Old stories of love and tragedy

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Old stories of love and tragedy

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Abstract

Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet largely pulls from a traditional tale, written and copied for decades before Shakespeare took his pen with an effort to adapt. Shakespeare's version, unquestionably the most famous, tells the story of love but, more, it tells of the tragedies to which that love leads. It is Bandello's version of this story that most closely resembles Shakespeare's eventual script. At its core, Bandello's story is one of heartbreaking love and the effect it has on the two principal characters, but also everyone who their lives touched. Weaved throughout his tale are repeated examples of this love as is characterized by the actions of all involved. Secondarily assessed is Salernitano's earlier version, wherein love is present throughout the actions of the characters but is stressed less significantly by the author.

Introduction
Bandello's story
The Unfortunate Death of Two Most Wretched Lovers
The dramatic meeting of the two future lovers
The thoughts of the two characters
The dramatic descriptions of love
Masuccio Salernitano's Novella 33
Conclusion
Sources

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[...] Romeo and Juliet before Shakespeare: Four Early Stories of Star- Crossed Lovers. (Toronto, Center for Reformation and Renaissance Studies, 2000.) Secondary Sources Levenson, Jill. L. “Romeo and Juliet before Shakespeare.” Studies in Philology, Vol No (Summer, 1984), pp. 325-347. Roberts, Arthur, J. Sources of Romeo and Juliet.” Modern Language Notes, Vol No (Feb., 1902), pp. 41-44. Ruthenberg, Myriam Swennen. “Modi narrativi e stile del ‘Novellino' di Masuccio Salernitano.” MLN, Vol No Italian Issue (Jan., 2000), pp. 137-141. Matteo Bandello. The [...]

[...] As she says to her priest, she would “rather slit [her] own throat open with a sharp knife,” than unfaithful to Romeo.[6]” These dramatic descriptions of love are not limited merely to the love described by Romeo and Giulietta for one another. As is shown throughout the story, each character has a similar reaction to his or her feelings. Love appears to trump reason in each character. Upon the death of her cousin Giulietta claims that she wishes to be dead. [...]

[...] The author's language largely influences the readers' ability to understand love and romance in this version. The story follows a strict plot, wherein an explanation of the love felt between these two characters is less important than the overall lesson espoused by the story.[8] Here the characters are Mariotto and Ganozza. Salernitano outlines that this story is a question of “which of the two loved more fervently.[9]” With this question as the thesis, he uses the story format to tell the story with absoluteness. [...]

[...] The story of this love and how the author characterizes it is more important here than how the plot concludes. In order for the story to be successful, and for it to seem tragic to the reader, the love that is the subject, must be accurately portrayed. The story of the two characters is told through a secondary source who places the setting in Verona. The speaker, “during a discussion concerning the havoc that love can cause[1]” introduces this lore, passing it on to his conversation partners. [...]

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