Once Romeo sees Juliet for the first time, he starts a soliloquy describing her beauty. He uses metaphors to compare Juliet to romantic objects such as “a rich jewel”, “a snowy dove” and that he had “ne’er saw true beauty” until that night. He also uses poetically exaggerations by saying that Juliet “doth teach the torches to burn bright”.
This romantic mood is quickly changed to an aggressive mood with Tybalt realising Romeo is at the feast. Tybalt gets angry and immediately reacts by telling a servant to “fetch my rapier”. He talks about how his archenemy is in his family’s house and that he shall “strike him dead” in retaliation and anger. In this scene, and at the beginning of the play, Tybalt is introduced as an aggressive, angry young man. Romeo's presence at the ball rouses him to such anger that he calls for his sword in order to kill him. He thinks that Romeo has crashed the party in order to scorn the Capulets. Instead, Romeo, in dramatic irony, has fallen headlong in the love with Juliet.
Tybalt then tells Capulet that there is a “Montague, our foe” in their feast. Capulet also dislikes the Montagues but he abides the Princes’ command that there should be no more fighting and because he is host, he can not let there be any blood shed under his own roof. He says that Romeo is a “virtuous and well-govern’d” person so should not be hurt. Tybalt is angry that he could not fight Romeo and that Capulet makes a fool of him by calling him a “saucy boy” and “a princox”. This relaxes the anger and tension with Tybalt leaving them saying that “this intrusion” will seem funny but will “convert to bitterest gall”. This is true as later on in the play Tybalt fights and kills Romeo’s friend Mercutio in retaliation.
Once Romeo talks to Juliet he creates a romantic atmosphere again by asking to kiss her hand. He uses a lot of references to religion and religious metaphors suggesting that Juliet is a saint and that he must resolve his sins. He also says that this is a “gentle sin” which is an oxymoron because in the 16th century gentle meant noble/virtuous and a sin, which is the opposite of nobility. He says that Juliet’s hand is a “holy shrine” and that his lips are pilgrims ready to “smooth” the “rough touch with a tender kiss”.
Juliet reply’s by saying that holding hands “palm to palm” is a holy “palmer’s kiss”, meaning that holding hands is the right kind of kiss, whereas lips are for prayer and are not needed. Romeo argues that even “saints” and “holy palmer’s” have lips and that they should be used. Juliet then says that a pilgrim’s lips “must use in prayer”. At this point while Romeo and Juliet are talking, they are talking in sonnet form, which is a rhyming 14 line poem and was regarded in the 16th century as the proper medium for love poetry. In the sonnet, Romeo is convincing her to kiss him so that his sins can be repented.
At this point Romeo’s quite witty response is to let his “lips do what hands do”, meaning let his lips kiss her rather than their hands as Juliet said. He then says that his prayer is to kiss her and that his “faith turn to despair”, showing that he really wants to kiss her and it is his cream or prayer to do so. Juliet then says that for the sake of his prayers and to “grant for prayers’ sake” he can kiss her. By allowing Romeo to kiss her, Juliet is showing her acceptance of him and her love for him. Then before kissing her, Romeo asks her to stay still while his “prayers’ effect” takes place. This makes the scene an effective piece of drama.
Once Romeo kisses Juliet, he says that his “sin is purg’d” and he is purified of his sins. Juliet then says that it was her “lips the sin that they had took”, meaning that his sins were passed onto her. Again Romeo doe something witty and quite comical by saying, “Give me my sin again”, showing he wanted to take the sins back, so takes the opportunity to kiss her again. This relaxes the romantic mood of the scene’s end and makes a more neutral and equal atmosphere, however, there is still fragments of romance and passion remaining. The language used by Shakespeare in this part of the scene eloquently describes the deep passion that they feel for one another.
Once Romeo kisses Juliet, it appears that they are going to lead into another sonnet, but then the Nurse comes in, who quickly breaks up the romantic atmosphere and orders Juliet to go to her mother, as she “craves a word” with Juliet. Once Juliet leaves, Romeo asks who “is her mother?” with a reply by the Nurse that “Her mother is the lady of the house”. The real strength of their feelings and the irony of their backgrounds are then expressed when Romeo says, "O dear account! my life is my foe's debt", and in Juliet's paradox towards the end of the scene where she says how her “only love, sprung from my only hate”. Romeo learns Juliet is a Capulet and is shocked at the thought that he owes his life's happiness to an enemy family in particular, Capulet’s daughter.
Once Romeo is pulled away by Benvolio and they all leave, Capulet bids the “honest gentlemen; good-night” and ends the feast. Juliet and the Nurse are then left alone in the room. Juliet asks the Nurse to “Go, ask his name” and in reply the Nurse says that the man she fell is love with was “Romeo, and a Montague”. Juliet is then distraught by the news and asks herself how her “only love, sprung from my only hate”. By the end of the scene, both Romeo and Juliet realise the seriousness of their love and the problems it can cause.
The scene is filled with a lot of irony. Benvolio's plan for Romeo to forget about Rosaline works too well, for Romeo ironically falls in love with Juliet (a member of the enemy family). Juliet attends the party to seek out Paris, and Romeo attends to see Rosaline; ironically, neither Rosaline nor Paris is of interest to the couple once they meet one another. The Nurse also speaks in irony when she tells Juliet that "the strangers are all gone". Romeo, however, is no longer a stranger to Juliet. The scene masterfully contrasts age and experience (the old Capulets) with youth and inexperience (Romeo and Juliet). It also contrasts extreme hatred (Tybalt) with passionate love (Romeo). It is this that creates the varying moods within the scene.
Throughout this scene (apart from the servants) the characters often address each other with the formal and respectful pronoun ‘you’ more often than the informal ‘thou/thee/thy’. When Capulet is being pleasant to Tybalt just after Tybalt fins out that Romeo was present, he uses ‘thou/thee/thy’ but when he becomes angry with him for not ceasing and not calming down, he switches to ‘you’. When there is aggression, ‘you’ is used where as if it is informal or romantic ‘thou/thee/thy’ is used. This use of language makes the scene a very effective drama piece.
In the scene the shift from poetry to prose also created specific mood changes and the characters. The fast paced and rushing mood at the beginning comes with the use of prose by the servants, when Capulet enters, the mood switches and Capulet begins to use verse and poetry when he speaks, giving a sort of high class stature and self confidence to himself. The scene then becomes prose when Tybalt finds out that Romeo is at the feast and may be causing trouble. Once the mood becomes more romantic when Romeo and Juliet begin to talk to one another, it leads into poetic format with the 14 line sonnet. This shifting from prose to poetry gives a clear idea of when and to what the mood changed to.
To summarise, I have found out that Shakespeare used a number of effective methods to create changing moods and dramatic events in the scene. The shifting from prose to poetry, and the use of various characters with different characteristics gives a good insight in the mood of the scene and its effects on the audience. The scene has a lot of dramatic impact. This is mostly due to the variety of moods and the amount of suspense in the scene keeping the audience captivated. The moment where Romeo and Juliet are saying the sonnet allows a vast majority of the audience to empathise with the situation as they recognise what sonnets are and how much of a romantic impact it has. Juliet in particular keeps the suspense before the kiss by telling Romeo that they shouldn’t kiss and that holding hands is enough, Romeo then persuades her to kiss him with relieves the suspense and has a lot of dramatic impact. By using things that the audience can relate to, Shakespeare successfully makes the scene have a large impact on the audience.
To conclude with I believe William Shakespeare successfully made Act 1 Scene 5 of Romeo and Juliet an effective piece of drama. I personally think this because of the way Shakespeare uses things which the audience can relate to and how scene shifts, mood changes and language used. This I find was very successfully incorporated into the scene and is what made the play a successful one.
