In Act I, scene I, Sampson and Gregory, servants of the Capulet household, walk through Verona square as they mock the house of Montague. They share sexual remarks known as puns. Speaking of physically winning the men and sexually winning the women. They refer to the Montagues as “dogs“, giving the sense that the Montagues are below the them and less respected. The source of the fight, with sexual and physical conflict, introduces the theme of masculine honour. A man must defend his honour. The concept of masculine honour exists through every layer of society in Verona.
Gregory sees two Montague servants coming their way, and talk about the best way to provoke without breaking the law. Sampson bites his thumb, an insulting gesture. engaging in the childish and offensive gesture as he wants to cause a fight but doesn’t want to be accused of starting it. Samson is shy and decides to be annoying rather than challenging. The thumb-biting a meaningless gesture, signifies the idiocy of the feud and of violence in general.
The verbal argument quickly spirals into a fight. Benvolio, kinsman to Montagues, draws his sword, trying to stop the fight. Tybalt, kinsman to Capulet, sees Benvolio’s drawn sword and draws his. Benvolio explains that he is trying to keep peace: “I do but keep the peace: out up thy sword“. Tybalt expresses his hate for peace as the hate for Montagues, “I hate the word, as I hate hell, all Montagues and thee…“ He refers to his hate toward the Montagues as hell, which is considered a horrible evil place, also using repetition on the word ‘hate‘ to add more emphasis. Tybalt attacks and the fight spreads.
Prince Escalus arrives and orders the fighting stop on penalty of torture. The Capulets and Montagues throw down their weapons. The Prince declares the violence between the two families has gone on for too long, and states a death sentence on anyone who disturbs the peace again. This shows that the only person the feuding families will listen to is the Prince, he is the only person that can stop their pointless fighting and is very understanding.
Act 3, Scene 5 is opened on a negative point where Romeo prepares to leave for his exile. Juliet tries to convince Romeo to stay. Overcome by love, he says he’ll stay with her, he doesn’t care if they kill him. Faced with this, Juliet makes him leave. The nurse warns Juliet that Lady Capulet is approaching. As Romeo climbs out the window, promising Juliet that they’ll see each other again, she responds that he appears pale “as one dead in the bottom of a tomb“. He answers that “…in my eye so do you” assuring her it’s their sorrow. They both foreshadow the tragic event that is to follow, caring out the destiny of both their deaths. Dramatic irony hit’s the audience as they remember that Romeo and Juliet are being separated, only to meet again when they die.
Lady Capulet calls to her daughter. Juliet is surprised and starts to wonder why her mother wants to speak to her so early in the morning. Unaware that her daughter is married to Romeo, she enters the room and mistakes Juliet’s tears as the grief for Tybalt, showing dramatic irony between mother and daughter. Their conversation has two meanings, Lady Capulet talks about the grief she thinks her Juliet is going through for Tybalt, but Juliet is talking of Romeo being exiled and how much she is missing’ him. It shows Juliet can’t confide in her mother, instead she confides in the nurse seeing her as a mother figure. There is a total break down in communication and shows us that Juliet is hiding the truth from her own mother as she has no trust, she doesn’t believe she can confide in her.
Lady tells Juliet of her deep desire to see “the villain Romeo” dead. In a complicated bit of trickery, Juliet, annoyed that her mother blames Tybalt’s death on Romeo, deliberately deceives her mother and leads her to believe that she also wishes Romeo’s death. In fact she is firmly stating her love for him by tricking her mother. She misleads her mother into believing that she‘s a good Christian, considered as moral conflict.
Lady Capulet tells Juliet about Capulet’s plan for her to marry , explaining that he wants to make her happy. Juliet is appalled, and rejects the match, saying “I will not marry yet; and when I do, I swear, It shall be Romeo, whom you know I hate, Rather than Paris”. The length of Lady Capulet’s lines show that there is a build up of tension thus leading to conflict “sailing in the salt flood”, there is a storm coming“. Capulet enters the chamber, when he learns of Juliet’s determination to defy him he becomes enraged and threatens to disown Juliet if she refuses to obey him. The repetition shows Capulet’s anger and disbelief “take me with you, take me with you“, it builds up and you get the feeling something dramatic is going to happen. The repetition, emphasises his anger and disbelief that his daughter has disrespected him. He insults her and the repetition of “out” suggests he’s spitting out his words, he has lost all his pride. He is so annoyed his daughter has refused, he insults her “disobedient wretch” and the repetition “speak not, reply not, do not answer me!” emphasises his forcing demands, he wishes they didn’t have her referring to her as a “curse”. Juliet begs and threatens to commit suicide if the marriage isn’t delayed, her mother denies her help agreeing with her husband.
After Capulet and Lady Capulet leave, Juliet feels isolated, rejected, alone and asks her Nurse how she might escape the corner she is trapped in. The Nurse advises her to go through with the marriage to Paris, he is a better match, she says, and Romeo is as good as dead anyhow. The nurse shows her sinful side, she‘s two faced and suggests to Juliet that she should commit bigamy. Though shocked and disgusted by her Nurse’s disloyalty, Juliet pretends to agree, and says she’s going to Friar Lawrence’s. If the Friar is unable to help her, Juliet comments to herself, she still has the power to take her own life. This is moral conflict, Juliet would be in conflict with herself about the right thing to do. As the audience sit and watch her make the difficult decision, set in the Elizabethan times it was thought of as immoral to be committing bigamy and modern day would have exactly the same views. Believing that it is wrong to marry more than one person as a Christian.
At the end of Act 3 Scene 5, Juliet uses direct address, talking directly to the audience, she uses a soliloquy, rhetorical questions, it adds to her desperation, her relationship with the nurse has been cut in two and will resort to killing herself if she cant find a resolution “myself have the power to die”. This end expresses all conflicts social, moral, physical, verbal and emotional. She becomes more isolated with no-one to turn to, now abandoned by her only mother figure. She hurries to the friar, vowing that she’ll never again trust the Nurse again.
Tanushri 10a
Mrs. Olujinmi
English