During this scene the prince enters and Shakespeare uses dramatic irony within his speech. “Your lives shall pay the forfeit of the peace.” He threatens that if anyone was to be caught fighting they would be killed and this does eventually come true, but not in the way we expect. This creates tension and effect as the audience is given a warning of what may happen in the future. So far, Romeo has not been involved. This is significant because he has been absent from the fighting and this suggests to the audience that he is not an aggressive character. He is more preoccupied with love, as is made clear in act 1, scene 5 when he exchanges a love sonnet with Juliet.
Juliet says how she shall, “look to like…” and so this acquaints the audience with the fact that she is not yet able to understand emotions and believes feelings can be manufactured. Shakespeare surprises the audience by telling how Juliet cannot understand love, however, upon her first meeting with Romeo she is able to exchange a love sonnet with him.
Before the famous love sonnet is exchanged, Shakespeare introduces Mercutio, “And soar with them above a common ground.” This illustrates how clever he is and how he is extravert and able to make a play on words. He also tells Romeo, “You are a lover,” this confirms the thoughts of why Romeo was missing from the first fights; he is a lover over a fighter.
Shakespeare uses a soliloquy in order to express Romeo’s thoughts. He uses this technique with the intention of telling the audience what he really feels for Juliet, Shakespeare involves imagery in this, such as “a snowy dove trooping with crows,” this is meant to represent the two families and the purity of Juliet as a dove, the purity is made to seem more important through the comparison with crows; black birds, often associated with wickedness and cruelness. It expresses how love stands apart from hatred, and this resembles Romeo stepping out of the hate is predestined to have for Juliet, and stepping into love which he has chosen.
During this soliloquy, Shakespeare has Romeo compare Juliet to, “… a rich jewel in an Ethiop’s ear:” It shows how Romeo thinks she is like a bright star in the black sky as he also says, “…burn bright!” A jewel is often classed as rare and precious, and so Shakespeare is trying to tell us how she lights up Romeo’s life and stands out from the other women, being singular and more special to Romeo.
Shakespeare has written this first speech between Romeo and Juliet in a form of a love sonnet because it shows harmony, a pattern of religious imagery, it conveys that their feelings are sincere and also suggests a spirituality to their love. He uses rhyme to help Romeo persuade Juliet to kiss him and so he has used this structured form of love poem, to add effect. Shakespeare is using this as a way to introduce more dramatic irony, he is telling the audience that Romeo and Juliet will fall in love.
Shakespeare has Romeo compare Juliet to a, “…holy shrine” and he compares himself to a pilgrim. Juliet returns Romeo’s compliments saying how, “pilgrim’s hands” touch “saint’s hands” and she offers to hold hands and they both seem instantly attracted to each other. She repeats the same style of poetry he speaks and using rhymes of “this” and “kiss,” she also refers to the same images as Romeo. In this way, Shakespeare is demonstrating how the two are able to understand each other, and he is using it as a source to build up the affection, which can also be felt by the audience.
In Act 3 scene 1, there is a lot of drama, which has been built up to an exciting climax throughout the earlier acts. Shakespeare planted seeds hinting at various outcomes. The audience knows of the marriage between Romeo and Juliet although they are also aware that the other characters in the play do not know of the marriage.
At the beginning of act 3, scene 1, we are told of how there is a hot atmosphere, and Mercutio is bored – looking for a distraction and entertainment; Benvolio comments on, “…these hot days,” and Mercutio says, “…as soon moved to be moody.” The previous scenes show how Mercutio is able to use a play on words, he likes to be portrayed as brave and he also likes to be the center of attention and so this leads to the confrontation between himself and Tybalt.
The audience find out of how Mercutio then goes looking for trouble, coming across Tybalt. In the opening part of Act 3, he deliberately mistakes Tybalt’s meaning. Tybalt says, “thou consort’st with Romeo-” He means, “do you know Romeo?” He is asking where he can find him and as Mercutio is intelligent and quick witted he relates ‘consort'st’ with musicians as a consort is a company of hired musicians. He then purposely makes fun of Tybalt by relating his sword to a “fiddle-stick” and says how he can, “make you dance.” This extended word play is evidence of Mercutio’s quit wit, the audience enjoy his character and the humor.
When Romeo becomes involved in this scene it is the first time we have seen him associated with fighting. Tybalt first insults Romeo, he tells him how the love he has for him is so small, there is no better way to describe it than as a peasant, “thou art a villian” and expects him to rise to the challenge. However Romeo does the opposite and picks up on the idea of love, “good Capulet, which name I tender.” The audience interpret this as Romeo, hinting at his love for Juliet; however the characters interpret it differently. Mercutio is insulted by this, assuming that Romeo is being cowardly and so is concerned that he will be associated with a coward, this is linked to earlier on in the scene; when Tybalt says, “Mercution, thou consort’st with Romeo-” In order to defend his own name he gets out his sword and shouts, “Alla stoccata” this is a fencing term and he uses it to show off his fencing skills. However, Tybalt thinks that Romeo is deliberately mocking him by saying this, and trying to provoke him by being scornful towards his family.
Eventually, Mercutio was killed in a fight with Tybalt because Romeo obstructed his vision. It could be said that this is a fulfillment of the Prince’s promise in the very first act, “Your lives shall pay the forfeit of the peace.” It is not as we would have expected this to come true but it makes the drama seem more ironic.
Most of the play is written in verse, apart from Mercutio’s speech, because Shakespeare uses prose when writing for comic characters. Shakespeare decides to kill off one of the more popular characters only half way through the play as he is changing the attention of audience. If Mercutio were still joking, it would detract the attention from the sadness and tragedy about to happen.
Even though Mercutio is dying, he still shows the characteristics he had early on in the play, conveying a witty image. When he says, “…grave man” he means that of a depressed and unhappy man because he does not want to be seen as weak. At the time of writing, the Elizabethan era, audiences were very superstitious and believed that a dying man’s curse was highly significant and bound to come true. Upon his death, Mercutio shouts, “A plague o’ both your houses!” This accelerates the sense of growing tragedy Shakespeare yet again introducing another lead for the second half of the play, as we are left to think of what could be the consequences of such a plague.
At the start of the play we saw how Romeo was a lover, notfighter and how he was poetic and romantic but now he fears that love has made him forget about honour and loyalty. At the time the play was written a noble man wouldn’t refuse a challenge but Romeo does; “beauty hath made me effeminate,” he is worried that he has turned soft because of his love for Juliet.
Shakespeare has Romeo speak of, “this day’s black fate.” This is Shakespeare’s way of telling the audience that clues, hinted at previously in the play, are becoming reality for example the inevitability of tragedy in Romeo and Juliet’s relationship.
The Prince’s words in Act1 Scene 1 provided a further clue to dramatic irony, as did Tybalt when he vowed to take revenge on Romeo. The clues are finally realised in this scene and the hand of fate is metaphorically black, “This day’s black fate.” This is a colour associated with sadness and death and hints further at what is in store for Romeo, the rhyming couplet adding impact to his words and hinting at more tragedy yet to come.
The audience by that stage is wondering what is in store for Romeo and what his fate will be. Whilst talking to the prince about Romeo and how he killed Tybalt, Benvolio gives a bias account. He is going to protect Romeo, as brothers do and he relates to Romeo as being “young” in order to influence the prince. Benvolio does this so that Romeo isn’t killed as a punishment; emotive language is used here, in order to turn the mind of the prince, “O noble Prince.” Benvolio talks of how Romeo did not initiate the fight, “manage of this fatal brawl.” Mercutio is portrayed as “brave” in an effort to ‘win the prince over’ as Mercutio is a relation of the prince.
The opening of the play prepares us for the drama in Act 3, scene 1 in many ways. Shakespeare uses many different techniques to influence the audience, predict the future and provide unexpected twists in the plot. There is a lot of dramatic irony, imagery, poetic language and also changes of context.