“Romeo and Juliet is immortal through the poetry of the lovers meeting”. Imagine that you are responsible for directing the play.

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GCSE Coursework Essay

Romeo and Juliet

By James Dick

“Romeo and Juliet is immortal through the poetry of the lovers meeting” Imagine that you are responsible for directing the play. How would you present these two scenes (2.2 and 3.5) on stage to fully capture the intense love between the two characters and the poetry of the two scenes?

        I am going to approach this essay by going through the two scenes, and commenting on how I would present each part.

        Firstly Act 2 Scene 2; this is the balcony scene where Romeo serenades Juliet with wondrous poetry. When he first sees Juliet you can see he is admiring her as he says on lines 2-3:

“But soft what light through yonder window breaks?

It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.”

For this opening of the balcony scene, I would fade in light throughout the scene as to simulate the sun rising. I would have Romeo wearing a tunic suit, as from Shakespearean times. Juliet would wear a green grown, as mentioned in the scene. As it is the garden balcony, I would include a lot of pink and red flowers as to enhance the romantic nature of the scene.

Romeo continues to flatter Juliet by saying that her eyes are like stars in heaven, and her cheeks only exceed their brightness. He also says she is “ a winged messenger of heaven”. Of course by this he is comparing Juliet to an angel, a good use of simile and comparison. During all this flattery the light is slowly rising. After the light gets to certain dimness, it will stop as to enhance the romantic nature of the scene. After the light has reached this, Juliet speaks of Romeo. When she has finished, instead of Romeo interrupting her, I would have him making a sound in the corner, such as stepping on a twig, to enhance the intensity and climax of the lovers. After this, Rome hits her with lines 66 and 67:

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“ With love’s light wings did I o’erperch these walls,

For stony limits cannot hold love out”

He says this in reply to Juliet’s question of how he got into her garden, as the walls are too high. As Romeo says the lines I believe some soft orchestra music should start as to add to the romantic nature of the scene. This should carry through to the end of the scene.

        Secondly, I will talk about Act 3 Scene 5; this is the scene in Juliet’s bedroom where Romeo and Juliet’s night of passion comes to an end, and Juliet ...

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