During this essay I will be focusing mainly on Act 3 Scene 5, which is a major turning point in the play. Act 3 Scene 5 is set in Juliet's bedroom

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Romeo and Juliet essay

        In this essay I will discuss the dramatic techniques used by Shakespeare in the play Romeo and Juliet. Romeo and Juliet is a tragic romance, in which two lovers have to overcome family feuds and conflicts to be together. At the end of the play they both tragically die in an act that symbolises everlasting love. During this essay I will be focusing mainly on Act 3 Scene 5, which is a major turning point in the play.

        Act 3 Scene 5 is set in Juliet’s bedroom. Romeo and Juliet are saying goodbye because Romeo has been must leave Verona, after being banished for killing Tybalt. Later on in the scene (after Romeo has left), Juliet’s mother arrives to tell Juliet that she must marry Paris. When Juliet refuses her father gets very angry; thus causing him to reveal his angry and violent side- ‘my fingers itch’ shows how he wants to hit her. The whole of this scene is very important in the build up to the climax of the play. In the scene the audience start to feel sorry for Juliet because she has been arranged to marry Paris when she is madly in love with Romeo. The audience see another side of the dominating and elegant Lord Capulet; they see that he is an aggressive bully and start to turn against him. Capulet uses lots of aggressive language in the scene that shocks the audience- “My fingers itch”- as if he wants to strike his daughter. The scene is almost a turning point in the play, as Juliet decides that her love shall conquer and that her and Romeo will be together. She gets so desperate, determined and defying that by the end of the scene she is fired up to do anything for love. The audience also learns a lot about the time period in which the play is set. Arranged marriages were normal and the male dominance of the time does not compare to anything experienced today; there is a lot of accepted aggression and violence by the males of the time as this was ‘normal’.

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        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 ...

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