Romeo and Juliet Coursework William Shakespeare was born in April of 1564, and died on April 23, 1616, and his plays were some of the most influential ever, at the beginning of his career as a play write he started writing for small productions. But by the end of his career he was doing plays for royal appointment. One of the reasons Shakespeare was so popular was that he had different views to most men at that time, in his plays there would feature strong female figures who would stand up to men’s authority. This made him very popular as the queen at the time was Queen Elizabeth an out going female who was respected. So Shakespeare putting strong female figures in his plays may have helped him to get a better reputation with the queen and women in general. In Romeo and Juliet 3 scene 5 the scene begins with Romeo and Juliet together in Juliet’s room, the scene is romantic and is supposed to show the way Romeo and Juliet feel about each other and how much they care about each other. Juliet realises Romeo is leaving and says “wilt thou be gone? It is not yet near day: it was the nightingale, and not the lark, that pierced the fearful hollow of thine ear; nightly she’s sings on yond pomegranate tree. Believe me, love, it was the nightingale.” This shows that Juliet doesn’t want her husband Juliet to leave. We can also see in the scene that Romeo does not want to leave either as he replies to Juliet saying “let me be tane, let me be put to death, I am content, so thou wilt have it so.” This means that Romeo would rather be captured and put to death than leave his beloved wife Juliet, a demonstration of their love and connectivity were rhyming couplets are used to show that they are connected in heart and soul an example of this is when Juliet says “O now be gone, more and light it grows”, and Romeo replies with “More light and light, more dark and dark our woes! Another example of this is when Romeo exclaims “Farewell, farewell! One kiss and I’ll descend. And Juliet replies with “Art thou gone so, love, lord, ay husband, friend”. This rhyming couplet may have been used to show that this is the last time the couple would see each other for a while, so the bond and connectivity shown in the first rhyming couplet has been temporarily separated just like Romeo and Juliet themselves. At this point Juliet’s nurse enters and informs them of lady Capulet coming up to Juliet’s chamber. At this time Romeo and Juliet must have felt deeply
grieved that they were to be separated, this relates to Juliet’s behaviour later on in the scene, also we can se how effected Romeo is as we quote he says “Dry sorrow drinks our blood” pathos is used here to show that Romeo feels that blood is being drawn from them in sadness, then he says goodbye and leaves repletion is used to show that Romeo doesn’t want their goodbye to so he draws it out by repeating himself “Adieu, adieu!” and an exclamation mark for extra emphasis as he wants to make his farewell meaningful as he doesn’t know ...
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grieved that they were to be separated, this relates to Juliet’s behaviour later on in the scene, also we can se how effected Romeo is as we quote he says “Dry sorrow drinks our blood” pathos is used here to show that Romeo feels that blood is being drawn from them in sadness, then he says goodbye and leaves repletion is used to show that Romeo doesn’t want their goodbye to so he draws it out by repeating himself “Adieu, adieu!” and an exclamation mark for extra emphasis as he wants to make his farewell meaningful as he doesn’t know when he will see his wife again. Already we can se that the mood has changed in the scene from being a happy romantic scene, to being a sad scene were Romeo has had to leave, and both Romeo and Juliet are devastates at this. The scene then progresses onto the entrance of Juliet’s mother lady Capulet who see that her daughter is upset and immediately thinks that she is upset and grieving about the loss in death of her cousin Tybalt due to the use of dramatic irony which is a popular dramatic technique used by Shakespeare. Where as the audience know in reality that Juliet is upset that she has been separated from Romeo. Lady Capulet then goes on to talk about what a bad villain Romeo is for killing tybalt, this undoubtedly makes Juliet more upset changing mood further into sadness, lady Capulet says at one point “well, girl thou weep’st not so much for his death as that the villain lives who slaughtered him”. This means that lady Capulet believed that Juliet was more sad about Romeo still being alive than tybalt being dead. Due to the dramatic irony the audience know that this is not the case. Also the text backs this up Juliet replies to this saying “What villain madam?” this proves that Juliet has forgiven Romeo for killing tybalt and does not class him as a villain as such, this is also show when aside Juliet talks to herself saying “Villain and he be many miles asunder. - God pardon him, I do with all my heart: And yet no man like he doth grieve my heart.” This says that Juliet forgives Romeo with all her heart showing the true love she has for him. Lady Capulet and Juliet both have very different views on the matter lady Capulet wants Romeo dead and Juliet has forgiven him and would do anything to keep the man she loves her husband alive, we can se that lady Capulet wants Romeo dead as she says “we will have vengeance for it, fear thou not: then weep no more . I’ll send to one in Mantua, where the same banished runagate doth live, shall give him such a unaccustomed dram that he shall soon keep tybalt company; And then I hope thou wilt be satisfied”. Lady Capulet then goes on to inform her daughter of the marriage that Capulet had planned for her but she does this stealthily by saying, “But I’ll tell thee of joyful tidings, girl,” and “well, well thou hast a careful farther, child one who to put thee from thy heaviness, hath sorted out a sudden day of joy, that thou expects not, nor I looked not for.” Repetition is used there to show the importance of the marriage. This is done so that Juliet does not know of the wedding till lady Capulet says “Marry, my child, early next Thursday morn, the gallant young gentleman, the county Paris at saint peters church, shall happily make thee a joyful bride.” Juliet is obviously annoyed by this as she is already married to Romeo and replies with this “Now by Saint Peters church and peter too, he shall not make me there a joyful bride”, “I pray you tell my lord and father, madam, I will not marry yet,” lady Capulet then goes on to say that Juliet must tell her father that she wont get married her self “Here comes your father, tell him so yourself ;and see how he will take it at your hands.” Lady Capulet does this as she is not very close to her daughter and fears her husband Capulet. This show the time period that the play was written in as women were subject to their husbands and were expected to do as they were told. The mood in the scene has now changed again due to the dramatic irony and linguistic terms used by Shakespeare, the mood is now a mix as Juliet’s mother is annoyed about Juliet’s refusal Juliet is most likely worried about her father and still deeply upset about the split between her and Romeo that we saw the beginning of the play. The audience receive mixed messages at this part of the scene as they don’t yet know what will happen to Juliet. Capulet then enters the scene by saying “when the sun sets, the earth doth drizzle dew, but for the sunset of my brothers son it rains down right.” This could be a dramatic technique used by Shakespeare to describe the tears of Juliet’s crying, Capulet then goes on to describe Juliet as ship breaking up lost at sea “In one little body thou counterfeits a bark, a sea, a wind: For still thy eyes, which I may call the sea, do ebb and flow with tears; the bark thy body is sailing in this salt flood and thy with them, without a sudden calm, will overset thy tempest-tossed body.” This is another one of Shakespeare dramatic techniques using metaphors to sat Juliet is as ship lost as sea braking apart as she is braking apart as her parents are tying to marry her to Paris when she is already married to Romeo. The audience already are starting to make an opinion of Juliet’s family and soon to come it will be even more backed up. Capulet then goes on to as lady Capulet whether she has told Juliet of the marriage, lady Capulet then replies with “ay sir , but she will none” Capulet then stats to show the nature of his violent angry character more by saying “is she not proud ? Doth she count her blest, unworthy as she is, that we have brought so worthy a gentleman to be her bride?” this show that Capulet is highly annoyed at his daughters response to the marriage which he planned Shakespeare then uses repetition to show the anger and disappointment of Capulet by saying “How how, how how chopt-logic” this also show the impatient nature of Capulet’s character he want what he wants when he wants it and will do what ever it takes to get it, even if it means depressing his daughter by forcing her into marrying Paris. Shakespeare also uses the foreshadowing of events by using the phase “Thursday next” this makes the audience think that there is no way out for Juliet as he keeps mentioning the date and the marriage of paris and Juliet, during this part of the scene the mood has now changed from sad to conflicting and angry this happens to show the way Capulet is feeling. Also to show how desperately Juliet doesn’t want to get married the sage directions and her speech show her getting on her knees and begging Capulet to be patient she says “Good father, I beseech you on my knees, hear me with patience but to speak a word.” But Capulet has none of this and replies saying “hang thee young baggage, disobedient wretch” Shakespeare uses the metaphor young baggage to show that Capulet does not value his daughter much in fact he sees her as baggage and not as a daughter. As the scene progresses Juliet’s nurse steps into the argument to help her by saying “God in heaven bless her! You are to blame, my lord, to rate her so.” this could have been a technique used by Shakespeare for dramatic impact and also to help appeal to female audiences specifically the queen, but also he quickly stays with the traditional values by soon after the nurse speaking out she is quickly shut up by Capulet. Capulet then goes onto do the exact opposite of what the nurse advises him and insults and degrades his daughter more calling her “a wretched fool” and “a whining mammet” at this point the audience really have good impression of what Capulet and are starting to hate him although this is not for sure as we are not able to ask a real Elizabethan audience what they think, Juliet by this point has given up on trying to plead with her mother by buttering her to try and get her to persuade her father, we can se that Juliet is doing this by the complimentary language Juliet uses when she says “O sweet my mother” we know that this is not a normal thing for Juliet to sat to her mother as she is not very close to her thus we se that Juliet is trying to pursues her, but lady Capulet Juliet’s mother being in fear of her husband Capulet refuses to disagree with him and she makes this clear to Juliet by saying “Talk not to me, for I’ll not speak a word. Do as thou wilt, for I have done with thee.” This shows that lady Capulet is prepared to wipe her hands of her daughter just like Capulet than stand up to him, this shows the time period the play was written in as females feared mean as they were higher at this time, possible lady Capulet feared being beaten by her husband or even being cast out onto the streets. As Juliet has failed with her mother she turns to her nurse for advice as she feels closer to her than any of her family and says “O nurse, how shall this be prevented” but now by this point even Juliet’s nurse who has bin on her side has stated to sway towards the side of the Capulet’s possibly because she didn’t want to loose her job, we can see this as the nurse says “I think its best you marry with county. O, he he’s a lovely gentleman!” this show us that Juliet’s nurse even now has been persuaded by Capulet. Shakespeare may have used this to show how much in power men were at that time, saying that even the stronger outgoing women would be eventually pursued by the superior men. But Juliet would never stab her husband in the back by marrying Paris; she makes this very clear as she argues with her nurse foe even suggesting that she re-marry, this is shown by Juliet saying “Ancient damnation! O most wicked fiend! It is more sin to wish me thus forsworn, or to dispraise my lord with that same tongue which she hath praised him with above compare so many thousand times?” this shows that Juliet curses the nurse and says that it would be the worst sin for her to do such a thing to the husband which she loves so dearly, she also exclaims at the end of the scene that she would rather die than marry with Paris, this also show the foreshadowing of events in the following scenes.
