ACT ONE SCENE FIVE:

IT'S IMPORTANCE AND

EFFECT ON THE AUDIENCE

Romeo and Juliet was written by William Shakespeare and was performed in 1597 at the theatre in Shoreditch. Shakespeare wrote this play about tragedy mainly because the audience enjoyed watching this type of play. It was very popular to have a tragedy in a play at this period of time. In most of Shakespeare's plays there is a sad or bad ending and they are usually based on long poems.

Shakespeare studied traditional Greeks and Romans. He used a five-part structure in all his plays. Shakespeare's traditions usually involved great male characters. This is often recognised in the titles of the plays e.g. Macbeth, Othello, King Lear and Hamlet but Romeo and Juliet is dissimilar to them because the names in the play indicate not one central character but two central characters. This play...