Shakespeare puts a semantic field around Romeo in Romeo and Juliet. Some of the reasons why I think there is a semantic field around Romeo in the play are because every thing that happened makes it feel as if it is Romeo’s destiny. For example the coincidence that happened in Act I, Scene v of the play where, out of all the people in the world, the servant who had the list for the Capulet party found Romeo to ask him to read the list because the Capulet servant could not read. Also in the movie the Artist (Baz luhramann) kept in the movie a vital part which was a important coincidence that changed everything but because it was in the modern day Baz luhramann put it on a TV rather then a serving man finding Romeo.
Surprisingly there where many more of these vital coincidences, for example when Romeo had a dream that the party he was going to was going to lead to his death but he is still going to go because he feels as if it is his destiny to go to the party so he does not fight it and just goes with it. In the both the play and the movie it really does make an atmosphere of mystery and meaning at the same time. In order to strengthen this semantic field, Shakespeare uses metaphors a example of this is when Romeo talks as if he was a ship because he says things such as “but he hath the steerage of my course direct my sail!” In that same speech by Romeo he is trying to say that he feels as if god is guiding him and stirring him towards his fiat which creates a semantic field.
In addition to this There is one last thing which creates the semantic field around Romeo this is that at the very beginning of the play in the prologue it says “where two star crossed lovers take there life’s” this creates a semantic field because it makes it feel as if it is fate and that means that it is going to be his fait to die with Juliet this creates a strong but simple semantic field.
And that is why I think that Romeo has a semantic field around him in the play.
By Tobias
October 12, 2015 at 8:55 pm
As we discussed this afternoon, Tobias, this is a very strong first attempt. Because I need an exemplar for the new badge (which you can find here), is it ok if I take your basic essay and make some of the stylistic changes we discussed?
Just for the record, we talked about:
1) Writing your response using terms that demonstrate that you understand that you’re writing about Shakespeare’s craft as a writer
2) Working on developing some more nuanced ways of expressing what are some very impressive ideas. This means instead of starting each paragraph the same way with “there is, there are, also there were”, you could develop paragraph starters that read more like they are developing an idea – something like “In addition to…” or “Surprisingly…” etc.
I look forward to reading your amended version of this analysis. It’s so close to unlocking the Semantic Field badge… but why not go for “Perfect Page” at the same time?
CW
October 12, 2015 at 9:15 pm
October 14, 2015 at 11:43 pm
Thanks for taking my advice, Tobias – I think it works too. If you do one more thing: correct your missing capitalisations, you’ll also unlock the perfect page badge.