The play has context of both social and historical themes. The play explains how people had to stick to their own in the past and that marriages were arranged and also explain social issues such as violence and stereotypes of people that still remain today.
Act 3 Scene 1 is a very significant scene in the play and fits in as the middle. It sparks the violence, which causes more tragedy throughout further scenes and also shows the comparison between peoples feelings of love and hate. The scene highlights the stress and pain Romeo and Juliet must have been feeling and triggers off the rest of the tragedy to pursue.
Shakespeare uses many dramatic devices within the scene to interest, involve and affect the audience. At the beginning of the scene Shakespeare uses certain methods to create mood and atmosphere. He does this by contrasting the setting and the mood into the characters language such as “ for now these hot days is the mad blood stirring” this starts of the scene by using language to set scene saying that the hot weather is going to cause hot tempers. Benvolio and Mercutio are winding each other up by using sarcasm and humour. Mercutio says that Benvolio will argue about anything and Benvolio wants to leave before the Capulet’s turn up. This creates the atmosphere of a hot day where everyone is on edge setting the scene for a fight which involves the audience as they are very keen to see what happens next. Shakespeare also contrasts the mood of this scene with the romantic atmosphere of the previous scene by making it the complete opposite and very violent. This affects the audience because they are emotionally attached to the young couple and the violent scene is such a shock they feel emotionally attached to the characters and want to see what happens next,
Shakespeare links the scene to previous scenes such as when the Prince warns them that the next person who is violent will be banished. This keeps the audience interested because at the start of the scene when the violence begins they are eager to see what will happen and what the consequences will be.
Shakespeare also uses dramatic irony within the scene especially when Romeo refuses to rise to Tybalt’s challenge for example “ love thee better than thou canst devise “ and “ good Capulet which name I tender as dearly as my own”. The dramatic irony achieves interest from the audience because they understand the meaning but the characters in the play do not. This is a good effort because the audience feel more involved which makes h play more exciting.
In this scene Shakespeare keeps the audience on edge, interested and very involved. Another way he manages to do this is by constant conflict between various characters. By doing this, the audience are constantly kept intrigued and it also makes the play more exciting. Also he uses the dramatic impact of entrances and exits especially those involving Mercutio’ s death.
In this scene Benvolio is used mostly as a narrator, this way he isn’t directly involved and explains clearly what is happening without the audience getting confused with all the entrances and exits.
Shakespeare also uses the characters language as a way of showing mood. This makes the scene very interesting. At the beginning of the scene Mercutio speaks in prose, a mark of informality but not low of social class. Speaking in prose shows an attitude in the way they speak. In this scene many other characters also speak in prose to highlight their sarcasm and their attitudes. This is a way of exciting the audience in a serious yet humorous way. After Mercutio’s death the serious mood is shown as all characters speak in blank unrhymed verse. This makes the audience realise that his death is serious. Also highlighting his words “ a plague on both your houses” this intrigues the audience, as the words of a dying man are very serious especially when cursing someone. The audience in those times would find this effective and will involve them by making them curious and maybe slightly scared of what will happen next.
All these dramatic devices help to emphasise the scene and make the scene an important one. The scene overall affects the audience because it keeps them intrigued, interested and is the turning point of the whole play. After Act 3 Scene 1 is where everything goes wrong and makes the curse of Mercutio seem to become reality. Also the prince’s words at the end of the scene interest and involve members of the audience because he does a speech about banishing Romeo which the audience find interesting and are eager to see what happens next. Overall I think the scene the most important scene in the play and is the turning point. I think the dramatic devices Shakespeare uses to emphasise mood and importance keeps the audience interested and the scene exciting and is done in a very clever way. The scene is dramatic and fun and is the best scene of the play.
