We can see immediately the hostility and animosity between the two rival families, the Montagues and the Capulets. There are many exclamative sentences, ‘Strike!’, which shows how strongly they despise each other. Soon a fight erupts. Capulet runs onto the stage and demands a sword so that he too may fight but Lady Capulet, his wife, holds him back. Montague then also enters to fight, ‘Thou villain Capulet!’, but his wife firmly holds him back too. The chaos and tension keep building up until Benvolio enters, who is a friend of both families. Benvolio, who is also Romeo’s cousin, stops the fight by drawing his sword. Tybalt, Juliet's cousin, then also enters. Seeing Benvolio, he too draws his sword and enters the fight.
The name ’Benvolio’ comes from the Greek word for ’peace-maker’. Immediately we can see how he makes the peace as the pace of the scene slows down and returns to ten syllables a line; blank verse. Benvolio is obviously more benevolent than Tybalt, they are complete opposites. Tybalt’s name means ‘Prince Of Cats’ which gives the impression that he is very sly. When Tybalt enters, the atmosphere becomes very dark and sinister, and he continually repeats the words ‘hate’ and ‘death’, this repetition maintains a very slow pace.
Finally, the peace is totally resolved with the entrance of Prince Escales. His name is derived from the Greek word for ‘scales’. This portrays that he is balanced, in the play this is evident as the sentences he speaks are balanced, this is shown in the sentence structure, which uses Iambic Pentameter. He represents justice and his following speech shows that he is fair. He is an important person, which is shown in his language ‘you beasts/that quench the fire of your pernicious rage/with purple fountains issuing from your veins’. His language is quite strong and poetic showing he is highly educated. He is a powerful peacekeeper in the play. Prince Escales speech reveals the ‘ancient grudge’ between the Montagues and the Capulets in more depth and conveys the violence of the feud, ‘cankered hate’, ‘pain of death’, ‘torture’. The speech, like the prologue gives hints to the conclusion of the play. Prince Escales warns Capulet and Montague that the next time another brawl occurs, he will be forced to use harsher measures. He angrily pronounces, "If ever you disturb our streets again, your lives shall pay the forfeit of the peace." He then orders both families to return home, and personally accompanies the Capulets.
The Montagues and Benvolio remain on stage. They ask Benvolio why Romeo was not with him, and he tells them Romeo has been in a strange mood lately, ‘………..’. When Romeo appears, the Montagues ask Benvolio to find out what is wrong. Romeo sadly tells Benvolio that he is in love with someone named Rosaline. He is depressed as Rosaline wishes to remain a virgin for the rest of her life. Benvolio tells him to ‘Examine other beauties’ but Romeo simply answers ‘Thou canst not teach me to forget’. Romeo seems to be lovesick. He is also very confused about love, he personifies it, ‘brawling love, loving hate’, love is tyrannous and is a fire that sparks something very negative; ‘a madness most discreet’. This presents love as painful, destructive, and dangerous. The many oxymorons used also help to express Romeo’s confusion. ‘Cold fire’, ‘feather of lead’, ‘heavy lightness’ and ‘sick health’ all show how love and hate clash and later they show how Romeo and Juliet are opposites; one a Montague and one a Capulet. The tone is still very solemn, sad and sombre as in the prologue, which is odd as Romeo is talking of love. Violence and hatred still seem to surround love displaying hate’s significance as a main theme in the play.
In this first scene there is a strange biblical reference which comes from Benvolio when he attempts to stop the fight. He says ‘Put up your swords. You know not what you do’ in line 56. Jesus used this same phrase when he stopped his disciples from fighting the Roman guards as they were trying to arrest him. This line seems to ominously link to Juliet's fate, her death followed by a resurrection, which still ultimately ends in death.
There are two perceptions of love in the play. One of these is centred on sexual desire; it shows how these relationships are inconsistent as they are largely based on the looks and not on personality. This is shown in the lines, ‘Young men’s love then lies/Not truly in their heart, but in their eyes’, these lines are talking about the Romeo’s infatuation with Rosaline, which obviously did not last. The first scene is full of sexual puns. This continues throughout the play, becoming quite rude as Samson and Gregory, from the Capulets, talk of raping the Montague’s maids, ‘……..’. The sexual punning begins in scene two, lines 25-35 and continues throughout the play. The love between Romeo and Juliet seems innocent but is actually largely set in passionate sexuality.
In Act One, Scene Four Romeo, Mercutio, and Benvolio are on their way to a masked ball in Capulet’s mansion. Benvolio has an invitation and is going to slip Romeo and Mercutio in. Romeo is still miserable; even though he knows Rosaline will be at the party and he wil have a chance to see her. Mercutio tries to cheer up Romeo with an imaginary story about Queen Mab, an elf who makes trouble by creeping into people’s dreams at night, ‘the angry Mab with blisters plagues’ ‘gallops night by night/through lovers brains and then they dream of love’. This scene illustrates Mercutio's character as being quite loud, quirky, and comical, as being mercurial, he tells Romeo that ‘if love be rough with you, be rough with love’. Romeo tells him to be quiet and reveals how he feels something bad is going to happen at the party; ‘I fear, for my mind misgives/Some consequence yet hanging in the stars/shall bitterly begin this fearful date’, ‘By some vile forfeit of untimely death/ that hath the steerage of my course’. This builds up tension for the following scene.
Act One, Scene Five is set in Capulet’s mansion at the masked ball. This party would be an opportunity for Juliet to meet Paris, a man who Capulet, her father, wanted her to marry. Earlier that evening, Lady Capulet had spoken with Juliet to inform her that Paris was interested in her and would like to marry her. Juliet was told how she was causing embarrassment to herself and her mother, as she would be fourteen in less than two weeks. Juliet agreed to be open-minded about her parents' choice for her as Capulet had already been very considerate delaying her marriage for so long. Back in the Elizabethan times, most marriages were arranged and women were married for social and economical advances to somebody chosen by their father. The age of consent was a lot lower than it is today as women were married at a very young age, in their early teens, and they often had no choice in the matter. Men often married much later than women, when they had built sufficient fortunes to earn them a beautiful and noble wife. Even though Paris was described as handsome and had been compared to ‘a fine book that only lacks a cover’, she still had bad feelings and was apprehensive about the party, similar to Romeo. This apprehension creates yet more tension.
Romeo and Mercutio, both wearing masks, were searching through the crowd at the party for Rosaline. Romeo however soon forgot about Rosaline when his eyes fell upon Juliet. Using the sonnet format he said ‘O, she cloth teach the torches to burn bright! /Did my heart love till now?’. This shows how the love between him and Rosaline was inconsistent, as he so easily loved somebody else.
This scene also fuses the contrasting themes of love and hate, similar to Act One, Scene One as the party should have been a joyful occasion full of love but it was also laced with hate; from the moment Tybalt noticed Romeo. Tybalt overhears him talking and recognises him as Romeo Montague by his voice. He was that a Montague had invaded their party and immediately reports it to his uncle. When Tybalt threatens to fight Romeo, Capulet, as head of the house, refuses to allow it. He appears to be angrier that Tybalt would ruin the party than he is at Romeo's intrusion. Capulet has a good reputation in Verona and he was doing his best to obey the Prince's demand to keep the peace. Besides, Capulet had heard that Romeo was ‘a virtuous and well governed youth’.
Romeo approached Juliet, he touches her hand offering "my lips, two blushing pilgrims," to which Juliet replied, "Ay, pilgrim, lips that thou must use in prayer." They speak in sonnet form to one another, and Romeo eventually gets to kiss her just before Juliet's Nurse swiftly called her away. The language and the different rhythm of the sonnet made this meeting stand out as being special.
Romeo and Juliet were attracted to each other as soon as they met as straight away he describes her as ‘a rich jewel in an Ethiope's ear’ in Act One, Scene Five, Line 43. The beautiful language used by Romeo in this scene is different from the negative oxymorons he used in scene one. This makes the audience aware that his love for Juliet is different from his love for Rosaline.
Juliet is described as a ‘snowy dove’ amongst the ‘crows’, Rosaline being one of the rows, this shows Juliet’s purity and virginity but also how she stands out from everyone else.
Their love is largely centred on physical appearance as they have only just met and do not know of each other’s character and qualities. However, unlike love focused totally on beauty, like lips and eyes, they also focus on other parts of the body such as ‘hands’.
The strong feelings between Romeo and Juliet are evident as their lines are split, traditionally men were more powerful and superior, and to split their lines shows their equality. They also equally have the same number of lines. Earlier in the scene, Capulet and Tybalt split their lines, but there it is a sign of Capulet’s supremacy as he repeatedly interrupts Tybalt.
The sonnet that Romeo and Juliet share, and split their lines in uses lots of imagery of saints and pilgrims. This relates to the fact that Romeo means ‘Pilgrim’ in Italian. It expresses how sacred they see each other and how they worship each other as Romeo describes Juliet as a ‘holy shrine’. Just by being a sonnet, we can see how it represents love.
There are two sonnets in this scene; one in which Romeo first expresses his feelings for Juliet before they have actually met, the second sonnet is the one which they share. In between these sonnets is the short argument between Tybalt and Capulet. This shows hate surrounded by two sonnets; hate surrounded by love, which expresses the importance of love in the play and how they are unavoidably linked. The second sonnet is interrupted and love is cut short representing Romeo and Juliet’s fate; there love was cut short by their untimely deaths.
However, Romeo and Juliet’s meeting and falling in love is not all perfect as it is rooted in irony. Both Juliet and Romeo were reluctant to attend the ball but went along anyway; Romeo to see Rosaline and Juliet to see Paris. Their meeting sets the story moving and is the initial incident of the tragedy.
Shakespeare uses Juliet’s Nurse to bring Romeo and Juliet out of their fantasy world and back to reality.
Romeo is the first to find out that he and his love are part of rival families. Juliet is forced to go and see her mother; it is then that he finds out that she is a Capulet as the Nurse tells him that ‘Her mother is the lady of the house’. He was stunned and startled to find out that the girl he loves was the daughter of his father's enemy, ‘Is she a Capulet? /My life is my foes debt’.
Shakespeare uses dramatic irony when Juliet finds out who her love is as she asks her Nurse about three separate men at the party, saving Romeo for last so she did not cause suspicion. Juliet, like Romeo, is surprised when she learns of her love’s identity. The Nurse informs her that he is Romeo, the only son of the Montague family. Juliet is heart-broken that she loves a ‘loathed enemy’.
They are left in despair as they both realise the danger of their situation being from two enemy households, ‘my only love sprung from my only hate’. Juliet says ‘my grave is like to be my wedding bed’ and the final rhyming couplet of the second sonnet ends with ‘bitterest gall’, both of these ominously link to their fate.
Throughout the play, Shakespeare shows that love and hate are inextricably linked; where there is one, there is always the other. Consequently, love is presented in a negative way showing it as vicious and dangerous, even true love can result in something destructive as it is constantly mixed amid hatred.
