Act one scene one follows the prologue and the audience are already expecting a theme of love and hate which will most probably lead to violence and conflict. In this scene Sampson and Gregory are having a conversation using toilet humour and play on words
“Gregory, o' my word, we'll not carry coals”
“No, for then we should be colliers.”
“I mean, an we be in choler, we'll draw”
“Ay, while you live, draw your neck out o' the collar.”
This gives the piece some comedy and this is why Shakespeare’s work appealed to such a wide audience. After this Sampson and Gregory are trying to provoke Abram (a Montague) into starting a fight as none of them want to be blamed for starting the fight however they do want to fight. They try to outwit each other
“Do you bite your thumb at me, sir”
“I do bite my thumb, sir”
“I do bite my thumb, sir”
“Do you bite your thumb at us, sir”
“No sir, I do not bite my thumb at you sir, but I do bite my thumb sir”
Here Sampson is always trying to get Abram annoyed but hiding it so he isn’t to blame when the fight starts out. At the start of this scene the violence is just verbal however it goes on to be physical. Benvolio tries to interfere and break up the fighting but an enemy of his Tybalt a Capulet takes this opportunity to fight Benvolio, as Tybalt is a very fiery character that will jump at the chance of having a fight especially with a Montague as they have an ancient grudge. After a large fight between the couplets and the Montague’s the prince enters and has a long speech which tells the audience that’s this isn’t the first tine violence has occurred between the two families
“If ever you disturb our streets again, your life’s shall pay the forfeit of the peace!”
After this scene the audience are ready for some more violent happenings as in the first scene they have already experienced this so early on.
In act three scene five the conflict that occurs is verbal which makes it different from the conflict that was show earlier in the play. Lord Capulet has decided that his daughter will marry Paris however Juliet has secretly married and is in love with Romeo. Because of this she disobeys her father which would of been very rare in the Elizabethan times where women were inferior to men and Juliet and lady Capulet should not really be expected to have much of a say in this. Lord Capulet is infuriated about the disobedience of his daughter and becomes aggressive towards here because of this.
“Hang thee young baggage!, disobedient wretch! I tell thee what: get thee to church o’ Thursday or never look me in the face! Speak not reply not, do not answer me!”
In lord Capulet’s speech lots of anger is exploded at once and his punctuation used is mainly commas and exclamation marks with him not resting to take a breath or give any one else a chance to speak. Lady Capulet agrees with her husband and thinks Juliet is the one in the wrong here. The audience would have also been on the parent’s side here however this wouldn’t be the case now. In Baz Luhrmans film this scene is a major part of the play and he has intensified it by lord Capulet getting so mad by the end he physically hits Juliet and I think this worked well in the film
Conflict is a main theme in Romeo and Juliet with the conflict all happening because of love and hate. Both love and hate are important in the play because one would not be as effective without the other. Conflict is still used today as it is exciting to watch and Shakespeare was one of the first to use an take advantage of this.
By Alex Flaherty