Consider the importance of these scenes in the play as a whole Act 1 scene 5, Act 2 scene 2 and Act 3 scene 5

In Act 2 scene 2 Romeo makes excessive gestures and claims how intense his love is and how brave he is, whereas Juliet is more concerned with showing her sincerity and her trustworthiness. Romeo swears by the moon, but Juliet asks him not to, as the moon is always changing, she asks him to swear by himself, as that is the only proof she needs. Juliet says, "It is too rash, too sudden, too like the lightning" this suggests their love could be unexpected, powerful or as awesome as a bolt of lightning. However it also suggests that it may not last or could be dangerous. The nurse interrupts three times in the scene so there plans for commitment are stalled. This suggests their relationship will be fraught with problems and as the audience know, doomed to failure. Juliet uses images associated with bird training to decide the relationship she has with Romeo. Juliet fears her love will be damaging to Romeo and again dramatic irony is created.

Juliet is saying how she loves Romeo no matter what name he has. She says how if a rose were called something else it would be just as nice, so even though Romeo is a Montague and she is a Capulet she still loves him. Romeo reacts well to what she says "O speak again bright angel" cries Romeo, this shows that he is pleased with what she is say and wants her to continue. He says, "My name my dear saint, is hate to myself" this is Romeo saying he doesn't like his name and wishes he could change it so they could be together

In Act 3 scene 5 when they both awake Juliet tries to persuade Romeo that it is still night so he doesn't have to leave. She says that the bird he can hear is the knighting gale, not the lark and that the light he can see is not day light but some kind of meteor. In lines 17-25 Romeo expresses feelings of content at being with Juliet by saying "Let me be tare, let me be put to death I am content, so thou wilt have if so." I think Juliet's lines in this scene should be spoken in a loving soothing way not nagging because she is attempting to convince him to stay. In this scene there are some forebodings, forebodings are when bad or negative events are foretold or predicted. Like when Romeo says "come, death, and welcome!" this is foreboding because they both go on to die. Juliet would say her lines in a distressed way because she knows that this is properly the last time she will ever see Romeo.

The Prince is the ruler of Verona, tries quite hard to keep the peace through out the entire story, but not enough to stop them both dying, he makes lots of threats but does not carry them out - like when he had the chance to enforce the death penalty on Romeo. For example after the deaths of Mercutio and Tybalt the Prince tells the citizens of Verona "who now the price of his dear blood doth owe?" (Act 3 Scene 1) in other words he seeks justice for these murders. If he had tried harder to prevent the quarrelling and carried out more of his threats the feud might not have got as bad as it did. However at the end of the play he accepts some of the responsibility for what has happened by "Winking at their discords" (Act 5 Scene 3). He also tries to bring the two sides together by, "What a scourge is laid upon your hate, "that heavens finds means to kill your joys with love" (Act 5 Scene 3).

Friar Laurence also plays a large part in the tragedy and he is in none of the selected scenes, mainly through his complicated plans, which require accurate timing, and in the end simply did not happen. Romeo did not receive the letter, so when he heard the bad news from Balthasar, he thought Juliet was really dead. Friar Laurence need not have granted the requests of Romeo and Juliet without carefully considering the consequences. I do not think fate played a part in the play as there were too many mistakes made by the main characters. a lot happens in other scenes apart from Act 1 scene 5, Act 2 scene 2 and Act 3 scene 5, all of the play builds up to them dying not just the scenes where Romeo and Juliet are together.

Jake Fell