Before this scene, love seems to be the focus. Romeo and Juliet meet at the party and fall madly in love. “To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss.” Although this is first seen as harmless fun and flirting Romeo’s charm is his clever tactic of winning Juliet over. Juliet plays along by responding to him playfully.
She is trying to say that he has placed a sin on her lips by kissing them. Insinuating that he removes it by kissing them again.
Romeo however has no complaints and takes it back “sin from my lips? O trespass sweetly urge!”
This small sonnet that that is shared equally by the two lovers suggests the balanced and humorous nature of their love.
However it seems to be more lust rather than love and the audience do not believe that R & J have deeper feelings for each other. But when the two meet on the balcony, it becomes visible that it is an awful lot more than lust they are experiencing.
In the balcony scene, Juliet declares her undying love for Romeo and is greatly frustrated at the fact of him being a Montague will concoct difficulties for them later.
“What is Montague? It is nor hand, nor foot, nor arm, nor face. Nor any other part belonging to a man. O be some other name.”
- This quote shows Juliet’s desperation. ‘O be some other name’ - she is also trying to say that the fact that he is a Montague should not matter. After all, it is just a name so why should it make a difference to the person inside?
F.L is suspicious of Romeo and does not believe that he ahs fallen in love with Juliet over such a short period of time considering he was ‘in love’ with Rosaline just a few days before. “Holy saint Francis, what a change is here!”
- This is an example of F.L’s sarcasm and the type of light-hearted humour that takes place before act 3, scene 1.
The mood seems sweet and calm. Everyone is enjoying each others company and is laughing and joking amongst themselves.
Mercutio in particular seems very humorous. This is demonstrated when he makes a rude joke. He speaks of Romeo being erect. “ I conjure only but to raise up him” This quote is an example of Mercutio teasing Romeo about Rosaline bur purely out of affection for his friend.
“ I conjure thee by Rosaline’s bright eyes, by her high forehead and her scarlet lip, by her fine foot, straight leg, and quivering thigh, and the demesnes that there adjacent lie,” - Another example of Mercutio’s playful mood.
However, when Mercutio becomes serious-it’s significant.
“A plague on both you houses!” - This shows a different side to Mercutio. He is of course influenced by what the Capulets are saying to him but the feud seems to destroy him.
Mercutio uses word play; “you shall find me a grave man” - This has a sympathetic effect on the audience.
Although the play starts very calmly and everyone seems to be happy- as it builds up, it becomes visible that everything is not as light-hearted and sweet as it seems. The play begins to sow reference to being dark, dismal and the thought of time running out. There is repletion of the word “quarrel” “strain” “blood” “murderer” and “kill”.
The ‘love story’ seems to start falling to pieces at the beginning of act 3, scene 1 when the Capulet’s and Montague’s fight and Romeo kills Tybalt. Although he did not mean to do so-it puts him in an awkward position as he has just married the man’s cousin. The thought of time running out comes across when Juliet is told by her father that she must marry Parris within the next few days. Of course, Juliet has no intention of marrying Parris and her main priority is to run away with Romeo.
This is the point in the play where everything seems to speed up and turnaround. At first it makes the audience think that R & J will get together but after act 3 the audience becomes tense and is greatly anticipating the moment where R & J will be able to ‘live happily ever after’.
Everything that happens in this scene, seems to happen so rapidly. When the two lovers overcome one obstacle another is there to slow them down again. The key moments that changes the direction of the play is Act 3, scene 1.
Apart from the fight, Juliet being told to marry Parris and Romeo being banished - Friar Lawrence’s letter never reaches Juliet and Romeo poisons himself before Juliet awakes.
Friar Lawrence - although his actions were in good intent, caused much of the pain for other characters in the book. His first action was to offer the depressed Juliet help, thinking that maybe he could “spy a kind of hope”. His actions then led him to think of the fake death which he tells to her.
“Hold them, go home, be merry”, he tells her while he gives her the potion and plans to give Romeo a message describing the plan. He doesn’t however, make sure Romeo gets the message which is probably the most crucial action in the play. Which then leads to the audience having to watch as the two lovers are agonisingly brought to their suicides.
The dark forces that result in the death of R & J are personified in the character of Tybalt. Juliet’s cousin represents the blind hatred that plagues the families and it is his involvement in this scene that changes the direction of the play.
Tybalt seems to provoke Romeo a lot, Romeo enters the scene in a calm mood from the previous scene. However, Tybalt enters the scene furious about the fact that Romeo entered the Capulet’s party and Tybalt did not get the opportunity to have conflict with him. He drags Romeo into a conflictive mood with him.
Tybalt’s character had the tendency to look for conflict whilst others avoid it. This is demonstrated when Tybalt and Mercutio are about to fight and Romeo tries to stop them. Tybalt wants to fight him and provokes him with insults; “Thou art a villain!”. Romeo has just married Juliet and wants to avoid confrontation so he offers love instead of insults when he says that he loves him; “Better than that can’st devise.” - This engages Tyabalt who draws his sword. Of course Romeo walks away but then Mercutio steps in and calls it “vile submission”. Mercutio then fights Tybalt instead of Romeo and is killed when Romeo tries to stop the fight.
Romeo then feels a great guilt over the death of his friend and this gives him the sudden urge for revenge. “This but begins woe, others must end.”
After Romeo kills Tybalt he cries “O, I am fortunes fool!” - This is Romeo referring to his unlikeness in being forced to kill his new wife’s cousin. This results in his banishment to Mantua.
The sudden fatal violence in Act 1, scene 3, as well as the build-up to the fighting, serves as a reminder that, for all its emphasis on love, beauty and romance, R & J still takes place in a masculine world in which honor, pride and status are prone to erupt in a fury of conflict. The two families are battling for status and pride, which in the end has dramatic consequences.
Act 3, scene 1 is vital to the development of the play up until this point everything is calm and collected but the tension is also building, This scene is when it is all finally released.
The mood in the last scene of Act 3 (scene 5) is very tense and the two lovers are feeling under pressure. They are not letting themselves go like they normally do and seem to be talking a lot about death.
