has become familiar to the point of cliche; an icon of romantic love. But when the play was first performed, c.1594-6, it would have been a bold and surprising interpretation of tragedy. Tragedy conventionally focused on the fall of great and powerful men (think of Shakespeare's best known tragic heroes: Hamlet, Othello, Lear, Macbeth) while romance was the stuff of comedy, but in

Shakespeare made two teenage lovers and the domestic quarrels that surrounded them the focus for tragedy. In so doing he explored the fraught interplay of family relations, desire, clandestine marriage, loyalty, violence, ritual, and the role of servants and clerics. For

is not the simple play it is often assumed to be, nor does it warrant the critical…

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Citation: Roberts, Sasha. "Romeo and Juliet". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 30 June 2002; last revised 10 September 2019. [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=2326, accessed 24 April 2024.]

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