One of the ways Shakespeare makes this scene dramatically effective is by seeing Lord Capulet welcoming his guests and the language used is changed back to verse, to show that the rich people are speaking. Then there is music and dancing and there is also a bit of comedy when Capulet is speaking to cousin Capulet. “Welcome, gentlemen! Ladies that have their toes Unplagu’d with corns will walk about with you” “Come, musicians, play.” The mood in this scene is very jolly, and the audience have a lot to focus on, they would have been excited and there was probably a lot of concentration on the clothes that everyone would have been wearing. This would be based on social status, which is also what a party was used for, to show off your social status to others. The rich people in the audience would’ve probably held their heads high in this scene and would’ve enjoyed it the most. So everyone would have been very dressed up which would have been a change of scenery from the servants the audience had just seen. The plays were always performed in the afternoon and in good weather, so characters had to explain if a scene was supposed to be happening at night, and we see this when Capulet says: “More light! More light!”
The drama is built up again when Romeo first catches a glance of Juliet and the fact of love at first sight is exaggerated by the way he speaks of her: "She doth teach the torches to burn bright". This tells us that Juliet's beauty is much brighter than that of the torches - so she is very beautiful. I think that Romeo loves too easily as at the start of the day he was obsessed with Rosaline (who the audience never see) but once seeing Juliet compares her to a Beautiful white dove standing amongst a flock of Crows and by this he is obviously comparing Juliet to Rosaline. Also at the time women were expected to behave respectably, which meant they weren’t allowed to act in theatre, so all actors had to be men. Romeo says: “For I ne'er saw true beauty till this night”, this shows that his language emphasises that he feels something different for Juliet and that Rosaline is forgotten.
Tybalt sees Romeo and immediately wants to fight him, Capulet may dislike the Montague's, but he is trying to obey the Prince's command. As a host, he cannot allow even an enemy to be attacked under his own roof. And he tells Tybalt, Romeo is "virtuous and well-governed". Tybalt is angry at losing the chance for a fight, and blames Romeo for this, especially when he is made to look silly by Capulet, who tells him off and calls him a "saucy boy", his panting here foretells what will come in the play, and the fact of hatred is obvious but Capulet wants to maintain his social status and it is shown that Tybalt is clearly unfinished with Romeo when he says: “But this intrusion shall, Now seeming sweet, convert to bitt’rest gall”.
In this scene, Romeo and Juliet speak for the first time. Their opening exchange is in form of a sonnet. (A sonnet is a traditional love poem of fourteen lines that follows a strict rhyme scheme and specific structure, which would be well known and recognizable to an Elizabethan audience). This shows that Romeo and Juliet are in synch and thinking along the same lines and the fact that they would die for each other since they fell in love at first sight. Romeo and Juliet are flirtatious and Juliet allows Romeo to kiss her when he asks for permission to let his lips pray and kiss, he is also saying that if she doesn't grant his prayer, she won't be fulfilling her duties as a saint, because saints are supposed to make faith stronger, not make it turn into despair. They kiss, and Romeo expresses his happiness: "Thus from my lips, by yours, my sin is purged" meaning that the kiss of his saint has cleansed him of sin. This gives Juliet an opportunity to tease him into another kiss. She says that if her lips have taken away his sin then her lips must now have his sin. Romeo knows that that couldn't be right, so he takes his sin back with another kiss. This shows how innocent they both are and how they have already started loving each other so much.
Shakespeare creates effective drama in this scene when Romeo finds out from the nurse that Juliet is a Capulet. He exclaims, "O dear account! My life is my foe's debt". Because he is now in love, he now owes his very life to Juliet, and she is his foe. This has a very big impact on the audience making the crowd feel sorry for the couple in a way, yet happy to see them in romance.
In this scene Juliet sends the Nurse to ask the name of the young gentleman she did not know, which the audience know is Romeo. "Go ask his name. If he be married, my grave is like to be my wedding bed" she wants to find out who he is. However, when she does find out about Romeo, it was not what she wanted to hear, and on hearing that his name was Romeo and that he is a Montague she exclaims:
"My only love sprung from my only hate!
Too early seen unknown, and known too late!
Prodigious birth of love it is to me,
That I must love a loathed enemy".
This is a powerful speech and 2 rhyming couplets, 2 lines which the last 2 words rhyme together, which emphasises what she is saying and grabs attention of the audience, highlights and shows something important is being said, which is that if she had known Romeo was a Montague she wouldn't have fallen in love with him, but now it's "too late." She feels, like Romeo, that love is once and forever, and they both fear the consequences of their love, but without any thought of changing their minds or hearts.
In conclusion, Act 1 scene 5 is very dramatic because the irony is that Romeo and Juliet do not know that they are from rival families and fall in love. They both know that when they each discover who the other one is, they can never have a happy future together. The audience will feel euphoric about the romance between Romeo and Juliet because of the way they fell in love at first sight and how Romeo presented Juliet with the Sonnet. They will also feel somewhat sad because they know that this love won’t last long enough. The audience will also expect Tybalt to do something outrageous later on and drastically complicates the plot.
I think this scene is very important because without it Romeo would still be thinking about Rosaline and the couple would’ve never fallen in love. The whole play wouldn’t be what it is without the devices that Shakespeare employed to make it dramatically effective, it’s also very significant to the play as it shows us the characteristics of each character and it also highlights inflicting themes of love and hate leading to a tragic ending.
