Cameron Santoro

Blog#11

1/23/14

Monologues in Romeo and Juliet

Today I am going to  be discussing monologues in Romeo and Juliet. But before we can discuss their purpose we must know what a monologue isz. Monologues are long speeches spoken by actors in a movie or play. Also they provide clues to what a character’s inside thoughts are.  Shakespeare uses monologues well because these monologues sum up what the character is like. For example, during Mercutio’s monologue gives us an example of how he is really is, he is loud, crazy, and most importantly it shows his cynicism. His cynical beliefs are revealed to us when Romeo is talking about a dream he had last night he starts on about Queen Mab and ranting about what she does in dreams. He mentions Queen Mab doing sexual related things, violent things, and mischievous things. This is basically Mercutio’s character in a nutshell. He is a perverted, crazy, and cynical person.

The rhyme pattern also shows this. When reading the monologue it felt very strange and unnerving, just like his character. Shakespeare does monologues well because  not only does this helps identify with the character it gives us a sense of what they are like