CONFLICT, INVERSION AND POETIC IMAGERY IN WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE'S ROMEO AND JULIET

This article analyses the conflicts, dramatic contradictions and artistic devices of William Shakespeare's tragedy Romeo and Juliet. The opposition between love and hatred, and between the family and society, is interpreted as the basic factor of the play's dramatic conflict, which is shown to operate simultaneously on the external plane of the feud and on the internal plane of the characters' experience. The study also considers the role of similes, poetic expressions and the technique of inversion, in which the outcome of the action is announced in advance, in revealing the content of the work. On the basis of theoretical statements about the literary hero and dramatic conflict, the psychology of the characters, their inner experiences and the tragic essence of love in the play are examined. The article concludes that Shakespeare raised an ordinary love story to the level of universal tragedy through the harmonious combination of dramatic conflict, poetic imagery and compositional technique.