Consider the dramatic importance of Act 3 Scene 5. Romeo and Juliet

Consider the dramatic importance of Act 3 Scene 5.

Act 3 scene 5 is dramatically important because it is at the centre of the play. This scene opens with Juliet saying goodbye to her love Romeo, who must leave her. This scene is most important because everything occurs here, most of the character's other side is seen and it is the last time dthe lovers talk when they are alive. In the previous scene the audience has heard Lord Capulet offer Juliet's hand in marriage to Paris. We understand why he does this, but we know why Juliet cannot get married, because she is already married to Romeo.

We can foresee that Juliet will not be pleased about her father's decision. Once Romeo has gone, Lady Capulet tells Juliet she must get married to Paris, Juliet refuses, and her father angrily insists that she marries Paris and threatens to disown her if she refuses. Alone with the Nurse, Juliet asks for advice. The Nurse replies that Juliet should marry Paris, 'I think it's best you married the County. O, he's a lovely gentleman!' she says, Juliet is astounded and pretends to agree to this advice, while deciding that the only person who can help her is Friar Lawrence. She now has all the audiences sympathies. In this scene the audience are prepared for the end, after the premenitions seen by Juliet.

Shakespeare's audience knows that it is a sin to attempt marriage when you are already married. If you do this, you will certainly go to Hell. And there is no way that the Friar would conduct a marriage of a already married woman. The Nurse must know this, too, but it seems that she does not really believe in, or care about, heaven and hell. It seems she is not a striked Catholic. Lord Capulet thinks he knows why his daughter is upset but he is quite wrong. He assumes that she is upset about Tybalt's death, Juliet is now married to Romeo, but cannot explain to her parents because there heads will hit the roof when they find out. The Nurse and Friar Lawrence know about Juliet's secrets. Only the audience has the full picture. In the scene Juliet repeatedly speaks ambiguously, with one meaning for the person to whom she speaks, and another for herself and the audience, e.g. 'Feeling so the loss, I cannot choose but ever weep the friend.' Throughout the whole scene, Shakespeare makes dramatic use of what people do or don't know.

In the previous scene Romeo's best friend ,Mercutio, has just been killed by Juliet's cousin, Tybalt, so Romeo chased him and avenged the death of Mercutio. The prince obviously had to punish him but the Prince agreed that Romeo was prevoked to kill Tybalt, so he banished him away from Verona to Mantua. This has all happened after Juliet and Romeo have secretly married.

In this scene the audience are very sympethetic towards Juliet because her parents threaten to disown her. Throughout the whole play the audience thinks that Lord Capulet is a kind and understanding father, but in this scene we see a totally different side to him

The structure of the scene is a very simple sequence - the one common element being Juliet, who is present throughout. After the episode where she bids farewell to Romeo (not set for the Key Stage test), Juliet learns from her mother of the intended marriage to Paris. When Juliet defies her mother, Capulet argues with her. He even shouts at the Nurse, when she tries to defend Juliet. Finally, Juliet asks the Nurse for help. When the Nurse lets her down, Juliet is left alone on stage to explain (to the audience) what she is going to do.

We find out quite a lot about all of the characters hereespecially Juliet only moments after being together with Romeo, is in a difficult situation. At first she tries simple defiance, like many a teenager. At the same time she uses irony - saying things that have a different real meaning from what appears on the surface. But she is also resourceful and ultimately very brave. Lady Capulet at first seems concerned for her daughter, but when Juliet defies her, she passes the problem on to her husband.

Capulet cares about Juliet, but he has given his word to Paris, and now he is angry and bullying. But it must seem to him that Juliet is being proud and ungrateful. Modern audiences should remember that arranged marriages are normal for people of Juliet's class, and that Paris, a wealthy relation of the Prince, is a very good prospective husband for her. She is beyond the usual age for marriage, and it is her father who in the past did not wish to marry her off. So now he feels he has spoiled her, and made her “proud”.

This scene ...

This is a preview of the whole essay

This scene makes the audience completely rethink our opinion of the Nurse. She has always seemed to care for Juliet and understand what matters to her. Now it becomes clear that the Nurse has never really understood her. We are made to think again about coarse remarks the Nurse makes in Act 1, scene 3, and Mercutios's even coarser insults in Act 2, Scene 4. In this scene he calls her a “bawd” and suggests that she is “an old hare hoar” (“a hairy old whore”), as well as speaking obscenely about “the bawdy hand of the dial” being on “the prick of noon”. Perhaps Mercutio knows, or can see, what she is really like.

At the end of Act 3, scene 5 Juliet, now alone, says that from now on she will not trust the Nurse. She only speaks to her one more time in the play, very briefly in Act 4, Scene 3, and here too Juliet misleads her. It is shocking to think that the Nurse cares more about Juliet marrying, and perhaps having babies, than about her eternal soul or about her real love for Romeo, her husband.

Language

The most important feature of Juliet's speech in this scene is ambiguity or double meanings. When Lady Capulet says that Romeo (by killing Tybalt) has caused Juliet's grief, she agrees that Romeo has made her sad, and that she would like to get her hands on him. By placing one word - “dead” - between two sentences, Juliet makes her mother think she wants Romeo dead, while really saying that her heart is dead because of him.

When she swears “by Saint Peter's Church and Peter too”, her mother thinks she is just using a strong oath - but the audience knows that Saint Peter decides who goes to heaven or hell: so she is swearing by the saint who would disallow a bigamous marriage. Later, Juliet speaks sarcastically to the Nurse, who thinks she is sincere, when she says that the Nurse has comforted her “marvellous much”, with her suggestion of “marrying” Paris.

Juliet's last speech in this scene, as she is alone on stage, is, of course, a soliloquy - it shows what she is thinking.

Both parents use interesting comparisons for Juliet's tears. Lady Capulet suggests that Juliet is trying to wash Tybalt from his grave, because she is crying so much - she tells her daughter that she is crying too much, and makes a play on the words much and some - “Some grief shows much of love”, but “much grief shows some want [absence] of wit” [common sense or sense of proportion]. Lady Capulet means that Juliet is overdoing her show of grief. This kind of contrast, where similar words are rearranged in two halves of a sentence to show opposite meanings, is called antithesis.

Capulet also notices Juliet's tears but uses an extended metaphor. He compares the light rain [drizzle] of a real sunset with the heavy downpour of Juliet's tears for the metaphorical sunset [death] of his brother's son [Tybalt]. He develops this into the idea of a ship in a storm at sea - Juliet's eyes are the sea, her body is the bark [ship] and her sighs are the winds.

Another feature of the language is Capulet's range of insults. He claims that Juliet is proud: she insists that she is not, and Capulet repeats the word as evidence of her “chopt-logic” or splitting hairs. These insults may seem mild or funny today, but were far more forceful in the 16th Century: “green-sickness carrion”, “tallow-face”, “baggage...wretch” and “hilding”.

Capulet contrasts Paris's merits as a husband with Juliet's immature objections. He says that Paris is “Of fair demesnes, youthful and nobly ligned” and “stuffed...with honourable parts”. He calls his daughter a “wretched puling fool” and a “whining mammet”, before sarcastically mimicking her objections to the match: “I cannot love...I am too young”. The audience knows of course that she can and does love (it is Rosaline who cannot), and that she is obviously not “too young” to marry. See if you can find out what these insults mean. Try to remember them, and act out the scene, making them as forceful as you can.

Also, when Capulet becomes angry, he uses language inventively - so the adjective [describing word] proud becomes both verb and noun: “proud me no prouds”. And finally, he reminds us of his power over Juliet by speaking of her as if she were a thoroughbred horse, which he can sell at will - “fettle your fine joints”, he says, meaning that she must prepare herself for marriage.

Stagecraft

This scene takes place in Juliet's bedchamber. We may see a bed (or something to represent a bed), but no other furniture is needed. Juliet's costume may show that she has been in bed - though her parents do not suspect that she has had Romeo's company. Otherwise, the scene relies mostly on speech. There are not many clues about action or use of props.

Both her parents speak about Juliet's weeping, and at one point Juliet kneels to beg her father for pity. Capulet's outbursts against Juliet and the Nurse may be opportunities for some physical action as well as verbal aggression to show his anger. What might he do to show how angry he is?

Comparing A Midsummer Night's Dream and Romeo and Juliet

For your GCSE course you are required to study one or more of Shakespeare's plays. This task allows you to write about two plays. You could write at great length but this is not necessary, or even sensible. Do not try to retell the plot of either play as a narrative (story). Do look at how the play works on stage: use of props, costume and physical actions - either as suggested in the text, or as these appeared in any versions you have seen in performance. You should consider effects of language and imagery, in context. Below are some ideas, which could form the outline of a response to the plays. You may find these helpful; ignore those that aren't.

When you (speak or) write about the play, you must refer to evidence: either quote dialogue, or explain what is happening in terms of action. Ideally, you should give Act and Scene (Roman [e.g. III, ii] or Arabic [e.g. 3.2] numbers) and line numbers (not page numbers - do you know why?). Always comment on, or explain the point of, what you quote. Do not write the verb quote at any point in your work, unless it is to explain that one character in the play quotes another! In formal written English, quote is a verb and quotation is the corresponding noun. Quote as a noun is fine in speech, especially when referring to an estimate for work to be done (builder's quote).

The two plays were first performed at around the same time in the 1590s. They have obvious similarities of plot and theme, but clearly different structure and outcome. Briefly (no more than half a page) summarise these similarities and differences.

"The course of true love never did run smooth"

How far are Lysander's words proved true by the (total) events in either play? Are they a more suitable motto for one than the other? Why?

Puck and Oberon versus Friar Laurence and the Nurse

In A Midsummer Night's Dream Puck and Oberon watch over the young lovers (and Bottom) and save them from coming to any harm. Explain how they are able to do this, through their magical powers. In Romeo and Juliet the Friar and the Nurse try to help the tragic lovers but fail to save them. Compare their efforts to help Romeo and Juliet with the efforts of Puck and Oberon. How and why are the fairies successful where human helpers fail? Compare the Friar's use of magical or seeming magical herbs with Oberon's use of magical plants (Cupid's flower and Dian's bud).

"'Tis almost fairy time"

In both plays characters refer to fairies. Romeo and Juliet's longest speech (spoken by Mercutio) is a description of Queen Mab, the "fairies' midwife", but he admits to making it up. In A Midsummer Night's Dream Theseus refers jokingly to “fairy time”, but may well not believe in fairies any more than Romeo and Mercutio. What difference do the fairies make to the comic world of A Midsummer Night's Dream compared to the harsher view of the world that we see in Romeo and Juliet?

Verona and Athens

In both plays, the place where the action occurs is important. Comment on the various settings within each play, and explain what it has to do with what happens. (In A Midsummer Night's Dream look at Athens and the Palace Wood outside the city; in Romeo and Juliet look at the city square in Verona, Capulet's house and garden, the Friar's cell, Mantua, and the Capulet tomb.)

Tragedy and comedy

Try to explain what these terms mean, as descriptions of types of play, when we apply them to A Midsummer Night's Dream and Romeo and Juliet. Try to refer to their structure, theme and mood.

Fathers and daughters

In both plays we find heroines (Juliet and Hermia) who are subject to the authority of their fathers. In one play we see a father begin by giving his daughter a lot of freedom, and end by removing it from her; in the other, we see a father try to control his daughter's life for most of the play, but who is reconciled to her near its end. Comment on these relationships, as you see them in the two plays. (Pyramus and Thisbe also supposedly have tyrannical parents).

Contrast

Both plays exploit obvious contrasts for theatrical effect. Among these are light and dark (or day and night), love and hate and the upper and lower ends of the social scale. Explain how any of these work to make the drama more effective.

Order and disorder

This is a contrast of theme you will find in almost any of Shakespeare's plays. In both A Midsummer Night's Dream and Romeo and Juliet we see rulers (Theseus/Oberon and Prince Escalus) try to restore or maintain order, in the face of disruptive or anarchic behaviour. Show how this appears in each play, and how important it is to the play's central themes. In each play there are figures who represent disorder (Bottom and Puck; Mercutio and Tybalt). Explain how these challenge the rulers' attempts to preserve order in their domains (territory).

Pyramus and Thisbe

In A Midsummer Night's DreamThe workmen's Lamentable Comedy can be seen as a parody (silly copy) of Romeo and Juliet. There are obvious similarities in the plot (can you say what these are?) but not in the theatrical qualities of the two pieces. In Pyramus and Thisbe we see how not to do things which are done much better elsewhere in A Midsummer Night's Dream,in Romeo and Juliet or in other plays by Shakespeare. (These include depicting wild animals, a wall, moonlight and killing on stage). Comment on how these things are done both in Pyramus and Thisbe and in the plays proper. Comment on how hard or easy it is for actors to speak the dialogue in Shakespeare's plays generally, and to speak the verse we meet in Pyramus and Thisbe (look at the end of the Prologue, and the dying speeches of the two lovers). Explain how the workmen's play is a good commentary on young lovers who take themselves too seriously.

The plays in performance

Comment on how the plays were presented in the versions you have seen. Was it a cinema, TV or stage performance? Comment on such things as costume, props and action; you may also refer to lighting, music, SFX, and anything else which caught your interest. If you were to direct (in a given medium - stage, TV, cinema) how would you approach these things?

Conclusion

Explain what you like about either play or both. Say how well they work in performance, and what kind of response they provoke in the audience.

Remember to present your work attractively, with illustrations (for eaxmple, to show costume or props) and any diagrams (ideas for staging) to clarify your ideas.

Studying Romeo and Juliet - criteria for assessment

The headings below show how details of the play relate to the broad headings for the AQA board's criteria for assessment of work on Shakespeare at GCSE.

Nature of play/implications/moral or philosophical significance

This refers to the ideas or themes in the play - what it is about but not its story. In Romeo and Juliet this means at least the following:

Love - the difference between Romeo's pretended love (affectation) for Rosaline and real love.
Fortune: "a greater power than we can contradict" - how we are not always or fully in control of our own lives
Authority - of parents · of the law; · of the Prince.
Tragedy - what does this mean? Does the play show general or universal truths about tragic love?The causes of tragedy.

Stagecraft/appeal to audience

Characterization - this is not description of characters but how they are presented.
The structure of the play.
Important props (swords, the Friar's drugs, the poison, Romeo's dagger).
Contrast - light and dark · fate and free will · love and hate · death and life · appearance and reality · public and private lives.
Oppositions of time - youth and age · past and present · fast and slow · real time and dream time

Language

Important figures of speech (metaphor/simile).
Descriptive language for things we can't see - Romeo's description of Juliet's beauty (essential in a theatre where Juliet is played by a boy Mercutio's Queen Mab speech.
Forms of verse and prose for dialogue: blank verse; · occasional rhymed verse (often at the end of a scene); · sonnet forms - the Prologue, the lovers' meeting
Stichomythia (alternating one-liners) and other patterned language in the characters' speeches.
Puns and other verbal humour
Language showing attitudes to class - villain, My man, second-person pronoun form: you/your (polite/formal) or thou/thee/thy (derogatory or informal).

What is the dramatic appeal of this scene, and how does it relate to the rest of the play?

Below is a short sample of the essay "What is the dramatic appeal of this scene, and how does it relate to the rest of the play?". If you sign up </user.cgi?signup_form=1> you could be reading the rest of this essay in under two minutes. All coursework comes with the original word document, complete with any pictures or graphs included.

Registered users should log in </user.cgi?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.coursework.info%2Fpage.cgi%3Fg%3Di%2f1735.html%26d=1> to be redirected to the full essay.

... eling that Romeo is a romantic, fantasising character, and is often quick to believe he is in love with someone).

Romeo also sees this, when he says,

“Did my heart love till now?” He is questioning whether he ever really loved Rosaline or not. Then, he says he ‘never saw true beauty till this night’. He realises that real love is different to how he was feeling about Rosaline. It is obviously love at first sight.

When Romeo and Juliet meet for the first time, they begin speaking in a sonnet. This was a popular type of poetry in Elizabethan times.

They also use many biblical phrases and ideas. Romeo describes his lips as ‘two blushing pilgrims’, and his hand as ‘unworthy’. He asks Juliet to kiss him, to purge the sins from him. Juliet kisses him, then says that her lips now have his sin. He asks her to give him his sin again, and so they kiss for a second time.

There are many contrasts used in the play - mainly light and dark, and love and hate. Juliet uses one of these contrasts at the end of the scene, when the nurse tells her that Romeo is a Montague. She says,

“My only love, sprung from my only hate!” She has also fallen in love with Romeo straight away. She then becomes sad that she must love a ‘loathed enemy’.

Romeo also uses contrasts when describing Juliet, b ...

All formatting has been removed from this essay. Inside Coursework.Info, all coursework and essays can be viewed with all of the original formatting retained - including tables, images and graphs. You may also be interested in the word count, writing time and other details concerning this essay. If you would like to view a sample essay, please look at this sample page.

Consider the dramatic importance of Act 3 Scene 5. Romeo and Juliet

This is a preview of the whole essay

Document Details

Related Essays

Examine the dramatic importance of act 3, scene 5 of 'Romeo and Juliet'

Consider the Dramatic Importance of Act 3 Scene V of Romeo and Juliet

What is the dramatic importance of Act 3: Scene 5 in Shakespeare's Romeo an...

Romeo And Juliet Act 3 Scene 1 and Act 5 Scene 3.