How does Shakespeare create tension in this scene

How does Shakespeare create tension in this scene?

In this scene Shakespeare built up lots of tension. He did this by starting the scene with Benvolio and Mercutio joking about. Then they get out of hand and start arguing. This argument starts with Benvolio wanting to go home because the day is hot and the Capulets are about “I pray thee good Mercutio, let’s retire”.

At the beginning of this scene lots of tension is built up By Benvolio saying things like “the mad blood is stirring” and “the day is hot” this creates tension by associating the heat with the madness and chaos. Also Benvolio says “if we meet we shall not scape a brawl” but they decide to stay. This leaves the audience wondering if they meet up with the Capulets and who will get hurt.

Shakespeare chooses to use Benvolio and Mercutio to start the scene to add humour. The play will soon change from comedy to tragedy. Shakespeare keeps it a surprise that the play will change to a tragedy because Mercutio lines are made to have a very relaxed approach to the situation although his mood is so cavelier the audience can begin to see that trouble is ahead “you are litee to lay your sword....els….” He also uses puns and he cleverly twists words to produce humour, such as “thou wilt quarrel with a man for cracking nuts, having no other reason but because thou hast hazel eyes”. This contrasts with Benvolios character because he is a very calm and passive person in the play. Unlike Mercutio witch is very argumentative and is always after a fight.

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Tybalt arrives looking for Romeo because he wants to kill him for gate crashing the party. But Romeo is not there so Tybalt speaks to Mercutio. Instantly they start insulting each other. When this happens the audience can feel the tension building, and Mercutio is making the situation much worse because he is saying things like “…make it a word and a blow”. This creates lots of tension because the audience can see that there is going to soon be a fight. The situation soon gets out of hand; they draw for each other and start to fight. Romeo then shows up and tries to break up the fight. Then Tybalt tries to fight with Romeo, but Romeo is refusing to fight “villain am I not none; therefore farewell, I see thou knowest me not”. In this scene dramatic irony plays a big part on the audience because they know why Romeo is not fighting; because he is married to Tybalt cozen Juliet. This helps to build up lots of tension because Mercutio doesn’t no why Romeo is not fighting. And Tybalt is getting really angry because he has come to fight with Romeo, but Romeo is refusing to fight.

The fencing in this scene would have a big impact on the Elizabethan audience because they were fencing in an Italian style witch is very different from the English style because the Italian style is using very thin foil (fencing swords) and fancy foot work but the English style is with big heavy swords. Also Tybalt using Italian phrases like “alla stoccata” this means rapier thrust. Also most of Shakespeare’s audience were poor and not very well educated so they would not have known what theses words meant, but they would have recognised the words and seen this as a sign that there was going to be a fight. This adds tension because the audience know that there is going to be a fight but there thinking what is going to happen, who is going to be killed and who is going to be left living.

Shakespeare uses lots of twists and turns in this play to build tension. At some points the play appears a comedy because of characters like Mercutio with his very cynical views of the world told in the form of jokes “true, I talk of dreams, which are the children of the brain, begot of nothing but vain fantasy, which is ad thin of substance as the air”. But other time the play is a romantic, like the balcony scene “O Romeo, Romeo wherefore art thou Romeo? Deny thy father and refused thy name; or if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love, and ill no longer be a Capulet”. But inevitably the play ends a tragedy. Seeing the biter quarrels of the Montague’s and the Capulets, being ended only by the death of there children Romeo and Juliet

“Here’s much to do with hate,

But more to do with love

Why then, O brawling love, O loving hate

O anything of nothing first create”.