Explore the ways in which poor communication in act 3 scene 5 contributes to the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet.

Two of the most wealthiest and superior families in Verona, Montague’s and Capulet's, are engaged in a deadly feud. No one can remember how it started, but it involves everyone from servants to distant relatives. Romeo and Juliet merge at Juliet’s party not knowing each others identity. They fall in love rapidly, however can’t communicate well as their families don’t know and are meant to be sworn enemies. I will be discussing how poor communication leads to the tragedy and how communication varies with different people.

The chosen scene, which fits best in describing poor communication, is scene 3 acts 5. This scene is important because it helps us understand the lack of communication. The audience sees this play as a play filled with verbal irony, dramatic irony, however it is most famous for its ending witch is full of situational irony. The audience understands what is going on but people n the play don’t, this makes it more exhilarating and mysterious this is ambiguity.

As soon as lady Capulet enters Juliet’s camber, a misunderstanding occurs. She believes that Juliet’s crying over the death of Tybalt the audience, however, knows that she is crying over Romeo. Shakespeare allows this, and other

misunderstandings to continue during this scene in order to create ambiguity and dramatic irony, he does this as it makes the play more interesting. Shakespeare wants the mother to have bad communication and wants Juliet to have a lack of trust towards her mother, lady Capulet says “evermore weeping for your cousin’s death?” Lady Capulet believes Juliet is grieving for Tyblolts death; she is troubled for her husband Romeo’s abscond, who she feels she may never see again. The audience knows the true reason for Juliet’s pain. Evermore and weeping are both ambiguous language. Lady Capulet says “evermore” as if Tybolt has been dead for years this is very cruel for her mother t say as her cousin has recently died. “weeping” is another malicious word for a mother to say as weeping personifies the idea of a injured animal and all Juliet is doing is grieving over her dead cousin. This scene would be performed by lady Capulet entering Juliet’s room scolding her for crying over Tybolt’s death. The audience would probably start of as being very shocked by the way the mother is treating her daughter, however gradually adapting and finding it stimulating the way Juliet personifies her lament over Tyblot, when she really is crying over Romeo.

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Lady Capulet is shadowed from Juliet’s life. Juliet says “indeed I never shall be satisfied with Romeo till I behold him -dead- is my poor heart, so for a kinsman vex’d.” lady Capulet believes Juliet means Juliet will not be satisfied till Juliet beholds Romeo dead, her heart is dead and she is troubled as she is not with Tybolt. What Juliet really means and what the audience knows is. She will never be happy until she is with him, her heart is dead, and she is troubled as she is not with her husband Romeo. The language used is ambiguity, “dead” and “never” dead is a concentrated word in the sentence; “dead” changes everything around, “dead” is what gives this sentence 2 meanings. “Never” introduces to the audience how pure her “love” is for Romeo. It produces dramatic irony, this forces us to lean different ways towards his sentence it makes us misinterpret the sentence, “never” influences Lady Capulet to believe Juliet “hate’s” Romeo. The audience would not be too shocked as a similar situation has already occurred during the performance, however I do believe the audience to be elated toward what will happen.

Lady Capulet gives Juliet what she thinks to be the joyous news of Paris having her hand in marriage. Capulet arrives, expecting to find his daughter excited at the news. When he finds Juliet upset, he asks his wife what has happened. This shows us how the family communicates the father lord Capulet will only speak to Juliet through lady Capulet She replies that she has given her the news and that Juliet is a fool for not accepting it. "I would the fool were married to her grave!” Lord Capulet fills with anger saying “get thee to church a ‘Thursday, or never after look me in the face.” Lord Capulet is shocked and livid, this would not be normal in those days, for a daughter to answer her father back. He flies into a rage and threatens to disown her if she will not follow his orders “out, you green sickness carrion! Out, you baggage!” Juliet asks her mother to not make her marry Paris. "O, sweet my mother cast me not away! / Delay this marriage for a month, a week / Or, if you do not, make the bridal bed / In that dim monument where Tybalt lies" again Juliet will only speak to her mother out of her to parents as if she is terrified of her father. Juliet follows her question with a treat; she threatens her mother buy saying she will kill herself if she is forced to marry Paris. This is odd as she can’t really speak to her mother properly she has to use ambiguous language, dramatic irony, treats. Maybe this is what led to her death, poor communication with her parents.

The Nurse advises Juliet to forget Romeo now that he is banished and to marry Paris. The Nurse is a Capulet servant and must support their wishes. She believes that everything will be fine if Juliet simply follows her parents' directive. Juliet has lost communication with all, friar Lawrence is her last hope. Nurse was her closest friend and someone she could tell anything to, however now she feels much betrayed as nurse has said “I think it is best you marry with the County.” The nurse could almost foresee an evil fate for Juliet and tries to entice her to marry Paris instead of Romeo. This really upsets her. Juliet pretends to agree and tells her to inform her parents that she has gone to Friar Lawrence's cell for confession. She really plans to ask him for his help. If he cannot or will not help her, she plans to kill herself. When Juliet approached Friar Laurence he did not take even one moment to consider what could go wrong. He could have accidentally given her too much of the medicine and could have actually killed her. It is also possible to have given her the wrong medicine and it could have been fatal. Now those are the things he did do, however there were some things that he did not do. Friar Laurence did not deliver his message to Romeo in person. To me this is the biggest mistake, as just doing this could prevent the whole tragedy.

In act five scene one Romeo leaves Mantua while a letter is being sent to him, but he doesn't know of the letter and thinks that Juliet is dead. In scene three Paris thinks that Romeo has come to do bad things to the bodies of the Capulet monument, the reader knows that Romeo had come in love and because of Paris not knowing this it ends up in his death. Friar Lawrence is on his way to get Juliet so that Romeo could be informed but Romeo is already there still totally clueless and drinks poison to his death. Juliet awakes and kills herself seeing her dead husband n her side. Friar Lawrence is to late Romeo and Juliet are dead.

Romeo and Juliet is a play filled with lots of irony. It has verbal irony, dramatic irony, however it is most famous for its ending witch is full of situational irony. The irony that I am describing is in Act 5, Scene 3. This is the climax of the play as Romeo and Juliet both kill each other for each other by a mere accident. This accident however could have been avoided. I believe that this story could have had a much happier ending if everyone communicated better. I feel the reason for this tragedy is communication. Communication is the only origin for this tragedy as with it everything would go smoothly.

Sahil Vaswani