Romeo And Juliet

How is Act 3 Scene One a Turning Point in Romeo and

Juliet?

Shakespeare had written this famous play, Romeo and Juliet, in around 1594-6. However, this story had started in the third century and by the fifteenth century it had become immensely popular with many Italian writers. Romeo and Juliet is actually a better structured and better-developed version of Arthur Brooke's poem "The Tragicall History of Romeo and Juliet”.

The play is mainly a tragedy as throughout the play the main characters die either in battle or in love. The audience can also tell that it is a tragedy by the prologue. Romance, comedy and violence are also mixed into the play to make it more interesting for the Elizabethan audiences. In those times the audience were easily bored, a tiny flaw could cause the whole audience to start booing and throw fruits at the stage.

The prologue briefly tells the audience about what is actually going to happen in the play. It is also used to warm up the audience as in the Edwardian times the audience would of needed to get some know what was going to happen as they may of gotten bored or uninterested. The prologue in the play is shows as a blank verse. This is because each line has a total of 10 syllables. There are a total of 14 lines, the first 12 telling the audience about what happens in the play and the last two rounds off the story with its conclusion/twist.

As you can see in the play Romeo has changed his mind quickly, as before it was ^ apparent that he was in/love with Roseline but now he ahs forgotten all about her and is in love with Juliet./With Roseline, my ghostly father? No, I have forgot that name and that name's woe." Romeo can be seen as a visionary as he always refers to dreams and visions when he mentions things and also blames them for his actions and consequences. An example is "Some consequences yet hanging in the stars."

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As act three begins, Benvolio shows that he is a person of good will, which is also the meaning of his name, this is called a characternym. In that scene Benvolio mentions that it is an unusually hot afternoon and through Benvolio he mentions that there will be "mad blood stirring." This has two meanings, one that it is so hot it can affect someone's blood and the other that violence is most probably going to happen. The Commonwealth of England, 1583 states that most assassinations occur in the heat of the summer. This is due to the intense heat that causes most people to become impatient and agitated. Mercutio then explains how Benvolio can't be settling and peaceful all the time, while also being humorous - "Thou wilst quarrel...for cracking nuts...because thou has hazel eyes" - he puns the word 'hazel' as it is also a variety of nut so it is to seem that if it is his eyes that are being cracked. The humour is important as it keeps the audiences attention and focus. Without these puns and humour, the audience would have probably been bored and uninterested by now.

Mercutio takes the whole feud as a joke and doesn't realise how serious and how complicated it is. In act one scene four, Romeo is led to the Capulet’s' ball by Mercutio, which he knew was a bad decision. Tybalt was there and was planned to fight Romeo, but it later ended with Mercutio dieing.

Mercutio tries to start a fight with Tybalt as he enters (". . .peace! I hate the word"). This is because Romeo is not here. Mercutio then agitates him by saying: "Make it a word and blow" (blow meaning to punch). But when Tybalt fights back, this is hard for Mercutio but his humour is still being used with puns such “consort”. In the Edwardian times, consort was a type of music that queer or gay people used to play, so this meant that Tybalt was calling Mercutio gay. Benvolio is discouraging the fight but Mercutio does not agree. This means Mercutio was lying when he said Benvolio was no more peaceful than him.

Everyone becomes confused when they see that Romeo is backing away from Tybalt's challenge. In that era, if you had backed down from a challenge, that was huge disgrace. Act three Scene one is when Romeo has seen his friend for the first time, Mercutio, his cousin Benvolio and his enemy, Romeo after getting married to his one love. Romeo believes he is a “fortune's fool” because his best friend died. This was because he believed that if he didn't get married, or told anyone that he did, than Tybalt would not have died and Romeo himself would not be banished. This is dramatic irony as the audience and knows that Romeo has gotten married but none of the characters do.

An important turning point of the play is when Mercutio dies. He was an extremely humorous man that the audience loved and missed, even until his death and this is crucial as it alerts the audience and keeps them occupied. An example for one of his puns is when just before he dies he says "ask for tomorrow, and you shall find me a grave man", grave meaning solemn and grave as in dead.

Mercutio didn't realise the importance of the feud until the end, when he had to give up his life for it. A few times in that scene he said "A plague a both your houses." This is what Shakespeare used to make sure the audience knew how strong he felt about it and that how saddened he was in one of his best friends when the last of his words were curses to him. Also Mercutio had said that three times, which, for the audience, meant it was a hex, or a jinx.

Before in the play Mercutio had mocked Romeo because of his ideas and he blamed his best friend for the pain and anguish he was feeling at the moment.

Tybalt's personality does not alter in this scene. He calls Romeo a "wretched boy" because he is still angry that lord Capulet was not affected by the appearance of Romeo at the party.

Tybalt was confused, as the man he was after was actually Romeo, because he was brought up in a way to hate his family and the next generations of them until the end of time. But instead he had killed Mercutio, a man he was actually asking peace from - "Well, peace be with you sir, here comes my man (Romeo). But Mercutio had provoked him anyway and started teasing him.

In the first part of the play, despite they're being a street brawl; Romeo was perceived as a gentle and love-stricken character. But Mercutio had also mentioned, "Now thou art sociable, thou art Romeo" which meant that Romeo may not of been acting as himself. Even though that Benvolio, Mercutio and the audience knew that Romeo was being challenged by Tybalt (dramatic irony) in act two scene four, Romeo was not involved in any sort of violence until act three scene one.

Romeo has realised he has become more feminine in his ways, after the death of Tybalt, as he says "Juliet thy beauty hath made me effeminate." Because of this he has become manlier, resulting in being filled with anger, violence and rage as he vows to kill Tybalt. Even when he eventually does his bidding of murdering his best friends’ murderer he still blames the stars by saying "O, I am fortune's fool.”

When the prince found out about what happened he is confused on what to do, as he had earlier told both families, "if you ever disturb our streets again, your lives shall pay the forfeit of the peace." But he also understands that Romeo was acting in revenge as Tybalt had killed His best friend.

Lady Capulet then becomes aggressive and demands justice, that was not common at the time as most ladies just listened and done what they were told to. Eventually the prince makes a decision to banish Romeo from the land. This makes marrying his love extremely difficult. The friar then gives Juliet a sleeping potion to act as she had died so she could also be taken away from the land, but it doesn't go to plan because the letter that Juliet sent was not able to reach Romeo as of the black plague that had settled in England at that time. So Romeo believes that Juliet has actually killed herself. But the Juliet wakes up and sees Romeo, and finding out that he has died she kills herself.

Act three Scene one is a major turning point of the play in numerous ways. Firstly the characters personalities-change, such as Romeo's and Mercutio's. The audiences' viewpoints have also changed, in ways to go against or for Romeo as he becomes more violent and aggressive, the opposite of what he was before. This shows that people can change and characters are not what they seem, in real life or in a play.