Explain the dramatic significance of act 1 scene 5 of

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Carrie - Anne Groves 10 kw

Explain the dramatic significance of act 1 scene 5 of

“Romeo and Juliet.”

This scene is very important to the whole play of “ Romeo and Juliet.” Mainly because its where Romeo and Juliet first meet and fall in love, we also see tybalts anger which shows us the obstacles that will become a problem in Romeo and Juliet’s relationship. In a usual Shakespeare tragedy the main character that is noble of birth has a flow, which brings about their downfalls and death of others. “ Romeo and Juliet” kind of fits in to this, Romeos fault is that he rushes in to things too fast but I don’t believe this is the cause of Romeo and Juliet’s death. I believe other people are responsible for the death of Romeo and Juliet. For example the families of Romeo and Juliet could be both to blame, they should have ended the feud to set a good example to the younger members of the family, if the couple didn’t have to hide there relationship there deaths may have been prevented because they wouldn’t have had to go to such extreme measures. Some people may blame Mercutio for he left a curse on the both the families as he died. Friar Laurence could also have been to blame for the death, because he didn’t get the message to Romeo quick enough about Juliet not actually been dead.

Previous to act 1 scene 5, Romeo was presented by Shakespeare as a sensitive soul and is in love with an older woman called Rosaline. Shakespeare uses the idea of courtly love. This is when a young man falls in love with an older women of higher social class, who is usually married, but as the young man displays his love for her she pushes him away, but this only inflames the love he has for her, this love he has for her only causes him pain and sadness, he makes up verses about this love and the more she pushes him away the more he tries to show her that he is the man for her, he tries to make himself more worthy of the lady, also he can neither eat or sleep for thinking of her. This is what we of Romeo previous to act 1 scene 5, he is in love with Rosaline. We don’t actually see Rosaline on stage, she is just a dramatic device to show that the love he has for Juliet is true unlike the love he had for Rosaline that was a false love that only caused him grief and pain. We see the suffering and sadness that Rosalines love is causing him by the way he describes it. For example he says “ love is a smoke made with the fume of sighs”, this is a metaphor love is suppose to be a happy thing, but smoke is not a way it would normally be described, for the reason that smoke is a negative thing, smoke chokes and kills people, all smoke is caused by fire and fire burns, so what he is in fact saying is that Rosaline is burning his heart. In act 1 scene 5 we see Romeo noticing Juliet and instantly falling in love with her. We can now see that the love he is feeling for Juliet is different to what he felt for Rosaline, it makes him happy and he describes her positively unlike how he described Rosaline. He says, “ She doth teach the torches to burn brightly” to describe Juliet, meaning she stands out from the crowd as she is better that everyone else. We also see Romeo question love he says, “ did my heart not love till now?” suggesting his love for Rosaline was not pure or true, but his love for Juliet is.

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We don’t really hear that much from Juliet previous to act 1 scene 5. We first see her when she is getting ready for the masked party, were she is going to meet Paris the man she has been arranged to marry. We see Juliet doesn’t have a particularly good relationship with her mother who always seems to be rushing about. The closest person to Juliet seems to be her nurse, who looks after her. Juliet shows before the masked ball she is ambivalent to meet and marry Paris, she’s not too keen on the idea. In act 1 ...

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