“The fearful passage of their death-marked love.” This excerpt from the prologue shows how fate has decreed that these lovers are being stalked by death itself. It also manages to further interest the audience by suggesting the two main topics in most plays, films, and books. Sex (such as sexual innuendo from the servants and the Nurse) and violence. These two factors were most likely mentioned to attract attention and make the audience eager for more.
Two other instances of fate also suggest that the whole thing was meant to be. The first in scene two on page sixty five, and the second in scene four on page seventy four. In scene two, an illiterate servant of Capulet happens to run into Romeo, who reads out loud the list of guests who are to attend a party. It is because of this event that Romeo goes to the party and meets Juliet in the first place.
The next case of fate occurs in scene four, where Romeo attempts to explain to his friend Mercutio a dream he had, where he saw terrible consequences which would unfold due to the events of that night. The quote written below is from page seventy six; it is what Romeo tells his friends of the dream had had (this takes place shortly after Mercutio’s explanation of ‘Queen Mab’).
“Some consequence, yet hanging in the stars, shall bitterly begin this fearful date with this night’s revels and expire the term of a despisèd life, closed in my breast, by some vile forfeit of untimely death.”
Oxi-morons are another factor which draws attention in this play. Oxi-morons are two words strung together in a sentence which contradict each other in meaning (eg. Dark light). Here is a Romeo quote from page sixty one, where he is describing to his cousin Benvolio his feelings of lust for Rosaline.
“Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health, still-waking sleep, that is not what it is!”
What Romeo is trying to prove in this intense speech, is how strong, passionate, and indescribable his feelings are towards Rosaline. It is also one of they extremely few situations throughout the play where multiple oxi-morons are used in sequence.
If there is one other thing which Shakespeare is very famous for, it is for his regular use of sonnets and poetic language. One of the most important and well known examples in “Romeo and Juliet” is several moments after the young couple meet for the first time. After reciting this love sonnet, they have their first kiss, so the sonnet symbolises the beginning of their love for each other.
JULIET: Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much, which mannerly devotion shows in this. For saints have hands that pilgrims’ hands do touch, and palm to palm is holy palmers’ kiss.
ROMEO: Have not saints lips, and holy palmers too?
JULIET: Ay, pilgrim, lips that they must use in prayer.
ROMEO: O, then dear saint, let lips do what hands do! They pray: grant thou, lest faith turn to despair.
JULIET: Saints do not move, though grant for prayers’ sake.
ROMEO: Then move not while my prayer’s effect I take.
This passage implies that sonnets and other forms of poetic language are of great importance in “Romeo and Juliet.” However, love is not the only emotion which can be portrayed through poetry and rhyme. There are several examples in the play of poetry being used to show the different feelings of other characters. Romeo is a common example of this. Here is another passage from page sixty one.
ROMEO: Alas that love, whose view is muffled, still
Should without eyes see pathways to his will!
Where shall we dine? O me, what fray was here?
Yet tell me not, for I have heard it all.
Here’s much to-do with hate, but more with love.
Why then, O brawling love, O loving hate,
O anything, of nothing first create!
The four lines in bold type are part of a rhyming couplet. In this case scenario, the poetic language is used to display Romeo’s anger and frustration from being rejected by Rosaline. His continuous use of ‘O’ and ‘Alas’ also seem to signify the pain and grief that he is feeling.
On the previous page, I mentioned conflict in the meanings of words, known as Oxi-morons, but the much more interesting conflicts come from the clashing personalities of the varied characters from both families. Obviously both the families are constantly engaged in an on-going and often violent feud, the cause of which is completely unknown to the audience. However, it is quite interesting how in the first act of the play, Shakespeare seems to be trying to make it look like the Capulet family are more in the wrong than those in the house of Montague.
For example, at the beginning of the play, it is the servants of Capulet who start a violent quarrel in the street. Romeo’s cousin Benvolio (which is Latin for ‘Peace loving’) tries, and nearly succeeds in ending the fight peacefully. It is at that point that Juliet’s cousin Tybalt (which is Latin for ‘War-monger’) steps in, and his presence causes the fight to escalate to the point where Prince Escalus (the Prince of Verona) has to be called in to halt the brawl.
All the points I have listed above, and possibly others, show how Shakespeare manages to engage the audience in the Act One of “Romeo and Juliet.”
