In the following essay, i will be looking at the first scene of the play and showing how all of the tension, violence, comedy and drama are set up.
In the prologue we are told about two fueding familys with lots of dignity from verona, we are told of "a pair of star-crossed lovers take thier life", then we are told with thier death there parents stop there fueding.
words such as "love, "blood", "rage", "fatal" and "death tell us in the prologue what to expect from this story. from what is said in the prologue we can expect alot of action we can expect fighting, sex and tradigy.
The action takes place in verona. The Capulets look to be talking about raping a montegue maid "my naked weapon is out", "and thrust his maids to the wall". The Capulets talks about cutting the heads of the montegue maids off. The Capulets also talk about fighting with the montegue men. The things the Capulets are talking about are very horrific, talking about how your gonna rape someone is a very disgusting and horrific thing to say. The crowds of the Elizabethen period who would watch this play would of been evry pleased with the what the Capulets were talking about, they would of found it funny!
Biting the thumb is a cuss and that is why it is soo offensive. When the bonvolio (a montegue) arrives he first calls for peace and that is why the fight doesnt start straight away "keep the peace" but tybalt (a capulet) is having none of it "talk of peace? i hate the word" then tybalt calls montegue's cowards and a fight breaks out. when tybalt says "talk of peace? i hate the word, as i ahte hell, all montegues, and thee: have at thee, coward" it is very important to the story because it is tybalt who gets killed by romeo, causing romeo to go away, which leads to the tradigy at the end. With the fight scene the crowds of the elizabethen period would have got very excited.
When the prince breaks up the fight he tells the capulets and montegues " if ever you disturb are streets again, your lifes shall pay the forfiet of the peace" which later on in the story becomes an important part of the story. from this we expect to see some one pay.
Romeo tells benvolio he is unhappy. he gives the reason that he is in love "out of her favour where i am in love" at that point i think were ment to feel sorry for romeo but as there chat goes on we slowly find out its not that romeo is in love its more that he wants to have sex with this female he is so fond of, and that he is not getting what he wants, which is having sex with this girl "well, in that hit you miss. She'll not be hit". this tells us that romeo is a guy seeking sex. the elizabethan crowds responce to this would of been cheers because of the talk of sex. what this conversation with Benvolio tells us about romeo and his affair with juliet is that although he wanted sex at first from juliet he did fall in love with her.
Thier is alot of violence in the first scene coz it would of got the crowd excited. Skaespeare switched from vioelnce to love in the same scene to introduce the subjects in the first scene to show this play would be a rollercoasster and a nail biter. We learn that the two families hate each other but i think shakespeare gives the montegues a better image a more likable image because it is men from the montegue side who call for peace and talk about love. we learn in this play love in the elixabethen time was more about sex. I think the reason we do not see juliet in the first chapter is not because she is female therefore inferior but more because the first scene is building up to her introduction.
