This could be the reason why this horrible end to the play happened in the first place: Romeo gatecrashes the party because he wants to have a good time and prove to Mercutio and Benvolio that he would dare enter the Montague household. Mercutio and Benvolio go to the party with Romeo. Romeo’s mood would be happy and excited because he cannot help but notice the girl of his dreams; she is beautiful, attractive and magnificent.
This girl Romeo sees is Juliet they meet for the first time
‘For I ne’er saw true beauty till this night’.
Tybalt hears Romeo speak. His reaction to this was that he wanted to kill Romeo. His attitude towards Romeo is that he hates him. Tybalt is angry that Romeo has dared to come to the party when he has no been invited.
‘this by his voice should be a Montague. Fetch me my rapier, boy’
This hatred contrasts Romeo’s love earlier in this scene.
Lord Capulet thinks that Tybalt is being obnoxious and he tells Tybalt to leave the Montages alone for this special evening as this party was suppose to be where Juliet and the prince first saw each other before there arranged marriage.
The wide variety of characters also adds to this scene being effective because there is a contrast between Romeo and Tybalt as Romeo is just out for a good night, where as Tybalt just wants to kill Romeo after he has heard of him being at the party
‘what, who dares the slave come hither, cover’d with an antic face, to fleer and scorn at our solemnity’. The effect of Tybalt saying his words in this way shows how angry Tybalt is inside by the way he hisses his words out.
The difference in language is used very well in this scene as it reflects the moods of the characters. In this scene there is the contrasts of how Tybalt talks and how Romeo talks. Romeo uses very romantic gentle words compared to Tybalt angry fiery choice of language: ’fetch me my rapier, boy’ in contrast to Romeo who uses romantic language towards Juliet ‘have not saints lips and holy palmers too?’ This could show that Tybalt is typically an angry aggressive person towards Romeo, where as Romeo is a soft light headed man who can think things through before doing them.
The language used by Shakespeare creates the feeling that he wants to use this in the play, when Tybalt and Romeo are talking about each other and their families, Shakespeare uses language and poetry to suggest that they hate each other from their family feuds. Shakespeare has also used a number of effective devices to make this play an effective one.
The themes and events add tension on the audience in this scene as they do not no how things are going to happen with Tybalt trying to kill Romeo and lord Capulet telling him not to do anything how Tybalt would react to that. Romeo first seeing Juliet and the contrast of love that he shows between Rosaline and Juliet and what will happen between Romeo and Juliet therefore making a very interesting scene so early into the play.
I think this scene would have a big impact on the audience in Shakespearean times as plays written by Shakespeare were the main things to do in that time. I do not think that showing the play in the same way in modern times would have a big impact on people as people do not care for plays so much as there is cinema pictures but on the basis of this play it is very effective and emotional in ways it handles situations and more difficult situations. This play adds a great amount of emotion and conflict between the two families this causes the play after act 1 scene 5 to add up to a long and heart breaking experience for everyone who had known or been in contact with Romeo and Juliet at that time
By Todd Hawkes-Bayliss
