Rachel Obiago
By what means does Shakespeare establish the main themes and characters and engage his audience in the Prologue and Act 1 sc I of ‘Romeo and Juliet’? What are our expectations for the play to come?
‘Romeo and Juliet’ is a perennial and universal play, tracking two young lovers, faced with adversity as they try to build they lives together, but inevitably end up dead because of their families’ ancient feud.
Before we even meet Romeo in Act 1 sc I we know he is lovesick when his father and Benvolio are discussing him saying, ‘so early walking did I see your son’, ‘he gladly fled from me,’ and ‘shuts up his windows, locks fair daylight out,’ showing that Romeo just wants to be by himself, he is avoiding his friends and just finding it hard to sleep. When we finally meet him the first thing he says is, ‘is the day so young,’ showing that time is dragging for him. We are shown that love rules you when Romeo says that love’ ‘should be so tyrannous and rough in proof!’ indicating that love has overwhelmed him and it has been afflicted on him. When Romeo says, ‘Grief’s of mine own lie heavy in my breast,’ we see love being presented as suffering and tragic. We see that Romeo has lost himself when he says ‘I have lost myself, I am not here, this is not Romeo, he’s some other where,’ and because he is speaking in the third person we see that he is longing to find himself. In his description of Rosaline, Romeo says, ‘From Love’s weak childish bow she lives uncharmed,’ showing that his love is not being returned. But we still have an expectation that Romeo will always love Rosaline, when he says, ‘thou canst not teach me to forget,’ and so we don’t expect that by the next act Romeo will be out of love with Rosaline and in love with Juliet. In Romeo’s riddle, ‘this love fell I that fell no love in this,’ we see his ambivalence and his contradictory feelings. He uses the oxymoron, ‘ Do I live dead?’ showing that he has conflicting emotions. The sonnet spoken between Romeo and Juliet in Act 1 sc 5 in which Romeo says, ‘holy shrine and ‘blushing pilgrims shows that they are devoted to each other and it also shows Romeo’s worship of Juliet and courtly love.
