Investigate the impact of the first act in Romeo and Juliet, upon the audience, in relation to the rest of the play.

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Romeo and Juliet

The purpose of this essay is to investigate the impact of the first act in Romeo and Juliet, upon the audience, in relation to the rest of the play.

Four hundred years ago William Shakespeare wrote Romeo and Juliet, a popular play which continues to capture the imaginations and emotions of people around the world.

The drama shows the passion, violence and desperate lives of the youth ion Verona. In this play, Shakespeare explores the pitfalls of young love and the consequences of their actions. They said they had to be together even though there parents were sworn enemies over a long standing feud, or as it was put in the prologue 'An ancient grudge'.

In Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare shows how love can create and end many of life's great problems.

The background story is of the long standing feud between the two leading families of Verona, the Capulets and the Montagues. Romeo is a love sick young man who can't seem to get over his beloved Rosaline who wants nothing to do with him and ignores him. Romeo suffers the pains of unrequited love but his friends Benvolio and Mercutio regard it as little more than a ridiculous infatuation. When Romeo and his friends bluff their way into the party held by the Capulets he sees Juliet whom he immediately falls in love with and Rosaline is not heard of again. Juliet, unfortunately, is soon to be married to Paris, a young nobleman. So begins a series of great tragedies, which lead to Romeo and Juliet committing suicide and the families finally resolving the feud.

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Romeo and Juliet is different to all of Shakespeare's plays because, unusually for the time, the prologue is a short synopsis of what is intended to happen before the play begins. This, therefore, impacts massively on the audience as they now know what to expect so the whole play is anticipated. Also, in a sense, the audience foresee our young lovers' fate. As the audience have prior knowledge of events they read or listen closely to the dialogue.

The opening of the play has an immediate impact upon the audience as within thirty lines we are in ...

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