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How do I conclude an essay on Romeo and Juliet?
Here's what I have:
Encompassing The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet are various literary elements, which begins with the chorus telling of the ill-fated lovers’ demise. “From forth the fatal loins of these two foes, a pair of star-crossed lovers take their life, whose misadventured piteous overthrows, Doth wit-h their death bury their parents’ strife” (prologue.5-8). During the course of the tragedy, dramatic irony, foreshadowing, and comic relief all play a pertinent role in developing profundity, and emotional attachments.
And, here is my 're-stated thesis': Playing a pertinent role in developing profundity, and emotional attachments is dramatic irony, foreshadowing, and comic relief.
Quick answer:
To conclude an essay on Romeo and Juliet, ensure your thesis is well-supported by discussing how literary devices like dramatic irony, foreshadowing, and comic relief create emotional attachments to the characters. Refine your sentences for clarity and coherence, and consider using a concise quote if needed. You should briefly elaborate on each literary device's impact and end with a powerful, summarizing message.
The main issue here is that you have a claim but no support for your claim. You state that specific literary devices make the play more profound, but don't really supply any evidence for how they do so. You also claim that these literary devices help develop "emotional attachments," but this is quite puzzling. It is unclear what sort of emotional attachments you mean or how comic relief helps to develop them. In general, literary devices have to do with the effects of a play on its audience, and so a more precise phrasing might be that certain literary devices make us attached to the characters and therefore sorrowful at their deaths.
For comic relief, you might want to think about how the Nurse, who is somewhat a comic character, helps humanize Juliet and make her more three-dimensional--and thus creates sympathy for her. On situational irony, you might look at how the various stratagems (such as the secret marriage and poison) intended to lead the young lovers to a happy future instead lead to their deaths. This irony enhances the sense of their being "star-crossed" and thus arouses our sympathy.
First of all, congratulations on writing a draft of the conclusion and then asking for help. On a purely grammatical note, you want to make sure that you italicize the title and make sure the subjects and verbs agree in your sentences. One way to ensure this is to make your introduction more concise, and cut the sentence down. Here is a suggestion:
During the course of The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet dramatic irony, foreshadowing, and comic relief all play a pertinent role in developing profundity and emotional attachments.
Also, you will want to use a shorter quote of two or three words or no quote at all in your conclusion. You can use the entire quote in another place. Some people like to start with a short quote as a hook, as you would in an introduction. That is an option too. However, you will need to choose a different one.
Clearly, you are going to need more to your introduction now. You have a thesis sentence, and that is good. The thesis sentence is the focus of your essay. All you need now is to add a hook before the thesis and three sentences after the thesis where you describe each of your three points in more detail. You can also add a concluding sentence after that that leaves your reader with an overall message
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