Another way Shakespeare entertained the audience was using violence and action. This is would create tension and the mood of the audience would change quickly. Comedy would quickly change to violence and sword fighting. This would catch the audience’s attention but also show how much hatred there is between the two families. This shows the audience that if any friendship was to form between the members of different families there controversy. This can cause tension and suspense.
In act 1 Scene 1 a sword fight starts between Tybalt and Benvolio. This starts over some humour. Sampson starts by saying ‘I will bite my thumb at them 40 which is disgrace to them to them if they bear it’. This is quite a rude gesture, and with so much hatred between the families the audience would know a fight was going to start. Then Abraham says ‘Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?’ Abraham is asking if they are really biting their thumbs at them. There basically challenging them, asking them for a fight. Sampson replies with ‘I do bite my thumb, sir’ accepting there invitation for a fight. Then Shakespeare adds some wordplay in the argument which can confuse the audience but also make them laugh. This argument and fighting that would follow is an excuse for lots of noise, action and tension.
Tybalt is shown as a violent aggressive person. His entrance is quite big and bold. ‘What! Drawn, and talk of peace? I hate the word, as I hate hell, all Montagues, and thee. Have at thee, coward.’ This shows his opinion on peace; he does not like peace and wants to fight. He compares his hate of peace with hell and Montagues; this shows the audience how much hatred he has for Montagues. This makes tension because the audience can see how he has a short temper and if any of family was to form relationship with the Montagues there would be a big fight.
Shakespeare introduces Romeo at the start of the play as a romantic love sick teenager. These are shown by his actions, he is sighing, keeping alone, in a black and portentous mood. He is acting in this manner because he is in love with lady Rosaline, but the problem is that she does not love him. Romeo fell for this young beautiful lady and thinks she is one for him. He is in so much love that he regards his love as a religion. Romeo is so obsessed he says ‘love is a smoke made with fumes of sighs’ this meaning that he is in love so much that he is sad.
Shakespeare contrasts two different types of love in this play, sexual love and marriage. These are shown in the nurse’s bawdy comments. She often refers to sex and Juliet’s virginity and her relationship with her husband. ‘Now by my maidenhead at twelve year old’ this shows the nurse calling Juliet a virgin.
At the start of Act 1 scene 2 Paris asks Capulet for permission to marry his daughter, Juliet. He is doubtful as he thinks she is very young. Capulet then tells Paris to hope that Juliet’s falls in love with him, and invites him to come to a party that will take place later on that evening. Paris then questions Capulet about why he is not giving a straight answer, Capulet is quick to protect his daughter ‘My child is yet a stranger in the world’ this meaning that she is still young and not experienced, he then says ‘ She hath not seen the change of fourteen years; let two more summers wither in her pride. Ere we may think her ripe to be a bride’ he is now saying that if she waits two more years she will be just right for marriage. The word ‘ripe’ shows that he is comparing her to maybe a fruit of some sort. Then Paris returns by saying ’Younger than she are happy mothers made’ Paris is saying here that girls younger than Juliet have become happy mothers. This shows how society’s attitude was when talking about marriage. They thought it was o.k. for girls in their early teens to become mothers and get married.
Romeo’s love for Rosaline is shown to be over the top and exaggerated. He mopes around thinking about her constantly to a point where his parents are worried about him. Benvolio has cure for his for this love sickness, he says he should look for other girls. Benvolio says ‘Take thou some new infection to thy eye’ he basically saying, have a look for another girl and your love sickness will go. At first Romeo thinks Benvolio is wrong and goes on about how he is a prisoner because he is not free to love and his food is the sight of Rosaline. ‘Shut up in prison, kept without my food,’ Benvolio then asks Romeo to come to the Capulet’s party, Romeo at first refuses but then agrees. Benvolio’s so-called cure for Romeo’s sickness and the mention of a party at the Capulet’s house prepares and hints to the audience that there may be true love very near.
True love is first shown when Romeo saw Juliet dancing at the party. He immediately falls in love with her and asks himself questions about love. ‘Did my heart love till now?’ and ‘For I ne’er saw true beauty till this night.’ this shows that he telling himself that what he had with Rosaline was not love, but when he see’s Juliet, that is love. He compares the beauty of Juliet with a jewel. Shakespeare uses the word ‘jewel’ because it is a precious, expensive and beautiful item. Romeo now finds himself deep in love. He totally forgets about Rosaline but now he is totally devoted to Juliet. Towards the end of scene 5 Juliet confesses to herself and the audience that she is in love with Romeo. The audience now know that the pair of star cross’d lovers are in love, but also know that something dramatic is going to happen as their families are enemies.
Tybalt notices that Romeo is a Montague and has interest in Juliet, maybe Tybalt’s wife-to-be. He grows angry and immediately wants to fight Romeo. He runs to old Capulet and expresses his anger about the trespassing Montague (Romeo), he wants to take action but old Capulet restrains him, calms him down then tells him not to start a fight. This shows how protective Tybalt is about Juliet and if he has this sort of reaction when seeing Romeo just look at Juliet then what might if they were to fall in love the audience might ask themselves.
In Act 1 Scene 2 lord Capulet protects his only daughter, Juliet from an early marriage with Paris. Paris asks Capulet for his daughters hand in marriage, but Capulet refuses because he thinks Juliet should have a say in who she marries. Capulet then tells him he should hope for Juliet’s love. Capulet tells Paris ‘ My child is yet a stranger in the world, She hath not seen the change of fourteen years; let two more summers wither in their pride. Ere we may think her ripe to be a bride.’ Capulet shows the problem then gives a solution to Paris. He first tells him that she is still young at 13 years old and she is a stranger to the world meaning she is not mature yet. He then tells him he should wait another two years and then she will be at the right age. He refers to her being ‘ripe’ as a fruit would be. This shows that Capulet is protective of his daughter and truly does care for her. For time and era it was unusual for the parents of a girl to give her a say in who she marries, so this would gain the attention of the audience.
In Act 1 Scene 3 the audience meets Lady Capulet for the first time, but also accompanied by Juliet and the Nurse. We see Lady Capulets type of character. She is a cold type of woman who relies on the nurse. Her relationship with Juliet is strained and quite formal. She unlike her husband wants Juliet to have a quick arranged marriage with Paris. Juliet is quick to reply by saying ‘It is an honour that I dream not of’ which means she does not want to get married now. This shows contrast between her and her husband. The Nurse’s relationship is much more motherly than Juliet and lady Capulet. The nurse is warmer, caring and gives Juliet options when deciding on something. The Nurse offers support to Juliet unlike her mother which tries to push Juliet in one direction only, getting married with Paris.
Shakespeare made a lot characters in Romeo and Juliet, each with their own role in keeping the plot line. Some characters have very little to do, but some have the plot revolving around them.
Romeo is a young man who is about sixteen years old; is handsome, intelligent, and sensitive but also impulsive and immature. These attributes make him a likable character. He lives in the middle of a violent feud between his family and the Capulet’s, but he is not interested in violence. His only interest is love. At the beginning of the play he is madly in love with a woman named , but the instant he lays eyes on , he falls in love with her and forgets Rosaline. The audience would now question themselves about Romeo and his new love, but the dialogue Romeo speaks convinces them that the love is true. He compares and describes Juliet with so much depth and enthusiasm that the audience believes this is true love… E.g. ‘Beauty too rich for use, for earth too dear.’ He then secretly marries Juliet, the daughter of his father’s worst enemy; he takes abuse from ; and he would rather die than live without his new love, Juliet. Romeo is an affectionate and devoted person. Without him there would be now play.
Juliet is the daughter of and . A beautiful thirteen-year-old girl, Juliet begins the play as a naïve and immature child who has thought little about love and marriage, but she grows up quickly when falling in love with Romeo, the son of her family’s great enemy. She shows amazing courage in trusting her entire life and future to Romeo, even refusing to believe the worst reports about him after he gets involved in a fight with her cousin. Juliet’s has so much trust in Romeo that she is willing to shut out of her life the moment the Nurse turns against Romeo. Juliet is an inspirational character as she defies against the normal arranged marriage and runs off to be with the son of her father’s enemy. It was normal for arranged marriages in the Elizabethan era, so Juliet’s character is somewhat rebellious.
Juliet’s nurse, this is the woman who breast-fed Juliet when she was a baby and has cared for Juliet her whole life. She is funny and is an open-minded person. The Nurse provides comic relief with her frequently inappropriate remarks and speeches, such as talking about sex and her dead husband. But, until a disagreement near the end of the play the Nurse is faithful to Juliet. The Nurse believes in love and wants Juliet to have a nice-looking husband, but the idea that Juliet would want to sacrifice herself for love is hard for her.
Mercutio is one of the most unique characters in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. His language is powerful and imaginative. He has an important role. Mercutio is Romeo's friend. He is the one that convinces Romeo to go to the party. If it wasn’t for Mercutio, Romeo would not have seen Juliet. Mercutio's character stands out from the rest because of his energy in everything he does and says. He is always living his life to the full and is always looking for something new and exciting to do. This can entertain the audience. Mercutio is very independent and free and does not understand how someone could want or need anyone or anything else in his life to fulfill it. Mercutio wants to live his life on the spur of the moment. He is not interested in being dependent on anyone.
He is the character that shows independence, youth, freedom, and makes the story line a lot more interesting.
Tybalt is a Capulet, Juliet’s cousin. He is vain, fashionable and aware of courtesy and the lack of it. He quickly can become aggressive, violent, and quick is always ready to draw his sword when he feels his pride has been injured. Once drawn, his sword is something to be feared, as he is famous for his sword fighting. He hates Montagues.
Benvolio is Romeo’s cousin and thoughtful friend; he makes an effort to stop violent scenes in public places. He spends most of the play trying to help Romeo get his mind off Rosaline, even after Romeo has fallen in love with Juliet.
Lady Capulet is Juliet’s mother, Capulet’s wife. A woman who herself married young (she gave birth to Juliet at the age of fourteen), she is eager to see her daughter marry Paris. She is an ineffectual mother, relying on the Nurse for moral and pragmatic support.
Capulet is the father of Juliet, husband of Lady Capulet, and enemy, for unexplained reasons, of the Montague family. He truly loves his daughter, often rude and he commands respect.
The play starts with a Sonnet. A sonnet is a fourteen-line poem with a carefully patterned rhyme scheme. In these 14 lines it rhythmically describes the plot of the story. The audience now finds out what is going to happen. Shakespeare gives them the answer technically. But the audience will be wondering how all of this happened, so the answer is given but the way it happened is a mystery to the audience. The audience is in suspense right from the start of the play. This is one of the techniques that make Romeo and Juliet such a good play.
Right at the start of play, Sampson and Gregory which are from the two different famous rival families, start by having an exchange in harsh comments over a simple misunderstanding. Sampson - ‘Gregory, on my word, we’ll not carry coals’ ‘Gregory – ‘No, for then we should be colliers.’ Just from this misunderstanding a fight starts between some younger members of the rival families. This shows the audience how much hatred there is between the families and how a fight can start so quickly over nothing.
Shakespeare is quick introduce the most important characters that have roles which are going run the story, including Romeo the lover, Juliet the object of Romeo’s love and tybalt the trouble maker. He does this so the audience can see what type characters they are and what they are capable of. E.g. Tybalt, he starts a fight right at the start of the play over nothing. The audience can see he has a temper and this could affect Romeo and Juliet’s relationship later on. Shakespeare is also quick in plotting the main areas including, the two lovers meeting, then them falling in love and them setting out to make their vows. the audience knows that the families are enemies and them secretly getting married the wrong thing to do, with so much hatred between the families and then tybalt the famous swordsmen with a temper, the audience knows something big is happened. This brings suspense, tension and anticipation to the audience.
Shakespeare’s use of poetic language engages the audience’s attention. There are a number of times in act 1 where Shakespeare uses poetic language. One of the times is where poetic language is used is when Romeo’s romantic infatuation over Rosaline. The audience is shown that Romeo’s love, Rosaline wants to live in chaste. Romeo is shown to the audience in being to excessive with the romantic language he comes out with. ‘She’ll not be hit with Cupids arrow: she hath dian’s wit:’ by bringing Cupid the god of love into the conversation, a romantic image is shown to the audience.
The tone of the language used for Tybalt, shows an aggressive side, he is short tempered and loves to fight. This is effective as the audience could see that Tybalt‘s answer to his trouble’s is to fight and fighting brings tension. Tybalt’s aggression is shown in act 1 scene 1, line 67 ‘talk of peace? I hate the word…’ this shows how much hatred there is. The language used is aggressive and quite violent. Tybalt shows aggression again at the ball. When he notices that there is a Montague at the ball, he is outraged, ‘to strike him dead I hold it not a sin’ this meaning if he was to kill Romeo (a Montague), there would be nothing wrong.
Contrasting with Tybalt’s language and behaviour the Nurse’s language is calm and caring. Her language shows the audience that she is kind and caring, apart from she is talking about sex, hear dead husband and babies. This kind of caring and calm talk softens up the audience and they realise that the nurse is not just a servant to Juliet but also a friend who she can talk to.
Shakespeare creates poetic language when Mercutio is carried away by his speech of ‘Queen Mab’. Here Mercutio’s energetic imagination is used to create a great speech. After talking about Queen Mab he starts to talk about ambushing the enemy, it hasn’t got any relevance but he speaks in way that is very poetic and interesting. This grabs the attention of the audience.
When Romeo and Juliet first meet at the ball they have a small conversation which forms a sonnet. This grabs the attention of the audience as the sonnet is made by two people who have just met; this is very romantic as they have only just met. Shakespeare is hinting here that it could be the start of a relationship. Sonnets were very popular in the 16th century and they were famously known for being used when talking about love. The sonnet is made up by both Romeo and Juliet; this shows that they are thinking almost the same thing, the love of each other. This is effective as the audience can see that the two lovers are so into each other it will be hard to break them apart.
In Act 1 Scene 1 of Romeo and Juliet Shakespeare has used a number of techniques to capture the audiences attention. He has used a number of genres including Comedy, Violence and Action and Romance and Sex to grab the audience’s attention and to make it appealing to different types of people from groundlings to Royalty. The variety of characters would add more interest as each character was unique. Dialogue and poetic language make it more appealing and creates tension and suspense. Tybalt was aggressive and was a famous swordfighter; this would give tension as the audience would know with Tybalt’s temper a fight would start.
Overall Shakespeare has created interest and tension for his audience of Act 1 Scene 1 of Romeo and Juliet.