“Which you all
Will now deny a dance?” he asks this question to the whole of the great hall, asking who will not dance, he says this in a friendly way, joking with his guests. His speech to the guests continues with much the same tone. The speech is light and fun, adding to our imagining of an eclectic party.
The one thing that stands out about his speech is the difference in his character from the rest of the play. He goes from being authoritarian and menacing, to a very jovial character, it could well be the atmosphere Shakespeare has created that changes his character. Even in this very scene we see the difference in his character when he speaks to Tybalt about Romeo.
The next part shows Romeo talking to a serving man, enquiring as to the name of a certain lady. We do not find out this lady’s name, building suspense because we already believe we know whom it is. Romeo then starts to talk to himself. He states that; “she thus teach the torches to burn bright”. This is a metaphor exclaiming how beautiful she is. He states
“It seems she hangs upon the cheek of the night
As a rich jewel in an Ethiop’s ear” Which is a metaphor which describes her as something ‘expensive’ or beautiful against something less than ordinary, it describes Juliet as someone who stands out from the norm.
He continues to exclaim her beauty to himself, and the audience. “She shows a snowy dove trooping with crows” this is again another metaphor about her beauty, but is also ironic because earlier Benvolio said of Romeo’s break up with Rosaline; “I will make you think thy swan a crow”. This also shows the audience that he has now moved on from Rosaline and is looking at someone else. It demonstrates that Romeo took his cousin’s words to heart and understood them, giving another example of their strong family bonds.
In the next part Shakespeare uses irony to an even greater extent. Tybalt overhears Romeo talking to himself about Juliet, and realises who he is. Don’t forget of course that this is a masked party and it is difficult for guests to guess whom each other are. Tybalt gets very annoyed that Romeo is at his family’s party and says to the pageboy to get his ‘rapier’, we assume because he wishes to strike down Romeo. Luckily, or not, whichever way you see it; Capulet catches him mid-way with his sword. Capulet tells Tybalt not to fight “a bears him like a portly gentleman” because Romeo is not too bad a Montague in the eyes of Verona and the prince
“And to say truth, Verona brags of him
To be a virtuous and well-governed youth.” Tybalt does not like this at all and says, “I’ll not endure him”. Capulet gets a little angry at Tybalt’s talking back and he begins to mock Tybalt’s stubborn love of fighting Montagues; we know he loves fighting because of his speech in Act 1, scene 1, “what, drawn and talk of peace? I hate the word”. Capulet calls him a ‘saucy boy’ on line 38 and also says, “you are a princox” which means he is a cocky youngster. Eventually Tybalt backs down, but swears his revenge:
“I will withdraw, but this intrusion shall
Now seeming sweet, convert to bitt’rest gall”
The consequences of this part of the scene, and the actual speech quoted above, are huge. Later on in the play it is this stubborn love of fighting, and his thirst for revenge, that lead to the death of Mercutio. It is ultimately one of the main sparks that set off the play to end up in such a tragic way.
This whole argument between Tybalt and Capulet amplifies not only Tybalt’s hate of the Montagues, but also amplifies the underlying hatred between Capulets and Montagues which is one of the underlying aspects of the play.
We also realise one other thing about this part of the scene, how Shakespeare is portraying hatred as unnecessary, and ultimately damaging to all those parties involved. We see this of course because of the tragic climax to the play.
The next part in the scene we meet up with Romeo trying to chat up Juliet. This dialogue is written in sonnet form, which in Shakespeare’s time was extremely popular when courting a lady. This particular sonnet seems very familiar to the prologue at the very start of the story, I believe that maybe Shakespeare structured that sonnet in the similar way to the Prologue to indicate the role of fate in this tragic story.
Shakespeare has thrown a lot of sexual references into this scene, making the atmosphere tenser, adding sexual tension, seemingly slowing down the scene. Shakespeare has also thrown in a lot of religious metaphors into the scene; Romeo convinces Juliet to kiss him by calling her a saint, “o then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do”. In Elizabethan times calling someone a saint was very much a blasphemous thing to do. This scene amplifies the theme of true love. I believe Shakespeare is creating a love that can only be described in religious terms, in the next scene, Juliet even describes Romeo as, “god of her idolatry”.
There is a lot about kissing in this scene “this from my lips, by thine, my sin is purged”. They kiss twice, which certainly would have been very risky in Shakespeare’s time; it would have been considered un-lady like especially having just met Romeo. The two lovers have now completed one part of their destiny, and now all the audience has to do is wait and watch how their love eventually causes their death.
Juliet’s nurse soon interrupts them. Romeo asks who Juliet’s mother is, the nurse tells him she is the daughter of Capulet, she also says that whoever marries her will be rich. He replies in disdain, “o dear account! My life is in my foe’s debt”, he cannot believe he has fallen in love with a Capulet, thus adding more tension because people know what will happen.
The party draws to a close with a few cheerful goodbye words from Capulet. All leave except Juliet and her nurse. Juliet says to herself:
“If he be married,
My grave is like to be my wedding bed”
This is another ironic glimpse into the future, and the end of the play, because in the end Juliet’s grave is her wedding bed.
After being told whom Romeo is she responds, “my only love sprung from my only hate!” this is again amplifying the intense hatred between the two families. It is also another part of the scene where she is commenting on her ‘blind love’ of Romeo. The nurse seems to be taken aback somewhat at Juliet’s comment, she asks her what she means by this. Juliet responds, not quite telling the nurse exactly what she meant, but enough to leave the nurse guessing. The reason of having the nurse knowing, but not quite knowing adds suspense, and another possible way that Romeo and Juliet’s love will be squashed.
The fact that Romeo and Juliet have met and fallen in love completely changes the story, hurling it a completely different direction to what was first supposed by the characters. Their meeting means the story happens the way it does, if they had not met Juliet would have married Paris and Romeo would have got back together with Rosaline.
I feel that this scene is very dramatically effective because not only does it surprise us with a change of pace and drama, the whole story, including the eventual climax, have changed for the characters and the new ideas are now beginning to be formed. It also very effective because the audience already know how the story will end and how it will start (with Romeo and Juliet falling in love) but they do not know what is in the middle, and as such Shakespeare has put several clues and several possibilities, especially as concerns Tybalt’s want for revenge.
The argument between Tybalt and Capulet, and the final comments from Juliet give us an expanded view of the level of hatred each family feels for the other.
. And yet, out of this hatred comes a love that will eventually stop the fighting between the families.
