Friday, 23 March 2012

"Love vs Love" Theme ;


One major theme that I believe has been portrayed throughout the play is “Love vs Lust” has been shown. The quote “If he married, my grave is like to be my wedding bedwhich is said by Juliet has a unfathomable meaning. In my opinion, this quote is portraying that if Juliet gets married to someone else, or when she has passed away, she will forever be waiting on her true love Romeo. Romeo is probably the only one she could ever love, because for her it was Love at first sight. Her love towards him is astonishing; she’d rather die than marry anyone else.






The second quote I chose was “Alike bewitched by the charm of looks” in my opinion, this quote is portraying that when they first seen each other, they never based it on personality it was based on the way they both looked, and how one another appeared. It does not say that they fell for each other, based on their personality or the way the person is on the inside. The night of the Capulet’s party Romeo had seen her and chased after her because he fell in love with her beauty instantly.


 She had felt the same way about him from the time she had noticed he had spotted her across the room. They talked for a second, and she ran with him and kissed him. Since then they have been inseparable, gazing over each other any chance they get. It’s due to lust that they first fell in love, love at first sight lead them to be together. 







Who is Responsible for Juliet's Death;




In the play Romeo & Juliet, Juliet dies a tragic death. In my opinion, the person who was responsible for Juliet’s death were the people who didn’t approve the way of life that she had wanted.  It mostly consisted of her entire family and anyone in her family who hated the Montague family. Due to everyone’s pride and selfishness throughout the play, Juliet had to hide her relationship, and the biggest part of a young women’s life her marriage with Romeo. In one of the scenes throughout the movie, Juliet had expressed that she has had enough with the difficulty her father had given her. She was forced to love a man she barely knew, by her father.





Juliet had hid around her mother and father rules, just to spend time with Romeo. They soon decided they wanted to get married, and be with each other but before this wedding could happen, Juliet already drank the poison and died.  Romeo’s friend Benvolio had found about the funeral and immediately told Romeo what had happened to his love.




 Romeo was in shock, and he was devastated that the one that he had loved had been gone. Romeo had thought of a way for him and Juliet to be together forever, he bought a cup of poison and decided to end his life to be with her.  He went a far way, and risked his life to go see his beloved Juliet. He laid over her, telling her how much he loves thee and he didn’t realize that she was slowly waking up.




In spite of that he did not realize until he had drank the poison and it was already too late for Juliet to do anything about it. Juliet didn’t know what to do, but cry. She looked at Romeo and picked up the gun that was lying on top of the bed and braced it against her head and took her life, knowing that it would be the only way for them to be together. Therefore, Romeo and Juliet both die knowing that their own families the Montague’s and the Capulet’s will never accept or allow them to be together no matter how much they tried. 






Monday, 19 March 2012

Rhetorical Device ; Personification


A rhetorical device is a technique that a writer uses to convey a meaning with the goal of persuading the listener to consider a topic from a different perspective. Shakespeare, a famous play writer is well known for various rhetorical devices throughout his work. In his classical play, “Romeo and Juliet” I seemed to notice many of the rhetorical devices used, but the one that stood out to me the most was personification.  Personification is a figure of speech in which an inanimate object or abstraction is given human qualities or abilities.  This is illustrated in the play when in Act Two, Scene Two Romeo says, “Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon”. In this quote Shakespeare is comparing Romeo to the moon and asking Juliet to come out for him. Another example is in Act Two, Scene 3 when Friar says. "The grey-eyed morn smiles on the frowning night". Shakespeare is saying that it is early in the morning, and he is describing the sun rise. He uses adjectives and adverbs to describe the noun. In conclusion, these are two of the many other examples of the rhetorical device known as personification depicted in the play that stood out to me the most. 

Gender Sterotyping ;


Romeo and Juliet is a timeless class, we still have to consider the fact that it was written ages ago, and women were thought of as less. Now women are viewed as equal but as the weaker sex. The play perpetuates the stereotypes that women are weaker than men. They stereotype all the women as being weak. Sampson says to Gregory, “women being the weaker vessels, are ever thrust his maids to the wall.” He is saying that women are less important and that’s the way women were seen as.
                Women aren’t seen as independent and as individuals. Men thought of them as degrading and an item. In Romeo & Juliet Sampson says they are “weaker vessels. I believe that this is the way women will be seen as and treated all throughout the rest of the play. Women will be treated as objects and seen as weak because this is how women were looked upon during these times. In the play we will see the men continue to act like they are more powerful while the women are there for and to do whatever the men want.
                Today stereotyping of gender still goes on in our society. Women are still seen as the substandard sex and men are still seen as a more powerful. Even though it may not be a stereotype that is often taken place as it was in the past, it still exists in society today. Women are still treated differently than men are. They are stereotyped based on gender in almost everything. 

Friday, 2 March 2012

Star-Crossed Lovers ;


    A star-crossed lover is a phrase that refers to two people who care a lot for each other but due to their circumstances, they cannot be together. These relationships are just not meant to be from the beginning and nothing can change that. In real life this phrase is interpreted to mean that fate which are the stars have already determined that two people that love each other cannot live happily ever after no matter what.  

     However this is reality but to make it even more interesting, almost all films along with books these days interpret the fact that fate is what plays a role in making the star crossed lovers end up being together in the end and living their life happily ever after. They go through and overcome obstacles in the end as being one, but we has humans know for a fact that it is almost impossible for characters like that to be together in the end even if there love is very true and strong.

      Moreover, examples of star crossed couples in movies include
The Notebook (Ally and Noah), Twilight (Edward and Bella) and The Vow (Paige and Leo) In all of these couples, the main star crossed couple in each movie end up having to deal with many obstacles that come their way such as having different personalities to leading to not possible or not expecting circumstances, such as an accident. But in the end, they still end up being with each other and live happily as one.

      In the movie, The Notebook, the star crossed couple Ally and Noah are together in the beginning, but due to harsh circumstances they had to separate from each other and end up living a completely different life. Ally even ends up with another guy and is at the edge of getting married to him, but she still results in going back to visit Noah and this takes place just when you as a viewer think they got over each other. Her feelings for him arise within her once again because he was her first true love. She ends up leaving her fiancé and gets married to Noah and they live happily ever after. This is a valid example of something that does not exist in the real life, but since it was a movie, it was possible. 

      Another movie that portrays this is Twilight and its saga. The main star crossed couple, Edward and Bella are completely from two different worlds but they end up meeting each other. Edward is a vampire while Bella is a human, and this is something that is not possible in real life. This type of situation makes it seem impossible for a couple like that to be together and live happily, but this movie proves otherwise and shows that they overcome all the obstacles that come their way. A couple that consists of a human and a vampire is something that just does not happen, well it should not happen. In the end Bella becomes a vampire herself and she becomes the mother of Edward’s child, who is also a vampire. Basically they live happily ever after which is something that is not possible in real life in any circumstance. This takes place due to a dominant or powerful force known as fate, which interferes in their love story and makes them   overcome all obstacles and end up being together in the end living happily.

      On the other hand, we have to take into consideration that in real life, this is not possible and we should not let movies or books shape our expectations to be so high that in the end we end up severely hurt, if we ever come across the same situation being in a relationship. The fiction works make us watch what they think we want to see, but we need to remember that even though these movies may lead us to have high expectations in love, we do not always get what we want in life because life is not fair or the fact that it does not go the way you want it to go.  In conclusion, the main role that fate plays or portrays towards romantic relationships is basically to give second chances along with breaks to each other when you are in a relationship and that too if it just does not seem realistic in any way. 

Thursday, 23 February 2012

Why we hate a big part of creating, perpetrating and sustaining racism;



                In life there are times in which we hate on others and mostly these people are the ones we fear. In the book, “The Help” Ms.Hilly was hated on by the black people since the hate they had for her was fuelled by fear. She was a powerful white southern woman and this was one of the fears the black people had considering the fact that she was different. Also in the pod cast, “The Bad Show” Sitz Haber was a hated man in the eyes of a lot of people because he created a chlorine gas that murdered many soldiers. Secondly, in the book Ms.Hilly was pleased when the idea of the bathrooms being installed outside for the black people went into action. This shows the hatred she had towards the black maids. Sitz Haber was proud when the chlorine gas that he had created worked on the soldiers because it caused them a long and painful death. Thirdly, in the book “The Help” Celia Foote’s first impression of Ms.Hilly was that she was a good person. However, Celia Foote’s thoughts soon changed because she slowly saw all the negative things that Ms.Hilly had done to her.  Similar to Ms.Hilly, Sitz Haber was a good person for saving a lot of lives but then when he created the chlorine gas that killed many people, it changed the positive opinions towards him. It lead to him being hated on due to that one mistake. Lastly, Kathryn Stockett, the author of “The Help” intended for us to have hatred towards Ms.Hilly and the things that she does. In conclusion, Ms.Hilly and Sitz Haber once did good deeds which helped them gain their good reputation, but because of their decisions along with actions later on, they were thought of very negatively.