Act 3 Scene 1 is a major part of the play and in some ways, it considerably changes the plot. At the end of Act 2, in Scene 6, Romeo and Juliet have just been married and love is in the air; everything is going well. The audience feels happy and at ease as Act 3 begins. Up until now, the quarrelling has not really come to anything but here, there are two key deaths.
The scene starts with Benvolio who wants to go home. He says “…these hot days, is the mad blood stirring” This quote hints that trouble may be brewing and indicates that something drastic is going to happen soon. It indicates that both families are angry. Tybalt’s approach to the Montagues could be interpreted as either in a good manner or bad. He calls Mercutio and the Montagues “gentlemen” and this may either be Tybalt trying to be friendly or him being sarcastically patronising. In my opinion, I think that at this point, Tybalt is trying to co-operate with his enemies so that he can find Romeo. At the beginning of the play, Tybalt, with the other Capulets, seem to be more dominant and aggressive than the Montagues; he was looking to fight with the Montagues. But here in Act 3, Scene 1, he restrains himself and is not looking for a fight. This makes the audience question which family is the better; the Capulets or the Montagues? The viewers want to take a side or blame somebody. Mercutio throws all Tybalt’s efforts back in his face as he openly mocks Tybalt in front of people - “Could you not take some occasion without giving?” Tybalt asks if Mercutio is “consort’st with Romeo”, meaning has he spoken to Romeo recently. Although Mercutio deliberately mistakes Tybalt’s meaning of ‘consort’ for a company of hired musicians. This winds Tybalt up and he is not pleased but he contains himself from lashing out at Mercutio. When Romeo arrives, Tybalt welcomes him with the words, “thou art a villain”. This was to shame Romeo by calling him a peasant, an insult to anyone of noble birth like Romeo. Romeo must not fight or upset a Capulet as he is married to one so he tries to avoid a quarrel. He must also not fight after the Prince’s warning, “once more, on pain of death” (Act 1, Scene 1) meaning that if either Capulet or Montague disturbs the streets of Verona again, then their lives will pay the price. This threat from the Prince heightens the tension in the play and the audience is left wanting to know if the Prince will have to carry out this threat. Tybalt wants a duel, but Romeo must refuse for his and Juliet’s marriage. Mercutio is offended at Romeo’s retreat and draws to fight Tybalt himself. Romeo tries to halt the battle by restraining Mercutio but Tybalt lunges and wound Mercutio. We can tell immediately the Mercutio is hurt as he says “I am hurt…/…I am sped.” He tries to make a joke of it to ease his friends worries and appear confident “a scratch, a scratch” although he knows that it is serious and that he is going to die by the way that he says “ask for me tomorrow, and you shall find me a grave man” meaning that he will die and be buried. Here Mercutio calls Romeo a villain, maybe agreeing with Tybalt. During his final minutes, Mercutio states “a plague o’both your houses” a total of three times. This is because during the Elizabethan period, people were very superstitious and to say something three times meant that it would come true. People watching the performance during this time will have noticed this and become confident of the ending. Although Mercutio is not a part of either family, he is still a main part of the feud. The relationship between Romeo and Mercutio had always seemed to be good but here, Mercutio dislikes Romeo as he was hurt “under Romeo’s arm”. Mercutio blames Romeo and not Tybalt who was the person that injured him. Mercutio as not physically injured by Romeo but was emotionally injured. This can throw the audience as the stable relationship has been broken and this can make the viewers wonder how the play will end. There can often be a lot of conflict between a person’s physical actions compared to their emotional feelings. A person frequently says one thing but means another. The death of Mercutio also symbolises the end of the harmless quarrel that was before. Now, the argument has become serious as somebody has died.
After everybody else has left, Romeo has a soliloquy. He tells, “my very friend, hath got mortal hurt/in my behalf; my reputation stained” this means that Romeo has been cowardly and now his reputation is battered. He also admits that he still loves Juliet and says “thy beauty hath made me effeminate, /and in my temper soften’d valour’s steel” this means that Juliet’s beauty and character has weakened Romeo and he has been cowardly. Romeo now feels that he has to avenge Tybalt to obtain his reputation back and get revenge for Mercutio’s death. Romeo kills Tybalt and immediately after regrets his actions and says “I am fortune’s fool”. This relates back to the theme of fate mentioned in the Prologue which runs throughout the play. The quote means that fate is playing with him and teasing him. It is a good example of dramatic irony as the audience is aware of what will happen whereas the characters do not.
Meanwhile, Juliet is at home thinking of Romeo; while she is full of hope and happiness, Romeo is sad and full of doom. Although Juliet does not know what has just happened, from Romeo’s point of view, their relationship is changing as it becomes more tense and realistic.
This middle section of the play keeps contrasting itself in each scene. Act 2, Scene 6 is all love and marriage, whereas the next scene and act, the theme turns to battle and anger, then it turns to death with despair. Into the next scene, and it is full of love and hope. Then, it turns to gloom as Romeo finds that he has been banished from Verona.
In Act 3, Scene 3, Romeo is told by Friar Lawrence that he has been exiled to Mantua outside the Verona walls. Romeo feels that he would rather be executed than banished. He states:
“There is no world without Verona walls,
…Hence banished is banish’d from the world,
And world exile is death; then ‘banished’
Is death mis-term’d”
The Prince believes that he is doing Romeo a favour by banishing him and not executing him. However Romeo feels that there is no world for him outside of Verona and he might as well be dead. For out of Verona, he cannot see Juliet and that is no life so he would prefer to be dead. It seems as if fate is not only playing with him but also enjoying it and laughing at him.
“…calling death ‘banished,’
Thou cutt’st my head off with a golden axe,
And smiled upon the stroke that murders me.”
Shakespeare has used an effective example of figurative language here, as they are not literally cutting of his head. This quote is said in sadness and despair but Romeo mentions the word ‘smiled’ maybe meaning that there is some hope in the distance.
In Act 3, Scene 5 there is a lot of conflict between Juliet and her parents. This is the first time that Juliet is involved in a quarrel, though this does not mean that she gets on well with her parents. Since she was born, Juliet had been brought up by her nurse and had never been close to her mother as it was always the nurse who was there for her. In the scene before, when Juliet hears that Romeo murdered her cousin, she is upset; not only for Tybalt but for Romeo who is banished and she does not know whether she will see him again. The two characters represent the two loves of her life; her family and her heart. But Romeo goes to her chamber and they spend their wedding night together. The atmosphere is full of love but also sorrow as Romeo has to leave for Mantua where he has been banished.
Lady Capulet enters and knows that Juliet has been crying and assumes that it is for Tybalt’s death. Juliet agrees with her mother’s insults towards Romeo. She states, “I shall never be satisfied, with Romeo, till I behold him – dead!” she wants her mother to believe that she hates Romeo as to not arouse suspicion. Of course she does not mean it as she says aside to herself “god pardon him! I do, with all my heart;” which implies that she has forgiven Romeo. In this part of the scene, the truth and the lies are conflicting; what Juliet says and what she thinks inside are two completely different things.
Lady Capulet moves on to tell Juliet that she is to marry the county Paris on Thursday. Juliet is devastated as she does not love Paris and tells her mother this. At this point Capulet, Juliet’s father enters the scene. He is incredibly angry to hear of his daughter’s reluctance to marry county Paris. He is also angry because she has spoken out against him and is not respecting him. Juliet does not seem to be thankful or grateful that a decent suitor has been selected. Capulet tells Juliet that if she does not marry Paris he will “ne’er acknowledge thee” and will let her “die in the streets”. Capulet calls Juliet many name such as “tallow face” and “green-sickness carrion”. Lady Capulet states to Juliet that she “has done with thee”. From this quote, I can see that Lady Capulet is very different from her daughter. Where Juliet stood up to her father, Lady Capulet obeys her husband and follows his word; she would rather stick with her husband to avoid being throw out of the home and disgraced. This also shows me the relationship between mother and daughter was not close and there may have often been a lot of conflict between them.
Once her parents have left, Juliet turns to her nurse, whom she is closer to, for advice. The nurse had encouraged Juliet’s marriage to Romeo because she could see that they truly loved each other but now she advises that Juliet marry the county Paris. I think this is because she is afraid that Juliet will reveal her secret wedding and the nurse will loose her job and therefore her home as well. She would be left with nothing as her whole life was with the Capulets. She now tries to persuade Juliet to marry Paris but she is only thinking of herself. She contradicts what she advised Juliet do earlier in the play.
During Elizabethan times, arranged marriages were common and it was expected that a young woman of Juliet’s nobility would be suited to a man of her parent’s wishes. I think that Juliet’s parents were thinking of her when they arranged for her to marry the county Paris; Paris was a man of wealth and dignity. This would not only secure a good future for Juliet but also make her proud. Unfortunately this did not have the desired effect as Juliet loved Romeo, but I think that Juliet should not have reacted to the marriage proposal in the way that she did, as her parents did not know. I believe that Juliet’s parents arranged the marriage so soon after Tybalt’s death so that they could all get over his death and look forward to a happy day. It would give them all something to do instead of grieving. Also, Tybalt caused a lot of conflict as he murdered the Prince’s kinsman and then was murdered himself. The Capulet family lost its good reputation and credibility; this marriage would soon heal their reputation.
Juliet is prepared to kill herself rather than marry the county Paris but she seeks advice from Friar Lawrence. He gives her a potion that should send her into a death-like form, although the mixture is not proven to work and could kill her. However, she is so desperate that she is willing to take the risk. On the night before the wedding, Juliet drinks the potion and falls into a death-like sleep. She is then laid to rest in the Capulet monument where other Capulet’s lie. Meanwhile, Friar Lawrence attempts to send a letter to Romeo planning for him to be there as Juliet wakes where they can go off together. Unfortunately Romeo never receives this letter and instead hears that Juliet is dead. As a result of all the conflict and Juliet’s death, he sets out to buy enough poison to kill him. He then enters Verona’s walls to the Capulet monument. County Paris is there grieving for Juliet when Romeo arrives. Although Paris is still not aware of Romeo and Juliet’s wedding, he feels a part of the Capulet family and must defend the monument. They fight and Paris dies. Romeo advances towards where Juliet lays and, in a scene of sadness and love, drinks the potion; he dies just as Juliet awakes. Juliet seeing her Romeo lay dead by her side, stabs herself.
The last scene, affects the audience greatly; as Romeo dies, Juliet awakens. It makes the viewer wish that either Juliet had woken a minute earlier or if Romeo had drunk the potion a minute later. This makes the audience feel frustrated for the couple as it was such a coincidence and bad luck. The closeness of these happenings can also portray the theme of fate well because it feels as if it was meant to be and that timing was an essential part.
The audience is aware from the beginning that the lovers are going to die. Although Romeo is a murderer, the viewers do not see him as a villain but as a hero (with Juliet being the heroine). We are constantly looking for somebody to blame for the tragedy. I do not believe that it is an individuals fault but all the characters involved play a significant part in the lover’s fate and therefore we cannot blame one particular person. If the idea of fate is true then I do not think that we should blame anybody as it was meant to be.
The idea of conflict is also reflected in the language that Shakespeare uses. Many of the sentences contrast together as an oxymoron, for example: “O loving hate;” love and hate contradict each other and add to the conflict of the story. Shakespeare also uses a lot of enjambment throughout “Romeo and Juliet”. This is when the meaning of one line runs onto the next without any pause or punctuation, an example in this play would be: “… that I have to love thee/Doth much excuse the appertaining rage/To such a greeting: …” The use of this rhetorical device, adds to the movement and feeling of the play. Romeo seems to be angry at Tybalt but is trying to keep calm; he may also be speaking quickly here.
The two families in “Romeo and Juliet” had been feuding for many years. The play does not state the reasons for the feud but we can assume that it was because of rivalry or disagreement. It is not so common in modern society for families to argue but there are often battles between races or religious groups for the same reasons. Conflict has always been around and always will be. There is also a lot of conflict between genders in the Elizabethan period. Men were always considered the stronger sex which earned money and women were expected to clean the home and bear children. Even in the modern day, the two sexes are not equal largely due to prejudice.
Juliet was going to marry twice, both were very different. The marriage to Paris, which was more common in older times, was the arranged marriage where parents chose who their children married. The other marriage, to Romeo, was for love. Both forms of marriage are still used today and can often conflict with each other. In the Western society of today, marriages through love are more popular, whereas in the Eastern countries, arranged marriages are more frequent. In modern times, this conflict is often seen in the British Asian community where parents were brought up to believe in arranged marriage and their children, brought up in a western lifestyle, consider marriage for love more appropriate.
The play shows that not everything turns out good; this way, it is realistic and relevant in modern society as well as Elizabethan society. Shakespeare shows this point by the themes of fate, conflict and death. This play is a tragedy, not a romance and therefore the overall effect is sorrow. In today’s society, films let us use our imagination and we are surrounded by movies that end up the way that we would like them to. This way film maker’s have happy audiences and therefore, make more money. However, this tale does not end the way that we would like it to and it makes a good change and shows us some reality.
“Romeo and Juliet” is also relevant to the contemporary audience as Baz Luhrmann made a very popular movie adaptation of this tale in 1996. This brought the story back into modern times as many people have seen his interpretation and it is very well-liked.
The theme of conflict is one of the most important factors in “Romeo and Juliet” as it adds tension, action and feeling to the play. The audience can be drawn in by the battles and, if watching the performance, they can feel like they are a part of it all. In a way, the theme of conflict can overpower the theme of love. I think this because conflict was the reason that Romeo and Juliet killed themselves and therefore, the conflict in the play was a lot stronger than the love. Although, “Romeo and Juliet” could also show that love overpowers everything else as they killed themselves for their love.