Should Romeo and Juliet be in quotation marks when writing about the play?

Answer 1

Different schools will have different preferred methods of doing this, but in general it is a good idea to identify a title by some form of typographical alteration, particularly underlining or italics. Quotation marks may be favoured by some, but could be ambiguous. As an example:

I for one am distressed by the pomposity of King John.

Here we cannot be sure whether it is the character or the play which is pompous. Let's try it another way:

I for one am distressed by the pomposity of "The Life and Death of King John".

Now we cannot be sure whether the title is pompous or the play is. But if we write

I for one am distressed by the pomposity of King John.

there is no ambiguity.

Notwithstanding the above, if your teacher or professor tells you to use quotation marks for the title, go along with it. They are usually extremely opinionated on this subject and it is not worth your time to argue.

Answer 2

What a strange question. Are you asking if it is OK to underline your copy of the script? If you bought and paid for the book you can do whatever you want to with it. If you are borrowing it is not cool to write in someone else's book, even a school's.

Are you asking if Shakespeare intended you to underline the script? Not unless you are an actor--he intended people to experience his plays by watching and listening, not by reading them.

I don't know what you mean by "quotationed" but if you are asking whether there is any reason why you cannot quote from the play, the answer is there is not. Go ahead, quote away to your heart's content.

Answer 3

Yes, the title of the play "Romeo and Juliet" should be in quotation marks when writing about it in a formal context, such as an essay or research paper. It helps to indicate that you are referring to a specific work.