ENGL362 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Tybalt, Mercutio
Document Summary
Aristotelian language is arbitrary and meaning is arrived at by custom and usage. Based on an emergent belief system (i. e. the rise of the individual, individual will, and freedom) Platonic somehow, somewhere, there is a non-arbitrary element to language (a connection between the form of a word and its meaning. Hope posits that while the platonic view is easy to refute, people secretly long for it to be true. In renaissance this is likely true because it represents a kind of order in society. Romeo and juliet represents the disorder of society. Romeo and juliet come from different philosophies of language. Romeo is more aristotelian, the capulets are more platonic, juliet is the in the middle (e. g. a rose would be the same no matter what it"s called ; tell me you love me out loud ) An unoriginal play there were versions of the story that already existed: the only character created by shakespeare was mercutio.
