This already gives the hint that Romeo is interested in Juliet towards the audience. The impression is given away, love at first sight. His sudden affections for her flow through with such beautiful metaphors to describe her. The emotions between the young lovers soon burn deeply within their hearts.
The scene opens with servants bustling about and talking frantically to each other as everyone has a particular job to do. This creates a busy, carnival atmosphere. This tells us that this Ball is to be a success as everyone is steadily working hard! The scene starts with servants rushing around busy serving and attending to needs. It builds constant tension as everyone is impatient and in a hurry. For instance when the Second Serving man responds back to the First Serving man in lines:
“When good manners shall lie all in one or two men’s hands, and they unwashed too, ‘tis a foul thing.”
From this line the Second Serving man sounds impatient and easily frustrated. My reasons for this are that he obviously got fussed over the manners used to address him stating it to be foul. With every one working to the max any little thing could get them agitated.
Now at the scene of the Ball, Capulet is obviously enjoying himself as he welcomes the guests and adds a little of his good humour. Capulet makes an effort to make all the guests relax and let go for the evening. You can observe this in these lines:
“Welcome, gentlemen! Ladies that have their toes
Unplagued with corns will have a bout with you…
Come, musicians, play.
Music plays
A hall, a hall! Give room! And foot it, girls.
And they dance.”
This encourages people to let loose as the atmosphere is warm and welcoming. As the surroundings was quite tense and depressed, Capulet managed to snap everyone tapping to the music, laughing to his jokes and having an enjoyable time!
When Romeo is describing Juliet he uses the language of imagery to show how profound and real his love is. As he talks softly about Juliet comparing her to beautiful images, its shows how true his love for her is for as in this line he says:
“So shows a snowy dove trooping with crows…”
To compare her to a dove is almost as though saying Juliet is so pure and beautiful that you could notice her out of all the other girls that go on unnoticed even if they were to, none of which catch the eye of Romeo. The language used has an impact on the scene as it changes the mood to seem in high spirits and drawn to the attention of Juliet – this draws the audience in.
The scene where Tybalt observes Romeo from the crowd, the scene grows tense. It is more or less a love hate scene. After Romeo is still busy intrigued in Juliet’s beauty isolated from anyone else’s view Tybalt is already talking spiteful about his presence there. As Capulet tries to talk him out of doing anything for now, he is trying to keep everyone entertained.
“…be patient, take no note of him…
Am I the master here, or you? Go to…”
Capulet is stating his orders towards Tybalt to lay off Romeo for now. If Tybalt was to start trouble, which is why the tension was built anyway, the party mood atmosphere would drop drastically and would fill with violence –exactly what Capulet was trying to avoid.
After the angry exchanges between Capulet and Tybalt we return to the lovers. Shakespeare captures their moments together. They seek religious imagery words to explore their love for each other. It suggests the depth and sincerity of their love. As their words towards each other recited a sonnet, finishing off each others lines:
Towards Romeo, Juliet says
“Saints do not move, through grant for prayers’ sake.”
Towards Juliet, Romeo says
“Then move not, while my prayers effect I take.”
The sonnet shows sincerity towards each other and how affectionate they are towards each other. This is a sudden change of scene after the tension from Tybalt, the atmosphere returns soft and light.
In this scene Shakespeare builds up tension as he leaves the audience engaged at this point as he delays it on a cliffhanger. Still aware, that Tybalt’s urged to take revenge on Romeo, will take place at an earlier stage during the play. While leaving Romeo in the dark on all that is going on behind closed curtains, he is sharing his first moments with Juliet. As the scene ends, we await the tragedy in case there is a sudden turning point in the story as anything can happen in a cliffhanger.
At the end of the scene also, Juliet leaves the scene which strikes a chilling note behind, the line being:
“My grave is like to be my wedding-bed”
Juliet says this because she is yet still unaware of Romeo’s true identity as a Montague. She fears, let him be married then she would rather not live and let her wedding-bed be the grave. Shakespeare then builds tension when the two young lovers discover each other’s fate towards the family name. Capulets and Montagues always disagree. Romeo and Juliet are therefore enemy lovers through destiny because of their family names. The tension is sky high as neither one is pleased to hear of this sudden news. It grips the audience for what will happen next as that is where the scene ends.
I think Shakespeare definitely achieved tension well in Act one Scene five, as no one is sure what is to happen next in the play. Tybalt already seeks vengeance for Romeo and with Juliet and Tybalt’s relation with each other tension arises as this is intervened with family matters. The young lovers won’t live happily ever after as they intend to. The tension continuously rises and falls however, Shakespeare left everyone thinking rhetorically in the last scene. The excitement bubbles for the audience.
