Federal Agency for Education

State educational institution of higher professional education

Yaroslavl State Pedagogical University named after K.D. Ushinsky

TEST

by discipline:

Foreign literature

Analysis of the workWilliam Shakespeare "Romeo and Juliet'

Performed:

Part-time student

FRFiK YSPU

Specialty "Philological

education"

Bestaeva Marina Sergeevna

Yaroslavl, 2009

Introduction

The theme of love in Shakespeare's works

Tragedy of love

The death of enmity

Problems of "Romeo and Juliet"

Conclusion

List of used literature

Introduction

William Shakespeare was born on April 23, 1564 in the small town of Stretford-upon-Avon. The writer's mother belonged to an impoverished noble family, and his father came from peasants. In addition to the eldest son William, the family had three more sons and four daughters.

Shakespeare studied at Stretford Grammar School, where education was emphatically humanitarian in nature. It is believed that due to financial difficulties in the family, William, as the eldest son, had to be the first to leave school and help his father.

William Shakespeare had the opportunity to attend touring performances of London theaters in his hometown. James Burbage's troupe, where Shakespeare subsequently worked for more than twenty years, had very talented actors. First of all, we should note here the outstanding tragedian Richard Burbage, who played the roles of Burbage, who played the roles of Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, and the wonderful comedian William Kemp, the best performer of the role of Falstaff. They had a significant influence on the fate of Shakespeare, to some extent predetermining his great role - the role of a playwright “of the people.”

In the work of the great playwright, several periods are traditionally distinguished: early tragedies, in which faith in justice and hope for happiness can still be heard, a transitional period and the dark period of later tragedies.

Shakespeare's tragic worldview was formed gradually. A turning point in his mentality, clearly evident in Julius Caesar and Hamlet, was brewing in the 90s. We are convinced of this by the tragic motives that sometimes sound in funny comedies. New moods emerged even more clearly in Romeo and Juliet and The Merchant of Venice. Life is in full swing, good people defeat the forces of evil, but in both plays inhumanity is not at all as unarmed as in the comedies Much Ado About Nothing and Twelfth Night, or Whatever. It threatens, it takes revenge, it is rooted in life.

"Romeo and Juliet" marks the beginning of a new, Shakespearean stage in the development of English and world literature. The historical significance of the play about Romeo and Juliet lies primarily in the fact that social issues have now become the basis of the tragedy. Even before Shakespeare, elements of social characterization of characters were characteristic of the best works of English drama; One cannot but agree, for example, with A. Parfenov, who asserts that “the realism of Marlowe’s late plays... is distinguished by the individual and social concretization of images.” However, only in Romeo and Juliet did social issues become a factor determining the pathos of the tragedy.

The theme of love in Shakespeare's works

Having made a man the hero of the tragedy, Shakespeare first of all turned to depicting the greatest human feeling. If in “Titus Andronicus” the voice of love, barely audible at the beginning of the play, was drowned out by the cries of inhuman hatred, then in “Romeo and Juliet” the poetry of love, which permeates the entire work, acquires an increasingly powerful sound as the end of the tragedy approaches; “The pathos of Shakespeare’s drama Romeo and Juliet,” wrote V. G. Belinsky in 1844, “is the idea of ​​love, and therefore, in fiery waves, sparkling with the bright light of stars, enthusiastic pathetic speeches pour from the lips of lovers... This is the pathos of love, because in the lyrical monologues of Romeo and Juliet one can see not only admiration for each other, but also a solemn, proud, ecstatic recognition of love as a divine feeling.”

The problem of love as the most important ethical problem was brought to the fore by the ideology and art of the Renaissance.

The fact that this problem worried Shakespeare throughout his entire career is evidenced by comedies of the first period, works created after 1599, and plays of the last period. However, Shakespeare's early works bear a special stamp that characterizes the means and ways of posing the problem of love in artistic terms. It is in these works that Shakespeare seems to strive, so to speak, for an aesthetic analysis of the problem of love in its pure form, without complicating it with such side ethical aspects as jealousy, social inequality, vanity, etc.

Particularly illustrative material in this sense is provided by Shakespeare’s poems written shortly before Romeo and Juliet. In them, Shakespeare creates four - albeit unequal in artistry - paintings, depicting different versions of the relationship between a man and a woman. A brief analysis of these paintings can be carried out without taking into account the chronology of publication of the poems, for it is quite obvious that during the creation of “Venus and Adonis” and “Dishonored Lucretia” the poet was guided by a single set of moral and ethical views.

Tragedy of love

The presentation of moral problems in the play is not limited to the depiction of love that inspires and unites Romeo and Juliet. This love develops and strengthens against the background of other options for relationships between a man and a woman - options developed with varying degrees of artistic expressiveness, but each time in a new way and always contrastingly emphasizing the purity and greatness of the feeling that gripped the main characters of the tragedy.

The viewer encounters the most primitive of these options at the very beginning of the play, observing a very rude buffoonery of servants, colored with outright obscenities, who believe that women exist only to be pinned against the wall: “That’s right! That’s why women, meager vessels, are always pushed against the wall.” (I, 1, 15 -17). Subsequently, the bearer of this moral concept, although in a much milder form, turns out to be the nurse. And therefore, it is quite natural that in one of the most intense moments of the play, when Juliet is looking for ways to remain faithful to Romeo, the morality of the heroine and the morality of the nurse, who persuades her pupil to forget Romeo and marry Paris, come into open conflict.

Another option for relationships with women that is no less unacceptable for Shakespeare is Paris and old Capulet. This is the usual, official way of solving matrimonial problems for that time. Paris begins negotiations on marriage with Juliet's father, without even bothering to ask the bride herself about her feelings. This is quite clearly evidenced by the conversation between Paris and Capulet in the 2nd scene of Act I, where the old Capulet, having listened to Paris’s proposal, advises the young man to first look after his daughter (I, 2, 16-17).

But then, at another meeting with Paris, Capulet himself guarantees him the love of his daughter, being confident that Juliet will submit to his choice

“Sir, I can completely assure you

For the feelings of my daughter: I’m sure

That she will obey me"

(III, 4,12-14).

Juliet's refusal to marry Paris (III, 5) evokes a reaction from Capulet so completely consistent with Domostroevsky traditions that it does not need any comments.

The only time the audience is present is during the conversation between Paris and Juliet in the cell of brother Lorenzo. Having by this time secured the final consent of Capulet to marry his daughter to him and knowing about the day of the upcoming wedding, Paris gains some eloquence. But again, in this conversation, Paris essentially says nothing to Juliet about love, although, as is clear from his words at the beginning of the scene, he had not been able to really tell the bride anything about his feelings.

True, Paris's behavior changes after the imaginary death of Juliet. But even here, in his words and actions, we can feel the chill of courtly conventions.

Only the last dying words of Paris with a request to be placed next to Juliet bring a warm tone to the restrained palette that Shakespeare used when creating this image.

It is much more difficult to establish the author's attitude to the ethical concept, the bearer of which is Mercutio in the play. The simplest explanation is offered by researchers who believe that “Mercutio’s foul language,” as well as “Capulet’s severity” and “the unprincipled opportunism of the nurse,” aims to highlight the purity of Romeo’s attitude towards Juliet. However, an analysis of the role assigned by the playwright to the image of Mercutio does not allow us to agree with such a statement.

As is known, Shakespeare, from the sources available to him, could only learn the name of Mercutio and the description of this young man as a model of courtliness and a successful hunter of ladies' hearts. Mercutio’s significance for the development of the plot both in the poem and in the short story is limited to the fact that at the ball Juliet preferred the warm hand of Romeo to Mercutio’s ice-cold hand; after this, Mercutio no longer participates in the action. Such a fleeting episode was needed only to motivate the beginning of the conversation between Romeo and Juliet during the holiday; it was precisely omitted by Shakespeare. Therefore, researchers have every right to believe that the image of Mercutio that appears before the viewer of Shakespeare’s tragedy - “a model of a young gentleman of that time, refined, affectionate, noble Mercutio” - completely belongs to the creative imagination of the playwright.

Composition

Life, customs, and circumstances depicted in his plays are sometimes far from ours, and yet in what he depicted, one senses that highest truth, which is accessible only to the greatest art. Shakespeare expands our spiritual horizon. We experience a life more dramatically intense than our everyday existence, we go beyond the boundaries of our little world and find ourselves in the big world.

Shakespeare's tragedies always have strong social motives: social injustice, inequality of classes. Together with other humanists, he saw in man the “crown of nature,” a god-like being. The more Shakespeare learned about life, the more obvious it became to him that man was far from perfect. Where does evil in a person come from, how does it penetrate into the souls of people?

Romeo and Juliet are heroes who have become a symbol of the beautiful but tragic love of two young beings, separated by the centuries-old enmity of the family clans to which they belong: the Montagues (Romeo) and the Capulets (Juliet). This plot was repeatedly found in Italian literature and was used to preach submission and humility in the face of hostile circumstances;

The death of heroes was portrayed as a well-deserved punishment for error. Shakespeare approached this story differently. His Renaissance ideal is great love, which is above family prejudices and age-old hatred.

All the events of the tragedy fit into five days, starting from the meeting at the ball in the Capulet house. Shakespeare's heroes are very young, but the depth of the feeling that affects them makes them adults beyond their years. Romeo at the beginning of the play is naive, he is in love with a certain Rosalind. He spends all his time idly staggering around, sighing languidly and doing nothing. From the very beginning, Juliet amazes not only with the purity and charm of her blossoming youth, but also with her childish depth and tragic sense of existence. She is older than Romeo. He, having fallen in love with Juliet, gradually realizes how serious and difficult everything that happens between them is and how many obstacles there are in their path, and, as it were, grows up to her.

The love of Romeo and Juliet is not just a violation of family prohibitions. This is an open challenge thrown by them to the centuries-old tradition of hatred, with which numerous Montagues and Capulets were born and died over many generations, on which the state foundations of Verona were almost based. That’s why everyone is so afraid of the recklessness and depth of the feelings that gripped Romeo and Juliet, that’s why they’re trying so hard to separate them. For their love, their union undermines the foundations, violates what cannot be violated. Romeo and Juliet know from the very beginning what awaits them. “My soul is full of gloomy forebodings!” - says Juliet. The power and boundlessness of their passion, the finality of the decision they made and the reckless determination to do anything, including death, shocks even those who. it would seem that he understands them and sympathizes with them - Father Lorenzo: “The end of such passions can be terrible. / And death awaits them in the midst of triumph.”

XIV-XVI centuries - Renaissance. This is the flowering of an essentially anti-feudal culture: its secular character, humanistic worldview, appeal to the ancient cultural heritage. It is distinguished by faith in creativity and the power of the mind, affirmation of the beauty and harmony of reality, and appeal to man as the highest principle of existence. Characteristic is the figure of Lorenzo, whose spiritual rank does not prevent him from being a natural scientist, a humanist thinker who believes that people should obey the desire of the heart, and not calculation.

The tragedy touches on such significant issues of the Renaissance as personal freedom and freedom of feelings, the right to choose, which has to be won in a fierce struggle against the inert views of feudal society. The tragedy ends with the death of the lovers. Heroes die, because the world of arbitrariness, prejudice and calculation is hostile to true feeling.

The optimistic sound of the play is given by its glorification of the power and beauty of earthly love and faith in the future.

Other works on this work

• Category: Preparation for the State Examination

Time and history of creation

Romeo and Juliet is one of Shakespeare's early tragedies, written between 1591 and 1595.

The plot of the imaginary death of a girl, which led to the suicide of her lover, and then to the suicide of the girl herself, first appears long before William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.

In the poem “Metamorphoses” by the ancient Roman writer Ovid, written in the 1st century. AD, tells the story of lovers who lived in Babylon - Pyramus and Thisbe. Pyramus and Thisbe's parents were against their relationship. The lovers decided to meet secretly at night. Thisbe was the first to arrive at the meeting place. She saw a lion with a bloody muzzle hunting bulls. Thinking that the lion had torn her lover to pieces, Thisbe ran away, dropping her handkerchief, which the lion tore. Pyramus, who arrived soon, saw Thisbe’s bloody handkerchief and, deciding that his beloved was dead, stabbed himself with a sword. Thisbe returned and saw that Pyramus was dying. Then she also threw herself on the sword.

Shakespeare used this story in his comedy A Midsummer Night's Dream, where the play of Pyramus and Thisbe is presented by an amateur theater.

Half a century before Shakespeare, the Italian writer Luigi da Porto addressed this topic in his short story “The Story of Two Noble Lovers.” He moves the action to Verona and gives the characters the names of Romeo and Juliet. They belong to the warring houses - Montague and Cappelletti. And further in the story the plot develops in the same way as it will later be told in Shakespeare.

Another quarter of a century later, this plot came to England - in 1562, Arthur Brooke wrote the poem “Romeo and Juliet”. So the plot wandered, changing form: an ancient Roman poem became an Italian short story, turned into an English poem, until a brilliant playwright became interested in the plot. The English poem served as Shakespeare's source for the play. He shortened the development of the action from 9 months to 5 days, changed the time of action from winter to summer, and added a number of scenes. But the main thing is that he filled the plot with deeper content.

The tragedy spans five days.

The first act begins with a brawl between servants who belong to two warring families - the Montagues and the Capulets. The servants are quickly joined by noble representatives of the two houses, and then by their heads themselves. The townspeople, tired of the strife, have difficulty separating the fighting. The Prince of Verona arrives and orders the clash to end on pain of death.

Romeo, son of Montague, appears in the square. He is far from these feuds - his thoughts are occupied with the beautiful Rosaline.

The action moves to the Capulet house. The owner of the house is visited by the prince's relative, Count Paris, who asks for the hand of the owners' only daughter. Juliet is not yet fourteen, but her father agrees to the proposal. The girl is obedient to her parents' will.

The young people of the Montague house, Benvolio, Mercutio and Romeo, enter the carnival ball in the Capulet house under masks.

On the threshold of the Capulet house, Romeo is gripped by a strange anxiety:

I don't expect anything good. Something unknown, Which is still hidden in the darkness, But will be born from this ball, Will shorten my life untimely...

At the ball, the eyes of Romeo and Juliet meet, and love strikes them like blinding lightning.

Romeo learns from the nurse that she is the daughter of the owners. A few minutes later, Juliet finds out that Romeo is the son of their sworn enemy!

Romeo silently climbs over the wall and hides in the dense Capulet garden. Juliet comes out onto the balcony. The conversation between the two lovers ends with an oath of love and a decision to unite their destinies. Romeo and Juliet act with extraordinary firmness and courage, completely submitting to the love that has consumed them.

They trust their feelings to the monk Friar Lorenzo, Romeo's confessor, and the nurse, Juliet's confidante. Lorenzo agrees to secretly marry the lovers: he hopes that the union of the young Montagues and Capulets will force the two families to reconcile.

On the street there is a clash between Tybalt, Juliet's cousin, and Mercutio. The exchange of caustic barbs is interrupted by the arrival of Romeo. “Leave me alone! “Here is the man I need,” Tybalt declares and insults Romeo. The same one, after his wedding with Juliet, considers Tybalt to be his relative and seeks to avoid a quarrel. But Tybalt regards this as cowardice. Enraged, Mercutio rushes at him. As they fight, Romeo throws himself between them. Tybalt stabs Mercutio from under his hand and then quickly disappears. Mercutio dies in Romeo's arms. The last words he whispers: “Plague take both of your families!”

Romeo lost his best friend: he died because of him when he defended his honor... “Thanks to you, Juliet, I am becoming too soft...” says Romeo in a fit of remorse and rage. Tybalt appears in the square again. They are fighting. A few seconds later Tybalt falls dead. Romeo faces execution.

Juliet learns about the terrible news from the nurse. Her heart contracts with mortal melancholy. Grieving over the death of her brother, she at the same time justifies Romeo.

Friar Lorenzo urges Romeo to go into hiding until he is granted forgiveness. Romeo yearns for Juliet. They manage to spend several hours together. The trill of a lark at dawn notifies lovers that it is time for them to part.

Meanwhile, Juliet’s unsuspecting parents are again talking to their daughter about the wedding: Count Paris is in a hurry, and the father has already decided on the wedding the next day. The girl begs her parents to wait, but they are adamant.

Juliet goes to Lorenzo in despair. He offers the only way to salvation: she must pretend to be submissive to her father’s will, and in the evening take a miraculous solution. Afterwards, she will plunge into a state reminiscent of death, which will last exactly forty-two hours. Juliet will be buried in the family crypt. And at this time, Lorenzo will let Romeo know about everything, he will arrive at the time of her awakening, and they can disappear until better times...

“Give me the bottle! Don’t talk about fear,” Juliet cuts him off.

While the Capulet house is preparing for the wedding, Juliet is overcome with fear before her decisive act. But she drinks the bottle to the bottom.

In the morning it is discovered that Juliet is dead. The family plunges into inconsolable mourning. Juliet is buried in the family crypt.

Romeo, hiding in Mantua, awaits news from the monk. But instead of the messenger Lorenzo, Romeo's servant Balthazar appears, bearing the terrible news of Juliet's death. But the monk whom Lorenzo sent to Romeo did not meet him. Romeo buys poison from a local pharmacist and rushes to Verona.

The last scene takes place in the tomb of the Capulet family. Romeo appears and is left alone in front of Juliet's coffin. Cursing the evil forces that took away this most perfect of earthly creatures, he kisses Juliet for the last time and with the words “I drink to you, love!” drinks poison.

Lorenzo is a moment late, but he is no longer able to revive the young man. He arrives just in time for Juliet's awakening. When she sees the friar, she immediately asks about Romeo. Lorenzo, afraid to tell her the terrible truth, hurries her to leave the crypt. Juliet does not hear his words. Seeing Romeo dead, she only thinks about how to die herself as quickly as possible. She is annoyed that Romeo drank all the poison alone. The girl plunges a dagger into her chest.

The Montagues and Capulets, forgetting about old feuds, extended their hands to each other, inconsolably mourning their dead children. It was decided to place a golden statue on their graves.

The tragedy ends with the words that the story of Romeo and Juliet will remain the saddest in the world.

Poetics, composition, idea

The genre of the work is high tragedy. This genre has been described this way since the time of Aristotle: tragedy, evoking feelings of compassion and fear, leads viewers to moral purification. Characters in tragedy must captivate not only with passion, but also with thought.

In Shakespeare's tragedy, two forces collide in their irreconcilability. On the one hand, there are irreconcilably hostile people, the Montagues and Capulets, frozen in their hatred. The most ardent follower of the principle of blood feud is young Tybalt, burning with hatred for all Montagues. He hates them simply because they belong to a hostile family.

On the other hand, there are people who strive to live by different laws. This desire is a natural living feeling. Thus, the mutual love of young Montague and young Capulet suddenly breaks out. Romeo and Juliet forget about the enmity of their families: the feeling that has taken possession of them instantly breaks the wall of enmity and alienation. Young Juliet, having fallen in love with Romeo, argues that his belonging to a hostile family does not matter to her. And Romeo is ready to easily give up his family name if it turns out to be an obstacle to his love for Juliet. Friar Lorenzo supports the lovers. He undertakes to help Romeo and Juliet, hoping that their marriage will serve as the beginning of reconciliation of the childbirth. Such is the conflict of tragedy.

The death of Romeo and Juliet leads to reconciliation. But the price paid to end the feud is too high. The death of children is a tragic lesson, forcing parents to understand the cruel senselessness of their enmity. The love of Romeo and Juliet triumphs over the inhuman custom of blood feud.

Romeo and Juliet is not just a beautiful tragic love story. Shakespeare's work affirms the principles of humanism in life.

Genre work - tragedy - is established in accordance with the literary traditions of the Renaissance and is determined by an unhappy end (the death of the main characters). Consisting of five acts, the play opens with a prologue that briefly summarizes the plot of Romeo and Juliet.

Composition tragedy at the plot level has a symmetrical structure. In the first act there is a clash between the servants of the Capulets and the Montagues, then between the nephews of the latter - Tybalt and Benvolio, then the heads of the warring families, the Prince of Verona and Romeo, appear on the stage. In the third act, the clash between the Capulets and the Montagues is repeated: this time the prince's relative and friend Romeo - Mercutio and Tybalt and Tybalt and Romeo - are involved in the fight. The outcome of the first duel is the death of Mercutio, the outcome of the second is the death of Tybalt. The clash ends with the Capulet and Montague spouses appearing on stage, and then the prince making a decision that would be fatal for Romeo to expel him from Verona. The fifth act again returns the plot to the usual duel course: this time the battle takes place between Paris (a relative of the prince, Juliet's supposed husband, that is, a potential Capulet) and Romeo. Paris dies at the hands of Romeo, Romeo kills himself with poison under the influence of insurmountable circumstances imposed on him by the will of Juliet's father. The fifth act and the entire tragedy ends with the appearance of the Capulets, Montagues and the prince on stage, the reconciliation of families and the posthumous reunion of Romeo and Juliet - in the form of golden statues standing next to each other.

The second and fourth acts of the play are devoted to the development love line: in the second act, Romeo and Juliet are explained and prepared for the wedding; in the fourth, Juliet, trying to avoid remarriage, takes the terrible path of reunification with her beloved husband. The death of the girl at the end of the work looks natural both from the point of view of historical norms and from the position of the passion that was inherent in the young heroes of the tragedy: Juliet could not live without Romeo, if Romeo was gone, Juliet was gone.

The death of children (Romeo and Juliet) - successors of the family traditions of the Montagues and Capulets - puts a decisive point in the conflict of the warring Verona families, both on the plot and moral level.

main idea The play is to affirm new moral values ​​inherent in Renaissance man. The heroes, guided in their feelings by passion, go beyond the usual framework of traditions: Romeo decides on a secret marriage, Juliet does not pretend to be a bashful lady, and both of them are ready to go against the will of their parents and society in order to be together. The love of Romeo and Juliet has no barriers: they are not afraid of either life with its sensual side or death.

Art image of Juliet evolutionarily more changeable than the image of her lover. Unlike twenty-year-old Romeo, who has already known passion in the person of the unapproachable Rosaline and goes ahead in his relationship with the young Capulet, fourteen-year-old Juliet moves forward in her feelings almost by touch, guided only by what her heart tells her. The girl is afraid of the expressed love confession, the wedding night, the gloomy family tomb. Having learned about the death of her cousin Tybalt, she first of all blames Romeo for this, but quickly pulls herself together, is ashamed of her instant betrayal and takes her husband’s side in this conflict. Juliet's hesitations are due to her young age, lack of life experience, and gentle feminine nature. Romeo's violent passion and masculine essence do not allow him to doubt any of his actions.

A special worldview characteristic of the late Middle Ages and early Renaissance, combining Christian and pagan traditions, was reflected in Shakespeare’s tragedy in the artistic images of brother Lorenzo and the rituals he performed (confession, wedding, burial) and Mercutio, who tells Romeo the story of the queen of fairies and elves - Mab. Religious asceticism and pagan exuberance of life were also manifested in the sharp change in mood of the Capulet family - from funeral, due to the death of Tybalt's nephew, to wedding, in connection with the supposed wedding of Juliet. The girl’s father does not see anything wrong with marrying off his daughter three days after the death of her cousin: for this period of history, such haste is normal, because it allows you not to grieve too much over the irreparable.

Cultural component of the era expressed in descriptions of such customs as the arrival of uninvited but familiar to the host of the holiday, guests under masks (Romeo with friends in the Capulet house), a challenge to a duel through biting a thumbnail (the image of Samson - one of the Capulet servants), the arrival of the groom at the bride’s house in the wedding day in order to wake up his betrothed (Paris's entry into the Capulet house), the adoption of the image of a torchbearer by that guest who does not want to dance during the ball (Romeo, in love with Rosaline, who does not want to have fun with his friends).

Topic: (about what?) About the love of teenagers from warring families.

Idea: (about what?) About the fact that it is difficult to love each other when everyone is against your love.

The most important task: (for what?) For the sake of making people understand that there is no need to interfere with two loving hearts.

Initial event: (an event that is outside the boundaries of the work. The first stage in the chain of event development.) A quarrel between two families.

Preceding events: (the reason for the escalation of the conflict) The clash between Benvolio and Tybalt.

Initial event: (first public discovery conflict! Its first manifestation!) Ball in the House of Capulet. The love of Romeo and Juliet.

Main event: (an open clash of conflicting parties. This is a complete and comprehensive manifestation of the main conflict) Death of Tybalt, Juliet's brother.

Climax: (the highest point after which everything goes this way and not otherwise) The suicide of Juliet and Romeo.

I will try to explain this using the example of an analysis of Shakespeare's tragedy Romeo and Juliet. In it, the author conducts the following experiment: into the world of enmity and hatred (the initial proposed circumstance), he introduces an explosive circumstance: Romeo, the son of Montague, and Juliet, the daughter of the Capulets, the children of two families at war with each other, fell in love with each other (the leading proposed circumstance) . The struggle for the right to love (the cross-cutting action of the play) begins in the main event (meeting at the ball), reaches its highest tension in the central event (Tybalt’s death) and ends in the final event (Juliet’s suicide; the leading proposed circumstance of this event is Romeo is dead!) with the death of the heroes . The initial proposed circumstance (reflected in the initial event of the play: preparations for a battle between the servants of the warring families), colliding with the leading proposed circumstance, carved out an intense conflict that develops along an upward path; The author's experiment led to tragedy. But what is the main event of the play, what is its moral outcome? Let us turn to the ending of the tragedy. The Duke, having learned about the cause of the death of Romeo and Juliet, no longer wants to tolerate discord between the families. This circumstance determines the main event - reconciliation. In the play, this event is an objective fact. Capulet Oh, brother Montague, give me your hand. Here's the widow's part of Juliet: I won't ask for anything else. Montague I will give you more: I will erect a statue of her from gold. Let that statue remind all people, while Verona stands, of Juliet's fidelity and Love again. I will erect a statue of Capulet Romeo nearby: After all, both of ours were ruined by discord32. As we can see, the text of the tragedy confirms the fact of reconciliation. However, different artists may have different views on this event, depending on the ultimate task that captivates the director. Eloquent proof of this is the performances of Franco Zeffirelli and Anatoly Efros. For the Italian director, it was very important that the common tragedy, the loss of children, have a sobering effect on the warring Montagues and Capulets. Their true rebirth began, repentance pushed former enemies to sincere reconciliation. This interpretation of the main event was permeated with the director’s pain at the great price paid for the revival of goodness and light. But at the same time, Zeffirelli strengthened the hope that, having gone through the cruel, bloody historical cataclysms of hostility and war, humanity should become wiser. Looking back at their tragic past, the peoples of the world are obliged to extend their hands to each other - only in this did the Italian director see the salvation of humanity. Anatoly Efros took a completely different look at the main event. In his performance, the reconciliation was imaginary, false. The Montagues and Capulets are forced to extend their hands to each other only because the Duke of Verona is participating in this event; Fearing to disobey his order, the heads of the warring families agree to a fictitious reconciliation. Thus, we understand that their enmity is becoming even more acute, it is only taking on hidden forms. This is scary. This means nothing, not even innocent victims, the horror of tragedy can shake people. This means that this hatred has acquired such proportions that it will stop at nothing. Love, only it gives life to humanity; and if the hatred that killed Love did not even flinch, but grew, only covering its monstrous face with a false smile, then the threat to the life of humanity acquired catastrophically real outlines. As we see, in such interpretations of the main event, different understandings of the directors of the fate of the original proposed circumstance and different super-tasks of the tragedy are also revealed. In the name of one, deeply labored idea, a bright hope, Franco Zeffirelli’s performance was born, and for the sake of a completely different, tougher, more disturbing thought that attacks the audience, Anatoly Efros staged the play. Each artist had his finger on the pulse of his time and heard it differently. This determined the individual, unique, subjective view of the play and its events. I want to give examples of analysis of two more plays, different in genre and style, written in different centuries, to demonstrate the universality of the method.