The notes were prepared for use with an edition of Romeo and Juliet bound together with the book for West Side Story and in conjunction with a showing of Franco Zeffirelli's film version of the play, but they will be useful with any edition or production.The introduction focuses primarily on comparisons with West Side Story, so it has relatively little to say about the play as such. As noted, this is often regarded as a lesser Shakespeare tragedy by scholars, but what should also be kept in mind is that audiences have made it one of the most beloved plays of all time from the Elizabethan Age to the present. Romeo and Juliet are often considered the archetypal lovers, and at one time "a romeo"--meaning a lover--was a common noun. Several operas and ballets have been based on the story. The play also contains some of Shakespeare's most-quoted lines, and some of the most beautiful.Although Shakespeare's dialogue often reads beautifully enough on the page, please keep in mind that he never intended his words to be read. This is a script for performance, and our study of it will prepare us for a version of the real thing: the film version directed by Franco Zeffirelli. Like all productions, it is an interpretation, leaving some things out, putting others in, placing emphases differently than other productions. Your goal

in this assignment should be to familiarize (or refamiliarize) yourself with exactly what Shakespeare wrote so that you can observe what it is Zeffirelli has done with it.Shakespeare wrote almost no original plots. He used an English poetic retelling of an old Italian tale: Arthur Brooke's The Tragicall History of Romeus and Juliet. Despite its Italian setting, the language, attitudes, and customs are generally English. In one respect, Shakespeare altered the story in a way which is shocking to modern audiences: he lowered Juliet's age from sixteen to just under fourteen. There are several reasons he might have done so. Boys played the female roles in Shakespeare's theater, and they might have been more convincing as young girls than as more mature women (though audiences presumably found a boy playing Cleopatra or Lady Macbeth satisfactory). Shakespeare emphasizes the over-hastiness and premature nature of this love affair and probably felt he was underlining this theme at a time when marriage at fifteen was considered by no means shocking, though marriage at eighteen or twenty was in fact much more common. Shakespeare was notoriously inept at depicting children in his plays and he may not have had a really clear idea of what a fourteen-year-old girl would be like. Finally, the fact that the story is Italian may have fitted in

with Northern European prejudices about hot-blooded early-maturing Southerners. However we imagine her, Juliet is given some of the most brilliant and memorable lines in the play, and is notable for her courage and wit.Italian cities were infamous for their long-lasting, deadly feuds between prominent families. Elizabeth, like most absolute monarchs, abhorred dueling and feuding and tried to suppress it. Shakespeare's play is in part his contribution to her "just say no" campaign against such conflicts.

第二篇：读《罗密欧与朱丽叶》有感

花了近一个月的时间才读完《罗密欧与朱丽叶》，顿时心潮澎湃，感受颇丰溢。不读《罗密欧与朱丽叶》，不足以见证伟大的戏剧家莎士比亚结构艺术的匠心独运。尽管，莎士比亚时代那诗化的戏剧风格已经在历史的洗涤中荡尽，偶尔的还能够在现代戏剧的缝隙中找寻出它的踪迹。但是，莎翁剧作中那美妙而娓娓的语言，丰满珣丽的艺术构想依旧值得我们当代的戏剧家和文学爱好者学习和借鉴的。细细的拜读《罗密欧与朱丽叶》，我得到了些生命的思考。

学者对《罗密欧与朱丽叶》是不是悲剧等问题的争论已然旷日持久，莫衷一是，喋喋不休地,面红耳赤地争吵了几百年，我认为是没有必要的。品读一篇著作，可以有不同的角度，不同的立场，不同的思考。著作只有在众说纷纭中才能激发读者的思考和提升自己的艺术价值。所以说，应该允许对《罗密欧与朱丽叶》有着不同而又合理的见解。求同存异地对待分歧，一直都有着积极乐观的意义。

如果说将《罗密欧与朱丽叶》看作为悲剧，那么该剧究竟是社会悲剧还是命运悲剧呢？笔者认为，如果将该剧片面的划属于某一类，那么对《罗密欧与朱丽叶》的品读和思考未免太偏颇了。应该说《罗密欧与朱丽叶》既是社会悲剧，又是命运悲剧。

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《罗密欧与朱丽叶》是社会悲剧，因为男女主人公身处新旧婚姻观念的转型时期，这个时期并不可能给予年轻人太多选择爱情和婚姻的权利和自由。旧的婚姻观念给予封建家长更多的权力，子女的婚姻由封建家长包办，完全没有追求爱情和自由的可能，而这样机械的婚姻大多是利益的买卖或者是政治的嫁接。旧的婚姻观念漠视年轻人的思想和行为趋向，同时也漠视感情包括爱情，扼杀了无数年轻人所拥有的青春激情和对美好生活的向往。文艺复兴时期艺术对旧的思想体制和社会体制的猛烈抨击，体现了人类情感世界沉睡后的觉然苏醒，体现了突破已僵化陈旧观念的精神程式时的革命性和进步性。《罗密欧与朱丽叶》是文艺复兴时期的作品，该剧揭露了封建社会的残酷暴虐，控诉了那个古老的世界对人类纯洁感情和年轻一代的残酷迫害。朱丽叶是文艺复兴时期人文主义理想中的新女性，在她身上体现了人文主义的新的恋爱观，她敢于主动寻求个人幸福。她敢于挑战凯普莱特的男性霸权，敢于为了追求自己的爱情而付出一切乃至生命。我们也知道，凡是旧的事物刚开始时经过长时间的发展必然有强大的生命力来适应历史和时代的变迁。当有新的进步的事物横生要来取而代之时，旧的事物会表现得非常强大，来反抗改变或革新。所以新的进步的事物在完全取代旧事物前必须经过大规模而又持久的冲击。这样才能使得旧事物的分崩离析，尔后建立起新的秩序。旧的婚姻观念在新的

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婚姻观念面前依旧强大，当新旧之间的矛盾不可调和，则新婚姻观念必然会用毁灭美好爱情的方法来释放更大的力量，去唤醒更多的年轻人去颠覆旧的落后的婚姻观念。愈是美好的东西，它的毁灭愈是能够产生振聋发聩的美学效果，这也是该剧开始为什么就极力渲染两家宿仇的同时又极力渲染他们之间至真至美的爱情的原因，为他们的爱情悲剧做了重要的铺垫。所以说，有着当时大的社会矛盾的存在，必然会有《罗密欧与朱丽叶》的社会悲剧，使得男女主人公的命运在冥冥中早已有了定数。也表明了这样的悲剧不是一种偶然，同时期，会有千万对情侣经历着他们的经历。

《罗密欧与朱丽叶》是命运悲剧。首先，男女主人公的出生就是一个命运的悲剧。如果说，他们都生活在社会的中下层，那么封建家长与他们的矛盾和冲突必然会减少，因为社会地位的低下，使得封建家长在考虑子女的婚姻时会减少附带因素的考虑和要求。这样，封建家长对子女追求爱情的要求的禁锢会相应的减少。也不会使得新旧婚姻观念的冲突演变为用生命去殉情。出生在贵族，就注定悲剧。封建家长对子女的管制是全面而严厉的，而论及婚姻时，封建家长都会考虑到经济，门第，政治等等的因素，使得原本纯洁的婚姻变得功利而扑朔不定。所以说，从他们的出生说起，这已然是一种命运的悲剧。

而后来的一系列巧合更加重了宿命的色彩，显示了冥冥

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中命运的力量。要是凯普莱特对自己的女儿朱丽叶克制一些；要是神父的信送到罗密欧的手里；要是神父在罗密欧殉情前来到坟墓，哪怕这么多“要是”中有一个能够实现，那么悲剧不再是悲剧。但是，这一切都没有发生，由此促成了悲剧的发生。不管主人公相爱得有多么深，不管主人公如何奋力抗争和巧妙地安排，最终都无法逃脱既定命运的悲剧。挣扎是徒劳的，悲剧是无法改变的。

应该说《罗密欧与朱丽叶》是社会悲剧和命运悲剧的结晶体，任何片面地说，该剧仅仅属于社会悲剧或者是命运悲剧是错误的。社会的因素是指当时期某一范围的人具有着共同的社会环境，而不区别于人与人的差别，是整个社会对社会中所有人的共同作用。这样的大环境对每个人的人生都起着很大的作用，而命运是区别于人与人，施加于个人的小环境和小的作用。命运不同，则同一社会里的人会有着不同的人生轨迹和人生价值。命运在很大程度上决定于社会，命运的小环境又会反过来影响社会的大环境。所以说，社会和命运是紧密联系的，任何一方都不能脱离另一方而单独存在，故《罗密欧与朱丽叶》既是社会悲剧又是命运悲剧。

其实，《罗密欧与朱丽叶》也是喜剧。虽然男女主人公因为种种现实原因和偶然因素最终双双殉情，很多学者学者因此认为《罗密欧与朱丽叶》是一部不折不扣的悲剧，甚至有人说，从来没有哪个悲剧故事比它更能让人悲痛。然而细

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细地品读该剧，就会发现剧中悲剧场面，戏剧场面及抒情性场景相互交替，使剧情色彩斑斓起来。其间有优雅的舞会，情人的约会，甜蜜的情话，极富浪漫色彩。剧本最后尽管以罗密欧与朱丽叶的死亡为结局。然而，我们应该注意到，两大家族由此得以和好，着实令人欣慰。用阿尼克斯特的话说，“悲剧成分与喜剧成分的配合本来就是莎士比亚剧本的特色，实际上在莎剧里伟大的东西和可笑的东西常常只有一纸之隔”这使我们联想起弗莱对《圣经》的评论——“伤感的喜剧”， 《罗密欧与朱丽叶》也是一部伤感的喜剧。

爱情是崇高而神圣的，男女主人公在追求爱情无望的情况下用生命去捍卫爱情，这样的勇气不得不令人敬仰，也是现在众多青年人效仿的表率。罗密欧与朱丽叶之间的爱情是极其理想化的，它抛弃了一切的世俗观念和一切的附加要求。罗密欧与朱丽叶让人看到了爱情的本质——没有原因，爱了就爱了。

读了《罗密欧与朱丽叶》，我终于明白，原来世界上还有比生命更重要的东西，那就是至真至美的爱情。值得我们用生命来捍卫，值得我们用一生去守候。

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