When Romeo has left Juliet says to the Nurse, “Go ask his name. - If he be married, my grave is like to be my wedding bed.” This is dramatic irony. Shakespeare uses a prologue at the beginning of Romeo and Juliet that tells the audience that Romeo and Juliet will be lovers and that they will take their lives. “A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life” As Juliet says “My grave is like to be my wedding bed,” we, as the audience, know that that will, in effect, be the truth. Dramatic irony draws an audience in and forces them to feel for the characters because they know what the consequences will be and they’ll be sat in their seat wanting to shout out. At the beginning of the balcony scene Romeo is talking to himself about Juliet. “Two of the fairest stars in all heaven, having some business, do entreat her eyes to twinkle in their spheres till they return.” This is just smooth talking about how beautiful he thinks her eyes are. In the balcony scene Juliet swears that she truly does love Romeo, “In truth fair Montague, I am too fond, and therefore thou mayst think my ‘haviour light, but trust me gentlemen, I’ll prove more true.” Many people would still think that Juliet was being impulsive and saying things she didn’t mean but Juliet means what she’s saying. An Elizabethan audience would probably think worse of Juliet than a modern day audience for her behaviour as it would not have been acceptable in any way in Elizabethan times whereas it is more normal these days. As they are getting closer to leaving each other they speak in an iambic pentameter, Romeo, “So thrive my soul,” Juliet, “A thousand times goodnight!” As Juliet finishes his sentence this shows how close they are and how in tune they are with each other. A modern audience might have misunderstood the hastiness of their marriage. They might think that they are so in love and that is why they are getting married whereas it is more about the fact that they can’t have sex until they are married.
After Juliet finds it was Romeo who killed Tybalt she starts talking in oxymorons. She says “O serpent heart, hid with a flowering face! Did ever dragon keep so fair a cave? Beautiful tyrant! Fiend angelical!” Again the oxymorons are used to show confusion. Juliet does not know whether she should love or hate Romeo after he has killed her cousin.
Romeo and Tybalt are two characters which clash in Romeo and Juliet. Tybalt is one of the characters who represents hate. Tybalt sees Romeo during Act 1 Scene 5, the ballroom scene. This is just after Romeo has first noticed Juliet. Tybalt says, “Now, by the stock and honour of my kin, to strike him dead I hold it not a sin.” As this is placed just after Romeo speaks of Juliet it is juxtaposition. It makes Tybalt’s determination to kill Romeo even worse after Romeo has just spoken of love. In Act 3, scene 1 Tybalt intends to kill Romeo even after what the Prince said at the beginning. He says “Romeo, the love I bear thee can afford no better term than this: thou art a villain.” This shows how much he hates Romeo. He is calling him a peasant and this was a degrading remark, this was a normal insult to use and a duel should follow. When Romeo next speaks you could say it is the only time he restrains himself and behaves as he should in the position he is in. Tybalt continues to hate everything Romeo says and everything that Romeo is and flatly refuses to believe that he is genuine in what he is saying. Mercutio jumps in and you could say he shows his love and loyalty towards Romeo as he steps in for him. He insults Tybalt and asks him to duel, “Tybalt you ratcatcher, will you walk?” However you could say that Mercutio was being impulsive and hateful, not thinking carefully and not being aware of the consequences of his actions. When Romeo tries to stop him he still doesn’t pay attention and it results in Mercutio getting himself killed. Then Mercutio is, perhaps understandably, hateful toward Tybalt and Romeo as he is dying. He repeats “A plague a’ both your houses!” It shows his bitter feeling for the feud between the families now that he has realized what it’s doing to their community. Mercutio is not a serious character until his deathbed when he finally realizes that some things have to be serious even if he wants them to be funny.
Romeo enters a changed man. He is furious and ready to avenge the death of Mercutio. This really lets his immaturity show through though because of his sudden change of attitude. He says “Now, Tybalt take thy “villain” back again that thou gavest me.” He’s cancelled out what he said earlier, “I do protest I never injured thee, but love thee better than thou canst devise,” and he is sending Tybalt’s earlier insult right back at him. His loyalty to Juliet is lost in the spur of the moment and he kills Tybalt.
Even though Mercutio is killed relatively early on in the play he plays his part in representing the bawdy aspect of love along with Juliet’s nurse who also has parental love for Juliet. In Act 1, scene 3 the Nurse speaks of her memories of when she looked after Juliet as a child. As was normal in Elizabethan times Juliet, coming from a rich family, is not looked after by her parents but by the nurse who has looked after her since she was born, even breast feeding her. Consequently the nurse knows Juliet better than Lady Capulet and it is the Nurse who knows about her relationship with Romeo, not Lady Capulet. Juliet replaced her own daughter Susan, who died. This makes the nurse’s love for Juliet stronger as she probably thinks of her as her own daughter in many ways. We can tell this because she wants Juliet to be happy so much she goes behind her employers back and arranges Romeo and Juliet’s marriage. The Nurse tells Romeo that if he is going to marry her the last thing he should do is hurt her. This shows her parental love for Juliet very strongly. Also in Act 2, scene 5 the Nurse teases Juliet like anything before letting on that Romeo will marry her. In this scene you really see the friendship between Juliet and the Nurse because of the way they freely talk about their feelings and the way they are completely honest and open with each other. The Nurse is the one who speaks to Juliet after she has been told by her father that she must marry Paris. Here the Nurse and Juliet’s relationship changes. The Nurse has a sense of duty to Lord and Lady Capulet that overpowers her love for Juliet. She has no choice but to tell Juliet that now Romeo has been banished she can no longer be with him and that she should marry Paris. “I think it best you married with the County. O, he’s a lovely gentleman!” Earlier on she speaks of a memory of Juliet when her husband was still alive. Juliet fell over and hit her head. It says, “’Fallest upon thy face? Thou wilt fall backward when thou comest to age. Wilt thou not Jule?” It stinted, and said “Ay.”” They were mocking Juliet because at the time she was very young and the nurse’s husband was saying that when she becomes of age she will fall backwards instead, but for sex.
Mercutio and the Nurse are in a scene together when the Nurse is asking Romeo whether he will marry Juliet. Mercutio starts making fun of the Nurse calling her names. He sings a rhyme “An old hare hoar,” which is him poking fun, calling her a whore. Before, in Act 2, scene 1 Mercutio teases Romeo because he can see he’s in love, thinking with Rosalyne. He says, “O that she were an open-arse and thou a poppering pear!” This is a bawdy pun, again showing Mercutio’s bawdy side and his inability to remain serious.
The Capulet and the Montague parents were the typical parents of the day. They hate each other from an ancient feud. This eventually leads to Romeo’s banishment and their children’s death. The learnt their lesson, they might not have started the argument but they could have at least finished it. Lady Montague dies in shock after Romeo is sent into exile which shows she must have truly loved him or of course she could have just had a weak heart. Lord and Lady Capulet try and force Juliet to marry Paris but we have to remember that they were just carrying on as was normal in Elizabethan times. Lord Capulet has no apparent connection with his daughter. He basically says that if she won’t marry Paris he doesn’t want to see her again. “Graze where you will, you shall not house with me.” This is because he needs to uphold his honour with the arranged marriage.
Romeo and Paris are two very different examples of going about courtship. Paris goes about it in the way which he is expected to. He stands for courtly love. In Elizabethan times if a man wanted to marry someone he would send her sonnets and love letters. The lady would be expected to remain modest and blush until the man asked her father if he could marry her. In Romeo and Juliet it is slightly different as it is more of an arranged marriage and Juliet is told she will marry Paris rather than any of it coming from her. Romeo, however, breaks every rule in the book and goes about it his way against his parents. An Elizabethan audience might have been shocked by this, thinking it a scandal. However it could have appealed to their true feelings as people. Paris is very business-like and formal in his way of doing things whereas Romeo is impulsive and passionate. Romeo and Paris have only one short scene together where they are both sad as they believe Juliet is dead. The scene takes place right outside of the tomb. Paris clearly doesn’t trust Romeo at all. He thinks Romeo is going to go into the tomb and do something terrible to Juliet’s body. Paris hates Romeo because he thinks Juliet died with grief for Tybalt. “That murdered my love’s cousin – with which grief it is supposed the fair creature died.” By this time Romeo hates the world without Juliet in it and wants nothing apart from to find her and die. He treats Paris relatively sensibly as he doesn’t actually care about him in any way by this stage. He only gets angry when Paris won’t believe him when he says he only wants to kill himself and isn’t going to do anything else wrong. Paris provokes Romeo and Romeo goes into a rage and kills Paris. This again shows Romeo’s confusion as the death of Juliet has sent him haywire.
My favorite scene is probably Act 2, scene 5. It is the scene between Juliet and the Nurse after the Nurse has been to find out that Romeo will marry Juliet later that afternoon. The Nurse doesn’t tell Juliet this until the very end of the scene. This is my favorite scene because I love the Nurse’s quirky character and the way that she is so inappropriate about the situations she lands in. I like Franco Zeffireli’s version of this. He has the Nurse and Juliet very intimate and teasing, constantly holding hands or hugging each other. In the film they cut out a lot of what is already a very short scene. If I did this scene I would have it all on the apron, close to the audience and have some steps set out in front of the middle of the stage, not facing straight on but turned round sideways. I would have a small room set up on stage with a couple of chairs and a table to one side of the stairs on the apron. I would have Juliet wearing a sort of plain dress compared to what she’d wear for the dance. The Nurse needs to be all bundled up with a really big dress on and perhaps things to carry. For Juliet’s monologue at the beginning of the speech I would have her run on from one of the wings and stand at the top of the steps, walking down them, looking for the nurse as she speaks. Eventually she’ll sit at the top of the steps so she can still be seen. The Nurse will enter, with Peter through the middle of the audience. When Juliet notices her she’ll jump up to the stage and wait for her jigging about in anticipation and then run to her to make her hurry up when she gets to the stairs. Juliet would continue bouncing around the Nurse while the Nurse moves painfully slowly with no sense of urgency whatsoever. When the Nurse says, “Can you not see that I am out of breath?” I think she should sit down and start fanning herself to be even more dramatic and get Juliet even more annoyed. When the Nurse begins, “You have made a simple choice.” She should take Juliet by the hand and bring her down and talk directly to her but with both of them on an angle so the audience can still see. Then when Juliet says, “No, no. But all this I did know before. What says he of our marriage? What of that?” She could stand up and bang the table in exasperation. Then when she wants to get back on the Nurse’s good side and get it out of her she can go back to her and calm down. When the Nurse says, “Where is your mother?” I would have her suddenly stand up in a rush and move away from Juliet, as if going to find her mother. Then Juliet can go back to her and get so frustrated and demand to find out what Romeo said. Then the Nurse can suddenly speak much more quietly but still just as full of childish excitement, “Have you got leave to go to shrift today?” They can both kneel down close to each other and the Nurse can take Juliet’s face in her hands, as if she is a small child, while she speaks to her. While the Nurse is talking Juliet can get increasingly excited and giggly. Then when the Nurse finishes and Juliet says, “Hie to high fortune! Honest Nurse farewell.” Juliet will jump up and run down the stairs through the audience while the Nurse leaves the stage from the wings and a church set can be brought onto stage and then the Friar and Romeo can enter.
I like Romeo and Juliet, not only because of the Shakespearian language, but because he has written, essentially about teenagers and their problems. Of course it isn’t in the same context as teenager’s problems today but the idea is there and it doesn’t take a lot to tweak it and make it more relevant with West Side Story being a good example.