My mind misgives some consequence…death.
This added to the dramatic quality because the previous scene was very worrying and made the audience feel that something was going to happen and made them scared. Then to have this scene straight after cleared the air to make the audience fall into a full sense of security to see them watch Romeo & Juliet fall in love.
In Romeo & Juliet there is a prime example of Courtly Love. Courtly Love is when a man falls in love with a woman who is of higher social status and he cannot have her. He is jealousy and cannot sleep nor drink for thoughts of her. In the play this Is very true but they do finally get together. Another part of Courtly Love is that the woman has no say in who she marries and it would be up to the parents to choose a suitable partner for their daughter. In the play Juliet’s parents have chosen Paris to marry Juliet. This is as he is a strong ally of the family and would be used to their advantage. However Juliet does not want to marry him after she meets Romeo and therefore betrays her family.
This show that Juliet does not want to marry Paris as she is madly in love with Romeo and we later go on to see her did for him.
Capulet then starts to greet people at his party, he is in a very good mood and the scene is in contrast of the previous scene, the mood makes the audience feel that the play is calm and tender and this makes them feel relaxed. When Romeo enters the party he is amazed by Juliet’s amazing beauty. He totally forgets about Rosaline and falls in love with Juliet. He asks someone who she is but they do not know. He was no idea she is from the opposite family, the Capulet.
O she doth teach the torches to burn bright,
It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night
Like a rich jewel in an ethiop’s ear
Beauty too rich for use, for earth too dear!
As yonder lady o’er her fellows shows.
The measure done, I’ll watch her place of stand,
And, touching her, make blesses my rude hand.
Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight!
For I ne’er saw true beauty till this night
The rhyming couplets said by Romeo about Juliet. Then Tybalt sees Romeo and the audience is reminded of the family feud between them. Tybalt want to kill Romeo there and then.
“Fetch me my rapier, boy.”
“To strike him dead I hold it not a sin”
This is Tybalt after he sees Romeo at the party. He wants to kill him but Capulet stops him.
Then Romeo & Juliet meet and share a sonnet.
Romeo:
“If I profane with my unworthiest hand
The holy shrine, the gentle sin is this,
This part of the sonnet says Juliet’s hand is like a Holy hand and then he apologise for touching it.
My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand
To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss”
Then he compares his lips to “two blushing pilgrims” which is two people on a pilgrim, so he wants to kiss her.
Juliet:
Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much,
Which mannerly devotion shows this
Juliet tells him to stop apologising, she says it in a very subtle way.
For saints have hands that pilgrims’ hands do touch,
And palm to palm is holy palmer’s kiss
She asks him to put his hand against hers.
The sonnet carries on like this and then religious imagery. Then they see each other and find out who each other are. The nurse interrupts and Romeo asks who Juliet it, the nurse tells him she is a Capulet . Juliet also finds out who Romeo is through the nurse, and she is upset when she finds out that he is a Montague.
My only love sprung from my only hate,
Too early seen unknown, and known too late!
Prodigious birth of love it is to me,
That I must love a loathed enemy.
This tells us that she loves Romeo and she knows she cant have him. This speech sets the scene for the tragedy to come. It tells the audience something terrible is going to happen and therefore prepares them for it.
To conclude this scene has mood swings, it starts happy and cheerful, in contrast to the previous scene, then Tybalt see Romeo and the mood changes once again into a scene of anger, then Romeo and Juliet meet and the mood once again changes into a scene of love and romance. This scene is a key scene to the play as it sets the scene for the tragedy to come later on. It is the pivotal point in the play and is key to the understanding, it also shows you how Romeo & Juliet felt when they first met and makes you feel for them.
