Shakespeare uses many different pieces of figurative language including personification. between lines 96 and 103 Mercutio personifies dreams. He does this when he is explaining to Romeo that you have a free choice in every action and that dreams are just a lie sprung from a sleeping brain.’Which are the children of an idle brain/Begot of nothing but vain fantasy,’ this means the dreams are just children of a sleeping brain and are nothing but a useless impossible idea. This expresses the view of free will extremely well because he says dreams are nothing they are what our own minds create we can always decide what we do at any time in our lives this is why I believe Mercutio is explaining free will. In describing dreams as children Mercutio is telling Romeo that all children have dreams for life and not a lot of them come true.
coincidence adds to to the idea of fate and free will in Romeo and Juliet.For example in Act 1 scene 2 Romeo and Benvolio are strolling through a sycamore grove when an illiterate servant of the Capulet family coincidently see Romeo as a wealthy man and asks him to read it, the thing he reads is a list of invitees for a Capulet party. Romeo sees Rosaline on the list and immediately wants to go, as we know this is what leads Romeo to Juliet this is an example of fate in Romeo and Juliet. This adds to the idea of semantic fields because it literally means that Romeo is reading a list of invitees but the underlying meaning of fate.
The prologue also adds to the idea of fate in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. On line five and six he says. ‘From forth the fatal loins of these two foes/A pair of star-cross’d lovers take their life’. Before the play even starts we have been told that Romeo and Juliet will die, the quote means from the sex organs of enemies a pair of lovers who fate was written in the stars will take their own lives. The most important part here is star-cross’d lovers because when the play was wrote in the sixteenth century every one was Christian, and Christians believe God has pre-determined our lives so nothing we do can change this. So stars is an actual reference to heaven. This is another example of fate and free will in Romeo and Juliet. This links to semantic fields because the deeper meaning of the words again is fate and free will.
October 14, 2015 at 11:01 pm
This exploration of Shakespeare’s references to fate in Romeo and Juliet is strong. You’ve clearly identified three distinct ways he does this and supported your ideas with detailed examples and analysis.
I’m particularly impressed with the fact that you elected to go it alone and analyse a metaphor that hadn’t been discussed in class. This independence in your work is to be enthusiastically encouraged.
What this piece needs now is a ‘wrapper’. You’ve got all the individual ideas lined up – but currently they’re not very well connected together.
This is done using a strong introduction which outlines the idea of a semantic field and states how this is developed in Romeo and Juliet, followed by the careful use of topic sentences for the paragraphs you have written that link it back to this main idea.
Let me know if you need more detailed assistance to do this – and let me know when it’s done so I can assess it for the Semantic Field badge.
CW
December 10, 2015 at 10:44 am
sir i have changed it can you please read it again?
February 4, 2016 at 2:13 am
Done!