Analysis 40-line fragment Romeo and Juliet

Act 2 scene 3 ll. 1 – 44

After the balcony scene, Romeo comes to Friar Lawrence’s cell and finds him between the beautiful flowers. The first 30 lines is an introduction of the friar, it tells about his flowers and how he uses them. This is important for the audience, otherwise they won’t know what he really is. Friar thinks he has not been sleeping last night because of Rosaline, his previous lover. This is false, Romeo came to visit the friar for serious help. He wanted to marry Juliet in secret. Friar does not want to help at first, later he does.

Romeo always comes to the friar for some wise advice, just like Juliet. Friar Lawrence marries the two lovers and later on, they come back for advice and help. The friar plays an important role in Romeo’s and Juliet’s life; he marries them, he helps Juliet to not marry Paris, he informs Romeo about his banishment and if they need any help, he’s there.

The tone in the fragment is pretty neutral and anxious. Romeo is up early and the friar thinks it’s no good. The tone of the friar himself is changing a lot. He starts off having a good day, the sun is shining and it’s all good. When he sees Romeo, he’s getting anxious because he’s up so early. The friar is nearly getting scared when he thinks Romeo has been with Rosaline (quote: “God pardon sin! Wast thou with Rosaline?”). Romeo his tone is neutral, he’s not happy, but just as nice as always. This will change later in the scene.

By using a lot of details, Shakespeare creates a situation wherein people may feel like they’re really there, when Friar Lawrence is talking. He also uses rhyme. (quote: “The earth that’s nature’s mother is her tomb; What is her burying grave, that is her womb”) Shakespeare also used alliteration, I’m not sure whether he did this on purpose. (quote: “So soon” “therefore thy”) What is also very remarkable is that nearly all nouns have an adjective (quote: “frowning night”, “burning eye”). 

Commenting on translation and what was my part in the translation?

Laura and me both translated Act 1 scene 1.  We wanted to have a more like a ‘gangster’ version of Romeo and Juliet. We have used NoFearShakespear for translations, just to have a look at the modern version. We did not copy it directly.
I have to admit that Laura has done more than I did. This was simply because she worked on it during cancelled periods and I did not have a laptop with me.

We kept the ‘naked weapon’ joke because it was a pervy joke and an important quote. Boys are often more sexually in making remarks, and Sampson made this remark. The “Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?” we changed into “Do you give us the finger?”. Many people do not know about biting the thumb as an insult to another person, this is why we changed it to giving the finger.

To use ‘modern’ insulting words, the play became more from nowadays.
The fragment of Romeo and Benvolio is a pretty important one, Romeo tells about his love for Rosaline. This is one of the most important events in the beginning, it comes back later during the play. To keep this part clear, we did not use too much ‘gangster’ words. The point Romeo tries to make is very clear.

Because of the fact that our play did not have many different events, it is not really interesting to get into every detail. I think our translation was pretty good and clear. It is a very important scene because this is where it all starts. 

Evaluation Romeo and Juliet

On the 8th of June, the time was there. We all had to perform Romeo and Juliet and I actually really liked it! I did not know all of my lines but I just sneaked to Sanne, behind the curtains, to read through my lines.  I expected it to be a huge fail, no one really knew his or her lines. The rehearsals we did in class were not really good in my opinion. It was chaotic. After only one rehearsal with all of us together, which already took us like 3 hours, I thought we wouldn’t fail as badly as I expected before. During the performance, it was pretty much fun. Romy fell on the ground while the curtains were still closed, she screamed “AU” and we all laughed. I think most of the audience did not know what had happened. People forgot their lines and just improvised some lines. Curtains got closed while the scene had not finished yet. I don’t really care though, I’ve had a fun and awesome evening with everyone together! Even in such a short time, I think we did a pretty great job!