Dr Kat and the Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet?

hello and welcome back to the channel if you're new here hi you're very welcome this is reading the past and I'm dr. Kat and today we're heading back into the complete works of William Shakespeare to look at Romeo and Juliet and I want to interrogate each genre more specifically its classification as a tragedy let's look at it today Romeo and Juliet is effectively a byword for romance and true love which is perhaps slightly disturbing considering how the whole thing plays out and ends up but when William Shakespeare writes it we believe in a roundabout 1595 he was also working on Midsummer Night's Dream and for me that's telling because Romeo and Juliet has far more echoes and things in common with the comedies like mr. might dream much do about nothing Winter's Tale than it does with the other tragedies I don't see echoes of Hamlet or King Lear being played out in Romeo and Juliet in 1597 a so-called bad cuarto of Romeo and Juliet was produced perhaps based on the recollection of an actor or maybe even audience member who saw a production two years later in 1599 a good cuarto is produced and after that two more cortos based on that good quarto are also made it is then in 1623 included as part of the first folio in the tragedy section and I did make a video on William Shakespeare's first folio which I'm going to link up here in a cart in that video I talked about how it's not made by William Shakespeare in 1623 William Shakespeare is long dead instead two members of his company Hemi and kondo present this book for publication it is they who arguably separated up into history's tragedies and comedies and I wonder if shakes there would have been happy with this turn of events because for me in all of the plays classified in the way they are there are elements that show that they bleed between genres King Lear is a tragedy but it's also a history play with moments of comedy Romeo and Juliet I think also defies being simply a tragedy in many respects I think it is perhaps more comedy than tragedy and that's what I'm going to be talking about in this video in addition to querying whether William Shakespeare viewed Romeo and Juliet as a pure tragedy worthy of being classified as it is in the First Folio I also wonder whether his audiences would have done that would they have experienced Romeo and Juliet as unquestionably tragic throughout and so for that I propose we partake in a thought experiment let's imagine it's 1595 and you are among the first people to see Romeo and Juliet in the theatre do you not knowing what you know now read it as a tragedy without question now certainly it's set up by a prologue and if we look at that prologue which reads as follows 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-crossed lovers take their life whose misadventured piteous overthrows doth with their death bury their parents strife the fearful passage of their death mock 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 so we as an audience in 1595 after this prologue cannot be disabused this is going to be a tragedy obviously two star-crossed lovers take their lives its piteous however I would argue that what happens in the next two acts potentially so undercuts the words of the prologue as to almost erasing from memory Oh I wonder if the first audiences of this play having heard the prologue but then watch the next who acts may almost forget what was said in that prologue our first meeting with our eponymous figures are for me straight out of the comedic genre Romeo is lovestruck he is utterly besotted but not with Juliet for they have not met yet and he is mocked for his ardent passion by his cousin Benvolio and his friend Mercutio similarly when we first see Juliet in her bedroom with her nurse and her mother the three are involved in a circular and frankly kind of exhaust berating conversation there is no real foreshadowing of the tragedy that is to come there was a beautiful lightness of touch that shakes their employees as he plays with these relationships and we see them laughing and joking mocking each other becoming exasperated and tired with one another we don't get a sense of impending doom at all here when our eponymous figures first meet at the Capulet party and first lock eyes it would seem that their shared passion is instantaneous and I think that is where this argument of it being true love love at first sight comes in however if we remember that when we started to play Romeo was entirely besotted by another now erased and utterly forgotten in the world of the play I also think it's telling that these two people are teenagers and I wonder what the effect is that when we watch Romeo and Juliet on TV in the cinemas or on stage it's normally much much older people that are playing out these roles does this mean that for us we put more weight on their relationship and attach more truth and value to it than we would if we saw them being played by people of the age they are supposed to be would we think it was sweet silly funny maybe with a hint of danger because young people we know have very poor impulse control I wonder if Romeo and Juliet were by people in their 20s as they most commonly are now would we view this part of the story differently with the first two acts that lead up to this clandestine marriage be eminently more comedic certainly the fact that they run away to get married that they are supporting their parents desires to keep them apart is far more similar to Midsummer Night's Dream than to another tragedy Hermia Helena Lysander and Demetrius flee because they're very confusing love court has been disrupted by the adults around them simile Romeo and Juliet their love story is also being disrupted by the adult conflict that prevents them from being together so when they run off to friar Laurence's cell that stalwart comedic character of an older person who intervenes to bring the lovers together this is pure comedy and act 2 scene 5 ends with their marriage and if the play ended there it would absolutely be viewed as a comedy of course it doesn't various people have argued that with the marriage in act 2 scene 5 the comedy of Romeo and Juliet doesn't and thereafter Romeo and Juliet becomes a tragedy much like I would say Winter's Tale listings being a play of two hearts it is a tragedy up until exit pursued by a bear and then it becomes unquestionably a comedy festive country folk Larkin about leading up to a marriage however I think Romeo and Juliet is slightly more complex than that because in the tragic half I see really strong elements of comedy being played out in fact we don't have to look far to see these elements of comedy within the tragedy in act 3 scene 1 so the very next scene after Romeo and Juliet's secret wedding we see the fight between tybalt and mercutio Mercutio is stabbed under the arm by Thibault and he says the following I am hurt a plague on both your houses I am sped if he'd gone and hath nothing Benvolio what art thou hurt Mercutio as if to lighten the mood and the series's what's happened III a scratch a scratch Mary which is enough whereas my page go villain fetch a surgeon this is not the instant knowledge that he's going to die he is saying that he's going to be fine he just needs the medical help of a surgeon Romeo courage man the hurt cannot be much they are under playing the seriousness of what's happening Mercutio no it is not so deep as a well nor so wide as a church-door but tis enough twill serve ask for me tomorrow and you shall find me a grave man I am peppered I warrant for this world a plague on both your houses xun's a dog a rat a mouse a cat to scratch a man to death a braggart a rogue a villain that fights by the book of arithmetic why the devil came you between us I was hurt under your arm Romeo I thought all for the best Mercutio help me into some house Benvolio or I shall faint a plague on both your houses they have made worms meat of me I have it and soundly to your houses now McHugh she o is angry he is being spiteful too Romeo but he is also making light of the situation that line ask for me tomorrow and you shall find me a grave man it's dark but it's also clearly humorous in the aftermath of Mercutio's death Romeo seeks vengeance and kills Tybalt Juliet's cousin Juliet is therefore doubly grieved she has lost her cousin by the hand of her husband and that husband for committing this violent act is now looking at either a death sentence or banishment nevertheless the two people that help to bring them together in the first place the nurse and Friar Laurence stand by them they don't turn their backs on them in the wake of their poor judgment and their tragedy instead risking their own security they find a way to bring Romeo to Juliet so they may consummate their marriage and have a moment of joy it almost seems as if Shakespeare is weaving hope into these moments that perhaps they will find a way to be together that their love has not been broken by the tragedy that they have found themselves or put themselves into the nurse and Friar Lawrence are successful they bring these two young people back together and then in act 3 scene 5 we see a veritable comedy happening as Romeo and Juliet attempt to sneak him out of her bedchamber with the help of the nurse while Juliet's mother attempts to get her up so she may meet her suitor Paris it's a noises off fast at this point he's at the balcony trying to secretly climb down she's having her laughed kisses her last love with him meanwhile her mother is trying to get her to rouse herself from her tragic misery at the death of Tybalt to get her to come and speak to Paris so that they may marry her off it's frankly ludicrous and I wonder if an audience of 1595 might think well a very sad thing has happened but it seems that these two young people are finding a way to write the ship that they are still being secretive but perhaps the hope remains and the hope of that comedic moment is being presented to them in act 4 scene 1 Paris now considers himself to be Juliet's fiance and the two of them find themselves for a holy man helpfully for Juliet and the plot in general that holy man is Friar Lawrence apparently there is just the one priest in this Verona village nevertheless when Paris departs Juliet threatens to commit suicide to avoid this arranged / forced marriage with Paris but like puck in Midsummer Night's Dream this friar has drugs and charms namely a potion that can make sleep look like death this is a thing that happens in Shakespeare's comedies death is famed in much ado about nothing and also in Winter's Tale and it is famed to preserve the trust in a woman but also to preserve the love held for that woman when Juliet and the friar conspire to fake her death I believe an audience in 1595 would have had lots and lots of hope that this would have brought Romeo and Juliet together that the path of their true love would run smooth now while we see the news of Juliet's death reaching Romeo but not the word of friar Laurence's and Juliet's plan may be a cause for concern for early modern audiences as it is for us I think that as they know that this sleeping draught is to poster we're off while do less in the tomb and we also know that Romeo plans to see her body again I still think that the early modern audience would have hope that by the time he gets there she may just be waking up or about to wake up it's not like he's hearing the news and plans to take his own life away from her yes he puts a plan in motion to get poison but he's always seeking to be reunited with her so I don't think that an audience in 1595 would necessarily have thought that it was going to play out the way it does in the final act of the play act 5 scene 3 I think we can see a moment of actually pure pantomime Romeo makes his way to the Capulet tomb where he encounters Paris he dispatches him quickly he opens the tomb revealing Juliet a grave oh no Lantern slaughtered youth for here lies juliet and her beauty makes this vault a feasting presence full of light he bears the body of Paris to the tomb death live out there by a dead man interred how oft when men are at the point of death that they marry which their keepers call a lightning before death oh how may I call this a lightning oh my love my wife death that hath suck'd the honey of thy breath hath had no power yet upon thy beauty thou art not conquer'd beauty's ensign yet is crimson in thy lips and in thy cheeks and deaths pale flag is not advancing there tibalt liest thou there in thy bloody sheet Oh what more favour can I do thee than with that hand that cut thy youth in twain to sunder his that was thine enemy forgive me cousin ah dear Juliet why art thou yet so fair shall I believe that unsubstantial death is amorous and that the lean abhorred monster keeps thee here in dark to be his paramour for fear of that I will stay with thee and never from this palette of dim night depart again here here will I remain with worms that are thy chambermaids Oh here will i set up my everlasting rest and shake the yoke of inauspicious stars from this world-wearied flesh eyes look your last arms take your last embrace and lips oh you doors of breath seal with a righteous kiss a dateless bargain to engrossing death he kisses Juliet then pours poison into the cup come bitter conduct come unsavoury guide thou desperate pilot now at once run on the dashing rocks thy seasick weary bark here's to my love he drinks the poison o true apothecary thy drugs are quick thus with a kiss I die he kisses Juliet falls and dies for me the extensive nature of this speech that's given by Romeo the way he pays homage to both Paris anti bolt and also of course extensively to Juliet to her beauty the fact that he mentions at length that she doesn't look dead the it seems that she is but sleeping I would think that there would be some among the audience of 1595 that like a pantomime might have called out she's alive she's behind you she's not really dead and that is a thing of comedy not tragedy it's almost as if Shakespeare is elongating the process for Romeo's death to foster or to continue to foster the hope that these two may have their happy ending all that remains is for Juliet to wake up and I would argue that this is William Shakespeare's dark joke to which the punchline is Juliet doesn't wake up if we think about how long how extensive Romeo speech is that he takes the poison out and pause it there's yet more speech and yet once he drinks all we hear is our pathi cream thy drugs are quick thus for the kiss I die so he said all of these lines and then the moment of his death happens so quickly with Juliet still asleep almost as if to compound the dark comedy of this moment as soon as Romeo breathed his last Friar Laurence and Balthazar break into the tomb they recognize the great tragedy that's taking place and Juliet wakes up her demise is so Swift in comparison to her paramours she says the following go get thee hence for I will not away what's here a cup closed in my true love's hands poison I see hath been his timeless end o churl drunk all and left no friendly drop to help me after I will kiss thy lips haply some poison yet doth hang on them to make me die with a restorative she kisses Romeo's lips my lips are warm the chief watchman is heard saying lead boy which way Juliet sensing that she is about to be yay noise then I'll be brief she takes Romeo's dagger oh happy dagger this is thy sheath there rust and let me die she stabs herself Falls and dies after the deaths of Romeo and Juliet all hope of a comedic happy outcome are lost and the play ends with the princes lines saying the following a glooming peace this morning with it brings the Sun for sorrow will not show his head go hence to have more talk of these sad things some shall be pardoned and some punished it for never was a story of more woe than this of Juliet and her Romeo what do you think do you think that Shakespeare intended Romeo and Juliet to be an uncomplicated tragedy do you think that that's how his first audiences may have viewed it if not if like me you think that they probably saw it as a play of two hearts how did you may experience that I think Shakespeare's very clever that he takes the comedy elements and continues to pepper them through the tragedy of the second half because I think it actually increased the tragedy in the comedy we have hope of a happy resolution that these two young people might actually make it work despite what the prologue said I wonder if we actually feel sadder because that doesn't come to fruition I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comment section down below or come and find me over on my social media I'll leave the links in the description box you can follow me there and we can get to me the conversation I hope you've enjoyed this video and found it useful if you did please let me know by clicking the like button please also subscribe to my channel and click the bed icon so that YouTube tells you when I've next uploaded I hope you can have a great day whatever you're doing and I look forward to speaking to all in my next video take care of yourselves bye bye for now [Music] [Music]

Channel: Reading the Past

Views: 13,634

Rating: 4.9453554 out of 5

Keywords: William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, Genre, English Literature, Revision, GCSE, A-Level, Education, Literature, Culture, History, Early Modern, Renaissance

Id: 6oBHm9cDa5M

Length: 22min 18sec (1338 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 26 2019