Explore the conflict in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet

Romeo & Juliet Year 10 Coursework. Tom Slimming

Explore the conflict in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet

William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is set in the north Italian town of Verona. At this time had a very structured social hierarchy. The men always came above the women and it was a very feudal system. In Verona at this time the public wore very bright clothes. This is shown in some of the later film adaptations of the play. Romeo and Juliet is a tragic play so a lot of the scenes contain conflict. Romeo is from the Montague family and Juliet from the Capulet. These two families’s hated each other. So when Romeo and Juliet fall deeply in love there is obviously going to be a lot of conflict in the play.

Straight away Shakespeare opens the plat with dramatic conflict. Two servants of both the rival families start a verbal brawl. Two of the higher members of the families draw swords on each other and try to settle the dispute. Prince Escalus, the leader of Verona says to the two families that if any of them fight again then they will be killed. Shakespeare uses this scene as the first scene of the play as it grips the audience straight away and makes the reader want to carry on reading or the viewer of the play to carry on watching. It also shows the contrast in the play, there is a mixture of people, for example: Tybalt and Benvolio. Benvolio try’s to hold the peace where as Tybalt is out to fight and hates peace.

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Act three scene one is the beginning of the end. By this time Romeo and Juliet have met, fallen in love, and got married. In this scene we see another contrast. Mercutio who is a very easy going person fights tybalt who is a dark, foul tempered, peace hating character. Mercutio puts up a good fight but ends up getting killed by Tybalt in their sword brawl. In his anger Romeo goes after Tybalt and kills him. Romeo is then banished from Verona. This starts a chain of events, which leads to both of the lover’s deaths. Because Romeo got banished he did not receive the letter which told him that Juliet would be taking a potion which would make her appear to be dead, but she would in fact be knocked out for twenty for hours. Romeo returns to Verona and sees Juliet knocked out and thinks she is dead. He feels he can not live without her and commits suicide. Juliet then wakes up and sees Romeo dead on the floor so kills herself realising her life is nothing without the love of Romeo. Act three scene one decides the outcome of the play. The scene tips the equilibrium in the play so everything is unbalanced. It is not until both of the lovers are dead that equilibrium is achieved.

Shakespeare uses clever language throughout the play. He uses a mixture of techniques to get his point across to his audience. For example: “sick health” this is an oxymoron. An oxymoron is two words, which are opposites and contradict each other used in a passage. This shows Shakespeare’s great poetic techniques, which are used frequently throughout his entire works. Puns are also a big part of the play. When Mercutio has been stabbed he makes a pun of “ask for me tomorrow and you shall find me a grave man” this shows Mercutios character to a tee. Even though he is near to a certain death, he still manages to crack a joke. He uses the word “grave” and uses both its meanings. This is also an example of “light and dark” The Montague males being light and the Capulet males being dark.

The affect of this sort of language on the audience is a good one. Elizabethan audiences loved word play, therefore loved Shakespeare’s uses of language. Shakespeare also liked to show off his poetic techniques.

Shakespeare also uses a lot of symmetry in the play. He kills off the characters in pairs. Firstly the two violent characters: Mercutio and Tybalt. Secondly he kills off the two lovers. Romeo and Juliet. The play has a very distinctive domino effect.