What can we learn about the characters of Romeo and Juliet from Act One and Act Two?

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What can we learn about the characters of Romeo and Juliet from Act One and Act Two?

Act One scene One

Romeo is sad at the start of the scene.  He is by himself the Benvolio arrives.  He is in love with someone who isn’t in love with him “out of her favour where I am in love”.  He changes the subject when he next speaks “where shall we dine?” he isn’t really bothered about Rosaline, quickly changing the subject like that.  He then goes on to talk in oppositions “O heavy lightness” “Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health, Still-walking sleep,” this shows us that Romeo is confused, he doesn’t know what he is on about, he is infatuated with love.  He is more in love with the idea of being in love “This love feel I, that feel no love in this”.  Romeo goes on to describe how he feels about love.  He describes how brilliant love is “Love is a smoke made with the fume of sights, Being purged , a fire sparkling in levers’ eyes, Being vexed, a sea nourished with loving tears.” He is using all of these wonderful sensations to describe love.

 

Act One Scene Three

In lines one to eleven we see Juliet and her mother for the first time.  Juliet’s mother is looking for Juliet.  Juliet is straight away quite rude to her mother “I am here, what is your will?” which is saying, mum what do you want now.   I think that Juliet has a better relationship with her nurse then her mother.  We can tell this by the way they speak to each other, Juliet isn’t as aggressive towards the nurse as to her mother “And stint thou too, I pray thee, nurse, say I.” she is more relaxed with what she says.  The nurse wants to see Juliet happy “and I might live to see thee married once, I have my wish.” The nurse would like to see Juliet happily married.  When Juliet’s mother asks Juliet about marriage, Juliet is very reluctant about it “It is an honour that I dream not of.” Juliet does not want to be married.  This tells us that Juliet knows what she wants, she is in control of what she does, and other people don’t control her life.  This was unusual for women of that period in time.  In the sixteen hundreds, and until the twenty hundreds women had the lowest role in society.  Men, the fathers of the family had control over what his wife and children did, it was unusual that women would speak up for themselves

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Act one Scene five

It is this scene that Romeo and Juliet first set eyes on each other.  Romeo uses the metaphors of black and white to describe how he feels about Juliet’s beauty.  He uses phrases like “As a rich jewel in an ethiops ear” which is a sparking jewel on a dark skin.  He uses the black an white several times “So shows a snowy dove trooping with crows” she stands out like d dove among black crows.  He uses this because white was seen as a bright and vibrant colour, when black was a dark and ...

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