The story of eternal love Romeo and Juliet. Theme of love in literature

Love triumphs in the play. Romeo at first only imagines that he loves Rosaline. Her absence on stage emphasizes the illusion of her existence and passion for Romeo. He is sad and seeks solitude. The meeting with Juliet transforms the young man. Now he lives for her: “My heaven is where Juliet is.” It is not languid sadness, but living passion that inspires Romeo: “All day long some spirit carries me high above the earth in joyful dreams.”

Love transformed, cleansed inner world person, influenced his relationships with people. A hostile attitude towards the Capulets, a blind hatred that cannot be explained by reason, was replaced by courageous restraint. When the pugnacious Tybalt insulted him, Romeo now patiently endured everything. Love makes him sensible and wise. When it becomes clear that the vengeful Tybalt cannot be stopped with words, when the enraged Tybalt kills the good-natured Mercutio, Romeo takes up arms and punishes Tybalt for murder.

The feelings of Romeo and Juliet are severely tested. They prefer love to family hatred, merging in a single impulse, but individuality is preserved in each of them. Juliet is still just a child. She will just turn 14 years old. Age is conveyed in the play: the world amazes Juliet with its contrasts, she is full of vague expectations.

Juliet still does not know how to hide her feelings. She loves openly, admires and grieves in front of everyone. She doesn't want to hate the Montagues just because they are Montagues, and she protests.

Having fallen in love with Romeo, Juliet begins to understand feelings better than her parents. They want to pass her off as Paris, who complies with the code of decency in society. Juliet prefers to die rather than marry someone she doesn't love. She is the first to start a conversation with Romeo about marriage.

Juliet's beauty, strength of character, proud consciousness of rightness are expressed in her attitude towards Romeo. She confesses her love for Romeo with dignity.

But love in the play is surrounded by enmity. Juliet dies, having barely experienced the happiness of love. No one can replace her poisoned Romeo. Love does not repeat itself, and without it, life loses its meaning for Juliet. She knew that Romeo died, convinced of her death, and decided to share his fate. She saw this as her duty.

By taking their own lives, the heroes passed a harsh sentence of inhumanity. Their rebellion and desire to assert their freedom expresses the properties of noble souls that will forever excite people.

Love is opposed to misanthropy. Romeo and Juliet not only rebelled against old views and relationships, they set an example for a new life. They are not divided by enmity, they are united by love. This love is born from admiration for beauty, from faith in the greatness of man and the desire to share the joy of life with him. The heroes do not have a feeling of painful loneliness; they are surrounded by devoted friends: Benvolio, Mercutio, ready to give their lives for Romeo; noble Lorenzo, nurse, Balthasar.

“Romeo and Juliet” is a tragedy where power does not oppose the hero and is not a force hostile to him.

Humanity knows many examples of true love: Hero and Leander, Dido and Aeneas, Tristan and Isolde, Leila and Majnun, Orpheus and Eurydice - how much dazzling light bursts into our lives when we pronounce them, pushing the boundaries of darkness and mistrust, destroying evil and vulgarity , mistrust and deception! This radiant light again and again attracts millions of hearts, for it is a reflection and personification of the main wisdom of human existence - Love in the highest sense of the word. A human soul, like a string that sounds in response to a touch, initially has the wonderful property of responding to beauty. For in our hearts, be that as it may, there always lives an inextinguishable thirst for beauty and the need for Love.

TRUE OR LEGEND?

Love is a feat, a sacrifice, the pinnacle of development of the human soul. One of the facets of this feeling - the love of a man and a woman - is captured in many creations of the human spirit, glorified by writers and poets, composers and artists.
Fedor Sologub wrote: “We all love the same way we understand the world. The love story of every person is an exact copy of the history of his relationship to the world in general. The image of the beloved, worn in the enthusiastic dreams of the lover, and the image of the beloved in the dreams of the lover - these are the clearest and most immutable symbols of their worldview. It is not for nothing that images of love and love anxiety and longing occupy such a large, such a central place in works of art of all times. This happens not because poets, painters, sculptors are overwhelmed by the ardor of love, but because the true creative instinct shows them the state of a person when his soul is most open to the supreme principles of goodness, truth and beauty. He who loves not only demands, but also gives, not only thirsts for pleasure, but is also ready for the highest feats of self-denial. Ignored by love, he dares to do things that exceed his strength.”
The monument to such omnipotent love is beautiful and at the same time sad story Romeo and Juliet are young lovers who, with the power of their feelings, overcame what seemed to be the most insurmountable things - hatred, enmity and even death itself.
Amazed by the greatness and nobility of their feelings, you involuntarily wonder: were Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet really, or were their images just fiction? Oh no! “Go to Verona - there is a Lombard cathedral and a Roman amphitheater, and then Romeo’s grave...” wrote the poet Count A.K. in 1875. Tolstoy to his beloved Sophia Miller. Talking about Verona in the book “Images of Italy,” Pavel Muratov noted: “Countless, like in no other city, are the balconies in this city of Romeo and Juliet.” And Germaine de Stael in the novel “Corinna or Italy” mentions: “The tragedy of Romeo and Juliet is written on an Italian plot; the action takes place in Verona, where the tomb of two lovers is still shown.”
Italians attribute the story of Romeo and Juliet to the period of the reign of the Verona lord Bartolomeo I Della Scala (Shakespeare's Escala), that is, to 1301-1304. Dante Alighieri in The Divine Comedy even mentions certain Cappelletti and Montagues: “Come, careless one, just take a look: Monaldi, Filippeschi, Cappelletti, Montagues - those are in tears, and those are trembling!” In any case, it is known that families with similar surnames lived in Verona in the 13th century - Dal Capello and Monticolli. But the researchers were unable to establish what kind of relationship they had. Perhaps in hostile relations, which was not uncommon for that time. Almost every Italian city was then split into rival factions. And it is quite possible that the victims of this struggle, ongoing in Verona itself, could be unhappy lovers.

ETERNAL STORY

The military man and writer Luigi da Porto (1485-1529) first introduced the images of Romeo and Juliet into literature, making them the heroes of his short story “The Newly Found History of Two Noble Lovers and Their Sad Death, Which Occurred in Verona in the Time of Signor Bartolomeo Dalla Scala.”
This is how events develop in his short story.
During the next period of reconciliation between the Capelletti and Montague parties, a carnival was organized, at which a young man from the Montague family named Romeo met the young Juliet Capelletti for the first time. The feeling that gripped them at the first meeting gradually becomes stronger and in the end leads to the fact that, having secretly married in the presence of the monk Friar Lorenzo, they become husband and wife. By the will of fate, the almost frozen enmity between the two families is resurrected, and one day in a street fight Romeo kills Tybalt, Juliet's brother.
By the verdict of justice Romeo is forever banished from Verona, and Juliet suffers bitterly in separation. Her parents, not knowing the true reason for their daughter’s tears and wishing Juliet well, want to marry her off. Unbearable torment forces her to turn to her brother Lorenzo, from whom she asks for poison. Instead of poison, Lorenzo gives Juliet a powder, after drinking which she will fall into a sleep similar to death, but will wake up unharmed in two days.
The overjoyed Juliet reassures her parents and drinks sleeping pills on the first night. The next morning they cannot wake her up; the arriving doctor declares that she is dead, and she is buried in the family crypt.
Brother Lorenzo gives the letter that Juliet wrote in advance for Romeo to a monk so that he can give it to Romeo, but this does not happen due to an unfortunate accident, and Juliet’s servant Pietro, confident in the death of his mistress, decides to tell this sad news to Romeo himself. Shocked, Romeo wants to die and enters the ancient tomb of the Capelletti family to see his beloved for the last time.
Shedding tears, he drinks poison and, embracing Juliet, says: “O beautiful body, the limit of all my desires! If, after parting with your soul, you still retain even a drop of feeling in yourself, if your soul, having parted with your body, sees my bitter death, I beg you to be merciful to me: I could not live openly with you in joy, now I am secretly I’m dying next to you in grief and suffering.”
Meanwhile, Juliet wakes up from her long sleep, recognizes Romeo and tries to understand why he is in the crypt. Finally, a tragic mistake is revealed, and the dying Romeo begs Juliet not to despair after his death. Friar Lorenzo comes for Juliet, but to his horror, he sees her distraught with grief next to the lifeless Romeo. Juliet asks Lorenzo “to beg our unfortunate parents to graciously allow us to lie in the same grave, without separating those whom love burned with the same fire and led to death together.” And turning to your beloved - “How can I be without you now, my lord! What can I do for you now, if not follow you on the road to death? No, I have nothing else left! Only death could separate me from you, and now she won’t be able to do that either!” Juliet dies.
Lorenzo tells the whole story to the sovereign, and the parents of the dead are reconciled over the bodies of their children.
The sad story of two unhappy lovers was later inspired by the outstanding short story writer of Renaissance Italy, Matteo Maria Bandello (1485-1561), who prefaced it with the following subtitle: “All kinds of misadventures and the sad death of two lovers: one dies after taking poison, the other from great grief.”

In Bandello’s narrative, Juliet’s nurse and Romeo’s close friend (the prototype of Benvolio) appear for the first time, a scene of Juliet’s mental anguish before taking a sleeping pill is introduced, and Count di Lodrone, to whom Juliet’s parents want to marry her, is given the name Paris. The novella ends with the following lines:

Believing in the death of his dear wife,
Which life, alas! - will not be returned
Romeo, falling on her chest, took poison -
The one that is called “snake” is of terrible strength.
She, having woken up and found out what happened,
And turning a sad look to her husband,
I sobbed over the worst of losses,
She called out to the stars, she prayed to the heavens.
When, oh woe! - he became motionless,
She, paler than the shroud, whispered:
“Allow me, Lord, to follow him;
There are no other requests, and I ask so little -
Let me be where the one I love is!”
And then grief tore her heart apart.
(translation by E. Yegerman)

Later, the story of Romeo and Juliet attracted the attention of Gherardo Bolderi (1497-1571), an Italian author who belonged to the illustrious Verona family. This plot also interested Masuccio Salernitano (1410-1475), whose story about the sad story of two young residents of Siena, Mariotto Mignanelli and Janozza Saraceni, is in many ways close to the story of Romeo and Juliet, but it lacks the motive of fatal inter-family feud. The same theme formed the basis of Luigi Groto’s tragedy “Adriana”.
The plot of Romeo and Juliet goes beyond the borders of Italy - in France Adrian Sevin addresses it, in Spain - the famous Spanish playwright Lope de Vega, in England - William Peitner translates Bandello's short story and places it in the collection "The Palace of Pleasures", and Arthur Brooke writes poem "The Tragic Story of Romeus and Juliet."
Finally, the great one turns to the legendary plot Shakespeare. He enriches the narrative with new details that enhance the drama of the tragedy. Mercutio from an episodic character turns into the second most important hero after the main characters, whose death is perceived as vividly as the death of unhappy lovers. The ending in Shakespeare's play looks different from previous versions. In order to show the turning point that took place in the soul of the matured Romeo, and to enhance the tragedy of the final events, the playwright “forces” Romeo to kill Paris.
The poetic language, sublime and at the same time lively, vividly depicts the fullness of life, in which funny scenes coexist with high tragic pathos, generous wit with inspired lyricism. The action is compressed in time - everything happens unusually quickly, in about four to five days. Shakespeare makes Romeo and Juliet younger: his Juliet is 14 years old, Romeo is probably two years older (Brook’s heroine is 16 years old, in Luigi Da Porto’s novella Juliet is 18 years old. Matteo Bandello’s Romeo is 20 years old).
Romeo and Juliet's dating description is a sample love lyrics. It is no coincidence that Shakespeare earned from his contemporaries the names of “the mellifluous swan of Avon” and “the mellifluous Ovid.” The heroes' speeches are filled with vivid metaphors, images, comparisons, but they captivate not with external beauty, but with enormous moral strength, transforming young lovers into mature, courageous people, filled with unshakable spiritual firmness. We feel the color and atmosphere of Italy, brilliantly conveyed by Shakespeare...
Pushkin wrote: “Romeo and Juliet reflects Italy, contemporary to the poet, with its climate, passions, holidays, bliss, sonnets, with its luxurious language full of brilliance.” “An enthusiastic hymn and funeral song of love” - this is what Schlegel called this Shakespearean play, which was the pinnacle of the literary embodiment of the famous plot.
However, Shakespeare did not become the last in the literary chain - the theme of the Verona lovers turned out to be too significant and relevant for all times. Based on this plot, the following were created: in Spain - the tragedy of Don Francisco de Rojas Zorilla "The Gangs of Verona", in England - the drama of Thomas Otway "Caius Marius", in France - the version of Jean Francois Duquis "Romeo and Juliet", in Germany - the drama of Heinrich von Kleist “The Schroffenstein Family”, in Austria - Gottfried Keller’s short story “Rural Romeo and Juliet”, in Russia - Grigory Gorin’s tragicomedy “A Plague on Both Your Houses” and many other literary works.
The theme of sacrificial love of Romeo and Juliet did not leave representatives indifferent visual arts who captured images in their creations young heroes. The famous De Lacroix - “Romeo in Juliet's Crypt”, John Waterhouse - “Juliet”, a series of works by Francesc Aietz - “Farewell to Romeo and Juliet on the Balcony”, “The Wedding”, William Turner - “Juliet and the Nurse Watching the festivities in Verona”, Heinrich Susli - “Romeo stabs Paris in the crypt”, “Romeo over the body of Juliet”, Scipione Vannutelli - “Juliet’s Funeral”... And how can you not remember famous work Rodin's Romeo and Juliet and the statue of Juliet in Verona by the Italian master Nereo Constantini.
And in music, this legendary plot has become fertile ground for composers. Franz Benda, Rumling, Dalairak, Daniel Steibelt, Nicolo Zingarelli, Guglielmi and Nicola Vaccai, and Manuel Del Popolo Garcia dedicate their works to him. And the famous Italian composer Vincenzo Bellini wrote the opera “Capulets and the Montagues,” which was first performed in Venice in 1830. And the French romantic composer Hector Berlioz too - he created a dramatic symphony with the participation of soloists and choir “Romeo and Juliet”, which later became the basis for staging ballet performances.
The opera "Romeo and Juliet" by the French composer Charles Gounod appeared in 1867. The author of 12 operas, he was, in the apt expression of P.I. Tchaikovsky, “one of the few composers in our time who write not from preconceived theories, but from inspiration.” Shakespeare's tragedy is interpreted in Gounod's opera in the spirit of lyrical drama; the best numbers of the opera - and these include the four duets of the main characters, Juliet's waltz, Romeo's cavatina - have emotional spontaneity, truthfulness of recitation, and melodic beauty.
Our great compatriot Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky(1840-1893), responding to Balakirev’s proposal, created in 1869 an overture - the fantasy “Romeo and Juliet”. The music, captivating with its passion and sincerity, immediately becomes world famous. A great lyricist, an unsurpassed master of depicting the spiritual world of a person, Tchaikovsky conveys the greatness and beauty of love with amazing power and persuasiveness.
Finally, Sergei Prokofiev’s ballet “Romeo and Juliet”, which brought enormous success to the author. Thanks to the freshness musical language, intonation and rhythmic originality, richness of harmony and instrumentation, this work has become one of the most popular theaters in the world.

The image of Juliet, captured in dance by the great Galina Ulanova, amazes with trembling, fragility and at the same time unbending strength. Her dance reflected the slightest nuances of the heroine’s inner life, shades of her moods, unconscious emotional impulses and movements. Juliet had a special role in the life of Galina Ulanova: “For a long time I could not start preparing the part of Juliet with any of my students. Saying goodbye to her is like saying goodbye to a living person. Once I was in Italy, we were taken to Verona. In Verona, I stood in front of Juliet's balcony, at the monument above the crypt. And here, at Juliet’s crypt, I felt that I would never dance again, it was very sad... As if I had gone through something... It was evening when I called Katya Maksimova: “Tomorrow we start rehearsing Juliet.”
In the long list of works dedicated to the tragic love of the Verona couple, one cannot fail to mention films. Cinema combines everything - acting, dance, originality literary language, the talent of the director, cameraman, music, which participates in the development of the action, helping the audience to better understand and feel the general concept, “speaking out” what was left unsaid by the characters. Its capabilities allow you to instantly travel to another time, concentrate events as much as possible and penetrate into the most cherished, most hidden corners of the human heart.
Romeo and Juliet has been filmed many times. Norma Shearer and Leslie Howard starred in the 1936 Hollywood version. A more modern interpretation is given in Robert Wise's film West Side Story, in which there is a war between Manhattan gangs. Abel Ferrara proposed his own version. His "Chinese Girl" tells the story of a romance between a girl from Chinatown and a boy from "Little Italy." Baz Luhrmann directed Romeo + Juliet, where gangs of Californian “punks” operate. But the best version of the famous plot, of course, is still long years there will be a painting by Franco Zeffirelli.
Zeffirelli presents the story of Romeo and Juliet as a tragedy of the modern young generation: “In my understanding, the tragedy of young love, the effectiveness of feeling makes the problem alive for young people. They talk a lot about them today, but no one helps them truly gain faith in themselves. Shakespeare is the greatest friend of youth. No one, in my opinion, has created such a fresh work as Romeo and Juliet, written four centuries ago.”

Franco Zeffirelli's film "Romeo and Juliet" is a bright and talented picture; once you see it, you want to watch it again and again. Two Oscars, two Golden Globes, Donatello's David (the Italian equivalent of an Oscar), other awards and audience awards - this success was ensured by the entire “team” that created the film. Pasquale de Santis received an Oscar for cinematography, Danilo Donati was awarded the same award for costume design, Renzo Mongiardino created the sets, and Niccolò Perna directed the duels in the film. I would especially like to say about the music of composer Nino Rota. He managed to write a melody full of simplicity and freshness. It miraculously combines the charm of that distant era when the events of the tragedy took place, and at the same time its sound is confidential and modern.
Out of 800 young actresses competing for the role of Juliet and 300 for the role of Romeo, the director chose 16-year-old beauty Olivia Hussey and 17-year-old Leonard Whiting, who became the youngest in the history of cinema to perform the roles of Shakespearean heroes.
Zeffirelli took a risk - the lack of professionalism of the young actors could ruin the film. But the director relied on something else: the freshness of feelings, spontaneity, youthful perception of life and, of course, the extraordinary nature of his talent more than made up for the lack of life and acting experience.
The director also abandoned the desire to “update” Shakespeare. Such attempts at a “modern interpretation” of the classics often disappoint. Zeffirelli's strength is that he accurately conveyed the spirit and atmosphere of Shakespeare's masterpiece. The viewer “lives” in that era, organically feeling and accepting it. And at the same time, the film is unusually modern - it is living life without a layer of centuries-old dust.
The main characters of the film are wonderful. Their acting is talented and therefore convincing. The high pathos of Shakespeare's tragedy is extremely sharpened and therefore the film is perceived in one breath.

IS ROMANCE ALIVE?

So, the history of this plot is as old as the world, and at the same time, it never ceases to be relevant. What makes writers, poets, artists, composers and filmmakers turn to it again and again? Vladimir Vasiliev, director of the Prokofiev ballet, explains it this way: “The relevance of the sound of the play “Romeo and Juliet” today, especially in the light of current events in the world, is unusually great. And this is the lot of all classical works: there is always something between the lines that strikingly reflects modernity. There are eternal themes - betrayal, love, hatred, the struggle between good and evil. Discord and war are also eternal, unfortunately.

The more difficult it is for us to overcome everyday difficulties, the stronger the craving for spiritual purity. And no matter how free love is preached, no matter how much porn floods the market, everyone still dreams of meeting their one and only half. It is difficult to say what the fate of Romeo and Juliet would have been like in our time. The fact that they chose to leave this world, which opposed their love, remained for centuries.”
But really, what would happen to Romeo and Juliet in our time? And is such a feeling possible in principle today, in our days?
More recently, there was such a program on television as “Tales of Love”, its presenter Olga Ostroumova talked about people living in our time, whose destinies were illuminated by the light of love. These simple stories could not leave you indifferent. The sad confession of one elderly woman stuck in my memory - there are thousands of them around us. In her youth, she was separated from her beloved man, who, not daring to disobey his parents’ will, married someone else. He got married, and the next day he hanged himself. And his beloved, without betraying their love, lived alone all her life, although many wooed her. But she couldn’t forget the one who couldn’t imagine his life without her, and so she grew old alone... The stories of human destinies were different, but what united them - deep, true love - somehow miraculously connected us all with the past, with the future, connected us with eternity, and it was truly fabulous.
A high ethical level, deep internal culture, tact, respect for a person, for his dignity - this is what characterized this program, after viewing which a pure, bright feeling remained in the soul. And then this transmission disappeared. I decided to find out what was the matter? And I called, and they answered me dryly: “The program has outlived its usefulness.”
How simple everything is for such people. An eternal topic that has worried and inspired humanity for thousands of years suddenly turned out to be unnecessary, and this is happening during a dangerous period of increasing and greater loss of spiritual and moral health by Russian society. When, if not now, this particular topic should be in demand! But Nagiyev’s “Windows,” where vulgarity, cynicism, and obscenity flourish in full bloom, have not “outlived” their usefulness. And are you alone? "Window"- it’s difficult to find anything worthy on the screen, however, not only on the screen high rank person.

Poet and essayist Yuri Denisov reflects: “By putting one’s intimacy on public display, making it a public show, a person immediately loses it. And along with intimacy, he is deprived of all depth, all mystery, deprived of the most important sense of self-worth, without which the personality ceases to exist and turns into a certain individual. And now I see how stubbornly, how persistently - along with accustoming the masses to everyday evil - television destroys human intimacy from year to year. The most blatant sabotage against her was recently carried out by the TV show “About This.” Here, sexually obsessed and at the same time consumed by vanity young people were gathered in order to encourage them in every possible way to shamelessly compete in shameless frankness. And those “got their breath away” from immoral uninhibition in front of millions of prying eyes. Look, everyone, how brave we are! Look, everyone, how free we are from all prejudices and preconceptions!
Simpletons, simpletons! They didn’t even notice how the presenter was almost openly making fun of them, cheerfully encouraging the group transformation of people into lustful monkeys. But if someone finances and organizes such programs, then he is not throwing money away. The goal of the behind-the-scenes puppeteers is simple and clear: monkeys, for whom everything happens publicly, in plain sight, “behind glass,” are incomparably easier to manipulate than self-sufficient individuals who hide their inner world from external control. The invisible puppeteers know that a monkey will never become a citizen, and a herd of monkeys will never become a civil society.”
Unfortunately, one cannot but agree with this idea, because everything in life is interconnected: with the loss of one link, the entire chain collapses. Of course, this has always been the case - baseness, treachery, calculation, but they were ashamed of this, and it was always condemned. Why has selling love now become prestigious, while modesty and chastity are considered to be among the shortcomings, for example, such as being complex? Why is it that at almost every step there is a public demonstration of what has always been hidden from prying eyes, because the most intimate, the most reverent is somehow embarrassing to put on public display. Yes and no, most likely, this hidden and reverent thing. For every taste, for every age - as on the market, and the corresponding press with an abundance of candid photographs and drawings. And this is in a country - Russia, in which Orthodox traditions have been observed from time immemorial, and morality itself has been the main and basis, both in the personal life of a person and in the whole society. And today, terrible statistics show a blatant demographic catastrophe, the mutilated bodies and souls of those who are just entering life, the destruction of the family and the centuries-old hierarchy of moral and ethical values ​​on which the way of life was built, and thanks to which humanity survived .
“What kind of romance? Nowadays romance is money!” - increasingly in lately Such statements sound shameless. And you think: here we are! After all, this is the path to human self-destruction? And what could be worse for a person if he gradually ceases to be a person, when morality itself and something important, core to his life are erased from his soul?
Forgive us, Romeo and Juliet! Your sincerity, purity, and devotion in love are not very fashionable now. Young people now prefer safe sex to the bliss for which you gave your young lives. You deliberately went to your death, refusing to live without a loved one - and now there are no problems with this: changing sexual partners is commonplace. And the word denoting the most beautiful and great feeling - love, is now increasingly used in conjunction with the verb “to engage”. Truly, “there is no sadder story in the world.” By betraying you, our generation is also betraying that colossal layer of the entire world culture that you illuminated with your magical feeling. This is probably both our fault and our misfortune. You have to be a very naive person not to understand that someone is benefiting from all this. And at the same time, well, there must be at least an elementary sense of self-preservation, self-survival, which, after all, is inherent even in insects!
Again and again the bright words of Tikhon of Zadonsky come to mind:
“A friend always wants to be inseparable from his beloved friend, not only in happiness, but also in misfortune...
He who loves his beloved always carries in his heart...
He who loves his beloved wants and seeks glory and honor, and rejoices when his beloved is glorified, but saddens when he is dishonored...
True love reaches such a point that the one who loves does not refuse to die for the one he loves...”
It turns out that the observation of the Italian writer Alberto Dossi: “Love feeds not only on feelings, but also on steaks,” has been brilliantly confirmed in our days. Naked romanticism seems to be increasingly out of fashion.

STATISTICS ABOUT LOVE

Only 49% of participants in a survey recently conducted by the sociological agency ROMIR insist on love as the main condition of marriage. 29% of Russians, after thinking, said that “for love,” of course, is better, but you can do without it. And 19% generally said that all this was nonsense. It is much more important to include in the marriage ceremony, in addition to congratulations, photography and drinking champagne, the signing of a contract on the property rights of the spouses. If anything, it's more forward-thinking. After all, today we have one divorce for every two marriages.
So, it turns out that love has died in this world? In no case. After all, almost half of Russians cannot imagine marriage without her. And who knows, if such a sociological survey had been conducted during the time of Romeo and Juliet, scientists would not have received similar figures. Humanity is not changing that quickly. And in the Middle Ages, cynicism and pragmatism easily coexisted alongside the romance of worshiping a beautiful lady.
Another thing is, what was the ideal then and what do most young people today consider to be values? Or more precisely, what is being imposed on her in the form of these values? Then it was a touching story of two lovers. Today, this is most often a story about people who are ashamed to utter the word “love”, because it does not fit the feeling that they experience towards each other. Is this why children are born without love and become homeless or orphans while their parents are alive?
However, don't panic. It's not all that bad. You just need to separate real world, in which Romeo and Juliet still meet, from the virtual (television) world, in which, of course, there is no longer a place for the Verona couple. And then everything depends on us and on society. From our choice. Which we will ultimately prefer. What will we strive for? But, despite everything that is happening around us, despite all the dirt that surrounds us (and perhaps precisely because of this), I would like to believe that the love of Romeo and Juliet will turn out to be more attractive for many than “Sex and the City.” After all, the story of the couple from Verona has gone through so many centuries, so many difficult periods. And yet she is alive. And it still evokes admiration and awe in hearts.

VERONA INVITATION

In Verona, the homeland of Romeo and Juliet, the memory of legendary heroes. Juliet's balcony, sarcophagus, tomb - all this expensive places both for the Veronese people themselves, and for those who come here to experience the beauty of this eternal love, not knowing temporal and spatial boundaries.
Letters also come to Verona from all over the world. Sometimes there are only two words on the envelope - Verona, Juliet. And the letter still finds its addressee and ends up in Juliet's Club address: Via Galilei, 3-37133 Verona, Italia. Those who work here are those for whom constant contact with the great feat of love of the young Veronese has become a vital necessity. These are the so-called “secretaries” of Juliet, who respond in several languages ​​to letters coming from different countries peace.
This tradition was started by Ettori Solimani, a romantic and enthusiast who was appointed custodian of Juliet's tomb in the 1930s and who, during his years of service, restored many sites associated with this legendary history. For his noble, selfless work, Solimani was awarded the honorary title of Knight of the Italian Republic. He said: “I love Juliet, of course, not as much as Romeo, but better.”
The tradition of answering letters began when one day, while rereading the love sayings of visitors, Ettori Solimani discovered that some of them had left their addresses. And he began to answer them on behalf of Juliet. Rich life experience, knowledge of many languages ​​ensured this endeavor success and popularity.
The work begun by Solimani is continued by the Verona Juliet Club, created by Signor Giulio Tamassia. Boys and girls turn to Juliet for help and support, confide their first secrets of the heart to her, and try to understand the nature of love in their reasoning.

"I came here to tell you Good morning and surround your stone bed with a halo of tender kisses. This special day is a holiday for both of us: the Day of Love. Do you remember? But you're still sleeping and I don't want to wake you. Countless kisses to you, my love, I miss you, but in every woman that I meet on my way, in those whom I love and who love me, there is always a piece of you, of us. We are connected across centuries and spaces, thanks to love.
Hug you gently".
Raphael, France.

“Dear Juliet! I am writing to you with a pure heart and an open soul. Yes, pure, because my heart and soul are not yet filled with the delightful melody of love that has passed through many eras and centuries,” writes young Anastasia from Russia. “Love is a feeling of constantly fading harmony. Love is faith in a great future, it is a prayer, it is huge seething waves that sometimes capture your soul entirely... A world without love is a space where rivers of hatred and grief intertwine, where everyone is trying with all their might to survive... Sometimes I think that love is... This is a mystery for the planet, and maybe the entire Universe...”
From young, sincere lips, not yet capable of falsehood, sometimes surprisingly wise words are born: “Know one thing that love is a very strong feeling and no one and nothing can defeat it! After all, this is the only source of life! Love for family, loved ones, Motherland, children! Never give up and never lose hope.", - calls a girl named Panna.

Nineteen-year-old Raquel from Italy reflects:
“What is love? Is this the burning wound that will not pass anyone, and will heartlessly and mercilessly leave nothing but emptiness and pain? Juliet, my dear friend, here is my answer: She is a blinding flash sunlight, which pierces the darkness. She is the honey that brings sweetness to this often bland life.”

The Russian-language letters are answered by our compatriot, one of Juliet’s secretaries, Olga Nikolaeva, for whom the story of Romeo and Juliet has become part of her own destiny. For many years, she and her husband Vladimir have been collecting everything related to the legendary names of young Veronese residents.
We have to admit that in Verona they treat lovers in a special way. Moreover, it is believed that Romeo and Juliet patronize those who join their hearts and hands in their hometown. There is even a special ceremony of the Vow of Love practiced here.
This ceremony first took place on April 29, 1999. The idea was developed and implemented by the organization “Verona for Two”. The uniqueness of the ceremony lies in the fact that it is performed in the very place where, as the old Verona legend tells, Romeo and Juliet made a vow of love to each other. Their secret marriage was consecrated in the church of the monastery of St. Francis. The surviving premises of the Church of San Francesco have now become a museum of frescoes, next to which is the famous crypt with Juliet’s sarcophagus - Tomba di Giulietta. This place is the most ancient of all associated with the story of Romeo and Juliet in Verona, and its veneration began even before the appearance of the great Shakespearean tragedy.
The Patto d'Amore ceremony takes place in a hall decorated with frescoes by Paolo Farinati. All participants in the ceremony dress up in costumes from the times of Romeo and Juliet. To the sounds of medieval music played on ancient instruments, the couple, accompanied by friends, enters the hall, where they are greeted with speeches. Accordingly traditions, the bride and groom exchange words of love and rings of Romeo and Juliet. The master of ceremonies joins their hands, and the young girls are presented with flowers. The couple then signs in a special book and receives a certificate on parchment in the name of the Order. Montagues and Capulets.
After this, the procession moves to the courtyard. The steps lead into the twilight of the crypt. How many celebrities have paid tribute to this tomb. Maria Louise of Austria, Madame De Staël, Byron, Heine, Musset, as well as Maria Callas, Galina Ulanova and many others. And then the path leads to the ancient House of Juliet with the coat of arms of the Cappello (Capulet) family above the entrance arch. You can even go out onto the famous balcony from which Juliet listened to her lover’s speeches. Well, then the celebration continues according to the traditional scenario of any wedding, that is, champagne and lunch in a restaurant. And there are no fewer people wishing to take part in this ceremony. On the contrary, their number is growing every year.
This means that this wonderful story is still alive. Maybe it really is eternal. And the young Veroneans Romeo and Juliet are immortal. Let them great love every minute continues to illuminate us with its magical radiance, protecting our hearts with its purity...

There are two of us in the world: you and me...
Everything was shrouded in foggy darkness,
Everything disappeared in it, drowned,
Heaven and earth have disappeared...
And we can see another distance,
Other stars shine here,
And the eyes open secrets,
And life is transparent to the bottom...
Here the world is raised above the dust,
Sanctified by the breath of God,
Love has reigned here since time immemorial;
And we are not what we were before:
Wedding clothes are in the rays,
The path to eternity lies before us...
(N. Obolensky)

God is Love, and Love is God, and nothing can be higher than this. Everything else is decay and destruction. But where there is love, there is always the joy of creation and the miracle of creativity, the unfading radiance of the divine principle. “Without love everything is bad: with love everything is good” - how accurate and touching these simple words Russian saint Tikhon of Zadonsk.

OLIVIA HASSEY. CREATIVITY AND PERSONAL LIFE

British film actress Olivia Hussey (née Olivia Osuna - Spanish) was born on April 17, 1951, in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Father - Andreas Osuna - was an opera singer and performed under the pseudonym Isvaldo Ribot.
When Olivia was two years old, her parents divorced, and five years later her mother took her and her younger brother Andrew to London. There Olivia, taking her mother's surname, began attending drama school. She received her first television role at the age of thirteen, and at 16 she played Juliet in a film by Italian director Franco Zeffirelli, for which she received a Golden Globe. Olivia Hussey then moved to Los Angeles and married the son of actor Dean Martin in 1971. Their son Alexander followed in the footsteps of his parents and became an actor.
In 1973, Olivia starred in Lost Horizon, and in 1978 in the film Death on the Nile. In 1977, she played the Virgin Mary in Zeffirelli’s television project “Jesus of Nazareth.”
Olivia Hussey's life changed dramatically in 1978 family life and she separated from Martin Hussey, and two years later she married the Japanese singer Akira Fuse, with whom (in 1983) she gave birth to a son, Maximilian.
In 1988, she played in the film adaptation of Pope John Paul II’s book “The Jeweler’s Store,” and in 1989... she divorced Akira Fuse and already in 1991, the loving Hussey married the American rock singer and actor David Glen Ashley. In 1993, she gave birth to a daughter, India Joy Ashley. In 2002, she embodied the screen image of Mother Teresa in a television film.
In the fall of 2014, Olivia Hussey took part in the filming of the film “Social Suicide” by British director Bruce Webb, which takes the story of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet to modern world social networks. Leonard Whiting, Olivia’s partner in Franco Zeffirelli’s film Romeo and Juliet, with whom she maintained a lifelong friendship, is also involved in this project.
Whiting and Hussey represent in the film the parents of Julia (the current Juliet), in whose image Olivia's real-life daughter, India Ashley, appears.

Romeo and Juliet, Tragedy in Verona

The tragedy of William Shakespeare, which tells about the love of a young man and a girl from two warring ancient families - the Montagues and the Capulets. The work is usually dated to 1594-1595. The history of the Italian city of Verona dates back to the times of the Roman Empire. But the most famous inhabitants of Verona to this day remain young Romeo and Juliet, whose love for each other was immortalized by the genius of William Shakespeare.

The great playwright William Shakespeare did not claim the historicity of his characters.

Did you invent it or borrow it?

In 1957, Shakespeare's play was published under the title "The Superbly Contrived Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet." But Shakespeare was lying a little, for the story about two lovers was popular long before he wrote it. Images of “ill-fated lovers” are found already in the era of Antiquity, for example, in the Greek poem “Antia and Abrokom” by Xenophon of Aeneas (2nd century). Moreover, in 2007, Italian archaeologists, 40 kilometers from Verona, discovered a burial in which lay two skeletons hugging each other, male and female, more precisely, youthful and girlish, since they had completely healthy teeth. It turned out that the skeletons are more than 5 thousand years old. It cannot be ruled out that during their lifetime some unbearably sad event happened to the young people that destroyed them both.

The first to speak about young lovers bearing the names Romeo and Juliet, the offspring of the warring families of Montagues and Capulets, was the Italian Luigi da Porto in 1531 in his “The Story of Two Noble Lovers.” A quarter of a century later, another Italian, Matteo Bandello, freely expounded this plot in Novellas, where all the main characters tragedy. Here are the families of Montagues and Capulets, and the “good monk” Fra Lorenzo, and Tebaldo, “Juliet’s cousin... who encouraged not to spare any of the Montagues,” and Marcuccio, whom everyone “loved for his sharp tongue and all sorts of jokes,” and Juliet’s fiancé - “Rich and handsome” Count Paris.

Bandello's Novellas have been translated into French, and from French - into English, after which the poet Arthur Brooke set out the same plot in the poem “The Tragic History of Romeus and Juliet” (1562). Many researchers believe that since Shakespeare's masterpiece contains many parallels with Brooke's poem, it is clear that he borrowed the plot.

What do the documents say?

The bloody feud of the ancient families of Verona, because of which young lovers died, is not fiction. In the 12th-14th centuries, urban republics in Italy were torn apart by squabbles and power struggles between aristocratic families. The great Dante Alighieri in The Divine Comedy, mentioning this endless enmity, writes, addressing Emperor Albrecht:

“Come, endless one, just take a glance: Monaldi, Filippeschi, Capulet, Montagues,

“Those are in tears, and those are trembling.”

And yet, all attempts to find references in reliable sources to the existence of these families were in vain. But relatively recently, Professor Cecil Cliffe of the University of Liverpool, who studied archival documents, related to the life of Luigi da Porto, brought a new version.

Luigi was born near Verona, in Vicenza, in 1485, into an aristocratic family. At the age of 26, with the rank of cavalry captain, he went to serve in the province of Friuli (on the border with Austria), where the Savorgnan family was the most influential. Some of the members of this family had a weakness for the Austrian Emperor Maximilian, others were adherents of the Venetian Republic. Their meetings often ended in quarrels, fights, duels and even murders.

One day Luigi was invited to a party in family estate Savornyanov. There he first saw the hatchling, which had just turned 15 years old. Love broke out at first sight between the young people. However, matchmaking was out of the question: Porto was a representative of the Austrian army, and Lucina’s parents were ardent republicans. Secretly from them, the girl met with Luigi. They exchanged messages and gifts.

Over time, a real war broke out between Venice and Austria. Relations in the Savoryan family deteriorated sharply, and when one of the family’s heirs was killed, it was decided to reconcile the warring factions through the marriage of Lucina and her blacksmith Francesco. The girl protested, but her parents were adamant.

Upon learning of this, Luigi almost committed suicide. He retired and took up literary work. His first short story, “The Story of Two Noble Lovers,” brought him success. In it, he talked about the warring families of the Capulets and Montagues from Verona and the unhappy love of Romeo and Juliet, by whose name the author meant himself and Lucina.

Romeo and Juliet - a love story - who were the real Romeo and Juliet updated: October 4, 2017 by: website

Shakespeare W.

Essay on a work on the topic: The power of love, capable of conquering even death (based on W. Shakespeare’s tragedy “Romeo and Juliet”) (2)

Love,
Walls don't stop her.
In need, she decides to do anything.

Before us is a masterpiece of world literature: William Shakespeare's tragedy "Romeo and Juliet". Imagination can easily take us to the 14th century, to the Italian city of Verona. On the stage there are two warring families - the Montagues and the Capulets, they hate each other fiercely, although they have long forgotten what the reason for their quarrel was. They are dominated by the ancient custom of vendetta, blood feud, when death must be paid for with death. And so, in an environment saturated with poisonous malice, where any trifle serves as a reason for bloody skirmishes, a magnificent bud of love blooms, defying many years of family enmity.
Young Montague and young Capulet forget about family irreconcilability, as the feeling that has taken possession of them instantly breaks the wall of alienation that separated them. Despite her incomplete 14 years, Juliet has a rich spiritual world, she is smart, courageous and spontaneous. Having learned that Romeo heard her declaration of love for him, the girl is embarrassed, but, convinced of the sincerity of his feelings, she decides to take a step that came as a complete surprise to the two families. Having fallen in love with the young man, Juliet wisely argues that his belonging to a hostile family has no meaning for her. In turn, Romeo is ready to be baptized a second time and give up his family name if it becomes an obstacle to his love.
Friar Lorenzo also takes the side of the young people. He secretly marries them, hoping that this marriage will lead to reconciliation of the clans. However, soon after the wedding sacrament, Romeo kills Juliet's cousin, Tybalt, a fierce adherent of the principle of blood feud, in a skirmish, and is forced to go into exile. His beloved, having learned from the nurse’s stupid story about the death of a relative, first angrily denounces the man who, as she thinks, betrayed her. But then Juliet reproaches herself for such thoughts:

But would it be better if in a fight
Did this robber kill you, brother?
However, fate is preparing a new test for the girl: Capulet’s father decides to marry her to Paris, a relative of the Duke of Verona, as soon as possible. Not understanding the true reason for his daughter’s tragedy, he thinks only about practical benefits: this marriage will give his entire family the opportunity to rise to the occasion. But Juliet does not intend to give up, she decides to fight to the end for her love.
All her courage, all her feeling is manifested in the fateful scene when, on the advice of a monk, she drinks a sleeping potion. How understandable is the fear of a young girl when she thinks that she will wake up in a family crypt among tombs with the dead. But she, having overcome her fear, still drinks the drink, because she understands that this test is the only way to unite with her beloved.
Friar Lorenzo, who came up with a plan to save the love of young people, could not take into account all the vicissitudes of fate in advance. An unexpected plague prevented him from warning Romeo that Juliet's death was imaginary. From this moment on, events take a tragic turn. The young man's love is so strong that he is not inferior to Paris even to the dead Juliet. He decides to drink poison so as not to part with his beloved even in death.
Juliet wakes up in the crypt and sees Romeo dead. Without thinking for long, she plunges a dagger into her heart, because she cannot live without her beloved. How simply and sincerely the Girl behaves at the hour of her last choice:

It's time to finish. But here is a dagger, fortunately.
Sit in the case.
(Stabs it into himself)
Be here and I will die.

The death of Romeo and Juliet affects their parents so deeply that they forget about their enmity. What the Duke could not achieve with his threats occurs under the influence of this tragic lesson, which forced the parents to understand the cruel senselessness of their enmity. But the price paid for this is too high.
The images of Romeo and Juliet, striking in their integrity and expressiveness, are the living embodiment of love that knows no compromise, selfless and boundless love, conquering dangers, fears and even death.

Millions of words have been said about love and mountains of books have been written. There are formulas of love, scientific definitions, philosophical treatises. The theme of love in literature is always relevant. After all, love is the purest and most beautiful feeling that has been sung since ancient times. It is always the same, whether it is youthful or more mature love. Love never gets old. Let’s take, for example, a work of literature, W. Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet”.

Shakespeare is the greatest writer of the Renaissance. He is one of those titans who were born of this era, but in his significance he goes far beyond its boundaries. His creations do not become a thing of the past, do not become covered with the dust of centuries - they do not lose their living beauty and power of influence even today.

The love and tragic death of Romeo and Juliet, the doubts and torment of Hamlet, the suffering of Lear - all this deeply worried the contemporaries of the great playwright, the crowd that filled the medieval theater on the outskirts of London. And after more than three hundred years, Shakespeare’s images with their rich inner life, tension of passions, depth of feelings and thoughts find a warm and lively response from the audience.

Shakespeare penetrated deeper into the inner world of man than all his predecessors and contemporaries. In Shakespeare's early plays, poetic images of people appear, beautiful and humane, full of life and forces actively pursuing happiness.

The images of the tragedy are depicted deeply and comprehensively. Juliet is characterized not only by love, but also by wit, willpower, and determination; Romeo - violent impulses, incontinence of feelings. The characters of both change over the course of the play, both grow under the influence of their experiences. Juliet is a carefree girl at the beginning. She doesn’t even think of contradicting her mother when she first offers her Paris as a groom. The struggle for love turns her into an independent and heroic woman. In the first scenes, Romeo indulges in far-fetched courtly sighs for a certain Rosaline. Only having fallen in love with Juliet, having learned the power of true feeling, does he become mature, and his love acquires heroic strength.

This is precisely the ideological content of the famous tragedy “Romeo and Juliet”. This is a highly poetic play about love by free choice. She depicts the clash of such humanistic love with feudal prejudices - tribal enmity and the tyranny of parents. The play takes place in the Italian city of Verona. An ancient family feud between two noble families - the Montagues and the Capulets - blocks the path to happiness for two young people - Romeo and Juliet, who fell in love with each other.

Having learned that the one she fell in love with is the enemy of her family, Juliet says:

What does the name mean? A rose smells like a rose

Either call it a rose or not.

Romeo by any name would be

The height of perfection that he is

(Translated by B. Pasternak)

Love by free choice appears in this tragedy as a great feeling that binds people for life, a feeling for which even death is not an obstacle. The fight for their love against the oppression of the family pushes both lovers to heroic deeds.

The tragedy is full of lyricism. Love is expressed in it with enormous poetic power. Particularly striking moments in this regard are Juliet’s first confession from the balcony, when she is unexpectedly heard by Romeo, who has made his way into the garden. This is the famous "balcony scene", the first date of Romeo and Juliet. It’s night, the moon is shining in the sky, the stars are shining. Romeo delivers his first monologue:

But quiet! What light comes through this window?

This is the east, and Juliet is the sun!

Rise, beautiful sun, and

Kill the envious moon,

Who is already sick and pale with grief,

That you, her maiden, are much more beautiful than she:

Don't be her maiden, for she is

Envious;

Her virginal robe -

Pale green

And only fools (clowns) wear it:

Drop it.

This is my lady; ABOUT! this is my love:

ABOUT! if only she knew this...

Juliet does not hear him yet, but he sees her silhouette on the balcony, illuminated by the fire from the window and the pale glow of the moon. And immediately a chain of metaphors, comparisons, and mythological comparisons begins. “The light in the window” is both the light of the lamp in Juliet’s room and Juliet herself, whose beauty outshines all other luminaries. In the next line Romeo paints a fantastic picture:

In the middle of the night, dawn suddenly awakens in the east and the sun rises - Juliet! And it, this sun of love, must “kill” the envious one - the moon.

Why "envious"? Yes, because the moon for Romeo and for millions of other people of his time is Living being, goddess of the night, guardian of virgin purity. Immediately forgetting that Juliet is the “sun,” Romeo likens her to a “maiden,” that is, a servant of the Moon. And developing this mythological comparison, the lover calls (conditionally, of course, since Juliet does not hear him yet) the beauty to leave the service of the moon. Translated into simple language, this means that it asks her to become his wife.

His monologue is a kind of serenade (in Italian “serenata” is an evening song), which lovers sang then under the windows of their ladies.

Young Juliet is not inferior to Romeo in the poetry of her speeches. At first she is still a little ashamed of her feelings, but she calls on the night as an ally when she says: “The mask of the night is on my face.” This is a wonderful metaphor, the meaning of which is clear - the girl is ashamed, but the color of shame is hidden by the darkness of the night.

No less poetic and lyrical is the scene of the separation of lovers, where their touching dialogue sounds like a musical duet, like an alba (literally “dawn”, this is a genre of pre-dawn song expressing the grief of lovers forced to leave each other). Here Romeo and Juliet again “play” with images of nature - only this time, instead of the sun and moon, pictures of dawn appear, and they talk about the pre-dawn singing of birds.

The humanistic idea of ​​this tragedy is embodied not only in the images of Romeo and Juliet. Friar Lorenzo, alien to everything monastic, a philosopher who studies nature, helps lovers as a wise older friend, strives to end the feud between families.

Romeo and Juliet die, but are not separated. They die together, their love conquers death, since the death of young people forever eliminates centuries-old enmity. Their death gives pause to the Montagues and Capulets, the rulers of Verona and all those who survived. Isn't it time to end the bloody strife?