Structural and Ideological Differences in William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet and his Later Tragedies

Abstract

The present article attempts to trace the elements of change in the early and late Shakespearean tragedies from the viewpoint of style and the writer’s ideological stance. Shakespeare’s tragic writing undergoes certain modification as he moves further in his career. One aspect of this modification is the change in the protagonist’s dynamism. Although Romeo and Juliet both show certain signs of development which separates them from comic characters, they still lack the psychological depth which is witnessed in Shakespeare’s late tragic heroes. It is true they realize their tragic fate, yet they fail in gaining full consciousness of their situation and their contribution to their own destiny. Another aspect is the change of diction toward a more ‘natural’ employment of language and rhetorical devices. In Shakespeare’s mature tragedies, we do not see the experimental lyricism we witness in Romeo and Juliet, as the playwright seems to adopt the classical notion of decorum, according to which each character should speak in accordance with its social status.