Shakespeare-
Romeo and Juliet
“ Two households, both alike in dignity
In fair Verona, where we lay our scene
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
A pair of star-cross’d lovers take their life
Whose misadventured piteous overthrows
Do with their death bury their parents’ strife.”
My translation
Two families who are both similar in their views
This story happens in Verona
An old grudge has made a rebellion form between the two
families
Where ordinary peoples genes are making ordinary people do
bad things
The fatal body of two people
Two people in love kill themselves
An accidental death removes power
Because of their death, the parents end their anger.
Actual Translation
In the beautiful city of Verona, where our story takes place, a
long-standing hatred between two families erupts into new violence, and
citizens stain their hands with the blood of their fellow citizens. Two unlucky
children of these enemy families become lovers and commit suicide. Their
unfortunate deaths put an end to their parents' feud.
This is an extract from William Shakespeare’s ‘Romeo and
Juliet’. This declarative is present at the beginning of the story, therefore giving
the audience an overview of the entire story. Even though the text is not
written in what we say is standard English in the present day, you can still
work out what Shakespeare was trying to say due to the use of high frequency
lexis’ such as ‘households, lovers and death’.
Many of the terms used from Shakespeare is still used today
but are spelt differently. This includes the adjective ‘star-cross’d’ with the
omission of the grapheme ‘e’ and so we see this spelling as ungrammatically
correct. This term is an archetype as it is being used to explain two original people
but are being expressed in literature. They are in love but cannot be in a
relationship due to society and their parents not being excepting of it. When a
letter is being missed in ‘star-cross’d’ , the noun ‘misadventured’ has added
on the grapheme ‘d’ at the end. Although the meaning has stayed the same, the graphology
of the word has shifted.
Amelioration has occurred with the word ‘loins’ as
Shakespeare used it to refer to the genitalia of Romeo and Juliet’s parents .
Although we still use the term in the phrase “the fruit of one’s loins” referring
to children, the meaning of the word has changed. Because the noun ‘loins’ follows
on from the negative term ‘fatal’ makes me believe that Romeo and Juliet may be
seen as mistakes from their parents. Creating an upsetting view of their lives
even before we realise they take their own lives.
