romeo and juliet

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Discuss how Shakespeare uses dramatic devices in Act 3, scene 1 of ‘Romeo and Juliet’ to lead the play towards tragedy.

Tragedy is a manner of drama that creates demonstrations of serious human actions and issues. They mainly display the downfall or death of a high status man or woman. They therefore raise deep philosophical queries about things such as the meaning of human existence, fate and morality. Most commonly in a tragedy we perceive the heroes reach, a ‘peak of happiness’ followed by a peripatetic where events take a turn for the worse. In the 16th century it was predictable that the lives of two rebellious lovers would end in tragedy as there was a great deal of religious tension across England and most people would have experienced religious conflict in their lifetime. The play was greatly influenced by fate. It controls the outcome of the play and ensures that it will be a tragedy. In the prologue we get an insinuation that the play will be a tragedy, ‘a pair of star-cross’d lovers take their life’. Shakespeare did this to influence the audience’s expectations of the tone of the play. It also puts across that the lovers were brought together by fate (‘star-cross’d’ meaning written in the stars like horoscopes).                                                                                      nThis scene occurs immediately after Romeo has married Juliet - which explains his friendliness to Tybalt. The general contrast of love and hate in the play is explicit in this scene. Another theme of the play that is strong in this scene is the idea that we are not in control of our lives (the Friar will say to Juliet later: “A greater power than we can contradict/Hath thwarted our intents”). Here when Romeo has killed Tybalt he cries out: “I am fortune's fool”. This exhibits that Romeo has realised that the fates have doomed this to happen and he personifies ‘fortune’. Fortune would have been important to a 16th century audience as there was less science in those days, and although religion played a big part in their lives they were still very suspicious with the dark arts.

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 Shakespeare establishes the sense of tension in Act 3, scene 1, through initial dialogue between Benvolio and Mercutio. The first four lines delivered by Benvolio (the alleged peace keeper) tell the audience that ‘the day is hot’. This indicates anger and warns the audience of tension, as heat is usually linked to resentment. It also helps to set the scene. He then uses powerful imagery ‘mad blood stirring’ and personifies blood to create furthermore tension. These moments of tension might surprise the audience as the previous scene was the tranquil, happy scene of Romeo and Juliet’s marriage. Although, Shakespeare adds comic ...

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