English Lang Arts 10-1: U3L3A Romeo and Juliet Essay

Romeo and Juliet Essay

Write a personal essay on only one of the following topics. In your answer, make detailed reference to the play as a whole and support your answer with well chosen evidence.

The essay should be a standard, five paragraph essay with a strong thesis and your own wording. Do not research your answer. Instead, tell me what you think using all that you have learned from the play and the theory given to you throughout this unit. You may also use a personal story or reference of your choice if you choose to do so.

Should you wish to write a longer essay, you may do so, but do not make it any longer than two pages, double spaced, in length.

SELECT ONLY ONE of the following topics on which to write your essay.

1	At the end of Romeo and Juliet the Prince says: 'Some shall be pardon'd, and some punished' (V, iii, 307). Whom do you think should be pardoned and whom punished?
2	"It is too rash, too unadvis'd, too sudden." How do Juliet's wordsapply to the action of the play?
3	"The blame for the deaths of Romeo and Juliet ultimately rests with Friar Lawrence." Do you agree?
4	Was "their parents' strife" the reason for the love between Romeo and Juliet proving to be fatal?
5	"The lesson of Romeo and Juliet is that children should not deceive their parents." Do you agree?
6	"Shakespeare made Mercutio so sparkling and diverting that he had to kill him in order to allow the tragic focus of the play to emerge." Do you agree?
7	"The Nurse fills the role of Juliet's mother, and Friar Laurence acts as Romeo's father." Discuss the importance of these characters inRomeo and Juliet.
8	"Romeo and Juliet come from what we, in the twenty-first century, would call dysfunctional families. This is the true cause of their tragedy." Do you agree?
9	"For never was a story of more woe / Than this of Juliet and her Romeo." What do you think of this estimation of the play's events?
10	"A tragedy must reflect a range of experience and base itself on a system of values which are felt by its audience to be real." Do Romeo and Juliet achieve this? Or is it an ancient story on which we reflect with sorrow and nothing more?