It is then at the beginning of Act two Scene Two the famous balcony scene happens and Romeo and Juliet express their love. Romeo is now at his peak of happiness as Juliet has revealed her emotions are the same as Romeo’s and she would evan give up her name for Romeo.
“Be but sworn my love and I’ll no longer be a Capulet.”
As a result of this a wedding is arranged in secret for Romeo and Juliet.
In all tragedies the peak of happiness is the tuning point in which the tragic motion will start its process, and as is the same for Romeo and Juliet. The audience senses disaster waiting to happen and the atmosphere is of doom. In a confused fight between Tybalt and Romeo incensed by Romeos cowardness in not fighting Tybalt (little did he know the reason he was not fighting was Juliet) and as a result Mercuric was killed.
When Romeo realises what Tibet has done to his best friend, his immediate reaction was anger, his first words were-
“This day’s black fate on Moe days doth depend, this but begins the woe others must end.”
Romeo is implying connotation by saying the "day is black", black resembles death and also doom and sadness, fate means in this situation that it has happened but not suppose to off, and "woe others must end" relates back to the fighting that has been happening for a long time and is not the present peoples fault yet they are the ones suffering. Romeo feels this day is doom as he has just killed his love Juliet’s cousin. What Romeo says is an epigram, it briefly summarises the tragic death very quickly. The tone of the play here drastically changes as here you find Romeo now worrying about his love Juliet as before he has just thought of the positive side of life with her, he has not properly studied the negative consequences. The tone creates Pathos and is reflected onto the audience.
Where as Romeo’s first words were the above, his innitial actions were to retaliate and he did this by returning the gesture and killed Tybalt. This is yet another of the tragic incidents happening at a worrying pace. Romeo immediately realises that he has done wrong-
“O I am fortune’s fool!”
He says. He immediatly realised the consequences, and the stupidity of committing the murder. By killing Tybalt Romeo may never be able to see Juliet again, let alone live a lie with her.
Whilst Romeo's reactions were anger, Juliet’s reactions were relief at very first, because she got the impression from the nurse before she clearly explained the situation it was Romeo that was killed. When Juliet then realises that it is Tybalt killed she is distraught at her conflict of loyalties. She loves Romeo but he has killed her cousin. When the nurse then criticises Romeo for his crime Juliet then turns on her and sticks up for Romeo. So overall Juliet’s emotions are relief at first, then angry towards the nurse but not sadness for her cousins death. The only sorrow Juliet feels is when she realises that her love is to be banished from the country, this shows the love that Juliet feels for Romeo.
When Juliet turns on the nurse for criticising Romeo, the audience feel this is another step in the tragic wheel as the nurse is Juliet’s only real friend at this moment of time. However the nurse forgives Juliet and goes to see Romeo at Friar Laurence’s cell. When the nurse visits Romeo at friar Laurence’s cell and tells Romeo that Juliet is similarly grief stricken. Romeo replies-
“O tell me Friar, tell me, in what vile part of this anatomy doth my name lodge? Tell me that I may sack the hateful mansion.”
This is where Romeo is offering to stab himself. Romeo has turned suicidal, this is another part of the tragic motion and is all due to the original setting off of the killing, which created the whole tone of the play changing and becoming a death play. The Capulet want their daughter Juliet to marry Paris. Juliet goes to confide in her nurse, she says to do what her parents tell her to do. Juliet does not confide in the nurse any more, and instead goes to Friar Laurence. Juliet now turns suicidal on him too. Friar Laurence makes a deal with Juliet if she pretends to agree with the marriage then the night before the wedding takes a potion to appear dead, Romeo and Juliet will be able to live together. Friar Laurence at this point wants Romeo and Juliet to be happy, Friar Laurence at this point is also appearing as a hero. He says Romeo will be informed about the idea by a letter. However the letter is unable to be delivered, and once again the tragedy wheel strikes. Romeo returns and thinks Juliet is dead so kills himself, Juliet then wakes sees Romeo dead and promptly kills herself.
The tragic process started with the death of Mercutio and ended with the death if the heroes. As a result of this Capulet and Montague’s made peace. The tone immediately changed after the death of Mercutio, as that is when the audience changed their emotions, when the bad things started to happen.
When the play would have been shown to an Elizabethan audience, feelings of shock, horror, distress and sympathy would be experienced.
The audience would notice the tone of the play change after the death of mercutio. Up till this point after a depressing start things were starting to look brighter for Romeo. But then Mercutio was killed and the tragic motion started developing until the tragedy finally rested on the letter being unable to be delivered. When Mercutio was killed the tone expressed shock, horror and distress, this is also how the play ended when Romeo and Juliet died.
The tragedy expressed a circle of doom, and as all tragedy’s was simplya story that ended unhappily.
