Carrying on with act 1 scene 1, during the fight a person name Benvolio entered the stage. Benvolio is a nephew to Montague, and is a friend to Romeo. He is the peace maker; ‘I do but keep the peace.’ The play instantly bangs out with a fight, the audience would feel excited to see that there’s violence at a beginning of a love story. After the fight the prince emerges, his character shows that he’s in charge by giving orders to the citizens. He makes it clear that if the fighting continues then there will be consequences. ‘If every you disturb our streets again, your lives shall pay for the forfeit of the peace,’ this part builds up tension to the audience after the prince had announced this. It suddenly makes the audience think what would happen further into the play, would there be another fight and who would be involved?
Further into the play the violence turned more into a love story which gives the audience an emotional feeling, as they carry on watching Romeo and Juliet. The scene which makes the audience tensed is Act 1 Scene 5; this is when Romeo and his friends arrive at the Capulet party. In this scene Romeo catches a glimpse of Juliet; the daughter of the Capulet family. What's more, this is the scene when Tybalt sees Romeo and demands a fight with him to his uncle. The audience would think of what would happen next because now Tybalt has seen Romeo, would there be another fight? Would Romeo and Juliet get together? The audience could tell that Tybalt was angry when he says, ‘I will withdraw, but this intrusion shall, now seeming sweet, convert to bitterest gall.’ This meant ‘I’ll go away now and calm down but although my mood may seem sweet now, it will turn into bitter hatred.’ Tybalt was unable to fight Romeo because of his uncle’s wishes, his uncle didn’t want to cause any drama at his party; he wanted his guest to be satisfied. The audience would instantly think what would happen now if they have a fight after the party.
Once again in Act 3 Scene 1 violence was occurred again, the setting is a hot summer’s day. This shows the audience that something is going to happen because of what Benvolio says, ‘and if we meet, we shall not ‘scape a brawl, for now these not days, is the mad blood stirring.’ This reveals to the audience that there could be another fight. As the C Capulet’s enter the scene tension grows, ‘By my heel, here comes the Capulets…By my heel I care not.’ This is the quote of Benvolio and Mercutio; this shows the audience that Mercutio is looking for trouble. After all their offensive, abusive, violent words Tybalt and Mercutio gets killed when Romeo tries to stop the fight; trying to not get involved because of his love to Juliet, he must also love her cousin because now they are too related. Unaware of this situation Tybalt slays his best friend and escapes. At this point the audience would ask themselves if anything is going to happen next, if Romeo is going to get Tybalt back from killing his best friend or just leave it for the sake of his wife Juliet.
However Tybalt wasn’t going to take it if Romeo had walked away without a fight. Tybalt hated Romeo, he really hated the Montague’s we know this because he says, ‘peace, I hate the word, as I hate hell, and all Montague’s, and thee.’ This is the scene where Romeo is banished from Verona as a punishment for killing Tybalt, Romeo only killed Tybalt because he was furious when Tybalt killed Mercuito; Romeo’s best friend. There would be a shocked to the audience with the call of Romeo being banished; they would think what would happen next, and what will happen to Romeo and Juliet. Furthermore this fight was more motivating than the first because there are deaths of main characters. The scene also astonishes the audience as it’s unpredicted, surprising and unexpected. The audience would now feel more involved as it catches their attention.
As well as violence, Shakespeare uses other moods and techniques to make sure that his audiences are interested throughout the play. He uses the theme of love in Act 1 Scene; this is where Romeo and Juliet meet for the first time at the Capulet’s party. This is also the scene when Romeo and Juliet finds out that they both can never be because of their family quarrel. The audience would feel delighted to see both of them falling in love with one another; however they would still feel frightened to see what will come further into the play as they know that something will happen because Tybalt has seen Romeo at the party. Another love scene pops up in Act 2 Scene 2; this is where Romeo is in the Capulet’s garden, he declares his love for Juliet and they both decide to get married. There is also a scene which has tension; the scene was Act 4 Scene 3. This is where Juliet takes the potion and goes into a deep sleep; before she took the potion the audience would think “what if she doesn’t wake up?” or “what if Friar Lawrence had tricked her, and really wants Juliet dead because he married Romeo and Juliet together and that was illegal?”
At the end of the play, it ends with death. Paris, Romeo and Juliet dies; this is because Romeo tried to get into Juliet’s tomb but Paris was there at the time and they didn’t know who each other were. This is very dramatic to the audience as they see Romeo slays Paris, the audience instantly thinks of what Juliet is going to say when she awakes to a dead body on the floor. Unfortunately the news from Friar Lawrence didn’t get to Romeo quick enough, so therefore Romeo believes that Juliet is dead. He kills himself by swallowing down the poison, as she wakes up Friar Lawrence arrived and explains to her what has happened. Unable to take all the pain she also kills herself, but with Romeo’s dagger which laid before her eyes. The audience is now shocked with what has happened and wonders if the family would now see what they have done. The audience realized that the family were now disgraced with what they were doing, the family had taken many lives and now God had taken the two lives which mattered most; the daughter of the Capulet’s and the son of Montague’s.
Shakespeare uses violence throughout the play to create excitement, drama and tragedy. This is because he wanted his audience to be interested throughout the play; he didn’t want his play to be just about love. Instead of just a pure love story he chooses to add twist and turns to his play. Shakespeare also uses different moods and techniques to keep the audience fascinated so they would carry on watching the dramatic play. Shakespeare uses moods like, love, party, tension and humor. Love from Juliet and Romeo, party from the Capulet’s party, tension from when Juliet drinks the poison and humor from the nurse who looked after her from when she was a baby. The nurse brought out rude jokes to make the audience feel less tense. Shakespeare brings out emotions which capture the audience attention and he also brings out violence and aggression to have enjoyment, amusement and entertainment. Shakespeare uses violence to also show the audience that you should always think of what you’re about to do, before it’s too late. Just like the star-crossed lovers.
