The beginning of act 1 scene 2 Paris is asking to buy Juliet from Lord Capulet as soon as possible through a marriage proposal. Lord Capulet Like any good father feels that his daughter is still a stranger in this world and wants to wait another two summers. Paris continues to pressure Capulet into marrying Juliet “younger than she are happy mothers”. Paris’s assault those not even make Capulet move slightly from his decision “too soon marr`d are those so early made”. For the time being Lord Capulet seems to be emotionally and mentally stable considering how things happened in his times. It seems that in this part of the play Capulet really cares for his daughter’s well being.
On the other hand Juliet’s mother Lady Capulet idea of choice given by Lord Capulet seems biased. Lady Capulet sole intention to go her daughter’s room in Act 1 scene 3 is to force her daughter into marrying Paris. Whether this is out of personal experience or greed only Shakespeare knows. Juliet greet her mother as if she is a slave “Madam, I am here. What is your will?” This shows that Juliet and her mother are not close. The theme of marriage is bought up by the nurse, which Lady Capulet continues. After which she practically forces Juliet to admit to marrying Paris mainly for the purpose that the family gains wealth and power “gold clasps locks in the golden story.” This shows that Lady Capulet is only interested in her interests and not of that of her daughter’s happiness. This could cause huge difficulties with the way that things might unwind in the near future.
The most influential act of fate happens in Act 1 Scene 2, which propels a domino effect to happen which, then the play is set in motion. The agent of fate in this circumstance is the servant Peter. Due to Peter illiteracy he cannot read the names on the invitation to the Capulet party form, this then causes him to ask Benvolio. When Benvolio reads the letter he has an idea to cheer up Romeo he plans to gate crashing to the Capulet party “With all the admired beauties of Verona”. Basically at this point the audience should already be guessing that Romeo would meet Juliet at this party and fall madly in love with her.
Due to Benvolio plan of gatecrashing the three friends Benvolio, Mercutio and Romeo are waiting outside the Capulet villa very anxious. Romeo is frightened of being caught considering that he is the mortal enemy of the Capulet family and does not know what fate might beseech him “What, shall this speech be spoke for our excuse?” Mercutio manages to calm him down “Nay, gentle Romeo, we must have you dance.” From the action of Benvolio and Mercutio the plot of the tale is allowed to continue because of their urging and reassuring attitude toward Romeo.
Fates domino effect starts to kick in to at this moment. When Romeo first sees Juliet he falls madly in love with her appearance “she teaches the torches to burn bright!” Romeo then continues on to talk about “Pilgrims”, “Saints” and “Palmers” which indicates that both Romeo and Juliet understand about the higher powers of love and fate that hath brought them together. Shakespeare might have waited so long to introduce love into the equation of the play to build up tension. Also this introduction of love might used to increase the potency of that theme. During the ball Tybalt by chance catches a glimpse of Romeo and feels enraged that his enemy is at a Capulet event “by stock and honour of my kin, To strike him dead”. Yet again Tybalt is flaring up which could lead to a disaster in the future. Lord Capulet wisely senses Tybalt`s anger and steps in to stop a fight braking out “ Let him alone:” Tybalt ignores Capulet`s wishes due to his fiery nature “I’ll not endure him.” This angers Capulet who tells him off for his insolence “Am the master here, or you?” This so-called chivalrous attitude that Tybalt has will not let go of the fact that Romeo has trespassed onto his land and will for sure get him trouble.
The Capulet event ends and Act 2 scene2 begins, Romeo is wandering around the Capulet orchard that belongs to the Capulet`s, madly in love. This is stupid because Romeo is endangering his life this shows that he is too impetuous. Then Juliet by the third act of fate in the domino effect comes out onto the balcony. At the beginning Romeo acts in a fickle way in that he is only acting in a mesmerized in Juliet this is a great sign that he is immature. This is scene is a perfect example of rash decisions and unruly mistakes. Juliet rash and yet somewhat wise decision to put the idea of marriage into the subconscious of Romeo is only a half hatched idea. Through this entire scene Shakespeare tries to convey the strength of women through reversing roles. A great example of this is the way in which Romeo is controlled by his animal lust while Juliet takes control of the situation. Juliet does this by setting up the entire event and even plans a date. Even though Juliet actions are mature they are still to impetuous especially considering that the wedding is set for the morning.
Romeo has been wandering all morning contemplating the wedding; he then goes to Friar Laurence. This scene shows the audience that Friar Laurence is Romeo’s father figure “God pardon sin wast thou with Rosaline” which also shows that Friar Laurences cares about Romeo. Romeo then breaks the news to the Friar that he will be marrying Juliet. Friar Laurence agrees to this on the theory that if this marriage takes place the two feudal families will lay their swords down in that the “vancour” will be turned into love. These events show that Friar Laurence is an extremely wise especially the piece of advice he issues Romeo “Wisely and slow; they stumble that run fast” this obviously shows that Friar Laurence knows of Romeos impetuosity. Friar Laurence agreement to the marriage has let the plot advance another stage.
Due to the raising temperature in Verona Benvolio senses that something bad might happen “Lets retire; the day is hot, the Capulet`s abroad.” From this we gather that something bad is brewing in this scene and that Benvolio senses it that shows that intelligent. During this conversation between Benvolio and Mercutio, Tybalt arrives searching for Romeo so Mercutio in a show of bravado start to annoy him “heres my fiddlestick”. At this moment of time by coincidence Romeo arrives so Tybalt his eyes off Mercutio “here comes my man” he then continues on annoying Romeo but Romeo does not care showing that he now his some grip on his emotions. At this moment Mercutio gets himself into a fight with Tybalt, which Romeo tries to stop, but which ends in Mercutio`s death. This dries Romeo insane so he attacks and kills Tybalt, which leads to his banishment to Escales.
Friar Laurence has a plan in which he will get Romeo and Juliet back together. The plan involves Juliet taking a drug, which will make her look dead so that her arranged marriage to Paris does not take place. When news reaches Romeo through Balthsar his servant that Juliet is dead Romeo plans on committing suicide, which shows that, he is to rash and cares for himself. The reason to why the message does not arrive is that Friar John has entered a quarantined city due to the plague. This is another sign of fates dominance in the play. Friar Laurence’s plan was a spur of the moment thing, because of the haste that the plan was prepared in there were a lot of things that could have gone wrong. So Friar Laurence basically contradicts his advice that he gave Romeo.
