Romeo and Juliet

William Shakespeare wrote Romeo and Juliet in 1596. The play is about two lovers who are from two feuding families and have to hide their love from everyone. Tragedy tests their love and eventually everything ends in despair and sadness. The two fighting family’s are the Montague’s and the Capulet’s. The general themes of this play are tragedy, love, lust, hate, conflict, revenge and most importantly fate. The violence Shakespeare displays in this play are extremely important because the violence which is shown immediately shows the audience the tension between the two opposing family’s. The violence in this play is very dramatic and changes the mood of the scene and scenario very quickly. The violence happens in this play because of the tension between the family’s and the long forgotten reason of hate. The violence shown throughout the play leads to even more fighting, death and sadness. This essay will show the violence and conflict are central this play. Discussing Act 1 Scene 1 and Act 3 Scene 1 will show this. These scenes are significant to the play because Act 1 scene 1 opens the play and gives the audience a first impression of the emotions between the Montague’s and Capulet’s. Act three scenes one is extremely important because it shows the most significant, dramatic and mood-changing violence in the play and it is were the main characters first really encounter tragedy. Both of these scenes open the acts and therefore set the scene to intrigue the audience.

In act one scene one the scene is set in the bust Verona streets and the audience first meets the servants from the house of caplets exchanging crude jokes about their enemies when they spy the Montague’s further away in the Verona streets. One of the servants is anxious and wants to fight the montages and says “I strike quickly being moved” meaning that the servant would fight if one of the Montague’s aggravated or threatened him. Here Shakespeare uses this setting to create potential violence that can be felt by the audience. Then in the scene one of the servant’s signals a rude hand gesture to one of the montages and here the violence begins to develop. The men of the montages and caplets then fight and Benvolio and Tybalt enter. Benvolio and Tybalt are very important members of the montages and caplets and are very high up in the hierarchy, this is shown because Tybalt and Benvolio speak in prose while the servants are the “lesser” men and speak in verse. As the fight becomes more and more serious Benvolio tries to stop the fight by saying “part fools! Put up your swords, you know what not to do”. This shows that Benvolio is a piece maker and is also scared of the consequences that the fight could cause. In comparison Tybalt is contrasting is violent and fiery. This is shown in the heated conversation between Tybalt and Benvolio when there strong personalities clash. The quote that supports this is when tybalt says “Turn thee, Benvolio and look upon thy death” this quote shows that Tybalt is very aggressive and violent. He wishes to kill Benvolio in this fight. Benvolio then says “ I do but keep the peace, put up thy sword or manage it to part these men with me”. Benvolio is panicking and is so desperate for peace between the men that he is willing to turn to Tybalt for help. Tybalt disagrees as he says “what? Drawn and talk of peace? I hate the word as I hate hell, all montages and thee.” Here Tybalt is flabbergasted at the fact that Benvolio has a sword but is talking of peace. He is also saying that he hates peace and wishes to fight Benvolio. He says he hates peace as much as he hates hell, which he compares to hell. This is very dramatic as in this time period hell was the darkest fear. As this fight continues in the Verona streets many of the citizens come out to gaze and find out what is happening. Here lady and lord Montague and lady and lord Capulet hear of the brawl and immediately want to fight each other. They both accuse each other of causing the fight before knowing the facts. The hate that exists between the Montague’s and the Capulet’s is obvious hear as the lords rush to conclusions and blame each other. This is shown when lord Capulet says, “ My sword I say! Old Montague has come and flourishes his blade in spite of me! “ Lady Capulet disagrees and cruelly calls him old which Shakespeare has used to show how long the fighting has existed for. Lord Montague is also alike in the personality of Lord Capulet were he says “Thou villain Capulet! - Hold me not, let me go.” He is also jumping to conclusion about the cause of the fight. Lady Montague is tired of the fighting and for how long it has existed when she says “ thou shall not stir one foot to seek a foe” here she is pleading with lord Montague to not be so stubborn and let the hate lie. Thing that happens in this scene is that the prince enters with his train. The prince’s entrance immediately stops the fighting, as he is such an important character who is respected in \Verona as he is at the very top of the hierarchy. He criticises the men calling them “beasts” which is referring to them being un- civilised and acting as animals. He uses lots of strong adjectives to describe the hatred that exists between them and the stupidity of there fight “with purple fountains issuing from your veins”. He makes sure that the fight has stopped and ends his speech to the citizens telling them that if another fight is created they will pay the price with their lives. The prince wishes the fighting to stop and so, organizes to talk to both lord Montague and lord Capulet to sort things out. Benvolio is horrified at the fighting that has just been displayed and when asked by Montague speaks the truth and uses language to show how much he disagrees with fighting. Romeo is not involved in this fight and when lady Montague asks after her son the audience’s attention is immediately focused on Romeo and when they are going to meet him. Benvolio then speaks of how Romeo acts and how dramatic Romeo is. In the play Benvolio is using prose to show his place in the hierarchy like wise do the characters that are high up in the hierarchy. Benvolio speaks of troubled Romeo and uses personification were he says “the worshipp’d sun peer’d forth the golden window of the east”. Lord Montague tells the audience of what his son is like and this is the first proper impression the audience receives of Romeo. The impression is that Romeo is sad and depressed. This is shown were it says “ away from light steals my heavy son, and private in his chamber pens himself, shuts up his windows, locks fair daylight out, and makes himself an artificial night:” here Shakespeare makes references towards the light which represents happiness and darkness which represents depression. This is to show that Romeo is dramatic and wishes to sulk. When Romeo first makes his entrance Benvolio speaks to him to find out what is wrong and finds out that the reason Romeo is sad is because Rosalie is not in love with Romeo. Benvolio swears to find him another woman.

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At the start of the play the atmosphere that is created is that tensions are high in Verona and that many of the characters are tired with fighting. It also makes the audience interested because this dramatic scene starts right at the start as the fight begins so early on in the play. This shocks the audience and gives them a correct perception of what the characters personalities are like. There are dramatic entrances to show that the prince is a very important member of the society as he enters with his train. The first is when Tybalt enters and to show his violent and aggressive personality he is perceived as being involved in the fight immediately. When the prince enters everything stops and when he departs he leave by saying “on pain of torture, all men depart” this shows that he has the power to punish the men with death. The importance of the princes warning is to show how serious the fighting between the Montague’s and Capulet has become and to show how dramatic the scenes in the forthcoming scenes will be. The scene prepares us for even more conflict and also punishment as the princes warning will be pursued on anyone who is fighting.

The next significantly violent scene we will see is act three scene one. The scene before act three scene one is contrasting to the scene before were Romeo and Juliet become married by friar Lawrence. Both of these scenes are very dramatic and make a noticeable differences in the play as this is the scene were Mercutio and Tybalt are killed and Romeo is banished from Verona. The scene before is about love and romance were as this scene is about death, violence and revenge. This shocks the audience as it is such a change to the scene before and creates sympathy and sadness. The atmosphere between the scenes totally changes and prepares the audience for sadness and violence in this act. Shakespeare sets up an atmosphere of tension and violence at the beginning of the scene because Benvolio who is a serious character is pleading with Mercutio when he says “ I pray thee, good Mercutio, let’s retire: the day is hot the Capels are abroad, and if we meet we shall not ‘scape a brawl” the audience therefore trusts him and when Mercutio makes it clear that he does not care that the Capulets are coming when he says “ by my heel I care not!” it is obvious that a fight is about to happen. At the begging of the scene an image is set that the weather is very hot and that every ones tempers are rising. Mercutio is joking around and is trying to make Benvolio angry so that he can ensure a fight will begin. This is because Mercutio is bored. This is shown when Mercutio says “thy head is as full of quarrels as an egg is full of meat”. In this scene a small fight eventually breaks out between Mercutio and Tybalt when Romeo refuses to fight Tybalt as he is now technically related to him. Mercutio takes on the fight and it is meant to be in good humour but Mercutio ends up dieing. In revenge Romeo then tracks down Tybalt and avenges his friend Mercutio. Romeo hides, distraught at the thought of murdering his own cousin. Lord and lady Capulet immediately blame Romeo. The prince then decides that Romeo is banished from Verona and if he is found inside Verona he will be killed. This scene is extremely important as it means that Romeo and Juliet cannot see each other any more even though they have just become married. It also shows the death h of two of the main characters including Tybalt who was related to Juliet and Mercutio who was related to the prince. After the fight and the murder of both a Montague and a Capulet’s there is even more hate between the two sides, as they believe that justice should be paid. This scene is very important as it shows that fate plays an important part. This is shown when Romeo kills Tybalt and yells, “oh, I am fortunes fool”. This means that Romeo did not want this to happen and he was to stricken with love to notice any of this happening.

In act three scene one Shakespeare uses the effect of dramatic irony were the audience knows that the reason Romeo will not fight Tybalt is because he is now related to him, the characters on stage do not know this but the audience does. The effect that this has on the audience is that they are superior to the characters. It also creates a sense of hope that the fighting could end and Romeo and Juliet could be together. The effect of Mercutio’s language when he is dieing on the audience is very sad because it as if almost he is trying to be strong and show that he cannot lose against the Capulets. This is shown when he says “ay, ay a scratch!” he then makes jokes about it when he tries not to let on to the crowd he is hurt. For example he uses humour and describes himself as “worms meat” and a “grave man”. The repetition of “ a plague on both your houses” shows that Mercutio is angry with Romeo for not taking the fight.

Overall at the end of at three scene one the audience is left feeling exhausted as they have experienced so many emotions such as humour when Mercutio making his jokes at the beginning for example when he says “ and but a word with one of us? Couple it with something, make it a word and a blow”. Also the audience is frightened when the fighting begins and sympathy and sadness when Mercutio and Tybalt are dead and Romeo banished. Act three scene one is a turning point in the play as it is the first time when the main characters die and when Romeo and Juliet’s love is really broken apart. This scene reminds you of act one scene one as it contains dramatic violence and a sense of un-knowing- such as not knowing about Romeo at the beginning and not knowing what will happen to Romeo and Juliet in this scene. Also this is the prince also makes another dramatic entrance and again issues Romeo with a threat.

On the whole I do agree that violence and conflict are central to the play Romeo and Juliet as it insinuates the tragic love between Romeo and Juliet. Also the violent and conflicting scenes are so dramatic and show the audience what the atmosphere is like between the Montague’s and Capulets, which could not have been created by stating it in the play. The play would be less effective without the scenes of violence and conflict as it makes sure that the audience feels many different emotions that shock the audience and make the love between Romeo and Juliet seem even greater. I believe that the violence and conflict in this play is what makes this play so superior as in that time period as it would have shocked the audience. I think that the issues that Shakespeare confronts with Romeo and Juliet can be related to modern day and is what makes the play so suitable for any period of time.

Romeo and Juliet

Romeo and Juliet

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