Romeo and Juliet Essay

Submitted By Asdfghjkljawn
Words: 684
Pages: 3

Good morning/afternoon Ms. Jamhour, Ms. Schollard and people. The extract that I chose to re-enact was Romeo and Juliet’s suicide found in Act 5, Scene 3, Lines 101 – 170. There are many themes associated with this particular extract but the one I am going to focus on today is “love”. We can have platonic, family, or romantic love. But what is love? In the play, love is presented through Romeo and Juliet almost as a disease that makes the characters physically ill and make irrational decisions. Romeo and Juliet show romantic love for each other through their willingness to die to be with the other. After hearing the news of Juliet’s apparent death, a distraught Romeo decides he would rather die than live without her. Upon waking up, Juliet sees Romeo’s dead body and kills herself for the very same reason as him. For this extract I chose to play as both Romeo and Juliet as they are the two main characters in this particular scene and throughout the play
The bottle and knife I used, as props during my extract are a representation of the poison and dagger used by Romeo and Juliet to end their own lives. In doing so, this links to the theme of love as the suicide of both characters showcases their immense love for each other and the extents they were prepared to go to be together.
During my extract I also used Peter as a prop to represent both Romeo and Juliet’s dead bodies to exhibit the consequences of their star-crossed love; death. Their corpses depicted the lengths they went, to be together in death, as their love could never work during their lifetime.

In my portrayal of Romeo, I am kneeling down beside Juliet’s “dead body” to show how in his last moments, Romeo wished to stay as close as possible to Juliet. He treats her very delicately during his final words, this was done to show how after Juliet’s “death”, Romeo realized the fragility of life and how easily hers was taken away. The same was done for Juliet when she woke up and found Romeo’s corpse beside her. These actions portray their connection and deep love for one another, even in their last moments of life, as they could not live if one of them was dead.
Juliet is crouched over Romeo upon finding his body beside her, mourning over his death. Her pained actions show the effect Romeo’s loss had on her and how deeply she loved and grieves for him.
Towards the end of Romeo’s speech, right before he drinks the poison he says, “here’s to my love”, which conveys the theme of love through the obvious