel envy. And her voice, like lark's song? Deeper, softer. None of your twittering larks. I would banish nightingales from her garden before they interrupt her song. Oh, she sings too? - Constantly. Without doubt. And plays the lute. She has a natural ear. And her bosom. Did I mention her bosom? What of her bosom? Oh, Thomas, a pair of pippins... as round and rare as golden apples. I think milady is wise to keep your love at a distance. For what lady could live up to it close to... when her eyes and lips and voice may be no more beautiful than mine. ---------william Shakespeare---'shakespeare in love'(the new juliet)