Romeo and Juliet is a play about conflict. By exploring Act 3 scene 5 explain how this theme is presented.

As soon as Juliet realises that Capulet refuses her wishes she turns to her mother which she is not as close to present day mothers and daughters and yet her mother lady Capulet “is she not down so late, or up so early” which shows they have a distant relationship as Juliet’s mother does not often see her. Lady Capulet insults Juliet not by name calling or abuse but by doing nothing at all in a way the great insult she does is by doing nothing at all which could be interpreted as not even being bothered to talk to Juliet or she is to controlled by Capulet that she is afraid to speak out against him which was typical of this era.

Juliet distraught at this point turns to the last person Juliet’s nurse in which she is comforted by as she is the only person in which knows about Juliet and Romeo and even though the nurse stands up for Juliet while Capulet is in the scene and in a way ends up in his “bad books”. When the nurse hears that if Juliet doesn’t marry Paris she will be kicked out and therefore the Capulets will throw her out to as she will have no one to look after anymore and so advises Juliet on her own well being to marry Paris “I think it’s best if you marry with the county” which Juliet is shocked by this as it was the Nurse who told Juliet it was alright to marry Romeo. Juliet becomes shocked by this and this feeling of betrayal adds to the conflict of this scene.

The feeling of conflict can be shown in this scene not by words but by actions for example positioning the characters at levels which shows a visual hierarchy in which Juliet is at a lower level begging on her knees to Capulet who is much higher up and higher than anybody else as he is a Man and head of the family in the text itself also which while saying out loud gives the character instructions such as “my fingers itch” informing the character to flex their fingers or rub their knuckles.

Theatres at this time were not approved by the church as the nation was on the hole concerned about religion and yet Shakespeare criticises the church, as the friar marries Romeo and Juliet and later on persuades Juliet to drink the potion that makes her look dead which leads to Romeo committing suicide then Juliet shortly after in which shows the church is to blame for the two deaths. At this time if people did something it was thought god was making them do it and so suggests that god is to blame and cannot be trusted which criticises the church heavily. The church thought whatever happens god intended it to happen and yet in the play it says “star crossed lovers” and the “yoke of inauspicious stars” which implies the stars and things like horoscopes determine the future and not god.

Through out the play Women are shown more favourably than men this might have been because at the time Elisabeth the 1st was on the throne and it was her who stopped the church closing down theatres so Shakespeare might have been trying to flatter the queen with strong willed women.

I think that Shakespeare showed a great deal of conflict in this scene through the story line and yet there are so many points of views why Romeo and Juliet died that the discussions will rise up for years to come.