How come Shakespeare....?

Question

In the beginning of Romeo and Juliet, how come Shakespeare told the audience that Romeo and Juliet were going to kill themselves at the end?

Answer 1

First of all, it creates dramatic irony. We as the audience know what will happen before the characters do, so their actions leading up to their death have a constant shade of darkness. This heightens the sense of tragedy, becase the audience knows that in the end the characters will not suceed, no matter how great their ambition is.

Secondly, remember that Romeo and Juliet were only teenagers. The question of the play is not what happened, but rather how it happened, how two young people with their whole lives ahead of them would commit suicide.

Finally, it creates suspense and tension. By revealing the outcome, the audience watches the entire play with a sense of anticipation, waiting for the dramatic climax they were forewarned about. It's kinda like in horror movies, when you know the killer is in the room, but you're still freaked for the main guy to go in there.

Remember, Shakespeare's work was meant to be seen, not read!!!

Answer 2

If you are referring to the fact that he is giving the plot away, the answer might be that the story of Romeo and Juliet was NOT original with Shakespeare, but was a popular well known story of the time. So, it is likely that most of the people who came to the play knew R & J would die at the end--just like most people who went to see the movie Titanic knew the ship would sink.

Answer 3

Shakespeare assumed most of his audience was already familiar with the story, so he wasn't really giving anything away. It's the same as with a movie like "Titanic" - you know the ship is going to hit an iceberg and sink. The poem he based his play on was fairly popular.

In the prologue, Shakespeare isn't trying to give anything away, he's trying to get the audience warmed up and receptive. And in case anyone didn't know the story, he was giving them a quick summary so they wouldn't be lost right from the start. Plus, as a poster above noted, he's highlighting his main themes.

He's also lying. He tells the audience the play will take about two hours. With the version that comes to us from the First Folio, this is practically impossible, unless everyone is speed-reading their lines. Most modern productions which include all (or almost all) the lines will run closer to three-and-a-half hours.

Answer 4

Shakespeare wrote 38 performs, 154 short poems noted as "The Sonnets", and likewise 5 narratives - Venus and Adonis The Rape of Lucrece The Passionate Pilgrim The Phoenix and the Turtle A Lover's criticism.

Answer 5

shakespeare prepares us for the tradegy with the meaning and style of the language....the prologue is also a sonnet. shakespeares possible allusion or reference to the source he used for this play, Arthur Brooke's narrative poem " the tragical history of Romeus and Juliet"

Answer 6

It's like Columbo when they told you who the murderer was in the beginning. It was still so good, you would watch it just to see how Columbo cracked the case. Shakespeare was so talented that even though he told you the ending, you would watch it just to see how the events unfolded.
Channa

Answer 7

It's called a prologue and it sets the tone and calls attention to the theme of a play.

Two households, both alike in dignity,
In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life;
Whole misadventured piteous overthrows
Do with their death bury their parents' strife.
The fearful passage of their death-mark'd love,
And the continuance of their parents' rage,
Which, but their children's end, nought could remove,
Is now the two hours' traffic of our stage;
The which if you with patient ears attend,
What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.

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The fact that they died was just the tip of the iceburg.

Answer 8

THats the "MInD" of famous writers...

Answer 9

Because that how things
operated bag then
fella
Thats the way Jesus wanted it.

Answer 10

he meant that their love would kill each other...n when 1 of them would be dead the other one is automatically dead...cos for them their love was their life...