Why is act one scene V of Romeo and Juliet an effective piece of drama?

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Shakespeare – Romeo and Juliet coursework

Act one scene V

Why is act one scene V of Romeo and Juliet an effective piece of drama?

Romeo and Juliet is an effective piece of drama –

There are mainly two different themes in the play “Romeo and Juliet”: Love and hate, both of which are in Act one scene 5. Love, from the love at first sight between Romeo and Juliet, and the hatred between Romeo and Tybalt.

   The plays needed to be affective pieces of drama for the time because of the way the audience may react if they were not amused by the play and if it did not keep them interested. These people were usually the lower-class people, the tickets were very cheap and these members of the audience stood at the very front near the stage. However those members of the audience were not very polite, and if they found the play boring, or did not like that acting, they would throw vegetables at the actors, shout abuse or even start fights and try to pull the actors off of the stage. Therefore, the play-writers would try and make their plays as dramatic and effective as possible to keep the audience members entertained.

 

  The issues that people were interested in at the time of the play “Romeo and Juliet” were things like:

    Romance If there was not a lot of Romance in people’s lives at the time, they would like to see it in a play, everybody likes a bit of romance every now and then.

Family Troubles

   People liked to watch other people’s troubles, and maybe even be able to relate to them. In Romeo and Juliet, you see the troubles of the Capulets and the Montague’s and the hatred between them, and you also see the fact of Juliet in the middle of an arranged marriage which she doesn’t want. These are troubles that probably would have been common to most at the time.

Fighting

   The audiences liked watching fighting; it added action and excitement to the plays.

Social status

   Social Status was thought of as very important and the audience would like to see that importance reflected in the play, I imagine especially the rich people liked to be reminded of the social statuses and that people were ‘below’ them.

Comedy

   Comedy was also a big part of issues at the time; I think it would have just been to cheer people up generally and also to keep the audience entertained so that no trouble would be caused.

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Development

In section one of scene 5, the servingmen speak informally, about all the work they have to do, they are trying to get everything ready for the party. In this section there would be excitement and curiosity from the audience, who did not know what was going on that the time. The servingmen are frantically trying to find potpan, you can tell that everything is frantic is this section because there are short, rushed questions and then complex sentences that are shortened by commas.

In section 2 we see Capulet welcoming his guests and ...

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