Romeo and JulietContributors to this Volume: James Bemis ""Star-crossed"" Romeo and Juliet are Shakespeare's most famous lovers. A staple of high school reading lists, the tragedy especially resonates with young adult readers who, like Romeo and Juliet, have experienced the exhilarating and perilous phenomenon of being ""in love"". Given the tragic ending of the play, what does Shakespeare illustrate about his teen protagonists: Are they the hapless victims of fate, or are they responsible for the poor choices they make? Is their love the ""real thing"", or is it self-indulgent passion run amok? These are some of the ever relevant questions discussed in this critical edition of Romeo and Juliet. The Ignatius Critical Editions represent a tradition-oriented alternative to popular textbook series such as the Norton Critical Editions or Oxford World Classics, and are designed to concentrate on traditional readings of the Classics of world literature. While many modern critical editions have succumbed to the fads of modernism and post-modernism, this series will concentrate on tradition-oriented criticism of these great works. Edited by acclaimed literary biographer, Joseph Pearce, the Ignatius Critical Editions will ensure that traditional moral readings of the works are given prominence, instead of the feminist, or deconstructionist readings that often proliferate in other series of 'critical editions'. As such, they represent a genuine extension of consumer-choice, enabling educators, students and lovers of good literature to buy editions of classic literary works without having to 'buy into' the ideologies of secular fundamentalism. |
From inside the book
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... look at love itself. What is love? And, equally important, what is love not? Romeo, with the naïve certainty of youth, is confident that he has the answer: Love is a smoke rais'd with the fume of sighs; Being purg'd, a fire sparkling in ...
... look for it at all. Since, to succumb to a cliché, there are none so blind as those who will not see, Mercutio is blinder to the reality of love than is the naïve and love-struck Romeo. It is not love that is blind but those who are ...
... looks. (2 Prol. 1–6) The voice of the Chorus, being impartial and aloof and therefore closest to the narrative voice of the playwright, makes no distinction between the nature of Romeo's love for Rosaline and that which he has for ...
... looks”. Again, no distinction is made between the earlier love and its heir. Indeed, the Chorus seems to be suggesting that there is no distinction. Romeo simply “loves again”. He has not spurned false love for true but merely loves ...
... look upon thy death. 65 Benvolio. I do but keep the peace; put up thy sword, Or manage it to part these men with me. Tybalt. What, drawn, and talk of peace! I hate the word, As I hate hell, all Montagues, and thee. Have at thee, coward ...