ROMEO AND JULIET- JULIET

ROMEO AND JULIET by Shakespeare

Overview:

A boy (Romeo) and a girl (Juliet) fall in love. But they come from families which hate each other, and know they will not be allowed to marry. They are so much in love they marry in secret instead. However, before their wedding night Romeo kills Juliet's cousin in a duel, and in the morning he is forced to leave her. If he ever returns to the city, he will be put to death.

Juliet is then told she must marry Paris, who has been chosen by her parents, who do not know she is already married. She refuses - then agrees because she plans to fake her death and escape to be with Romeo.

She takes a sleeping potion and appears to be dead, so her parents lay her in a tomb. However, Romeo does not know about the plan, visits her grave, finds her 'dead', and kills himself. Juliet finally wakes up, finds Romeo dead, and then kills herself.

Shakespeare:

William Shakespeare was an English poet, playwright and actor, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and his extant works, including some collaborations, consist of about 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and a few other verses. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. 

Juliet:

The daughter of Capulet and Lady Capulet. A beautiful thirteen-year-old girl, Juliet begins the play as a naïve child who has thought little about love and marriage, but she grows up quickly upon falling in love with Romeo, the son of her family’s great enemy. Because she is a girl in an aristocratic family, she has none of the freedom Romeo has to roam around the city, climb over walls in the middle of the night, or get into swordfights. Nevertheless, she shows amazing courage in trusting her entire life and future to Romeo, even refusing to believe the worst reports about him after he gets involved in a fight with her cousin. Juliet’s closest friend and confidant is her nurse, though she’s willing to shut the Nurse out of her life the moment the Nurse turns against Romeo.

Why did I choose this monologue?

Q1. - Playing Age.

Juliet is meant to be a young, sweet and innocent 13 year old girl. Therefore, after performing the older, mature role of Stella, this playing age created a perfect contrast. As I have a fresh, young looking face this part related well to my type casting and is the type of character people expect me to play when they look at me. 

Q2.- The piece.

I related well to the piece because of my age and look. The innocence of it came naturally to me as it is a monologue of Juliet expressing her love to Romeo and by having a boyfriend, I do this often and instinctively. Therefore, I knew that I needed to use a high tone of voice and a slow pace and that I needed to be wide-eyed and smiling. The piece interested me because I've always loved the play. We performed it as part of the Bronze Arts Awards at Secondary School and although I didn't get to play the role of Juliet, this monologue has always interested me because of how sweet but truthful it is. 

Q3.- Emotional Journey.

 The monologue starts with emotions of love and Juliet wanting to know if her love is reciprocated. It then changes to worry and a feeling of regret for expressing her emotions too quickly and too strongly- "Or if thou think'st I am too quickly won, I'll frown and be perverse and say thee nay. In truth, fair Montague, I am too fond." And then she tries to convince him that what she feels for him isn't just anything small or a immature 2 week romance because she is worried that he will laugh, think she is too young or won't fully understand the undying love she feels for him- "Therefore, thou mayst think my 'haviour light:" She agrees to have fallen in love with him too quickly and regrets showing him that when she says "I should have been more strange, I must confess", but then goes on to say that she can't hold in her "true love passion" and that neither of them should just over look or forget about this amazing love and bond they have found- "And not impute this yielding to light love, which the dark night hath so discovered." 

There is a feeling of need and want in this monologue, that I expressed through moving forward closer to the audience and reaching my arms out as though I was reaching for Romeo to show him just how much I wanted to hold him and be in his arms. The monologue has two very different sides to it- One side is expressing her love for him and how she thinks of him as her soul mate and how she doesn't want to be without him, yet the other side is her trying to hold it all back, she agrees many times in the monologue how she should have been less eager and should have not fallen so quickly but that she couldn't help it. I wanted to convey her love and passion for Romeo and their romance, but I also wanted to portray her regret for loving him too much and how she was slightly embarrassed in the way she reacted. 

Q4.- Acting Skills.

I started my monologue in the middle of the stage, standing, to show another contrast from when I was sitting in Bodies Unfinished. Hand movements to my heart and reaching out where used to show my love and passion for Romeo. I faced the audience and imagined them as Romeo, to again, engage and involve them more in my piece. After- "I shall frown and be perverse and say thee nay." I pause and have a thought process and emotion change. This line was said hurriedly and in regret, as though she is saying that if Romeo doesn't feel the same way about her, she will act as though she doesn't care. When I carry onto "In truth, fair Montague, I am too fond." I lower my head and my voice softens. This is to show Romeo just how much I care for him, how silly and foolish I think it is, but no matter how hard I try, I cant forget the feelings I have for him. On the line- "I should have been more strange, I must confess" I walk stage right, to make it seem like I am walking away from Romeo, trying to sort out my head because I know that I have been too forward and this embarrasses me. The immaturity and my age of 13 comes out here as her head doesn't know how to cope with all the emotions she is feeling and the walk I do, is a sort of head clearer, moving away from Romeo and trying to get her own space to understand what she is truly feeling and she has never felt like this before. I raised my arms in frustration when I walked too, to keep from the static, simple 'love' movements. 

Q5.- Research.

After having done the play in Year 11, I read over the script from then and this helped me to remember the story line and the emotions Juliet feels throughout the play. Compared to my other monologue, I wanted to make this one very straight forward and full of emotion, I wanted the audience to know exactly how I was feeling with every word I said. I did this by filming myself. This helped me see what facial expression I was pulling, my tone of voice and my movements and from there I could watch them back and pick my favorite parts from each one and use these to create my performance. I went through the script extremely carefully, making sure I understood what every line was conveying and what every word meant, meaning I was then able to produce a clear, accurate and realistic performance, proving that I had done my research and knew the character well.