Act One Scene Five is a highly significant scene in the play and full of dramatic contrast. How does Shakespeare create dramatic impact and how might an audience respond?

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Julia Sarju 11AN

Act One Scene Five is a highly significant scene in the play and full of dramatic contrast. How does Shakespeare create dramatic impact and how might an audience respond?

“Romeo and Juliet” was one of Shakespeare’s earliest tragedies and is based on a medieval Italian legend, narrated in a poem by Arthur Brooke some decades earlier. Shakespeare was writing for an extremely diverse audience and provides interest for everyone: poetry and philosophy for the intelligentsia, romance for the idealistic and sword play and bawdy humour for the “penny punters”. The play explores many themes including: religion, honour, fate and the contrasting themes of love and hate, youth and age and happiness and tragedy. These ideas were familiar to an Elizabethan audience but a contemporary audience may feel alienated by them. In particular, the Elizabethans would have believed in the fate which like the feud affects every aspect of the play but a contemporary audience could be sceptical. In Act One Scene Five, we witness constant dramatic contrast, juxtaposition and other dramatic devices which are fitting for the pivotal scene in the play. This scene sets up the drama to come and starts a chain of events by which none of the characters will be left unaffected.

In the scenes preceding Act One Scene Five, Shakespeare has introduced the feud in a public brawl, Romeo’s superficial love for Rosaline and Juliet’s proposed marriage. This scene begins with the bustling servants hastily clearing up after the feast. They speak coarsely about the tasks they have to do which prepares the audience for Capulet’s grand entrance. This chaotic mood is in stark contrast to Romeo’s apparent premonition of his “untimely death” at the end of act one scene four. Capulet’s welcoming speech is directed to the “gentlemen” and encourages them to dance with the women. The women are seen as objects for the men’s pleasure and any lady to refuse to dance must “hath corns” indicating that she would be old and ugly. The original audience would have thought his attitude appropriate. However it provides a contemporary audience with an insight into the inferior status of women and the patriarchal society in both the play and Elizabethan England. Capulet continues his speech by bragging about his lost days when he was a great lover.

When the music begins the mood becomes more relaxed and the guests begin to dance. The audience then gain insight into the social context of the play as Capulet uses imperatives to order the servant to “quench the fire” and “turn the tables up”. His dialogue to the servants is short and rude and he seems quite comfortable ordering people about. Capulet says he is too old to dance and sits with his cousin instead; establishing the age of his character as past his “dancing days”. Shakespeare continues to emphasise the theme of old age and youth when Capulet reminisces with his cousin about the masques they used to attend.

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Shakespeare changes the mood dramatically as Romeo lays eyes on Juliet and he is immediately enchanted by her. Shakespeare’s use of Iambic pentameter instantly distinguishes the passage from Capulets reminiscent speech. Romeo seems invisible in the scene before he sees Juliet which could hint that soon she will be his “heaven” and he can’t exist without her. He describes Juliet as radiating with beauty and she “doth teach the torches to burn bright”. This use of hyperbole in this physical imagery demonstrates how smitten by her he is. Romeo portrays Juliet as too good for everyday life with “beauty ...

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