In Act 3 Scene 1, Shakespeare uses Benvolio to create a sense of discomfort and tension. He does this by starting with Benvolio is an anxious state. ‘For now these hot days is the mad blood stirring’. He is referring to the feud between the Capulet’s and Montague’s. Also the hot weather could add to the tension. Mercutio tries to provoke Benvolio, creating more tension. Mercutio tries to wind Benvolio up by saying he is a quarrelsome person. He says ‘Thy head is as full of quarrels as an egg is full of meat, and yet they head hath been beaten as addle as an egg for quarrelling’. ‘Thou hast quarrelled with a man for coughing in the street’. This builds up tension and shows how argumentative Mercutio is. When Mercutio jokes like this, it adds more tension. Mercutio becomes reckless when he is told the capulet’s are about. ‘By my heel, I care not’. This shows how Mercutio doesn’t want to avoid a quarrel with anyone.
Mercutio deliberately mis-understands the meaning of the word ‘consort’. He takes it as an insult. When Benvolio tries to calm Mercutio and Tybalt, he suggests they should either withdraw to some private place, reason coldly or else depart. ‘Either withdraw unto some private place or reason coldly of your grievances, or else depart; here all eyes gaze on us’.
In line 60, Tybalt calls Romeo a villain. To a noble man like Romeo, this would have been insulting because a villain was seen as a peasant.
The tension starts, when Benvolio sets the scene. He knows the Capulet’s are around so we are waiting for something to happen from the start. Between lines 92-97, there are three exclamation marks used. They are used for dramatic intension to show how forceful the lines are. ‘Zounds, a dog, a rat, a mouse, a cat, to scratch a man to death!’.
Romeo has a weakness, a weakness of being a man. Juliet made him a woman. ‘Thy beauty hath made me effeminate’. He can’t be strong for himself now, he lacks in his own self-esteem to stick up for himself. Romeo’s rhyming couplet promises more violence between lines 110 and 112. ‘This day’s black fate on moe days
Doth depend, this but begins woe others must end’. This is where the action really begins. Romeo’s actions are unfortunate, and Tybalt gets killed.
Juliet’s mother calls Romeo a villain. She thinks Juliet is weeping over Tybalt. She speaks of how she’d like to punish Romeo. Lady Capulet calls Romeo this because Juliet appears to agree. Lady Capulet plans to get revenge on Tybalt by slaughtering him. ‘Well girl, thou weep’st not so much for his death. As that the villain lives which slaughtered him’.
Lady Capulet explains to her daughter off her dislikes of Tybalt and that she would like to see Juliet marry Romeo. Juliet plays along with her mothers plans by what she is saying has a double meaning. ‘To wreak the love I bore my cousin. Upon his body that hath slaughtered him!’ This shows to us, the audience that Juliet is crying out over Tybalt but deep down it is the feeling for Romeo.
When Lady Capulet tells Juliet of the plans for marriage, Juliet takes drastic action to stop it happening. ‘He shall not make me there a joyful bride’. Juliet knows that Tybalt is not the one; she wants to be with Romeo. She tells Lady Capulet of how she feels it is not the right time to marry and that he isn’t the one for her.
The way the lines are punctuated to show that Juliet is agitated because ach line is a sharp point about her feelings to her mothers actions. This shows she is not happy with her mother. Capulet enters. He cannot believe that Juliet would dare to oppose his will. He threatens to disown her if she doesn’t marry Paris. Capulet seems calm and caring at first when he sees Juliet crying. ‘Thou counterfeit a bark, a sea, and a wind: For still thy eyes, which I may call the sea, Do ebb and flow with tears’. Capulet shows his affection towards Juliet by speaking to her in a calm manner and showing that he cares for her. He shows his affection even though he threatens to disown Juliet if she doesn’t marry Paris. In lines 141 – 145, the dramatic tension begins to rise when Capulet starts arousing with a list of questions, which are seen as a threat. Capulet is asking these questions, but we see him as if he was telling Juliet. I think Shakespeare made Capulet ask so many questions because he’s stating all the points that Juliet could miss out on if she was not to marry.
These questions evoke a sense of danger because to Juliet it is seen as a final warning. ‘Soft! Take me with you, take me with you, wife’. Capulet says this in a soft voice but sharp. It’s the final warning from Capulet, it’s almost as if he’s saying ‘Hold on a minute are you sure this is what you want?’ In lines 149 – 157, we know Capulet looses his temper because his comments become more vicious and tainting. ‘But fettle your fine joints ‘gainst Thursday next, to go with Paris to Saint Peter’s Church, or I will drag thee on a hurdle thither.’ This shows Capulet looses his temper more drastically because he isn’t happy that Juliet won’t take his word. He isn’t taking any of what Juliet says and he is standing up for himself now.
Capulet calls Juliet names whilst loosing his temper. ‘Baggage’, ‘you tallow-face’ and ‘disobedience wretch’. These names are offensive towards Juliet. He threatens her that if she doesn’t marry, and then he will never bother with her again. ‘I tell thee what: get thee to church a’ Thursday, or never after look me in the face’. This expression shows Capulet has washed his hands with Juliet. She will not do anything to please her father. She knows what’s best and she’s not going to change it for her father’s sake.
Capulet’s comments get violent, he looses his temper. To show this, he calls Juliet a ‘hilding!’ known to us as a useless person. Capulet uses names, which he calls his daughter because he sees it as his only way of revenge. ‘hilding’, ‘disobedient wretch’. These names are pointed at Juliet, meaning that she is seen as a useless woman that will do what she wishes.
Capulet shows a desire to want to hit his daughter. ‘That god had lent us but this only child, but now I see this one is one too much, and that we have a curse in having her’. Capulet won’t hit his daughter though because Juliet is there only daughter and he would probably regret his actions. By this stage, Capulet gets more violent. ‘O God-I-goden!’, ‘A whining mammet’. ‘O God-I-goden!’ means ‘clear off’. He is telling his daughter to leave after failing to do and after hearing from the nurse that she would stand by Juliet. He goes on to call his daughter a whining puppet, who is doing all she can to get attention. My Caplet would most likely shout the lines showing large amounts of stress and anger on his face. He may occasionally grab Juliet by the arms and shake her, showing anger. He may also point his finger when expressing a point.
The use of commas and semi-colons help draw everything he says either into further detail or straight onto the next point. ‘To answer ‘I’ll not wed, I cannot love; I am too young’. Here the semi-colon is used to explain why he wouldn’t wed or love, because he is to young.
At the end of this play, the two lovers take their lives. Romeo, believing Juliet is dead, kills himself to join her in death. Juliet, finding Romeo dead, also kills herself, not wishing to live without him. Their deaths end the quarrels of the Montague and Capulet’s. This shows that meeting in death could have been the only worthwhile ending. The arguments boiled down to the relationships between Romeo and Juliet, but they couldn’t be together. Overall, I think this play is more violent than it should be. It starts of as a love relationship and ends with violence and tragedy with a double-teen suicide. I think from this play, the hatred sticks in my mind the most because that’s what most of it was about. We didn’t really see much of a love relationship throughout because it all was arguments over Juliet marrying. She knew whom she would have been happy with but no others were going to accept it.
