Interpreting Romeo and Juliet

K S Sivakumaran

Literature lends itself to different interpretations. If you take Shakespeare’s enjoyable tragic-comedy for instance, critics have seen this play differently over the ages. Students studying this play for examination purposes only do not feel much of the tragic element in the play nor the accidental mistakes made by the Friar as the correct action or even critical of the rash action taken by the protagonists. However literary critics continue to revere the play as a study of youth and foolishness on the part of the antagonistic clans of the Elizabethan period.

What I propose to do in this week’s column is to interpret my understanding of the play substantiated by the considered views of both past and present critics. This will help the students, I believe, to know how the critics approached the play chronologically. Alfred Rothschild wrote that ‘by text we mean the words the characters actually speak. While it is true that this text, written in Elizabethan English, contains words and phrases no longer in common usage, allusions to matters and events no longer easily recognised, and various other obscurities, thee was never any doubt about one rule; the basic text should not be violated’

The reign of Elizabeth 1 in England gave an impetus for the playwright to write such a teenage play making it interesting to the viewers then to enjoy a romantic comedy but he twisted into a tragedy making the passionate lovers to end their lives rather without thinking and thereby showing their immaturity. The irony of the play is that only at the tragic end do the hostile parents of the lovers unite ending their feud. In other words in modern context it is a simple play with a psychological undertone.

The play can be enjoyed at two levels: as a text and as a play that yields to theatrical presentation. We shall concentrate on the text.

Look at what Oscar J Campbell introduces the play: “Romeo and Juliet dramatizes the world’s most famous tale of idealistic first love – love at all costs, love faithful unto death. Many critics, charmed by the lyrical manner and tone of the play, describe it not as a tragedy of love but a love’s hymn of triumph. Romeo vows he will bury Juliet in a “triumphant grave”.

What is the moral theme of the action in the play? It is nothing but the reconciliation of the two families –the Montague and the Capulet – at the end of the tragedy over the dead bodies of their children –Romeo and Juliet- Although the play ends in a kind of comedy, it is basically a tragedy that occurred owing to the rashness of the teenage lovers who were star-crossed. That is why we may call the play a tragic-comedy.

This well – explained by Campbell in this way: fate, or fortune as Shakespeare most often calls it, proves to be a much more dangerous foe to the pair than the feud. Fortune plays almost as sinister a role. Fear or fate fills the speeches of the lovers with foreboding in phrases like those uttered by Romeo while on his way to the Capulet dance.

Although Romeo might have had a crush on another girl earlier he really became passionate in love with Juliet and the latter was too naive to understand what ’love’ was at the beginning falls deeply in love with Romeo. These two faced an uncomprehending and hostile world. As one critic pointed out: “Shakespeare chooses a flash of lightening in the darkness of night as the most striking symbol of the love" of the protagonists.

Let me quote a brilliant observation by Campbell that I accept: “Shakespeare transformed the atmosphere of the lurid tale into a masterpiece of fear and pity.

His methods are the ways of the genius, which to describe is not to explain. But we can readily see that they have deepened the human significance of a story of violence and horror.”

Shakespeare’s art lies in the fact that he succeeds in making us feel complete sympathy for the lovers. However the present day youngsters resort to straight action of physical contact than to go through the process of genuine love step by step. So as in 'Romeo and Juliet', the famous balcony scenes (as depicted in the Ramayana between Rama and Sita) or in the Tamil film 'Ambikaapathy' (between Ambikapathy and Amaravathy) may not be enjoyed by the youth of present day as we did enjoy even as teenagers.

However, the lyrical poetic lines of the Master are almost musical. As the critic puts it, ‘ The ecstatic antiphonal of the lovers in the balcony scene, the touching expression of their grief and longings they part after their wedding night, no less than Juliet’s terrified anticipation of her awakening in the tomb, are all intensified by the music which rings through the lines.”

He adds: When Romeo and Juliet speak from the depths of their hearts, they fall into the idiom of supremely natural songs and lyrics which made Elizabethan England a fountain of spontaneous music.

What Shakespeare says through the mouth of the nurse in the play might delight most of the teenagers, I believe.

According to her love is merely a form of physical delight in which feelings of romance, even of loyalty, is an intrusion. However Shakespeare pre-warns that a passion-driven youth like Romeo inevitably meets disaster.

One may conclude that Romeo and Juliet has elements of tragedy, namely, fate, evil in society and passion in the individual.

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