Immediately after this, an argument breaks out between Sampson and Gregory and two servants of the Montague household. After a few insults, they begin to fight. When performed on stage, it is likely that there would be lots of action, shouting and other loud noises and destruction (like the turning over of the stalls in the street). A violent fight scene so early in the play immediately engages the audience, and also emphasises the hatred between the two households.
Still in the opening scene, the audience gets their first sight of Romeo. He is unhappy because he is in love with a girl called Rosaline but she is not in love with him. Shakespeare uses oxymorons (expressions that seem to contradict themselves), like ‘loving hate’ on line 174, to explain Romeo’s predicament. Romeo speaks in short sentences to emphasise his depression. Romeo is showing a lot of emotion in this scene and this enables the audience to build up an understanding of one of the play’s main characters early in the play. This is a good example of Shakespeare using characterisation.
All of the above, show just what variety there is in the opening scene. There is firstly humour, then action and violence and finally love. This trend continues throughout the first act.
In Act One Scene Two, there is humour in the fact that Lord Capulet gives a list of people to be invited to a huge feast to his servant even though the servant cannot read. It is at this point that Romeo’s friend Benvolio persuades Romeo to forget Rosaline and attend the feast despite being enemies of the Capulets. By telling the audience of the plan to attend the banquet before the event, Shakespeare builds up the audience’s suspense, which allows him to keep the audience’s attention up until Romeo and Benvolio go to the feast itself.
In Scene Three, Shakespeare brings up a controversial issue. Lady Capulet and the Nurse discuss whether Juliet is of a suitable age to be married. This would have provoked an interesting reaction from the audience because Shakespeare was suggesting that the traditional age for a girl to get married (fourteen) was too young. Maybe Shakespeare held these views or maybe he was just trying to gain the audience’s attention by raising his different views on a social issue. The nurse then reminisces about a funny story from Juliet’s childhood. The nurse uses crude humour and sexual innuendo to liven up the story. She tells Juliet that she will ‘fall backward when thou [she] has more wit [knowledge]’ which has an obvious sexual meaning. The nurse’s rude humour is added to by her defiance to Lady Capulet’s attempts to get her to stop being so vulgar.
Act One Scene Four contains arguably the liveliest speech in the play: Mercutio’s explanation of ‘the fairies midwife’ ‘Queen Mab’ and what she does while people are asleep. Initially, he uses a lot of description in his explanation to add to the excitement of his speech. Mercutio then turns to satirical humour: he mocks groups of people like lovers, courtiers, lawyers and ladies. For example, ‘she [‘Queen Mab’] gallops night by night…O’er lawyers’ fingers, who straight [immediately] dream on fees’, Mercutio mocks lawyers because of their stereotypical image of being mercenary. Again, Shakespeare adds sexual innuendo to a speech to grab the audience’s attention. Mercutio says that Queen Mab, ‘when maids lie on their backs…learns them first to bear [the weight of a man on top of her or children], making them women of good carriage’. This means that ‘Queen Mab’ teaches young girls how to have sexual relations and children while they are asleep.
Mercutio’s speech about ‘Queen Mab’ is usually presented on stage in a very lively way. Mercutio dances about the stage which is dark apart from the light of torches to liven up the scene. He uses good expression in his voice creating a sense of mystery and excitement. Only the mask that covers his face is clearly visible. His face is hidden and the set is dark to create an air of mystery like that associated with Queen Mab.
At the end of Act One Scene Four, Romeo expresses his concern about entering the Capulet’s house. This gives the audience a sense that an event very important to the play is about to take place.
Act One Scene Five is nearly always presented with a colourful, elaborate set. There is usually much activity with several guests on each side of the stage talking amongst themselves, musicians playing instruments, servants rushing about and guests dancing in the middle of the stage. This mixture of noises and activity immediately engages the audience. Then, to add to this, Lord Capulet enters and greets his guests noisily and with much exclamation.
It is in this scene that Romeo sees Juliet for the first time. He is immediately stunned by her beauty and immediately forgets Rosaline. There is irony in the fact that he said before that he refused to accept Benvolio’s suggestion in Act One Scene 1 that Romeo should forget Rosaline and ‘look upon other beauties’. The audience would pick up on the humour of that. This scene shows a typical example of love at first sight. Romeo and Juliet secretly flirt with one another but it is obvious to the audience what is happening. They exchange glances at regular intervals.
Unfortunately, Romeo is discovered by a member of the Capulet family, named Tybalt. He is angered by Romeo’s audacity to insult his family by gate-crashing the feast. He reports Romeo to Lord Capulet, and during this time tension mounts as the audience waits to hear Lord Capulet’s reaction. Will he be angry and start another fight at the banquet? It turns out that he takes no action, as he does not want an embarrassing scene at his own party. However, the enraged Tybalt swears to avenge Romeo’s insult. The audience now know the relationship between the two families has been further soured and that they can look forward to another exciting fight scene later in the play.
Then Romeo and Juliet meet for the first time. They exchange loving words and kiss. Shakespeare writes about the meeting of the two lovers in the form of a sonnet. This emphasises the poetic nature of their meeting. The sonnet is split up into three sections. Romeo speaks first and he says that he is not worthy enough to kiss Juliet. He says ‘If I profane [make dirty] with my unworthiest hand…This holy shrine [Juliet’s hand]’. In the second section of the sonnet, Juliet tells Romeo that he does ‘wrong his hand too much’ meaning that he is not as unworthy as he says. Then finally, they ask each other if they should kiss. They kiss twice but are then interrupted by the Nurse. It is at this point that the couple find out that they come from different sides of the rift between the two households and the audience realise the problem the two lovers face.
Act One does immediately engage the audience due to the variety that it contains. Shakespeare uses humour, in particular sexual innuendo, to great effect. The act full of exciting speeches, especially Mercutio’s entertaining explanation of ‘Queen Mab’. Also, he uses fight scenes for moments of action. There is also lots of emotion displayed by the characters, like Romeo’s depression and love-sickness while pining for Rosaline in the opening scene. Shakespeare creates an intriguing opening act that grabs the audience’s attention and keeps it well into the next acts.
