“Tut I have lost myself; I am not here.
This is not Romeo, he’s gone some other where.”
Romeo’s friends, Mercutio and Benvolio, find Romeo boring and unsociable. When they are offered to attend a party at the Capulet’s house, Romeo happily agrees to go, because Rosaline will be there. At the party, Romeo sees Juliet, the only daughter of the Capulet’s and falls instantly in love with her and forgets about Rosaline.
“Rosaline, my ghostly father? No. I have forgot that name, and that name's woe.”
This proves Romeo’s infatuation with Rosaline. We know that Romeo’s love for Juliet is sincere because of the language used between the two of them. Romeo and Juliet’s poetic love conversation ends up in them deciding to get married. Both the contemporary and Shakespearean audience would believe that Romeo and Juliet were being a bit rash with this decision. A contemporary audience would also be a bit worried about the fact that Juliet is only thirteen years old, which is three years too young to get legally married, but to a Shakespearean audience they may believe that it is about time Juliet got married. This is because in Shakespearean times, girls were often married by the age of eleven or twelve and even having families by the age of thirteen and fourteen.
When Romeo sees Mercutio and Benvolio the next day they are overjoyed that Romeo has returned to his normal self. Both audiences would feel happy that Romeo is now his normal self and that his friends have noticed the change and are also happy:
“Why, is not this better now than groaning for love?
Now art thou sociable, now art thou Romeo.”
After marrying Juliet, Romeo finds Mercutio arguing with Tybalt (member of the Capulet family). Romeo attempts to make peace with Tybalt as they are now relatives but Mercutio wants to fight Tybalt. Tybalt kills Mercutio and flees. When Tybalt returns, Romeo’s anger bursts:
“And fire-eyed fury be my conduct now.”
Romeo fights Tybalt and kills him. Both audiences would be saddened that Romeo has killed, not only that but his wife’s cousin. To both audiences killing is one of the worst acts you can perform, which makes them disappointed that Romeo could do such a thing. A contemporary audience may also believe that Tybalt deserved it, as his character is one who is hot headed. Romeo realises his mistake in killing Tybalt immediately after killing Tybalt:
“O I am fortunes fool!”
The Prince of Verona banishes Romeo and if he is caught in Verona he will be killed. Romeo uses Friar Lawrence’s cell to hide himself. In Friar Lawrence’s cell Romeo is very distressed with the news of being banished away from Verona and Juliet and becomes hot headed and immature:
“There is no world without Verona walls,
But Purgatory, torture, Hell itself.”
Romeo’s judgement is clouded by his emotions, he even goes as far to attempt to stab himself! Both audiences would feel saddened for Romeo having to leave Verona and his recently married wife, Juliet. A Shakespearean audience would be horrified by this suicidal attempt though, due to religious beliefs. If you attempted to take your own life it is considered murder because your life belongs to God and you have no right to take it. A contemporary audience would believe that Romeo is over exaggerating the situation. He could easily live without Juliet for a while until they arrange something which allows them to be reunited. Friar Lawrence manages to pull Romeo together by challenging his manhood:
“Art thou a man? Thy form cries out art.
Thy tears are womanish”
When Romeo and Juliet meet for the last time, its Juliet who is being irrational and Romeo who keeps a cool sensible head. This is Shakespeare’s use of irony, because Romeo has previously been portrayed as the irrational one, and Juliet the sensible one. Both audiences may well be pleased with Romeo being sensible, and refusing to stay when Juliet asks him to:
''I must be gone and live or stay and die.''
Romeo ends up leaving to Mantua, meanwhile back in Verona, Paris is making his moves to marry Juliet. Juliet goes to Friar Lawrence for help and he comes up with a plan, which due to ‘fate’ doesn’t work out. Friar Lawrence makes a potion which makes Juliet seem dead for forty hours and he sends another Friar off to go tell Romeo about the plan, in which Romeo would return to Verona and when Juliet awakes they can leave to Mantua together. Unfortunately for Romeo and Juliet the Friar doesn’t get the message to Romeo in Mantua due to an outbreak of plague in a town, upon which the Friar could not pass. Romeo receives word Juliet is dead and becomes hot headed again. He goes to an apothecary where he buys some poison and sets off to Verona to see Juliet:
“Well, Juliet, I will lie with thee tonight.”
A Shakespearean audience may feel disappointed with Romeo as he is clearly being hot headed again and is off to commit suicide, which a Shakespearean audience would be disgusted with. A contemporary audience may feel sad for Romeo as he believes Juliet is dead and has let his feelings take control of his actions. When Romeo arrives at the Capulet’s tomb, he is approached by Paris who blames Romeo for the death of Juliet, because the Capulet’s believe that Juliet died due to Tybalt being slain by Romeo. Romeo does not wish to fight Paris and warns Paris of his actions:
“tempt not a desperate man;
Fly hence and leave me”
Paris refuses to leave and fights Romeo and is killed. A Shakespearean audience may be in complete disbelief about what Romeo has done, also knowing that he is about to take his own life as well. A contemporary audience may believe that Paris did not heed Romeo’s warnings and that it was his own fault for staying because Romeo even admitted to being mad:
“A madman’s mercy bid thee run away.”
Romeo visits what he believes is Juliet’s corpse and drinks the poison and dies. When Juliet wakes up to find Romeo death she kisses him in hope that some poison will still be on Romeo’s lips, enough to kill her, but there isn’t. Instead Juliet finds that his lips are warm, meaning Romeo was still alive not long ago. This is Shakespeare’s use of irony here again. Juliet ends up taking up Romeo’s knife and kills herself.
A contemporary audience would have different reactions towards Romeo’s actions to a Shakespearean audience. This is due to the two different audiences having different cultures. Today’s audiences are more realistic then a Shakespearean audience. A Shakespearean audience would be very religious, making certain parts of the play more meaningful to them. Today’s audience would not be so religiously influenced. The opinions on the reactions of Romeo throughout the essay may be completely different to what the majority of Shakespearean and contemporary audiences, because the two different audiences would react depending upon the individuals in the audiences. Shakespeare’s themes of ‘unresolved conflict leads to tragedy’ and ‘fate’ are got across to us because of all the unrealistic bad luck Romeo and Juliet have. Due to the conflict, Mercutio, Tybalt, Paris, Romeo and Juliet are all dead, as the Prince says; ‘all are punished.’
