In Act 3 Scene 1 of 'Romeo and Juliet', Shakespeare uses language to make the fight scene dramatic. How does Baz Luhrmann draw on this and use other devices to create tension for his audience?

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 In Act 3 Scene 1 of ‘Romeo and Juliet’, Shakespeare uses language to make the fight scene dramatic. How does Baz Luhrmann draw on this and use other devices to create tension for his audience?

‘Romeo and Juliet’ is about two families, the Montagues and the Capulets, who have been introduced to a physical and verbal war. The play starts off with the prologue, where a man comes onstage and reads out the plot of the play and the key ideas, although this gives away the surprises, it builds tension at the crowd are constantly on the edge of their seats waiting for the events to happen that they have been told about.

 The opening scene sees the two families, who have been fighting for generations, in another battle, this takes place in public and is witnessed by the prince who decides anymore fighting will end in exile or death. This creates tension as anymore fighting carries a more drastic punishment and so the tension is built because certain members of the family become more conscious about where they are fighting and the possibility of the prince seeing them.

 The first fight scene is the first scene of the play; this is a much smaller fight and creates more tension in the way as you expect more fight scenes that are bigger. The first fight scene starts off the Montagues saying to the Capulets ‘Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?’ this shows that fights between these two families start off over the simplest of events.

 Later that day the Montagues, the family of Romeo, invade the Capulets’, the family of Juliet, party. As the Montagues invade the party, Romeo wanders off to find Juliet; the two instantly fall in love. That night Romeo and Juliet meet and swear their love for each other, at this point no-one knows about Romeo and Juliet as their families are sworn enemies. The next day Romeo and Juliet get married by the Friar however, only Romeo, Juliet and the Friar know about this marriage. Shakespeare has set the structure of the play like this because it causes a sudden change from hate to love. As we see Romeo and Juliet get married, is shows hope for the two families; however it is only creating more tension as their love is a secret and here Shakespeare has used dramatic irony, as the audience know about the marriage but most of the characters do not, this further builds the tension.

   Throughout Act 3 Scene 1 there is big contrast between love and hate. The main hate shown is by Tybalt towards Romeo, Tybalt calls Romeo names trying to get him into a fight, he calls Romeo a ‘villain’ this shows hate and builds tension as he is trying so hard to get Romeo into a fight although Romeo isn’t interested. On the contrast however, there is love shared between Romeo, Mercutio and Benvolio, as they Romeo says to Mercutio ‘Gentle Mercutio’ this shows love and he is also showing concern and trying to talk Mercutio into not fighting but calling him peaceful and gentle names.

In the fight scene different characters play different roles and have different personalities towards the fight and in one example their personality changes during the fight scene. Benvolio throughout the whole scene is the peacemaker, you pick this up about his character from the beginning of the scene as he starts off by saying ‘I pray thee good Mercutio, let’s retire’, this shows he is a peacemaker as he knows a fight is going to happen and he is saying to Mercutio come on lets leave lets get out of here.

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Mercutio is the trouble maker always looking for a fight this is shown when he says ‘make it a word and a blow’ although this is him joking around he knows it will annoy Tybalt and creates tension and makes the fight more likely.

Tybalt is also a trouble maker looking for a fight this is shown when he says to Mercutio ‘thou consortest with Romeo’ this shows he is a trouble maker as he is insulting Mercutio and trying to enrage him and draw him into a fight.

Romeo starts off as a peacemaker and this is ...

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Some good points made about both the text and the film but not enough contrast of the two or consideration of how Luhrmann has used Shakespeare's language and stage directions to create his own production. 4 Stars