How does Shakespeare create interest and tension for his audience in Act 1 of 'Romeo and Juliet'?

Authors Avatar

Romeo and Juliet

How does Shakespeare create interest and tension for his audience in Act 1 of ‘Romeo and Juliet’?

   William Shakespeare was a famous and successful play writer who lived in the Elizabethan times. Some of his most memorable and famous plays were Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, Twelth Night and Hamlet. He was successful because he was able to entertain a whole range of people from groundlings to royalty. He used a technique that would grab the attention of anyone, his dialogue. He would use different genres like comedy, romance, action and violence, so it would appeal to all ages and genders. Often he would add a rude joke to lighten things up.

In the Elizabethan era it was not known for theatres such as the Globe and Rose to use scenery, props and costumes. In most plays the audience would not know where the scene was set, the time or the weather, but Shakespeare would describe all of these things in the dialogue. The audience could visualise the surroundings of the actors better with this technique.

Humour was one of the main genres which contributed in grabbing the audience’s attention. Shakespeare uses humour before the fighting because he wants to show the audience how the two enemies provoke each other before the violence starts. This is effective because Sampson and Gregory have an exchange of harsh and rude jokes, the audience now knows that there is going to be fighting but yet are amused.

At the start of Act 1 Scene 1 Sampson and Gregory start the scene off with humour. Sampson and Gregory start an argument over a simple misunderstanding.  Sampson says ‘Gregory, on my word, we’ll not carry coals’. Gregory takes what Sampson says the wrong way and replies with ‘No for then we should be colliers’ this is the misunderstanding between the friends which starts of controversy.

The character who brings laughter and entertainment is the nurse, her characteristics are big and bold.The Nurse is a very important character in the play of Romeo and Juliet as she is the surrogate mother to Juliet. She acts as the messenger for Romeo and Juliet. She provides entertainment and comedy by making jokes and bawdy comments. The Nurse's job is to care for Juliet and to act like a surrogate mother for Juliet. She breast fed Juliet when she was young. She is a servant for the Capulet family, who are a very rich and powerful family in the city of fair Verona. She has been working there for a long time and has a strong relationship with Juliet. Juliet is also very confident and confides in the nurse and tells her secrets. Occasionally, the Nurse acted as a messenger for Romeo and Juliet as it is difficult for the two lovers to meet due to their family’s being enemies.

From the very first time the Nurse appears, she is bawdy and very loud. Her bawdiness is shown in "Now my maidenhead at twelve years old." This shows her calling Juliet a virgin, which is quite rude, especially when she is in a big and important household. The Nurse tells stories and is reminisces about her past. E.g. she often talks about her daughter Susan, who became deceased when she was only months old and her dead husband.

She often does not think before speaking and is quite chattery. She frequently talks about sex to Juliet and says that marriage is not about love, but it is about sex.

She talks about sex in front of Lady Capulet, which is not very appropriate as she is a high status women and she is married, so when the Nurse talks about marriage being just about sex, Lady Capulet may feel uncomfortable and is worried about what Juliet might think. These types of characteristics irritate characters such as Lady Capulet but keep the audience laughing and entertained.

The Nurse is totally devoted to Juliet and is also loyal to her, her intentions are always good. Even when talking about uncomfortable issues such as sex to Juliet, she is only trying to warn Juliet about life from her experience. E.g. when she was married, her marriage may have mainly been based on sex, which maybe the reason the Nurse tries to warn Juliet, but she doesn't understand times and people have changed. This shows the Nurse's ignorance, as she is not well educated and not very intelligent. This could appeal to the groundlings as they mostly were uneducated poor people.

All of this shows the Nurse's importance in the play. Without her, the play would be less entertaining as she adds humour to the play.

Abraham and Sampson also have and exchange of insults at the start ‘do you bite your thumb at us, sir’ ‘I d bite my thumb, sir’.  This is quite a harsh insult to use in Elizabethan times. This is what Shakespeare would do before violence and action; he would start the violence using humour. This technique is also used later in act 3 between mercutio and tybalt which results in the death of both of them.

Join now!

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 ...

This is a preview of the whole essay