How long is't now since last yourself and I
Were in a mask?” In this we see Lord Capulet reminiscing about when he used to go to parties in the old days, this saddens the atmosphere slightly but he then moves on talking about good things and joking about. Lord Capulet’s character and personality changes in act 1 scene 5 as his character and personality in act 1 scene 1 was very arrogant and bad and easily aggravated. Also in act 1 scene 1 we see him as a man who likes to fight and hates Lord Montague, we know this as he does not hesitate to fight when the two families fight as he says to his wife “What noise is this? Give me my long sword, ho!” This also shows us that he wants to fight straight away and he won’t even talk it out, he just wants his sword straight away and wants to go straight into battle. In act 1 scene 5 Lord Capulet also tries to entertain his guest and amuse them, we see a side of him that we thought would never be revealed as he jokes with his guest, “Welcome, gentlemen! Ladies that have their toes unplagued with corns will walk a bout with you.” This also shows us that he wants to dance with people and he is not bothered what mood anybody is in or who comes to the party, as he wants to have a good time. The appeal to the audience that this opening section has is that it makes scene 5 become more exciting, appealing and it uplifts the atmosphere as the servants are shown rushing about and excited it shows us that something good should be happening and it should be a joyful section. Also Lord Capulet’s speech twists this section, as you do not think Lord Capulet will be in such a jolly mood as the previous scenes make us believe that he is an arrogant man and is not able to have a good time. This may confuse the audience and make them doubt other characters for example Romeo is such a poetic and romantic character but he may change further on in the play to become evil and rude as Lord Capulet becomes totally the opposite of what he is at he beginning of the scene. Another appeal to the audience might be that the character’s personalities have changed as Lord Capulet’s personality in act 1 scene 5 contrasts with his personality in act 1 scene 1.
There are many words and phrases in this scene that reveal to us that Romeo is thinking of Juliet’s beauty in terms of brightness in contrast to the surrounding darkness. Some are “It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night
As a rich jewel in an Ethiop’s ear” here imagery of light and dark is used also the element of wealth is introduced. The phrase about her being a jewel implies that she is precious and stands out from the rest of the crowd it could also imply that she shines brightly unlike everybody else, as they are all dull and dark. The phrase about her hanging upon the cheek of night could suggest that she makes the day and night happen, it could also mean that in the night she still shines even through the darkness. Another phrase is “O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!” this tells us that she makes torches burn bright, Romeo uses hyperbole by exaggerating about how she is able to teach objects how to burn bright and torches are usually used in the dark for light therefore this may mean that even in the day time she is bright as well as the night time. Another phrase is also “So shows a snowy dove trooping with crows,” this tells us that she is a white dove and everybody around her are black crows, this also makes her stand out from everybody else and white is a bright colour and black is a dark colour, this tells us that she is bright and she glows and stands out amongst all the other dull and dark people. This tells the audience how beautiful Juliet really is and it makes the audience think about this in their head and try to imagine what she looks like as Shakespeare uses imagery. It also allows the audience to think about what Juliet would look like in other forms for example when Romeo says that she is like a “snowy dove trooping with crows” the audience are able to think about how much Juliet stands out and why Romeo loves her so much. Also the things that Romeo says about Juliet are unrealistic and childish as somebody is not that beautiful that everybody surrounding her is nasty and somebody is not bale to teach torches how to burn. Romeo’s language tells us that he is astonished at how beautiful somebody can be and how amazing somebody can look. He also says, “For I ne’er saw true beauty till this night.” This tells us that his feelings for Roasaline were not true feelings and he just liked her, it also tells us that Romeo is a person that just goes on looks and he is slightly confused as before in the play he thought that Roasaline was his true love and now he thinks Juliet is his true love. But Romeo believes Juliet is amazing and she is his true love and he has true feelings about her. He is also willing to do anything to be with her as we find out later on in the play and if he cannot be with her then he must go to the extremes to make sure he joins her somehow. The language used here by Romeo contrasts with the language used by Lord Capulet because Lord Capulet’s language was all humorous and he was joking about with people and being slightly rude and trying to have a good time whereas Romeo’s language is more poetic and romantic and more formal he also uses a lot of rhyming couplets. The way Romeo speaks is the total opposite to the was Lord Capulet speaks and Lord Capulet is joking about whereas Romeo is serious and fully committed as he cannot be joking about when it comes to love somebody. The language used by Romeo tells us that he is a helpless romantic and he really loves Juliet and he is very good at talking poetically and talking about love.
Shakespeare might have added a confrontation between Tybalt and Lord Capulet at this point in the scene because the party atmosphere may have been jolly and good and there may of needed to be something that ruins the atmosphere slightly. At this point in the scene the audience will be quite confused as to why Lord Capulet is turning on his own blood and favoring someone from the other family when there is a war going on between the families. It also makes the audience quite anxious as they want to know what is happening and what is going on, even thought Lord Capulet did not want any fighting he himself is making a big scene by shouting at his own blood causing guest to look around and wonder what is happening to him. At this point of the scene Lord Capulet is slightly drunk and does not fully understand what he is doing, this may also have a reason to why he if fighting with his own blood rather than him fighting with his own blood if he was in the right frame of mind. Also at this point in the scene the party is going well and Lord Capulet does not want anything to ruin or spoil it therefore he does not want anybody to squabble amongst each other. “A villain that is hither come in spite,
To scorn at our solemnity this night.” It is significant that Tybalt speaks like Romeo in rhyming couplets because they have the same style of language but Tybalt is a contrast with Romeo as Tybalt speaks about the opposite theme, Romeo speaks about love and good things and Tybalt speaks about hate and bad things. The impression that we have formed of Tybalt from this scene and Act 1 Scene 1 is that Tybalt answers to nobody and he is very proud, we have also learnt that Tybalt is Juliet’s cousin and he wants the best for her also he hates all of the Montague’s and he will fight them no matter what. “It fits when such a villain is a guest.
I’ll not endure him!” We also gather that Tybalt is very proud and when he does something, he believes that it is good and everything he does should be against the Montague’s. The effect his exchange has on the mood of the scene is that it makes it more dramatic and less joyful and upbeat, it makes the atmosphere more tense and it takes away the element of fun away, the theme of love is taken away and brings in the element of war and fighting, the theme of hatred is brought in.
The different stages of the dialogue between Romeo and Juliet are represented through three sections, lines 93-106 are written as a sonnet, the different stages have been represented by three sections and the first section of sonnet form is from line 93-96 a, b, a, b then the next section is line 97-100 c, d, c, d and then the next section is line 101-106 e, f, e, f, and for the line 105-106 they are rhyming couplets “sake” and “take”. The sonnets effect is to make the audience feel upbeat and jolly as rhyming is fun and it may uplift the atmosphere. Rhyming will not be taken as serious as if somebody told a story without rhyming so it changes the audiences view to whether to take the speech serious or not. The imagery used in this section is all to do with religion for example Sins, pilgrims, etc. The imagery used is saying what they may want to do such as commit a sin and they look at what they are doing from a religious point of view for example if they want to have a relationship and kiss, if they were not married then it may be classed as a sin this may appeal to the audience as it involved more themes rather than just love. Also the imagery that they use rhymes apart from a couple of lines, the whole time they are speaking with each other they are rhyming. We should take Romeo’s new found love quite seriously as he goes in depth about what he is talking about and he uses his best chat up line and he rhymes everything to the best of his ability. Also the fact that earlier on in this scene he talks about not ever feeling true love up until then, this implies that he is truly in deep love with Juliet. “If I profane with my unworthiest hand
This holy shrine, the gentle sin is this:
My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand
To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss.”
The language used by Romeo suggests to us that he is genuinely in love and this is not just another infatuation because of the way he acts towards Juliet and his language is so calm and peaceful and always about love and peace.
What we learn about Juliet is that she is young and has never been in love at all and falling in love with Romeo is her first time falling in love with somebody, this tells us that she is innocent and naïve and she is also venerable. Romeo’s attitude to love compared to Juliet’s is very different because Romeo is very impatient and he wants to be with Juliet and be with her whereas Juliet is slightly more precocious and does not want to rush anything and go straight into a relationship with Romeo but Romeo does not care as he just wants to be with her and love her. Romeo seems slightly desperate and persistent as he keeps pestering Juliet and saying his best chat up lines to get her to love him and he acts slightly cheeky and rude as he keeps trying to kiss her. The way Juliet finds out whom the boy she has just met is by asking the nurse to find out several boys names and she only takes into account the name of the boy she had just met. She does not ask the nurse outright as the nurse is loud mouthed and she likes to gossip, e also gather that she likes to make rude jokes and have a laugh and if Juliet was to ask her outright who the boy was then she would mention to others that Juliet has fallen in love with a boy she met at the party and the boy is Romeo and she would gossip about it to lots of people and the stories would get twisted and they would be exaggerated.
Shakespeare has made this scene very dramatically effective as he has different sections of different things happening some of the things are good and some of them are bad for example it starts off with the servants and Lord Capulet making the atmosphere joyful and uplifting and it then moves onto Romeo adding love into this scene because he has seen Juliet for the first time, then Tybalt fights with Lord Capulet over Romeo being at the party and the atmosphere becomes tense then once again love and romance is added to the atmosphere as Romeo and Juliet meet and talk to each other. It does make us want to find out what happens next as we do not know whether Juliet forgets about him or she goes after Romeo even though he is a Montague or whether Romeo’s feeling about Juliet were not for real and he was just chatting because she looked nice. But we know what happens as foreshadowing and the prologue tells us that what they are feeling for each other is true love as they take their lives to be with each other. “If he be married,
My grave is like to be my wedding bed.” This foreshadowing tells us that she is going to die and if he is already married then she is already dead and she will not marry anybody else as she will die unmarried. There is a love and hate contrast as she talks about getting married and loving him yet she also talks about dieing if she cannot marry or be with him. We would also want to know what happens between Tybalt and Lord Capulet and Romeo e.g. whether Tybalt goes after Romeo once they leave or he goes after all of the Montague boys. This scene may appeal to a modern audience as this sort of thing happens between some families, e.g. when they have a party somebody that they do not like attends it and then somebody wants to kick them out also people fall in love sometimes from the two feuding families but the romance part may be slightly different as people nowadays tend not to fancy younger or older people and go out with them if they are quite a significant age older or younger than them especially not taking it to the extent of getting married but the themes may appeal to people and the fact that it also includes religion may attract other and lead them to believe its not all about love and hate.
