Maria Naylor
GCSE course work 4
How does Shakespeare create tension and
Keep the audience fully engaged
in act 3 scene 5.
In the beginning of act 3 scene 5 Romeo and Juliet had just spent their first night together after their marriage. When Romeo and Juliet woke in the morning Romeo was getting ready to go, when Juliet asked him to stay and that it was not the morning ‘lark’ he heard, but it was the ‘nightingale’. Romeo knew he had to go as he was banished for killing Tybolt and would be killed if found in Juliet’s bedroom. This causes huge tension as the audience know that he will be killed if he doesn’t leave but Juliet still tries to persuades him to stay ‘therefore stay yet, thou need’st not be gone’.
As soon as Romeo left, lady Capulet entered Juliet’s room. The tension between Juliet and her parents start almost straight away, as her mother tells Juliet she will be marring Paris in a few days. Juliet was horrified by this news and tells her mother she wont marry Paris because he hasn’t courted her and she doesn’t want to marry a stranger ‘I wonder at this haste, that I must wed ere he that should be husband comes to woo’. Juliet also tells her that she would rather marry Romeo than Paris (who lady Capulet thinks she hates) ‘it shall be Romeo, whom you know I hate, rather than Paris’. Lady Capulet tells Juliet that if she doesn’t want to marry Paris then she can tell her father her self. This part of the scene emphasizes on marring for love and marring for money and convenience. Juliet married Romeo for love and this is the part of the scene that is filled with gentleness and care while Juliet’s parents want Juliet to marry Paris for the money and power he and his family have. This is convenient for them as they would have more power and therefore not have to worry about anything.
