How does Shakespeare make act 3 scene 1 of Romeo and Juliet dramatically effective for the audience and what is the importance for the rest of the play?

Authors Avatar

Romeo and Juliet

How does Shakespeare make act 3 scene 1 of Romeo and Juliet dramatically effective for the audience and what is the importance for the rest of the play?

        Romeo and Juliet was set in the medieval period in Verona, Italy. Shakespeare wrote the play in 1595 and got the idea for the play from a poem by Arthur Brookes. In Arthur’s version of the play it was set over 3 months yet in Shakespeare’s version it was set over 3 days to make the play more dramatically effective. Shakespeare’s version starts on a Sunday and ends on a Wednesday. This increases the dramatic tension of the play towards the end as it becomes more personal in Romeo and Juliet’s lives.

        The themes used in Shakespeare’s play are opposing through different scenes, these themes are love and hate. This makes the play dramatically effective as the audience is jumped from one theme to another. For example act 2 scenes 6 is a love scene then act 3 scene 1 is a fighting scene after having an interval.

This makes the play interesting as the audience is kept interested. Another opposition used in the play is youth and old age as Romeo represents and Lord Capulet represents old ages for example. This is as lady Capulet was only 14 when she bared Romeo and Lord Capulet was of a much older age.

        The play starts with a prologue this tells the audience what is going to happen during the play bringing dramatic tension to the play as the audience will be waiting to see the fights and tragedies. The prologue makes the audience interested in the play as it tells them the themes of the play and they will want to see the play in action.

Join now!

        Romeo and Juliet is different to any other play by Shakespeare as does not include a strong character for example ‘Macbeth.’ Also the play differs as it uses two teenagers for the main characters which Shakespeare does not do in any of his other plays. Another difference would be that there was no fatal flaw used Romeo and Juliet died because they felt guilty of love and their families.

        Act 3 scenes 1 and act 1 scene 1 are parallel to each other as they are both fighting scenes and are both at vital points in the play.

   Act ...

This is a preview of the whole essay