Benvolio comes in to stop the fight, and shows almost straight away that he is mature, sensible and confident. When you look closer, you see that he is young and uses poetry to speak, showing he has authority. The servants obviously know of his importance and stop fighting. This shows that they understand his authority and that they do not want to cross him. Another possible explanation could be that he could be a master swordsman.
Tybalt is a strong character that is misunderstood by the audience. Most people would see him as a villain, but in reality he is a strong, young man who cares for his family, and he would fight for them whenever needed. Tybalt intimidates people and thinks that he is far more superior than he actually is. On level of combat, he might well be better, but he lets that mind set influence him while in his social role.
When Prince Escalus arrives, he projects an immediate vibe that he is in charge, and to show that he has a high status in society, Shakespeare has turned his speech in to sonnets. The Prince, in his speech, explains the basis of the feud between the Montagues and the Capulets. ‘Three civil brawls’ suggests that not only do the families fight, but the other citizens of Verona have picked a side as well. The Prince seems to have given them their last chance when he says ‘If you ever disturb our streets again, your lives shall pay the forfeit of the peace.’ All the violence that the Prince describes gives you an insight as to what the society was like at this time. There were no mass populated cities with countryside cottages in between each one, but rather small kingdoms ruled by an assumed royal. The lives in these kingdoms were dangerous as they didn’t have much of a police force, only the royal guard. Wives and husbands, however, aren’t much different. Wives are still caring for their families, while husbands protect their family, but today they don’t start sword fights.
As the fight in the streets ends, Lady Montague starts to help the wounded people. She asks Benvolio about her son, Romeo. Shakespeare has been clever here. He has started to talk about Romeo, one of the main characters, when we are already quite far into the play. This caring role that Lady Montague is portraying is quite a contrast from the prologue, as it says that her son will take his life because she and her husband are fighting with the Capulets. This family obviously cares for each other enough to worry if they have been hurt in a fight, as we see in the quote ‘Right glad I am he was not at this fray.’
When Benvolio was talking to Lord and Lady Montague, he spots Romeo walking towards them. This is where we see the Mature Benvolio subside to the more boyish Benvolio. He is cheeky towards Romeo, even though Romeo is showing that he wants to be left alone. Romeo was described earlier by Bevolio as being ‘underneath the grove of sycamore’. A sycamore tree symbolises love, and this is showing that Romeo may be troubled by love. Romeo simply ignores Benvolio and carries on walking. Finally, Romeo starts to open up. He talks about what love is, and what it’s supposed to be. To explain what he thinks love is Romeo uses a lot of Poetic language.
We can use ‘She’ll not be hit with Cupid’s arrow’ as an example of a particular poetic device called a cliché. Romeo’s use of a cliché is evidence that he does not truly love this girl, and he is simply describing what he thinks should be happening. A common cliché is here, because when people describe love, they often describe a baby angel with a bow and arrows, shooting people and seeing them instantly fall in love with one another.
The legend of Cupid comes from Roman or Greek mythology. The Romans believed that Cupid was the son of Venus, goddess of love, and variously Mars, Mercury, or Neptune, while the Greeks believed that he was called Eros, and he was seen as one of the primordial Gods. Cupid was usually depicted with wings, a bow and a quiver of arrows. The most common story of Cupid is that his mother, Venus, was jealous of the princess Psyche, who was so beloved by her subjects that they forgot to worship Venus. She ordered Cupid to make Psyche fall in love with the vilest thing in the world. While Cupid was sneaking into Psyche’s room, he accidentally scratched himself with the arrow, and falls in love with her. Following that, Cupid visited her every night while she slept. Cupid told her never to look for or at him. One night, Psyche disobeyed him, and looked to see who he was. When he left, Psyche looked all over the known world for him, and finally, Jupiter, the leader of the gods, gave her immortality so they could spend the rest of eternity together.
Another poetic device that Romeo uses is an oxymoron, which is show in the quotes ‘cold fire’ and ‘sick health’. When these quotes are spoken in the play, both of these quotes are showing that there are two sides to everything, whether that is a good thing or a bad thing. In this case, Romeo is saying that love is good when you have it, but when you want it but don’t have it, it can be painful.
This ‘crush’ on Rosaline is merely a young first love, because further along in the play we see that when Romeo meets Juliet, he marries her within two days of meeting her. Bearing this in mind, Romeo’s attitude towards women is much more savoury and mature compared with the uneducated servants. The servants joke about ‘thrusting’ women against a wall, while Romeo has been taught to respect women, and to love and cherish them.
