The Unseen Aroma of Love

  Have you ever had a crush on someone, that you can't stop thinking about the person, and forget about everything? Have you ever follow your love, just roaming and looking for her. Romeo is that young man crazy in love.
  My favorite part from Act 2 of "Romeo and Juliet" is scene 2. Starting by the long speech of Romeo's, he deeply expressed his falling for Juliet. Even he was just praising Juliet, the language is so beautiful.
  " It's east, and Juliet is the sun"(2.2 3)
  That's his first compliment to Juliet. I think the sentence has metaphor that shows how much he admires her. The sun always shines in the sky at daytime, but for Romeo, the balcony is his sky and Juliet is his sun. He is not afraid to look up the the brightest star.
  "She speaks, yet she says nothing. What of that?
   Her eye discourses; I will answer it."(2.2 12-13)
  In this sentence, Romeo is trying to build the bond to Juliet in his heart. Juliet is not saying anything, but Romeo has already assume she is communicating with him in eyes. This happens a lot, when we have feelings on someone, we assume that person's words and moves are all connected to us.
  His following descriptions on Juliet's body parts are the highlights of the scene, vivid that we can picture the scene immediately.
  "The brightness of her cheek would shame those stars
    As daylight doth a lamp; her eye in heaven."(2.2 21-23)
  The exaggerations keep showing the readers his over-dramatic personality. In additional, it's one of the substantial contrasts to Juliet's speech later in Scene.
   For Juliet, she is just the same as Romeo. But she has more worries on the background of Romeo and her. The difference between the families makes it hard for the lovers to be together.
  "Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love,
   And I’ll no longer be a Capulet."(2.2 38-39)
  Her love is just straight forward, and brave. She 'd rather denial her family than losing Romeo's love, even when they had only met once.  What's interesting about this part is that she thinks she is telling nobody about her feelings, while Romeo is receiving every words she says.
  Of course, it was the greatest and happiest moment in the young man's life.
  Shakespeare used such brilliant technique to develop the plot, the lovers get to know each other's feelings, even when they are not standing nearby. It's a much more dramatic way to start the relationship. Everybody hopes to listen to the truest feelings from their love. Sometimes it's hard to say them face to face, but the accident is what makes the love more beautiful.
  In conclusion, Act two scene two is the spotlight of the whole play. And a lot of modern shows are mimic the classic scene where Romeo and Juliet meet. The distance creates an atmosphere for the young and innocent love. And it's the beautiful part of the play, comparing to the tragedy in ending.

In class writing#Juliet balcony speech

  She is basically expressing the emotions about the difference of identification between Romeo and her. She is in love with Romeo and would rather give up her place in Capulet's family than losing Romeo. 

  However, Juliet doesn't know Romeo can hear her. So the whole speech becomes Romeo's extreme happiness.

Blog #3

  Act one basically does an introduction to the whole story. The main setting is the hatred between the Montagues and the Capulets families. It's a truly intense relationship. Servants and members from both of the families are walking on the streets with their swords and shields, ready to fight. They are talking and insulting people from the other family on their back, and when they meet, things just get worse. There are people trying to stir up fights like Tybelt, but also peacemakers trying to stop them like the prince and Benvolio. Different characters show different personalities. Also, since there are a substantial number of characters, we can see things in different perspectives: Servants care about what their masters' idea, while the nobilities decide other people's fate, even their children, such as Juliet's future marriage. I like the way Shakespeare writing about scenarios happening in different classes, different places. So we can know more about the story background, and understand the main plot better.
  With the appearance of Romeo, one the the two main characters, the story gets more and more interesting. I found that Shakespeare doesn't like to make the main characters show up at the beginning, it just creates a feeling of mystery. And when the characters actually appear, their characteristics get strengthen maximumly. The language Romeo used reveals his emotions and troubles.
  Like most other teenagers, Romeo has his own confuse of life in this special period. And for him, love is a brand new concept, and he doesn't know how to handle it.
Here's a quote from (1.1 192-201)

Why, such is love’s transgression.
Griefs of mine own lie heavy in my breast,
Which thou wilt propagate, to have it pressed
With more of thine. This love that thou hast shown
Doth add more grief to too much of mine own.
Love is a smoke raised with the fume of sighs;
Being purged, a fire sparkling in lovers' eyes;
Being vexed, a sea nourished with loving tears.
What is it else? A madness most discreet,
A choking gall, and a preserving sweet.

He has a misunderstanding of love, of being grief and pain, because he is lack of real life experience and young. He has such a high expectation on love, while he can't approach to it. I have the same experience just like him; the young man needs someone to guide him, and Benvolio showed up.
  However, Romeo also has a strong personality of rebellion to his parents, to the world. What he does is just roaming around by himself, away from parents and everyone. When the cousin tried to talk to him, he said, "Out!"(1.1 156). The gap between Romeo his family can't be solve by his parents because they weren't even trying but instead let Benvolio does the job.
  Romeo is such an emotional character, he likes to use exaggerating, poetic language to express his feelings.
 
 O brawling love, O loving hate,
 O anything of nothing first created!
 O heavy lightness, serious vanity,
 Misshapen chaos of well-seeming forms!
 Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health
 (1.1 181-185)

His comments to love are so fantastical and unreal. But the language is what makes him really unique. The more he thinks, the more personalities are showed.

  On the other hand, Juliet is a little bit less emotional but still has her own thoughts against her mother's commands.
 
  I’ll look to like if looking liking move.
  But no more deep will I endart mine eye
  Than your consent gives strength to make it fly.
  (1.3 103-105)
 
  And she is also a little bit naive on love, which tell by the conversation and behavior between her and Romeo in Act 1 Scene 5. She asked for kiss after one.

Summary of 1.1&1.2 Romeo and Juliet

  In Act 1 Scene 1, started with an argument between the two groups of people, the head of the two families stepped into the fight, it was intense and dangerous because they all drew their swords. But the prince stopped them immediately, by threatening their life.
  Follow up by the conversation between Benvolio and Romeo talking about the young man's love to another girl. Romeo wasn't happy because he thought it was impossible.
  In Act 1 Scene 2, Capulet was engaged to let the person Juliet should be married to come to the party. And Romeo&Benvolio decided to go, thought Romeo wanted to go alone

Essay 2

  Although the Video only displays several scenes from the rehearsal and the interview to a couple of staffs, we can tell that it's definitely a splendid play, showing the essence of the book and a substantial amount of distinctive elements.
  According to the author's words, and I quote:" It's not a novel about disability, it's the novel about difference."(Mark Haddon). The play intends to show very special perspectives from the young man in the book, Christopher, who had the characteristic of autism syndrome. As Haddon mentioned, the difference is what really matters. There is a scene from the play when Christopher is floating in a space that's similar to the universe. In the original novel of "The curious incident of the dog in the night-time", Christopher was struggling in social communication but it can't change the fact that he is a both talented and passionate math and science learner. So the play is possibly trying to exhibit that characteristic of Christopher's. At the beginning of the video, Mark Haddon mentioned that:"...one person's slightly alien consciousness."(Mark Haddon), I believe that's exactly the description to Christopher's personality, he was pretty special indeed. However, according to the Autism Consultant in the middle of the video, she states that:"Many people with Autism are really, really creative." We can infer that Christopher also matches that point. Re-looking at the scene I mentioned above, Christopher is twisting, spinning, and struggling in his own world. That's his disability, but also what makes him a distinctive character.
  Another significant technique from the play, which actually makes the whole play incredibly attractive:"the play become personal to a lot of people."(Marianne Elliott.), this is a quote from the Director of the show. That's her whole goal, provides audience group a chance to develop empathy, make them feel what Christopher feels. She mentioned that the play is so close that:"breathing the same air completely inside of his head."(Marianne Elliott) The play used the special but traditional technique that focusing all the spotlight on Christopher in plenty of scenes. For example, at the train station, all the people are spreading out but Christopher. He stands in the center, roaming and seems lost. That's such a strong feeling to the audience. "We feel like we are Christopher."(Marianne Elliott). However, it's not just the play's atmosphere that makes audience feel what Christopher feels, but Christopher's actual experience and personality reflecting on the audience themselves. Some of them might have autism syndrome, some of them might live in their own world like Christopher's, or just as crazy in science and math. The whole point is, if the audience can find the connection between the play and themselves, then it becomes perfect or even "immortal". "It's a metaphor, about all of us encountering things we find overwhelming and confusing and feel that fear but diving through anyway."(Marianne Elliott)
  Understanding the play and build connections to the characters, brings the audience to a whole new level, that's what the whole crew is desperately trying to accomplish. Every emotions, sentence  , and movement that the characters do in the play, are so minute comparing to the spirit that they stand for, the tiny spirit living inside the infinite universe of Christopher Bonnes'.

Cited resource: http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/video/working-on-the-spectrum-the-making-of-curious-incident-and-the-dog-in-the-night-time

Essay 1

 One of the most crucial elements deciding whether a show/play is decent or not is the setting. A good setting creates an appropriate atmosphere to the audience. If I'm going to design the setting for the show "The curious incident of the dog in the night-time" in a place with the size of Black Box theater, I won't  make it looks flamboyant. Black Box is not a huge place with a hundred different colors' spotlights and two thousand seats, it's only for the people that would like to enjoy a   delicate show with silent and peaceful environment. So the setting won't be complicated, with just a couple of chairs and decorations for the four scenes: The place where the dog got killed, Christopher's home, train station and Christopher's mom's house in London. I want the other scenes to be somehow ignored because the show can't be so long as Hollywood Movies, people often get bored and sleepy after an hour in a place like the dark theater. As long as the play shows the essence of the original work, then It's finished.
  But, what exactly is the essence of the show?
  According to the author of the original novel, "It's not a novel about disability, it's a novel about difference." The whole book is developing from Christopher's points of view, so the show should be mainly focusing on Christopher too. I would put Christopher in the middle of the stage for the whole time, and the background lights change with his mood. When he figures something out, the light goes bright; when he gets depressed, the lights goes dark; when someone is trying to approach to him, the stage goes dark except the light to the two people. This light effect can help Christopher carries the audience's mood with him. Music is also a big part, and changes with Christopher's emotions.
  The original novel tends to be pretty realistic, that's why the plot attracts so many people. Fantastical elements are usually not as understandable as realistic ones.
  Christopher is a student, so I want to make the student audience have reflection on themselves. The imaginative, adventurous, and anxious personalities from Christopher can be shown in a lot of peer readers. To maximize those feelings, whether the costumes, face expressions, or the body language must be matching the real life especially for Christopher.
  While Christopher is dealing with the difficulty in communicating with other people in the whole book, he is always lonely. There's a detail I want to add to the show. He can be carrying a big that's kind of big on him in the whole play, representing his insecure feeling. It doesn't make sense in some degrees and didn't show up in the original novel, but don't we all want to hold on to something when we are nervous? Somehow this kind of design should make the show a bit more unique.
  Last significant thing needed to be mention is the actor's voice, it's been so decisive to the plays but sometimes the actors just ignored its importance. In a small theatre like Black Box, the actors can't speak too loud, but there are actually scenes when Christopher screams, so the actor can't be that emotional. Otherwise, it would become a total noise.