Romeo And Juliet: Compare Act 1 Scene 1 With Act 3 Scene 1

English Coursework: Romeo And Juliet

Romeo & Juliet: Compare Act 1 Scene 1 with Act 3 Scene 1

Romeo and Juliet, written by William Shakespeare, is a tale of love and tragedy.

Admired by most scholars due to its themes of love, courtship and marriage with poetic qualities, Shakespeare had written this play in the early stages of his career most likely between 1954 and 1955. Romeo and Juliet is known as a tragedy, for first impressions it is evident that something tragic will happen in its course but is given a comedic side to it, also at the time he had written other comedies such as “Love’s Labour’s Lost” and “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”.

“Romeo and Juliet” which is about an age-old quarrel between two households in Verona, Capulets and Montagues, where two young star-crossed lovers are from each family. The two marry in secret and with the calamity, distress and tragedy on-going, they both commit suicide in despair which in course ends this feud between the houses.

Act 1 Scene 1 and Act 3 Scene 1 are, all in all, similar. The structure rarely has noticeable differences and shares the same scenario with a different twist.

The opening scene shows a brawl between the Capulet and the Montague households which takes scene in a public place. Take to note that the stage directions only say “public place” which shows Shakespeare’s intentions. He wants it to be outside, where people can see and get hurt in the process which dramatizes and impacts the scene’s effect on the audience. Also the stage directions “mirror” the first scene as it states “Enter Sampson and Gregory” and “Verona ‘A public place” which resembles Act 3 Scene 1’s stage directions “A public place: enter Mercutio and his page, Benvolio and men”. The Montague’s enter first in both scenes as well.

For both scenes, the fight scene is introduced by a humorous feature as two members of the Montague household throw vulgar jokes at each other at the start of each scene. Gregory and Sampson converse and link sex with conflict, referring to “tool” and “naked weapon” to there weaponry, combined this portrays the link between love and sex with death and violence. And this also being the remaining theme of the play.

“I will bite my thumb at them, which is disgrace to them if they bear it”. The Montague’s take the first move to start this brawl; this shows that ...

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“I will bite my thumb at them, which is disgrace to them if they bear it”. The Montague’s take the first move to start this brawl; this shows that they, in fact, initiated this feud, but their intentions were to make it seem as though the Capulets would cast the first thorn.

From comedy it switches abruptly to bloodshed as the Capulets enter, this constant switching of themes fuels the action of the rest of the play, which provokes Benvolio to stop this “bandying” in the Verona streets. Benvolio, meaning “good-will”, attempts to stop this but “fiery Tybalt” conjures him to equip his sword and ready himself for battle. The sudden change from harmony to hatred from this scene also happens in Act 3 Scene 1.

As the fight goes on, the elderly hot-tempered Capulet draws for his long sword, rather than impede this duel, decides to join in himself, both the ridiculousness of the feud and the gulf between the old and the young are apparent. This part of the play is different to the fight scene in Act 3 Scene 1 as Mercutio, Romeo and Tybalt are only participating. Also the head of each household are more in despair rather vengefulness after knowing the death of Tybalt and Mercutio but in the Act 1 Scene 1, both are keen on fighting.

The fight ends, and the themes is switched from violence and conflict to its other key theme, love. Romeo speaks in sonnets in times of love which is intended by Shakespeare as Petrarch, who wrote sonnets obsessively addicted with his unreturned love for Laura, did. This mirrors Romeo as he is still emotionally tormented by his unreturned love for Rosaline, so Shakespeare regarded him as a Petrarchan. This also happens in Act 3 Scene 1, but is abruptly interrupted by the death of his dear friend Mercutio.

Shakespeare chooses language that reflects youthful thoughts of romance. Romeo describes his state of mind through a series of oxymorons blending the joys of love with the emotional anguish of unreturned love: “O brawling love, O loving hate.” Here he can express such extreme emotions for a woman he barely knows, which puts in practice both his immaturity and his potential for deeper love. It gives the idea to me that Romeo is more interested in the concept of being in love rather than actually loving someone.

As the play progresses Romeo’s use of language escalates into rhyme and sonnet, his expressions sound more genuine rather than like a poem learned by rote. Shakespeare elevates Romeo’s language as he elevates Romeo’s love for Juliet. “Griefs of mine own lie heavy in my breast, which thou wilt propagate, to have it prest”. The iambic pentameter is used but not as effective as Act 3 Scene 1 for example “This day's black fate on more days doth depend; This but begins the woe, others must end” From both examples, you can infer that his use of effectiveness in language is much enhanced in Act 3 Scene 1, in Act 1 Scene 1 he has more of a youthful aura to his speech but as the play progresses, his words and sentence structure tend to “age” ironically.

Comparing Romeo’s language in Act 1 Scene 1 and Act 3 Scene 1 “But love thee better than thou canst devise, Till thou shalt know the reason of my love; And so, good Capulet, which name I tender as dearly as my own,” As you can tell from this quote, his passion for love has won over him, dictating his hatred into a mutual respect for the Capulets. Also the iambic pentameter is evident here especially as his love has grown.

Act 3 Scene 1 starts with loitering on the streets of Verona with Mercutio and Benvolio, wishing to avoid the Capulets, Mercutio deliberately provokes Tybalt into an aggravated state in order to fight. Romeo then appears and Tybalt strikes him with words such as “villain”, this word being the most offensive and cruel word during such times, but love-fuelled Romeo casts this offence away and fights him with love and respect rather than with swords but only because Tybalt is now his relative through the marriage of him and beloved Juliet. Mercutio is sickened by Romeo’s reluctance and decides to intervene and respond. Observing on how these characters react in both scenes is very much different as there are two deaths and has a stronger ambience full of fury and vengeance.

Act 1 Scene 1 is rather noted as an unclear reason of fighting, it’s though as it seems that they have no clue why they detest each other. Additionally, I can see it also has a more of a comedic side as well.

Romeo acts “benevolent”, taken from the name Benvolio meaning “good-will” and tries to end this duel but Tybalt thrusts his sword into Mercutio under Romeo’s arm. Romeo continues as a peaceful, romantic child and keeping emotionally distinct until, of course, Mercutio’s death. Ironically, as Mercutio dies, so does his reluctance. In the other scene, he is nothing like this, vengeful and angered, so we can also put into consideration that something influential may have put him into this position, maybe Juliet or love itself.

Even at the brink of a fatal death, Mercutio still treats the subject of his death with wordplay and puns: “Ask for me tomorrow and you shall find me a grave man.” This can be compared to the first scene because Mercutio still is arrogant and careless in times of battles, duels and even death.

As each scene ends with the Prince’s speech, he is much more emotionally aggravated as he has lost Mercutio, his dear relative, to the blade of a “Capel”. At first, he is less disciplinary with the brawl in the first scene but now after being connected into this more significant “war” by losing a loved one, has favored Romeo, the avenger of Mercutio, by then giving him a punishment, ironically seems as a reward by letting him keep his life, of banishment to Verona.

To conclude, as I stated before that both scenes share indifferent scenarios but with different twists. In Act 1 Scene 1: Romeo is stricken by his unrequited love for Rosaline; kinsmen of each household are in the midst of battle; Mercutio is humorous and careless; Benvolio is still acting in accordance to his name; the quarrel between Montagues and Capulets is still on-going. Now for Act 3 Scene 1: Romeo is again “stricken” but by newly found love Juliet; kinsmen of each household are still in battle; Mercutio is still humorous and careless; Benvolio is still acting in accordance to his name; the quarrel between Montagues and Capulets is still on-going. So by and large my argued opinion is to a certain extent correct.

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