Explore the importance of Act 2 Scene 2 and Act 3 Scene 5 in Romeo and Juliet.
Explore the importance of Act 2 Scene 2 and Act 3 Scene 5 in Romeo and Juliet.
Shakespeare's play 'Romeo and Juliet' is one of the most famous love stories in history, a fateful story of death and despair. 'Romeo and Juliet' is a story of tragedy, "For never was a story of more woe than [that] of Juliet and her Romeo."
The play consists of the only children from opposing families falling into a forbidden love with each other; they were "star-crossed lovers."
Romeo and Juliet is one of Shakespeare's most famous tragedies, written in 1594/1595(in the Renaissance period.) The story itself was not anything new or different, but the way Shakespeare wrote the story made it popular. The language that he used to communicate their love for each other was written so poetically. For example, in Act 2, Scene 2, Romeo says, "But, soft! What light through yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Juliet is the sun." Even when Romeo is about to kill himself (Act 5, Scene 3), Shakespeare manages to make the scene beautiful.
Act 3 Scene 5, also known as the Second Balcony Scene, is of dramatic importance and contains various moods, ranging from the lyric rapture of the lovers to the senile fury of old Capulet. The lovers are together at the window of Juliet's room. It is time for Romeo to depart from his wife and from Verona, for it is nearly dawn on Tuesday morning. In their love and sorrow, they speak in beautiful lyric poetry. It is not easy for them to say good-bye, for they do not know when they will see one another again. The tragedy is that they will never again see each other alive.
Juliet exhibits exquisite tension as she realizes that Romeo must leave her, but begs him to stay. It is appropriate that the time is dawn, which divides the day and the night. The tension is further reflected in the light and dark images that color their speeches. Romeo knows he must immediately depart for "Night's candles are burnt out," and he sees light in the east. Juliet tries to explain it away as a meteor in the darkness. In the end Juliet relents and tells Romeo that he should leave. As Romeo finally goes down the ladder, Juliet, with dramatic irony, asks a poignant question: "O think'st thou we shall meet again[?]" Romeo bravely tries to comfort her. Looking down upon him from her balcony, Juliet utters a totally prophetic line: "O God! I have an ill-divining soul/Methinks I see thee, now thou art below/As one dead in the bottom of a tomb." When the lovers meet next, it will be in a tomb, and Romeo will be dead.
The next part of the scene is in sharp contrast to this quiet, anxious farewell between the two lovers. Both Capulets are vehement as they chastise their daughter when she refuses to marry Paris. They are perplexed and furious over her disobedience. Capulet, whose temper has been shown before, explodes into a violent rage and berates his daughter for her ingratitude. He calls her "young baggage" and "a disobedient wretch" and threatens to disinherit her if she does not obey his commands. The irony is that in her own mind she has already been exiled from her family when Romeo left Verona.
Lady Capulet also shows unexpected cruelty. She makes no attempt to sympathize with her daughter or to understand her feelings. Her wicked nature is seen in her plan to poison Romeo and in her preference to see "Juliet married to her grave" rather than to endure Juliet's disobedience to herself and her husband.
Juliet's next hope of comfort lies with her Nurse. This cautions counselor also fails to give Juliet the solace she needs. The Nurse's hypocritical and treacherous advice to the young bride is to forget Romeo and marry Paris. Juliet realises that she can no longer trust the Nurse's advice and that she must think and act on her own. Her love for Romeo has rapidly changed her from childish ways to maturity.
Juliet's last hope for comfort is with Friar Lawrence. She plans to go to him for confession, absolution, and advice. She declares that if the Friar does not help her to avoid the marriage to Paris, she will kill herself, a foreshadowing of what is to soon happen.
The entire scene is filled with dramatic irony. Dawn, in bringing a new day, usually ushers in brightness and hope. Such is not the case for Romeo and Juliet. For them, the dawn ushers in darkness and despair, for it brings their separation. Lady Capulet believes that Juliet is in her room, grieving over the death of her cousin Tybalt. Juliet is grieving, but it is over her separation from Romeo. Lady Capulet says that she will avenge Tybalt's death by sending a servant to Mantua to poison Romeo, an ironic foreshadowing of Romeo's poisoning at his own hands. Juliet pretends to enter into her mother's plan, and answers her with a wonderful play on words: "Indeed I shall never be satisfied / with Romeo, till I behold him - dead - is my poor heart." Indeed, Juliet does long to see Romeo, "to behold him". In her maturity and devotion to her husband, she is prepared to deceive her parents for the sake of her love.
Romeo has a very deep love for Juliet and she feels the same for him. Their love is very special due to it being a huge secret. It has to be kept a secret because of their parents feud with each other. Romeo and Juliet find it very difficult to get together and meet up due to their parents not agreeing with each other.
Shakespeare then makes the next point in the play very tense. Shakespeare speeds up the action in the play when the Nurse enters Juliet's room to find Romeo and Juliet together enjoying themselves. ...
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Romeo has a very deep love for Juliet and she feels the same for him. Their love is very special due to it being a huge secret. It has to be kept a secret because of their parents feud with each other. Romeo and Juliet find it very difficult to get together and meet up due to their parents not agreeing with each other.
Shakespeare then makes the next point in the play very tense. Shakespeare speeds up the action in the play when the Nurse enters Juliet's room to find Romeo and Juliet together enjoying themselves. The Nurse then warns them of the danger they were in and that Lady Capulet was coming.
The mood of the play then changes. Shakespeare suggests that the end of the play could be tragic. We know this because in Romeo and Juliet's speech Juliet mentions 'Will thou be gone?' She is asking if Romeo must leave forever. Romeo replies 'Do lace the serving clouds in yondest East.' Romeo is saying that the time has come for them to separate. This is when the audience knows that Romeo and Juliet are not going to see each other for some time.
'Madam' says the Nurse 'your lady Mother is coming to your chamber. The day is broke, be wary, look about.'
Juliet and Romeo both begin to say their final farewells as Romeo uses Juliet's window to escape. Romeo says in a rush and in fear, 'Farewell. I will omit no opportunity. That may convey my greetings, love, to thee.' Juliet then replies to Romeo 'O think'st thou we shalt ever meet again?' Romeo, being so upset, says, 'I doubt it not, and all these woes shall serve for sweet discourses in our times to come.' Romeo then sets off and is said to never be seen again.
After Tybalt killed Mercutio, Romeo killed Tybalt for the devastating thing Tybalt had done. Because Romeo killed Tybalt, Romeo was then sentenced to never return to Verona ever again, if he did he would be killed. This is the reason for their separation. After this fight between Tybalt, Romeo and Mercutio the mood of the play changes quite a lot. Due to the fights Romeo became weak and badly injured and lost one of his closest friends. Also, Romeo would not of been sentenced to leave if he didn't have one of the fights and maybe would have been able to stop Juliet from killing herself this gives off an air of bad feeling.
When Romeo finally killed Tybalt he made the Capulet family angry. Due to the amount of power Juliet's father held, he made sure that Romeo was never to be seen again. Tybalt was Juliet's cousin and Capulet's nephew; this is why he got so angry. Therefore, this proves that the fights between Tybalt, Romeo and Mercutio did change the mood of the play quite drastically. Shakespeare's original audience would have felt shocked and offended at this scene. After Romeo had committed his crime, the punishment he received was much more brutal than what he would have been given even in that day. Although the crime would have been the same, Romeo's punishment would not be as severe as what it was in the play.
The ending of the play is very tragic and Shakespeare suggests this in a very obvious way. In Shakespeare's prologue at the beginning of the book it explains the full story in a few sentences. We can tell the ending will be tragic because it says, 'A pair of star-crossed lovers take their lives; whose misadventures piteous overthrows. Both with their death bury their parent's strife.' Which informs the audience that two people fall into a forbidden love and die because of it, it is their deaths that stop their parents from feuding with each other.
One of the themes in Romeo and Juliet is rash decisions versus well-thought-out ones; Romeo goes to the Capulet party and sees Juliet there. As soon as he sees her he falls in love with her before even finding out that she is a Capulet. Juliet too makes the same mistake. Romeo and Juliet have known each other only a day before they get married.
Romeo does not find out Friar Laurence's plan in time and he buys poison to kill himself. Juliet wakes up and sees that Romeo is dead so she kills herself. There were no well though-out decisions in most parts of the play.
Another theme is the weight of the past versus the promise of the future. The feud of the two families causes many deaths. Tybalt kills Mercutio. Romeo kills Tybalt because he killed Mercutio. The Capulets plan to kill Romeo for killing Tybalt. Also the weight of the feud is a great strain on the decision to follow love between Romeo and Juliet and affected their actions in the future.
The feud is ended by Lord Capulet when Romeo and Juliet are both dead. He says " O brother Montague, give me thy hand." Lord Montague agrees to end the feud and promises to raise a statue in Juliet's honor. "But I will give the more; for I will raise her a statue in pure gold."
The last theme is hatred versus love. A feud has been going on for quite some time in the city of Verona between the Capulets and the Montagues. Tybalt kills Mercutio because he is mad at him for going to the Capulet party. Romeo kills Tybalt because he kills Mercutio. But even though there is a lot of hate in the play there is a lot of love. Lord Capulet tries to do what is best for his daughter by first allowing her to make a decision on marriage. Then he makes it for her because he thinks that is what she needs. Lady Montague dies because she is so upset that her son has been banished. Romeo marries Juliet even though he knows they are both part of the feuding families. Romeo kills himself because he thinks Juliet is dead. Juliet does the same because she wakes up and finds Romeo dead. These happenings are all due to love.
The audiences of Romeo and Juliet have learned many lessons. Friar Laurence stated one of them when he said "Wisely, and slowly. They stumble that run fast." Many decisions were made without thinking. The story would have not been a tragedy if the characters would have not made their decisions on impulse. "For never was a story of more woe than this of Juliet and her Romeo." So the moral as it could be said is to think before taking action.
Juliet doesn't have a personal definition of love at the beginning. But after Juliet meets Romeo she then believes in practical true love. "My only love sprung from my only hate! Too early seen unknown, and known too late! Prodigious birth of lobe it is to me, That I must love a loathed enemy."
"O swear not by the moon, th'inconstant moon, That monthly changes in her circled orb, Less that thy love prove likewise variable."
The relationship between Romeo and Juliet does not follow the tradition of 'courtly love', a totally unreal infatuation purely based on the physical appearance. Whereas Romeo's 'love' for Rosaline is described to us as ' courtly love' this is because of the way he speaks of his love for her. For example when he is in love with Rosaline he says "Why, such is love's transgression, Griefs of mine own lie heavy in my breast, Which thou wilt propagate to have it pressed with more of thine.
This love that thou has shown. Doth add more grief to much of mine own,
Love is a smoke made with the fume of sighs Being purged, a fire sparkling in lovers eyes, Being vexed, a sea nourished with loving tears. What is it else?
Madness most discreet, A choking gull and preserving sweet farewell."
This is a typical example of how courtly love is expressed. Romeo isn't in love with Rosaline, he just likes the way being in love feels, except because he isn't actually in love it becomes an infatuation, not love, therefore it is described as 'courtly love.'
In the two scenes, Act 2 Scene 2 and Act 3 Scene 5, different types of language are used. For example in Act 2 Scene 2 the wording is about love and the language is light and romantic lyrics. This particular scene shows strong feelings of love and trust and hope. Whereas Act 3 Scene 5 differs, as it shows feelings of anger and deception and sorrow. Also in Act 2 Scene 2 the pace is slower, and the way Romeo and Juliet talk to each other is impetuous whereas in Act 3 Scene 5 there is a strong sense of foreboding, and a more realistic sense of language, also the pace starts off slow but picks up pace and ends up being dramatic as it becomes faster. This pacing is similar to the way Romeo and Juliet's lives start happy and slow but then as their lives begin to spiral out of control, the pace speeds up too.
In Romeo and Juliet the people of Verona are controlled by a chain of human actions. Act 4, scenes 1,3 and 5, are a good representation of the web of human actions that cause tragedy between the pair of "star crossed lovers."
One example of human actions being dominant in those particular scenes is Friar Lawrence. His actions, while being in good intent, caused much of the pain for the other characters in the book. His first action was to offer his help to the depressed Juliet, thinking that maybe he could "spy a kind of hope". His actions then led him to think of the fake death which he tells to her. "Hold then, go home, be merry", he tells her, while he gives her the poison and plans to give Romeo a message describing the plan. He doesn't however, make sure Romeo gets the message which is probably the most crucial human action in the play.
The other example of human actions controlling the plot is Juliet. In those scenes she acts in ways which seriously affect her life and the rest of the play. First, she comes to the Friar looking for help. "I long to die, if what thou speak'st speak not of remedy" is her attitude towards her situation. She then accepts the friar's solution and decides to take the poison. "Give me, give me! Oh tell me not of fear" (Act 4, sc 1, ll 121) are her words spoken to the friar. Her actions here are to be brave and to rush into the plan. Her actions are more important than the friars in this scene because she has all the control. The friars actions are mostly suggestions and thoughts while her actions are the ones that are physical and are actually put into use.
This scene isn't the only scene that demonstrates human actions controlling the play. For example, in the very first scene, Tybalt and Benvolio fight, causing a certain amount of tension that sets the play up for some of the major events that happen later. Another example of this is when Romeo and Juliet meet, Romeo goes out of his way to see her again, once more, setting up the plot. The web of human actions gets larger and stronger until finally, the two biggest human actions occur and the two main characters lay dead. Lay dead because the actions they took led them to suicide.
This incident, as tragic as it is, could probably have been avoided. If the actions that were taken by the characters had been planned better and the consequences had been thought about maybe a better outcome would have been reached. For example, if Friar Lawrence had thought about what would happen if Romeo didn't receive the message in time, he probably would have taken better precautions. Or maybe if Romeo had thought twice about killing Tybalt, he would have realized that it couldn't help getting closer to Juliet.
Death is inevitable in Romeo and Juliet, in the case of "two star-crossed lovers" who were destined to be with each other in Shakespeare's 'The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet.' As Romeo and Juliet first laid eyes on each other, they were lifted off their feet and began to live a more gracious and merciful life together. This all fell corrupt when fate, filled with greed and no morals turned their dream into a nightmare. They were brought together by chance and they were torn apart by a ruthless and selfish fate using one man, Friar Laurence. He acts and pretends to be someone people could trust, but if one opened their eyes, they could and would see that he is a cold-hearted and lonely man. He tries to help with good intentions, but the only person he wants to help is himself . There are many things that point to why he would do this and what led up to him being one of the things to blame for the deaths of Romeo and Juliet. Friar Laurence marries the two children, hides the marriage, gives Juliet the poison, and sends out another friar to do his job of delivering the message plan to Romeo.
In William Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet there are three forces affecting them fate, contradiction, and chance. Fate affects Juliet by Paris wanting to marry to marry her, "but woo her, gentle Paris, get her heart". This quote symbolizes fate stepping into Juliet's life to keep her from ending up dying with Romeo. The second act of fate affects Romeo because he was going to go to the Capulets party just to see Rosaline, "I'll go along, no such sight to be shown, but to rejoice in splendor of mine own". Romeo goes to the party to see Rosaline but ends up falling in love with the fair Juliet. The third act of fate is when Romeo and Juliet meet at Lord Capulets party, the quotation that best describes this is the dialogue between Romeo and Juliet. "If I profane with my unworthiest hand this holy shrine, the gentle sin in this: my lips, two blushing pilgrims ready stand to smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss." "Good pilgrim you do no wrong your hand to much, which mannerly devotion shows in this: For saints have hands that pilgrims' hands do touch, and palm to palm is holy palmers kiss." This was their first conversation together that made them fall in love.
The second force is contradiction. The first act of contradiction is that Romeo falls in love too easily. The quote that best describes this is when Romeo is at Juliet's balcony. "But soft! What light though younder window breaks? It is the East and Juliet Is the sun... It is my lady! O, it is my love!" This quotation shows that by the end of the party Romeo was in love with the fair Juliet and is no longer in love with Rosaline. The second act of contradiction was when Romeo goes the Friar to unite Juliet and him in holy matrimony. The quotation to best describe this act of contradiction is " then plainly know my heart's Dear love is set on the fair daughter of rich Capulet: as mine on Hers, so hers is set on mine, and all combined, save that thou must combine by holy marriage, when and how we met. We wooed, and made exchange of vow, I'll tell thee as we passed: but this I pray that thou consent to marry us today.". The contradiction in this is that Friar is willing to marry them even though he knows it is wrong and he doesn't have the consent of their parents.
The third act of contradiction is when Romeo says he won't fight Tybalt but ends up fighting him anyway. [Romeo draws his sword: Tybalt draws his in response. They fight till Romeo stabs Tybalt, who falls.] (subtext). Subtext shows the contradiction because Romeo insisted not to fight Tybalt because of Juliet, but fights anyway.
The fourth act of contradiction is when Juliet cries for Romeo instead of the death of her cousin Tybalt. "Wash they his wounds with tears? Mind shall be spent, when theirs are dry for Romeo's banishment.". The contradiction is that she cries for Romeo not Tybalt of whom she should rightfully, as family be crying for.
The fifth act of contradiction is how Romeo and Juliet kill themselves. Juliet kills herself with Romeo's dagger. " Yea noise? Then I'll be brief. O happy dagger this is thy sheath: there rust, and let me die.". Romeo kills himself with poison. " o thee apothecary! Thy drugs are quick thus with a kiss I die.". The contradiction is that the switched gender rules Romeo killed himself like a woman and how Juliet pretended to die, and Juliet killed herself like a man would with quite a long and painful death.
The third and final force affecting Romeo and Juliet is chance. The first act of chance is that Romeo went to the party and fell in love with Juliet than seeing Rosaline, his first love. "If I profane with my unworthiest hand this holy shrine, the gentle sin in this: my lips, two blushing pilgrims ready stand to smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss." " Good pilgrim you do no wrong your hand to much, which mannerly devotion shows in this: For saints have hands that pilgrims' hands do touch, and palm to palm is holy palmers kiss." This quotation shows the first time Romeo and Juliet met. The second act of chance is when Romeo wanted to be alone so he jumped over the wall and ended up under Juliet's balcony. "But soft! What light though yonder window breaks? It is the East and Juliet Is the sun.". This is what Romeo says after discovering that it was Juliet's room that he was outside. The third act of chance is when the letter does not reach Romeo saying that Juliet faked her death. "O thee apothecary! Thy drugs are quick Thus with a kiss I die." " Yea noise? Then I'll be brief. O happy dagger this is thy sheath: there rust, and let me die. If the letter would have reached Romeo they both would still be alive but chance would have it Juliet would wake up seconds after he died.
Act 2 Scene 2, affects the play because without it, the audience wouldn't know how much Romeo and Juliet were in love, it shows Shakespeare's ability to not only write fighting scenes but also gentle romantic scenes with passion. In this scene Juliet is sensible and realistic, she is more rational than Romeo. Whereas in Act 3 Scene 5 Juliet wants Romeo to stay, when she is not being so sensible. In Act 2 Scene 2, lots of passion is shown and skillful lyrical language is used.
Act 3 Scene 5 has a much bigger impact on the outcome of the play, because if it hadn't of been for Juliet's father shouting at her and forcing her to marry Paris, she would not have gone to Father Lawrence for the potion that lead to Romeo thinking she was dead and committing suicide himself, leaving Juliet to wake up and find her love dead beside her, forcing her to kill herself to stay with her love.
Fiona Malpass 10C1 Romeo and Juliet Essay 08/05/2007
