Shakespeare's uses foreshadowing in “Romeo and Juliet” he hints throughout to his readers that something tragic is going to happen. It is almost like he is preparing them, which stops the reader from being overly traumatized.
Sonnets have even been written into a play form and are in various scenes of “Romeo and Juliet”. Sonnets are a type of poem which have verses made up of 14 lines and three quatrains. They are about love and have an ABAB rhyming scheme. The end of a sonnet always finishes with a rhyming couplet so the rhyming scheme of the sonnet ends with CC. The opening of the play is a sonnet, the whole prologue is in sonnet form but one particular sonnet, which I believe to be the most important one in the book, happens where Romeo and Juliet first meet in Act One, Scene Five.
“If I profane with my unworthiest hand
This holy shrine, the gentler sin is this:
My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand
To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss.”
Their speech is integrated into the text in the sonnet form because they are having a deep conversation about love. Also when reading this particular sonnet I thought of the idea of the two opposite families and this seemed well portrayed by a sonnet as it has an ABAB form. In a way, this sonnet could be seen as foreshadowing. It shows the audience that sometime in the future, Romeo and Juliet are going to be together.
We also see foreshadowing used in the prologue. It is used throughout.
“A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life:………
The fearful passage of their death-marked love,”
For me this is the most focused point in the prologue as it is basically telling you exactly what happens before it has even begun. It also shows the different themes in the play, love, death, fortune, fate and misfortune. I think the foreshadowing used in the prologue is a great idea, as it hints to the audience what is going to happen and it makes them think more about the connections throughout the play and to see whether or not their “prediction” changes.
When writing about the dramatic structures and devices of Act One, many images and thoughts came up in my mind. From a director’s point of view, I kept thinking of where to place them and how they would be clothed. Then I thought, well how would the audience want to see it? Would they want both families to be mixed or completely separate to show the theme of oxymorons? I came to the idea that I would have the Prince, stood centre stage, towards the back, wearing an expensive red and gold embroidered gown, with black boots and a black hat with a red feather coming out of the top. He would be stood on the steps of the Town Hall, shouting his speech; this would show his height of importance through status levels, as he would be higher than the rest of the characters.
All of the Montague’s would be positioned stage left and all the Capulet’s, stage right. They would all be in pretty high-class clothes, such as, waistcoats and trousers and smart tasselled dresses. Each of their items of clothing would bear the family crest upon it.
With having the two families at different sides of the stage, the audience would be able to see the pure hatred between the families and would see that, even though they are so alike, they are still complete opposites.
Act One contains a lot of violent language, although it is extremely well written and Shakespeare has carefully crafted this into Act One. During Scene One of Act One, two characters, Abram and Sampson, are swearing in a very sly manor.
“Do you bite your thumb at us, Sir?”
This is portrayed very well and it is a sneaky way of doing it. People may see this as a polite yet odd way of speaking to someone.
This way of speech represents the hatred between the two families. It also shows a hint of sarcasm as the families have both been formally warned by the Prince that if yet another quarrel occurs between them then it will result in banishment. So, by speaking like this, it shows sarcastic comedy as they add, “Sir” onto the end of the sentence, just in case anyone is listening. Not only does this lighten the mood and the situation but it also keeps the audience and groundlings engrossed. Shakespeare used range and variety in his plays, as various kinds of people came to watch them and different people like different things. So, by putting so many themes and storylines into his work, there would always be something for everyone.
For Act Three, I saw a very violent scene and when I thought of placing this on a stage I realised that, to get across to the audience what was going on, I had to show the importance of the main characters using different levels of status and different places on the stage. I would start off with Romeo, he would be using a small amount of space as he arrived and, as he got more and more angry, using larger special areas would show this. Tybalt, on the other hand, would be using big spatial distancing from the start; this would show to the audience he had a certain presence about him and that he liked to make himself known. As with Tybalt, I would position Mercutio in pretty much the same way, although he would use less space, as he didn’t seem to think that highly of himself, he just enjoyed making people laugh. These are the three main characters I would focus on, the extras, such as the police officers, members of public and Benvolio would be in the shadows a little bit more than the bolder characters. This would show that they don’t have as much importance. The clothing for the main characters would be equal to the clothing in Act One. The public wouldn’t be as smartly dressed and the police officers would have on their usual uniform.
Rather cunningly, Shakespeare has managed to entwine violent language into Act Three, Scene One. He has done this by taking a main character, Mercutio, and by making him be evil and violent but in a very devious manor. Throughout the scene Mercutio is seen arguing with Tybalt. He uses abusive language, which in those days would have been extremely offensive, whereas now, a person just wouldn’t think twice.
“Thou hast hazel eyes”
“A man that hath a hair more or a hair less in his beard”
“Such an eye would spy”
“Wakened thy dog that hath lain asleep in the sun”
These all show the language of Mercutio. Up until now we have seen Mercutio as a bit of a funny man, always joking and having a laugh and at this point, we see his serious side portrayed. The characters in this scene show a much more stubborn side to them than we have ever seen before now.
“I will not budge for no mans pleasure”
Mercutio is seen standing up for himself and for what he believes in.
As this is Mercutio’s last scene, I think he is very laid back yet he is verbally fighting for peace at the same time. Even until the very end Mercutio is still the joker that he was always known as. He uses a pun in his speech to create a light-hearted feel.
“Ask for me tomorrow, and you shall find me a grave man.”
“AY, ay, a scratch, a scratch;”
The word “grave” is the play on words as although it’s quite light and flowing it is also very touching as he has just been badly wounded and as, tomorrow, Mercutio will actually be dead. Even on his deathbed, he is still the funny man that everyone saw him as.
There are also metaphors in Act Three.
“Mad blood stirring”
This shows the anger and rage of the scene. It is personification as it brings the “blood” to life. It gives it feeling and it personifies it. Also the foreshadowing in this scene is rather important.
“This days black fate on moe days doth depend.”
This is part of Romeos speech after his best friend has been killed. I think this creates a huge shock to the audience as Shakespeare has killed off one of the, from my point of view, most sympathetic characters in the play. I think that the reason for doing this at this specific point in the play is to show that the fun has now ended, the joke is over and it is serious from now on. Again, this would keep the audience on the edge, as they would have an insight into the future of the play.
Oxymorons appear frequently in “Romeo and Juliet”. An oxymoron consists of two opposing words occurring one after the other. Like the words hot and cold or, happy and sad. Throughout “Romeo and Juliet” we see many different oxymorons. These link up well with the themes of the play as well. The most apparent oxymoron is love and hate. This plays a big part in the play. As two opposites fall in love as the two families continue to quarrel and hate each other, despite the fact that one of each of the family members are in love. It gives us the idea that opposites attract which can be quite confusing, as instinct would tell us that they would immediately repel. Romeo and Juliet are also seen rebelling as they are both going way against their family wishes and it is seen as disobedient and disrespectful.
The revenge play, or revenge tragedy, is a form of tragedy, which was extremely popular in the Elizabethan era. The best known of these are Thomas Kyd’s “Spanish Tragedy”. The plot is about several violent murders and includes one of its characters, which is a personification of Revenge. It is very well linked to Shakespeare’s “Hamlet”. Also “Romeo and Juliet” is seen as a revenge tragedy. The specific language that is used in a revenge tragedy should be high sounding and also ominously prophetic, so the audience can predict an outcome that won’t be good. Therefore it needs to be portentous. At the end of the scene where Mercutio is killed, Romeo becomes a revenger as he uses the language of a revenge tragedy. People may see this as misfortune, as when Romeo quotes;
“I am fortunes fool”
He means he is a good person who has fallen into the trap of following the stars. He thought his fate had all been mapped out and, as a fool he followed his fate.
Overall, I believe that the whole belief about “the violent language spoiling the beautiful love story within” is incorrect. I think that it shows the importance of love and the obstacles and mishaps we go through to find it and to try and keep it. I believe that the violence in the story makes “Romeo and Juliet” more romantic as it shows more feeling and that you would do anything to protect your loved ones. Some people may disagree, they may think that it should be a love story throughout, all happy from start to finish. Others may think that the violence should be greater to see what lengths some people really would go to just for love. These could all be valid points but from were I see it, it makes the characters closer in a way they didn’t think was possible.
