These quotes also show another method Shakespeare has used to create dramatic effectiveness. He has used a wide range of contrasting characters. The three in this scene are Romeo, Tybalt and Mercutio. Mercutio is a quick-witted wordsmith, who can run rings around any one when speech making. In contrast, Tybalt is very blunt with what he says, preferring to be short and to the point. Shakespeare uses this contrast to great effect: “Mercutio, thou consortest with Romeo.”
“Consort? What, dost thou make us minstrels?”
Through these exchanges, Shakespeare brings life in to the fighting, and humour in to boring talking.
Romeo is different still in the way he holds himself, and acts, but instead of contrasting with another character, Shakespeare has made him contrast with himself. In the beginning of the scene, he is as he has been for the whole of the play so far, “a dreamer…a lover”. This attitude is emphasised when Romeo turns down the fight, even thought it is not any thing more that a play fight, for their honour. To make the drama more effective, Shakespeare completely changes this character. Later in the scene, after Mercutio’s death, Romeo is a different person. Instead of trying to avert a fight: “good Capulet, which name I tender / As dearly as mine own,” he tries to get in to a fight: “Either thou or I, or both, must go with him.”
The audience sees this change of character, and really shows how Shakespeare intended the mood of the play to change form this point onwards. From romance to tragedy. Before this scene the play could have been mistaken for a romance, Shakespeare plays with this by creating a high contrast in the scenes. The scene prior to Act three scene 1 was the one, in which Romeo and Juliet got married. This was a scene of love, and hope for the future. The mood at first appeared o carry on, but when the fights got serious, and the deaths occur, it shocks people.
Not only is there a change of mood in the play, but there is also a chance of mood in the scene. The fight that Tybalt wants from Romeo, and the fight that he gets from Mercutio, is dangerous, but fun. The men are only fighting for their honour, not to seriously wound or kill each other. Romeo does not see this, and comes in the way of the two men. His intervention stops this light-hearted mood, and results in the death of Mercutio. At first the mood stays light, and joking, with Mercutio’s quick wit and laughter, but soon Romeo realises that his friend is about to die. After Mercutio’s death, Romeo reflects on why his friend had blamed him for his death: “ why the dev’l came you between us? / I was hurt under your arm.” This was a time of contemplation before Romeo became angry, and sought vengeance against his foe, in the fourth part of the scene. Romeo’ hatred and anger is shown through the fight between him and Tybalt, “Staying for thine to keep him company:” In the last part of the scene came remorse and anger, when Lady Capulet, and the Prince find they have lost a kinsmen. These contrasts make definite parts to the scene. This makes the scene flow quickly, and gives it a felling of importance, to the story of the play. The breaks also make the long scene easier to digest.
The scene as I have mentioned is split up in to five parts. The scene is very self-contained, and seems to be well rounded. This is because it both starts and finishes with an emphasis on the dramatic irony that I mentioned earlier. In the beginning, Mercutio and Benvolio Have no idea about the marriage, and only know of the challenge set by Tybalt earlier. At the end, in the fifth part of the scene, Romeo does not know of the Princes ruling. The last part of the scene is one of contrasting emotion. Here there is grief. Before this point there has been death, but no one has mourned the dead. There has been anger, “And fire-eyed fury be my conduct now!”; regret, “My very friend, hath got his mortal hurt / In my behalf;”; and hatred, “Thou wretched boy,” but no mourning. This makes the emotion and feeling much stronger, giving the Prince real feeling.
Romeo is the character that throughout the play shows the most thought and feeling, thinking himself “fortunes fool”. Unlike the prince he is not usually harshly spoken. Romeo is “a lover…a dreamer” and this is reflected in the way that he often speaks of the stars. At this time in history, when the play is set, religion and superstition played very heavily on everyone’s lives. It is clear form the beginning that fate will play a part in the running of the play, when it says “A pair of star crossed lovers” in the opening prologue. This is mentioned again when Romeo has doubts about going to the Capulet party:
“Some consequence yet hanging in the stars
Shall bitterly begin this fearful date”
This constant reference to fate and religion, with Romeo’s confidant being a priest, makes the events seem that they were meant to happen, and that nothing anyone could have done, would have made any difference. This level of thought makes the scene more dramatic, because it plays on Romeo’s mind, and makes the audience look at the events in a different light.
Probably the most important factor in making the scene dramatically effective sis the traditional methods of spectacle and action. The time at which Shakespeare was writing his plays, the audience he was writing for came to see tragedies like Romeo and Juliet for fighting and the deaths. This meant that the audience were expecting a good fight scene. Shakespeare played on this expectation, turning it in to anticipation, with the way he builds up the suspense. He does this in many ways. Using the dramatic irony, in the case of Romeo not knowing about the challenge set by Tybalt. Here the audience know that there is going to be a fight, but they do not know how in can come about now that Romeo and Juliet have got married. This creates tension and anticipation for the fight. When the audience got get their fight, they get something that is unexpected, in Mercutio’s death. This is a good tactic of Shakespeare’s, to make the scene more dramatic. The audience are pleased when they get their long expected fight, but they are shocked when Mercutio dies. This shock makes the scene more effective.
I have been analysing Shakespeare’s text from the point of view of the words he has written, but I also have to take in to account how he has written the play, and when he was writing the play. Shakespeare was writing for The Globe theatre, which is open air. To make the play dramatically effective, he must make all of the actors heard and understood. To do this, he wrote most of the play in verse, only using prose in certain circumstances. He wrote in the form of iambic pentameter, which is often used in classic verse. This sometimes rhymes:
“This day’s black fate on moe days doth depend,
This but begins the woe others must end.”
But most of the time it just has a rhythm, which makes it carry easier so people can hear it in the open-air theatres.
Although he considers the presentation of his plays, Shakespeare does not try and direct the play through his script. He used very few stage directions, only saying things that cannot be told through what his characters are saying. This creates greater dramatic effectiveness because it means the actors are giving a better idea to the audience of what is happening. They are reinforcing every thing they do with dialogue. An example of this is when Tybalt dies. Shakespeare simply writes “Tybalt falls” But in the next monologue Benvolio states “and Tybalt slain.”
These lack of stage directions mean that the script can be interpreted in many different ways. The Baz Luhrmann modern version of the play interprets the script in a very different way, to the way I have analysed, and taken the script to mean. He has made the Tybalt and Mercutio fight very different. A lot more serious than the fight I had interpreted. He has taken R0meo’s “ calm, dishonourable, vile submission!” as a sign of deep hatred, and has made Mercutio’s character a lot less cool, and funny. I think that this des not improve the dramatic effectiveness because it changes the whole mood of the play, and makes the death of Mercutio seem less effective. It makes Romeo’s change of character less contrasted. This mood makes the joking “Good King of Cats” seem out of place in Mercutio’s character.
Shakespeare has used many ways to make his play dramatically effective. He has played on the audience, using dramatic irony, Used the characters, and moods to create contrasts, that keep the audiences attention, and kept the audience on the edge of their seats, giving people the unexpected, like the death of Mercutio. Overall I think this is a good intense scene that draws the whole plot together, and gives and dramatic conundrum, which grips people, and makes them long for the answers in the rest of the play. “This is the truth, or let Benvolio die.”