Therefore, here, he creates a warm, happy feeling amongst family and guests. His family can relax and feel at ease, because they know Lord Capulet is happy, and the audience know everything is cheerful again.
However, before, when Lord Capulet was speaking to Paris, about marrying Juliet, he was very persistent in asking Paris to wait a few years before he asks his beautiful daughter to marry him. This tells us that Lord Capulet changes his mood a lot; from being cheery at the beginning to worried and giving advice to Paris.
Meanwhile Romeo arrives at the party, having to wear a mask for disguise, is walking around getting drinks and talking to people when he glances at Juliet.
Romeo then refers, lines 44-48, to how beautiful Juliet is, he says:
“As a rich jewel in an Ethiops’ ear”
This means that she is the purest jewel in a black mans ear. Here Shakespeare uses a simile, to make Juliet seem like something special, unusual and precious like a jewel. He makes her out to be a gorgeous lady.
Romeo talks about Juliet a lot and uses lots of ‘o’ sounds:
“So shows a snowy dove trooping with crows”
This is to make his words soft and gentle, like his image of Juliet. It is a visual image of how she stands out in a crowd.
Romeo falls in love with Juliet at lines 49-52. This is very unexpected because he has been heartbroken by Rosaline and was constantly thinking about her. So when Romeo sees Juliet he completely forgets about Rosaline and is love struck, this creates a romantic mood. However the audience can’t help feeling slightly confused by Romeo’s behaviour seeing as he has been depressed about losing Rosaline all day and there is a dramatic change in his mood of love towards Juliet.
As the audience see earlier in the play, Tybalt is a very angry character. The first time he is seen in act one scene five he enters to tell Lord Capulet that there is a Montague at the party, he creates a lot of tension because so far at the party everyone is relaxed and having fun. As a result Shakespeare creates tension by a sudden change of atmosphere. Tybalt enters a happy atmospheric room but is very mad; having the two opposite moods next to each other shows the change more dramatically. The audience doesn’t expect this change because so far it has been very peaceful and calm so they expect him to react in the same way.
“This, by his voice should be a Montague. Fetch me a rapier, boy. What dares the slave”?
As you can see, Tybalt is ready to fight and questions Lord Capulet to how Romeo dare come to his enemy’s party.
The real aggression shown by Tybalt is in lines 53-58. However Tybalt isn’t the only character that gets aggressive; Lord Capulet also gets aggressive, towards Tybalt. This is because Lord Capulet doesn’t want his party, that is going so well, to be ruined. Not long into their conversation, Lord Capulet starts to get verbally aggressive towards Tybalt because Tybalt doesn’t want Romeo to be there. However Lord Capulet doesn’t want any fuss at his party, as he is having such a great time. He wants this event to happen again and the people of Verona like Romeo, Capulet wants him to like him a lot as well. If he were to get hurt by Tybalt they would not like him anymore and not attend his parties. Tybalt is a very strong character and doesn’t abide by the rules so when Lord Capulet says:
“Show a fair presence and put off these frowns”
Meaning, behave well and stop being sad, Lord Capulet knows Tybalt won’t behave well as he knows his personality and that he truly hates the Montague’s.
When Lord Capulet says:
“I’ll make you quiet!”
He means I’ll hit you, in a threatening tone, to stop you from fighting. The audience can tell this is in a threatening tone because it is then followed by a cheery conversation with the dancers. Compared to Lord Capulet’s behaviour at the beginning of the party it is very different to now. At this point the mood is very definite in a way that the audience can see that Lord Capulet is mad.
Capulet uses lots of expression in what he says:
“Am I the master here? Or you? Go to! You’ll not endure him”
This shows that he is getting worked up about Tybalt and is going to stick by what he says; Tybalt will be good.
Capulet also uses insults towards Tybalt:
“What, Goodman boy?”
This is to make Tybalt feel small and show Lord Capulet have more power, by insulting him Tybalt feels more vulnerable and abide by his father.
Lord Capulet and Tybalt have an angry conversation in lines 88-91. One can see this by the punctuation used and the short sentences with pauses in between, this makes the audience want to know what’s happening next.
“You are a saucy boy. Is’t to indeed?”
These short sentences make Lord Capulet seem abrupt and angry.
When Romeo and Juliet meet, for the first time, Shakespeare uses a sonnet to dramatise their attraction for each other, a traditional 14-line poem about love with three quatrains and one rhyming couplet. This is important because the audience would recognise it because it was popular in the 1500’s. Romeo is instantly amazed by Juliet’s beauty and the audience can tell this by the fact that they are reciting a sonnet and talking about their kisses.
“O then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do”
This means let our lips touch like saints hands do. This is important because it shows the audience that they like each other a lot.
Romeo thinks that Juliet is the most beautiful creature to be on earth, that’s why he compares her to ‘a holy shrine’ and that she’s God’s gift to the male race. He makes her sound like he has never seen anything so beautiful before.
“My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand”
This means, his lips are pilgrims that are ready to go to Juliet, a shrine. Comparing Juliet to a shrine makes her sound very special because this play was produced in the 1500’s when Henry VIII had demolished churches so there would have been no shrines therefore he’s saying she’s unique. It’s a religious image that is meant to show the depths of Romeo’s devotion to Juliet. As it takes a whole sonnet to build up to the kiss, when they finally do kiss, which is Shakespeare’s stage direction and physical display of love, it is expected but Juliet conceals her feelings so the audience don’t feel that’s its too obvious on what’s going to happen next. The audience, therefore, are very happy that this relationship has happened and, as a result of this, think they’ll be a brilliant couple. Therefore the mood is very romantic and the audience feel happy.
Then the nurse interrupts, them kissing;
“Your mother craves a word with you”
The audience get brought back to reality and remember that Romeo and Juliet are Capulet’s and Montague’s. You instantly remember about Paris and how he is to marry Juliet, who brings us back down to earth and the audience feel disappointed for the couple.
Romeo finds out that Juliet is a Capulet, his family’s enemies, in lines 116-117. However he has already fallen in love with Juliet and doesn’t care about the fact that his family won’t be happy with him. All he cares about is Juliet.
“O dear account! My life is my foe’s debt”
This is an example of dramatic irony. We know this because the audience have seen the prologue at the beginning of the play. Romeo does pay the ultimate debt with his life. The point is here that we know what’s happening but Romeo and Juliet are carried along by their emotions.
He already knows that Tybalt wants to kill him and if he had a relationship with Juliet then his life would be in the hands of the Capulet family. He now knows that he is going to be in the wrong but his love for Juliet is too strong and cannot deny it.
Juliet is curious about Romeo, and wants to find out more, but she doesn’t want to make it obvious, therefore she also asks questions about other people to disguise her passion for Romeo.
“Come hither, nurse. What is the name is yond gentleman?”
“What’s he that now is going out the door?”
As you can see here, she is trying to distract the nurse’s attention from asking about Romeo. The final mood is that Juliet has found the love of her life and no he is walking away from the party but she is very curious to find out more about him. She feels lonely but at the same time wants to get to know Romeo better.
“My grave is like to be my wedding bed”
This is dramatic irony because she does die in a church as Romeo sacrifices his life for her. At this point the audience feel sad because they are given a clue that the story will end with a tragic ending.
Overall, Shakespeare has created lots of different type of dramatic moods ranging from; happiness, anger, sadness, lust, loneliness and love. Shakespeare has created this from dong one extreme of atmosphere to another. As you can see from the happiness in Lord Capulet and then the pure anger in Tybalt a large proportion of dramatic moods is created.
Within the language used, Shakespeare uses a lot of punctuation to emphasise the dramatic mood. So the language and its conventions are used to support the drama going on. For example at the beginning of the play, where the servants are seen to be moving around quickly. One of the ways the characters know what to do is by fellow actors instructing them in their speech.
“Come musicians, play!”
Consequently, characters give each other stage direction in what they say so they know what to do and where to go. These are called imperative verbs. They make someone do something. For example:
“Go ask his name”
The characters are gradually developed so that you see more and more of them until you finally see the whole side of them. A perfect example of this behaviour is seen in Lord Capulet; he is happy at the beginning of the party and is having great pleasure however when he gets in the aggressive conversation with Tybalt you see how he really is. The dramatic irony includes the audience because they already know what is happening before the characters do. This leads to a sense of inevitability in the play.
