At the start of the scene tension is created as when the scene opens Mercutio starts to describe, for example “Claps me his sword upon the table.” Which this is how the audience knows his character as which creates further dramatic tension, But Mercutio is in a foul mood, for instance “come, come thy as hot as a jack in thy mood” This immediately creates drama as the audience already know fighting is banned in verona streets and would lead to greater consequences. Benvolio, suggests to Mercutio to go inside and stay out of trouble, such as “I pray thee, good Mercutio lets retire; the day is hot, the capels are abroad, and if we meet we shall not ‘scape a brawl, for now these hot days is the mad blood is stirring ” but Mercutio is very clever with his language and shows this as the scene progresses, and Mercutio’s response to Benvolios comment about going inside is quite blunt and directly tells Benvolio that he usually starts the fights and he is a fine one to talk, for instance “and yet thou wilt tutor me from quarrelling!” which shows Mercutio is looking for a fight.
As the scene develops the atmosphere progressively becomes a lot darker and sinister, even Mercutio who is usually very humorous, takes on a new tone which shows that something may happen soon like a death.
Tybalt then shows up in the scene and he is in a provocative mood that also creates dramatic tension, as he is polite to the Montagues, and this means he is mocking him.
Benvolio tries to stop Mercutio he just replies NO and showing the audience that he wants a fight with Tybalt.
As Romeo enters the scene, but he will not fight Tybalt as they are now family, which creates dramatic irony.
Shakespeare has only used this technique at this point of the scene, this shows how important this scene.
In the 17th century, the revenge code was if you were the victim of a crime then you were legally allowed to get revenge and the best way was to challenge them to a duel.
The highest point of dramatic irony is when Mercutio becomes angry and curses both families and says “A plague on both your houses” and he dies.
The reason that this is the highest point of dramatic irony is that nobody realises that he is dying, but what they do think is that he is joking as Mercutio always does, but when Romeo realises that he is dead he goes after Tybalt and challenges Tybalt to a duel which Tybalt accepts, Romeo then kills Tybalt in the honour of his family.
The scene is left in a dilemma this is because Romeo is banished but he is also married to Juliet, even if Romeo was executed for killing Tybalt he would be in the same situation as he won’t be able to see Juliet which adds further drama to the scene.
Shakespeare does this to keep the audience interested.
In this scene lots of puns are used for example “ Mercutio thou consortest with Romeo” which again he is mocking him creating more drama but also, the audience also know this will lead to punishment.
In my coursework I have explored and discussed the dramatic qualities of Act 3 scene 1 of Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” and what affect it has to the play as a whole which this scene is important as most of the drama happens in this scene and ends in a dilemma.
