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Critical Lens

In society, it is an important undertaking in general, to analyze history and reflect upon it. Sometimes people need to step back from a situation and look at what is happening in their life and in other’s just to examine a larger scope. Writers tend to do this in their literature, and pick apart each scene and idea in order to show the reader every fault and then examine it in plain site so the reader can grasp it. Authors do this to find room for improvement in the story, and to show that everyone and everything has character flaws, it is only natural. In The Tragedy of Romeo and Julie, with such an expansive character list, this is the optimal chance for the author to analyze and depict how he wanted his characters presented. John Steinbeck once said, “It is the responsibility of the writer to expose our many grievous faults and failures and to hold up to the light our dark and dangerous dreams, for the purpose of improvement”. This quote applies directly to The Tragedy of Romeo because, throughout the tragedy, the characters step back and examine their own actions, generally altering them to change for good.
John Steinbeck wrote this quote because it shows the readers how much thought and planning goes into literature from the readers, and what the authors mean by picking apart characters, and their actions. Shakespeare does a decent job at this because for every character, he then later shows their “grievous faults and failures” and “our dark dangerous dreams”. He chooses a technique that lets him extract their faults by generally using other characters (foils) that are polar opposites of them, that will express their thoughts, biases and faults.
At one pivotal point in the drama, Friar Lawrence agrees to marry Romeo and Juliet in an attempt to directly end the Montague and Capulet family feud. Shakespeare meticulously dissects the Friar’s famous choice throughout the rest of the play, taking it out of context and putting it in perspective of the play. The...