Another contrast of characters in “Romeo and Juliet” is between the two friends of Romeo, Mercutio and Benvolio. Benvolio is very loyal to Romeo but he is easily agitated. Mercutio, although very loyal is a joker and enjoys agitating Benvolio very much, but he likes to agitate anyone. For example Benvolio is agitated by Mercutio, when Mercutio calls Benvolio aggressive and that he always starts fights for no reason. “Why thou wilt quarrel with a man that hath a hair more or a less in his beard.” Benvolio is the very opposite of this though, he is a quiet and loyal friend who even when quarreled with, will try to calm the situation down much like his friend Romeo. His quiet nature attracts the sympathy of the audiences capturing their interest in this character. At the start of the play Benvolio is caught in the middle of an attack on his friends but he still tries to calm down the situation “I do but keep the peace. Put up thy sword, or manage it to part these men with me.” Even though he is being attacked he pulls away and tries to keep the peace. Mercutio and Benvolio are very good friends but Mercutio agitates people and in contrast Benvolio is easily agitated.
Another contrast in the play is between is between Juliet and her nurse. The nurse is almost obsessed with sex and constantly refers to it whereas Juliet is traditional and laughs away at her nurses remarks, but generally tries to avoid her remarks. This personality is shown In the nurses quotes, after her meeting with Romeo she says “Nay I do bear! But as I said when it did taste the wormwood on the nipple.” After the nurse says this phrase, Juliet’s mother says “enough of this. I pray thee, hold thy peace.” Juliet’s mother clearly annoyed with the way the nurse speaks as both Juliet and her mother wants Juliet to fall in love, marry and have children with her husband. Juliet shows this love and lust for a husband when she is very agitated and inquisitive when the nurse arrives home from her meeting with Romeo and the way she will throw away a long running family feud for her feelings of love towards Romeo. “Deny thy father and refuse thy name,” she says to Romeo to forget about the feud for her as she already has for him.
Shakespeare constantly changes scenes from dramatic fight scenes to romantic love scenes to keep the audience involved and interested. A fast chain of events sets out the play in a few days, from a huge family feud at the beginning to a love story and finally peace at the end in only a few days. At the start of the play a scene is set with a few servants starting a huge street fight, then instantly Shakespeare jumps to a scene where Romeo is pouring out his hearts desire to the audience. From hate to lust in the first few scenes of Shakespeare’s play grabs the attention of his audience. The play has so much involved and so much happening in the story, and this is all shown over four or five days, therefore this is all shown in quick succession keeping the audience excited and ‘on the edge of their seats.’
At the start of the play, Shakespeare shows the conflict of war between the two families and at the end of the play it shows both families distraught but together and forgiving for the war and death that they have caused. Shakespeare uses every scene to its full potential by creating every scene so as there is a different emotion being portrayed to the audience. This creates a mixture and difference between the scenes, for example there is love, hate, anger, tension, lust, vengeance and comedy also. Using this method of constantly changing scenes and contrasting his characters, Shakespeare has skillfully kept his audience entertained by providing them with excitement, contrast and tension.
An example of the fast chain of events Shakespeare uses and contrasts of one scene to the next, act 1 scene 1 is a ferocious fight scene between the servants of the two families. This is a brilliant start to the play as it instantly captures the audiences attention because many men are used in this fight scene and a scene of this scale would be very exciting for a audience. Then the follow scene is between Romeo and Benvolio, Romeo pours out his heart to the audience about his sorrows for his love who he cannot have. From a huge fight scene to a sad scene of love sorrows Shakespeare introduces the play to his audience with a fight scene before causing them to be intrigued by Romeos heart broken personality.
To conclude, I feel that Shakespeare brilliantly uses contrasting characters and a quick chain of events to try and keep his audience enthralled and interested in his play. The story happens over a few days but so much happens in these few days that they are packed with different events, leading the play to go from one event to another in a fast chain. The characters are completely different each bringing a new personality to the play, such as comedy, love, hate and loyalty. Shakespeare puts these characters as friends, enemies and lovers to show the contrasts between one and another through their relationships also. Shakespeare uses every emotion and every character to its full potential to make a huge contrast in characters and scenes which involves the audience as they can analysis these different roles. This builds up tension in the exciting scenes full of action and emotion keeping the audience enthralled by the play and interest because of Shakespeare’s techniques.
