This scene is an especially effective part of the play in terms of using dramatic devices. Dramatic effects are used for a variety of reasons; these can be to keep the audience watching or to change the way they feel and evoke emotions in them that subtly help them settle in to the play. The audience are made to sympathise with Juliet when she is being forced to marry Paris, even though her true love is Romeo. The audience also feels some outrage and anger at Capulet after his violent rage and the thought that he may have struck his wife. The tension quickly changes throughout the scene, when Romeo and Juliet are together they indulge in passionate dialogue with little tension- ‘tiptoe on the misty mountain tops’, however when Romeo leaves and Capulet enters the scene it becomes very tense and highly charged as Juliet is told she must marry Paris and her father becomes enraged- ‘never after look me in the face’- shows how tense and emotion filled the scene is. Dramatic irony is used because Capulet and lady Capulet do not know that Juliet is in love with Romeo, but the audience do know this is the reason why she does not want to marry Paris. This is effective is making the audience’s attention stay on the play as it increases excitement and enjoyment, as well as making the audience feel part of the play. Capulet’s rage is quite a spectacular event in the play as most directors choose to portray this as him bustling through the mansion fuming with Juliet. This makes the audience more excited. Other directors can interpret it differently, as others may choose to show Capulet having a breakdown in sadness with his daughter. Juliet speaks ambiguously throughout the scene, for example she says something to a character, which has a different meaning to herself and the audience; this is another type of dramatic irony- ‘with Romeo till I behold him – dead – is my poor heart’ Juliet places the word dead between the sentences, so that her mother thinks she wishes Romeo was dead, when really she is saying that her heart is dead because of him. Juliet’s soliloquies help intensify the dramatic irony, as she speaks on stage her thoughts aloud- ‘myself have power to die’- she talks to the audience and reveals that she is considering suicide; this soliloquy helps the audience understand a character better, and let them know certain things that other characters don’t (dramatic irony).
The language used throughout the play is also incredibly significant as it is one of the key effects of the play. Similes and metaphors are used throughout the play to create an image in the head of the audience- ‘it was the lark… no nightingale’ uses a metaphor about day and night, ‘so fair an eye’ is a simile; these are both examples of use of imagery. Personification is used during Romeo and Juliet, this is giving an object qualities or features of a living being. Shakespeare uses personification to add mystique and poetic quality to the dialogue/monologue of a particular character- ‘is there no pity sitting in the clouds’- shows how Juliet uses personification to emphasis her bid for sympathy when speaking to her father. When Capulet first enters the scene he begins to speak to Juliet using an extended metaphor- ‘when the sun sets the air doth drizzle dew’- comparing the light rain of a real sunset to the tears (drizzle) of Juliet about Tybalt’s death (his sunset). There is a vast contrast between the language used by Romeo towards Juliet, and the language used by Capulet toward Juliet. Romeo uses very soft and loving words that create a romantic tone. ‘Believe me love, it was the nightingale’- uses very soft words that create a very romantic tone. However this is deeply contrasted when Capulet enters the scene, ‘Speak not, reply not, do not answer me; my fingers itch’- uses very harsh sounding syllables to show the aggression and rage in his voice. The punctuation in sentences is also used to indicate the tone at which it should be read, in the sentences above he uses pauses to help stress the syllables further and make them sound even more harsh- therefore creating an aggressive tone. Oxymorons are when two juxtaposed words have quite diverse meanings - ‘dry sorrow’- Shakespeare uses oxymorons so that characters can vent emotions and express their feelings. Alliteration is used is used in parts to show the tone of the characters voice- ‘ so soft a subject as myself’- shows how Juliet sees herself as a gentle, innocent victim by using the soft repetition of the ‘s’ consonant sound.
Juliet is a very fascinating character as Shakespeare uses her for many functions in the play. She is used to build tension and suspense throughout the play with her defiance and love for Romeo. She is used to spark the ending of the play, where her and Romeo tragically die. Her character’s nature and love is contrasted with her father Capulet throughout the play- in act 3 scene 5 this is scene as he aggressively shouts at her while she tries to defy him in her pleasant nature. Juliet represents innocence and youth; this is represented by her naivety towards situations such as the ongoing conflict between the Capulet and Montague families. She is naïve is thinking that her love with Romeo can withstand and overcome the conflict, however in the end her youthfulness prevails as they lie together in an everlasting bond of love. Her heart-rending death at the end of the play shocks the audience and shows them how everything is not always as it seems. The moral message that she teaches is that one should think before they act and talk. This is seen in many of her conversations and actions. Shakespeare also uses her to reflect many ideas of the time; arranged marriages as well as the devastation that they can cause and role of females and males- especially how males were very dominant and aggressive towards women.
In conclusion I think that this scene is enormously effective at exciting the audience and really involving them in the play. A modern audience would be more stunned by the complete male dominance and the arranged marriages. This is because today’s society is very different to when the play was written; today there are lots of morals about equality between the sex’s and the ethics about using violence and aggression to women and children. Audiences now and then would have been very taken in by the scene because of the amount of dramatic techniques used to engage the reader within the play. In my opinion the reason that it has stayed popular over the years is that the audience can relate to the way in which it efficiently deals with human emotions; and human emotions seem not to change throughout time.