Desperation, the Killer of Love

Desperation, the Killer of Love

In this project, I am going to discuss the influences of desperation on Romeo and Juliet’s love. It is nearly a world-accepted notion that the love between them is so invulnerable that even death could not separate them apart. However, tasting the artwork carefully, I start to doubt that is their love really that strong and immutable? The answer should be various in different people’s interpretations, and for me, it turns to be “no”. The love between them was not affected by external factors such as the feud of their families but by the desperations of both Romeo and Juliet after the banishment of the bridegroom. Because both of the characters are young and impulsive, any incident could alter their emotions and lead to irrational actions.This analysis helps me to focus on the internal changes of both characters critically and understand the actual cause of the tragedy deeply.

I am going to stage two scene to prove my analysis. The first scene is Act2 Scene1, where Romeo and Juliet express their profound love to each other after they fall in love for the first time. They could hardly leave each other at that scene and promise to reunite as soon as possible. I will emphasize on how they are not willing to separate by letting Romeo stay alone under the balcony for a long time and letting Juliet run out for multiple times saying “goodbye” to Romeo. The second scene is also laid on the balcony, when Romeo is forced to leave Juliet because of the banishment. Compared to the first scene, this scene is totally lethargic. Although Juliet keeps to say that morning has not came yet and Romeo does not have to leave, she does not react as excited or hopeful as she does in the first scene. As for Romeo, he is completely hopeless. He flees quickly, without even a serious promise for Juliet. He does not think for Juliet or try to comfort her, but only worries about his banishment and feels the desperation of himself. 

These scenes only need two people to play, and I will be Juliet. Since I always read the play at the perspective of Juliet and combine my experience with the play, I seem to understand her feelings well. I always dream of being a girl like her, innocent, straightforward and brave. By acting this role, I could pretend to be this young lady and put myself into the character. It would be pretty easy for us to equally share the preparation process and the actual performance, and we would like to discuss and prepare everything together. The challenge for us is to make the scenes alive and emphasize on our thesis rather then just reciting the dialogue. 

I can't wait to start this project! Hope that we could finish it successfully!