Act II Scene II- Capulet's orchard

The analysis considers an extract of the tragedy “Romeo and Juliet”; one of the great poems written by Shakespeare. It deals with two star-crossed lovers that died for their love.

The extract is about the II^nd  act scene II and reading the title the intelligent reader may suppose that the scene was setter in an open space in the Capulet's garden.

Considering the Layout the reader could see that the text is a dialogue between the two protagonists and it is arranged in free-verse. This genre is a play, a tragedy. Indeed in the play there are stage directions that provide information about the setting, the characters’ actions and movements. Questions and exclamations marks are more frequent than full stops. They are used to emphasize some sentences. The two names Romeo and Juliet are always written in Capital letters to mark the speaker and to make lecture more clear.                                                                                         The dialogue starts with a speech of Romeo that enters in Capulet’s orchard to try to see her, while she is in her balcony to tell the night her love for him. Romeo does a monologue where he celebrates her beauty. He uses metaphors to compare her with sun and stars many times. At their time people believed that fate was written in the stars and Romeo and Juliet was star-crossed lovers because their families was rivals; maybe Romeo, comparing Juliet with stars, would say that is destiny is in function of her not of the sky. To emphasize this concept he compare his lady also with the heaven. Juliet is positive because she represents the sun and the day that were the symbols of the good and she “kill the envious moon” and the night that symbolized the evil.                                 After Juliet speaks, Romeo continues is comparison: he says that she is a “bright angel”.                                                                                                                                                         Romeo celebrates many times Juliet's eyes for their brightness: the eyes are the mirror of the soul therefore they represent her love for him.                                                                                 Juliet start to talk and she said her famous words: ‘O Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou Romeo?’ she was not speaking with Romeo, but she was asking why he must be a Montague. She also said that if he will swear his love for her, she will give up her name of Capulet. Romeo asked himself if he had to hear more than this or to speak and Juliet continued her speech. She said once again that if he will change his name they could celebrate their love. The centre of  her speech's content is the question “What's in a name?”. The tragedy is based to the hate between two families: Capulet and Montague. Romeo and Juliet's love is not influenced by prejudices. They are above the hate between their families because they judge themselves for their souls and personalities, not for their names. Romeo started to talk with her and he said that for her he could change his name. Juliet did not see Romeo, she only heard him and she did not know who was.She asked him ‘what man art thou that thus bescreen’d in night so stumblest on my counsel?’ and he answered that he did not know how to call himself and he said that he hate his name because it is her enemy. She recognized Romeo and she asked him if he was really Romeo. He answered that if this name dislikes her he was not Romeo. At the end he renounced his belonging at his family for Juliet.