I am content so thou wilt have it so.’
What Romeo means here, is that he is prepared to die for his love of Juliet. The audience will know how ominous and ironic these words are. This will give them a feeling of pity and fear for to two young lovers.
When Romeo is leaving her room, Juliet says she has an ‘ill-divining soul’ and imagines that she sees Romeo dead in the bottom of a tomb. Both of them are pale and Romeo when says ‘More light and light, more dark and dark our woes!’ these are the last words that Juliet hears from Romeo.
There is tension at the beginning of Act 3 Scene 5 because there is dramatic irony because we know that Capulet has planned the marriage. So the audience can see how happy Juliet is with Romeo but they know it will be ruined- it’s fate. The audience a fairly sure Capulet will go through with making Juliet marry Paris for his benefit too because it was common in the times of Shakespeare for children (mainly of the rich and often girls) to be married to a person chosen by the parents. This was to gain money, power or/and to improve relations with other families, countries or regions and Paris we know is an eligible bachelor.
Images of darkness in the play stand for death, violence, sadness and secrecy. At the beginning of the play, Romeo says ‘being black, puts my mind they hide the fear…’ which means he seeks darkness as he is so sad, depressed and lovesick. Later on in the play (Act 3 scene 5) Romeo and Juliet welcome the night because it allows them to be together in secret. At the end of the play, the blackness of the tomb and the night around them outside is used to emphasise the sadness and tragedy of the lovers’ deaths. Images of light, whiteness or paleness in this play, often appear in connection with ideas of happiness, hope and love. Romeo says ‘what light through yonder window breaks?
It is the east, and Juliet is the sun...’
He is referring to Juliet is as the sun, which is a source of light and then goes on to say she is the light of a torch or the stars. Juliet talks about her love for Romeo as ‘pure’ – whiter than snow. Even in the darkness of the tomb at the end of the play, Romeo says that Juliet’s beauty makes the darkness light. Often the images of light and dark appear closely connected with images to do with eyes, looking, seeing or sight.
Act 3 scene 5 is made up of five main parts which hold the scene together. The first part in this scene is with Romeo and Juliet who are loving and passionate to each other with their language, I know this because of the words they use such as “Believe me, love”, “look, love” and “love, lord, ay, husband, friend!” The second part in the scene is held together with Juliet and lady Capulet’s discussion about Tybalt being killed in this part between them it starts off with them being nice yet formal because lady Capulet thinks Juliet as agreeing with her about Romeo, because of Juliet’s cleverness with her words, but as this part progresses lady Capulet tells Juliet of her marriage to Paris and when Juliet tells her mother she does not want to marry you can tell by the language used she is not happy but does not yet condemn Juliet she simply says “Here comes your father; tell him so yourself, And see how he will take it at your hands.” Basically meaning ‘tell your father and see how he reacts’. The third part in the scene is between Lord Capulet and Juliet. At first we see that lord Capulet is confused by Juliet’s disobedience to marry Paris and he is slightly stunned because in them times ladies were seen to obey the man of the house, so Lord Capulet was not used to being disobeyed. But his confusion is soon gone an transformed in to anger and rage we know this because of the language he uses and the names he calls her such as “Out, you green-sickness carrion! Out, you baggage! You tallow-face!” now these days these insults would not be to offensive, but in them times they were just as nasty and disgusting as our modern day insults. In this part Juliet is frightened we know this because she says “Good father, I beseech you on my knees” this gives us the view that she is begging him to listen and understand her point of view. Once lady and lord caplet have left, it leaves Juliet and the nurse for the next part. This is a key part in the scene for it shows the breakdown in relationship between nurse and Juliet, and the stage play would be critical in this scene. When Juliet asks the nurse for “some comfort” the nurse goes on to say that she thinks Juliet should marry Paris. But whether or not she actually believes her own words is highly unlikely, which would be shown on stage by the nurse busying her self while saying it and not looking at Juliet. When Juliet hears this she is angry and shocked but does not let the nurse know, she simply says “amen” then “ Well, thou hast comforted me marvellous much” and then gets the nurse to leave. The final part of this scene is Juliet’s soliloquy. Here we see her angriness at the nurse where she says “Ancient damnation! O most wicked fiend!” she then says, “I'll to the friar, to know his remedy If all else fail, myself have power to die.” I interpret this as she will go to the friar to see what he says she should do and if all else fails she can kill her self. So the structure of this scene is vital and shows the decline of formality, trust and friendship between the individuals involved.
The audience can see the plan as Capulet begins the same way as Lady Capulet. He changes the atmosphere by jumping into business-“How now wife have you deliver’d to her our decree?”. Then when he hears that Juliet turned down the proposal- “she will have none” Capulet is furious. We feel sympathy with Juliet because the cruel way he speaks to her “Doth she not give us thanks?”, “Out on her, hiding!”, “we have a curse in having her”, because Juliet is fighting a battle on her own against her parents the nurse isn’t supporting her she will be feeling very much alone in this but she doesn’t give up, because Capulet mocks Juliet and her words she uses- “you, thank me no thankings, nor proud me no prouds” (this must make Juliet feel stupid) and worthless and because the audience can see that she is desperate because she begs him to listen to her “I beseech you on my knees, hear me with patience” and her mother “O sweet my mother, cast me not away!” but neither of them will have any of it -“talk not to me, for I’ll not speak a word”. This rouses the sympathy of the audience because they know that deep down inside Juliet’s head she is trying to hide her emotions and feelings in front of her father, which in fact she does very well.
The main themes in this scene are; young love, parental power, ambiguity, irony and betrayal. Young love is arguably then most important theme in this play but also is the parental power, because with out young love the play wouldn’t exist and the same goes for the parental power. The young love is between Romeo and Juliet, but they are kept apart by parental power. The parental power is of lord Capulet and lady Capulet who would never let Romeo and Juliet be together in peace. In this scene the ambiguity is between Juliet and Lady Capulet when they are talking about Tybalt as I mentioned earlier where Juliet says “I never shall be satisfied with Romeo, till I behold him -dead- is my poor heart for a kinsman vex’d.” And Lady Capulet interprets this in a different way because it can have two different meanings. There is irony through out “Romeo and Juliet”. In this scene there are a few examples of irony, one is when Juliet looks down on Romeo from her balcony and says “Methinks I see thee, now thou art below, as one dead in the bottom of a tomb”. Another example from this scene is when Juliet says “ O think'st thou we shall ever meet again?” and Romeo says “I doubt it not; and all these woes shall serve for sweet discourses in our time to come.” This is ironic because we know this is the last time they will ever be alive and happy with each other again. There is little betrayal in this scene in my opinion, but it can be seen by some that the nurse betrays Juliet by telling her to marry Paris.
A Characters personality is usually quite easy to tell early on this is definitely the case in “Romeo and Juliet” In act 3 scene 5 the characters roles are pretty easy to tell. Lord Capulet is the bully who always gets his way through any way he can. Lady Capulet is almost the bully’s sidekick who is scared of him and knows what he says and does is wrong but she doesn’t have the courage or power to stop him. Juliet is the damsel in distress who is powerless against the bully and his sidekick (as known as lord and lady Capulet). And the damsel in distress is waiting for her knight in shining armour (as known as Romeo) to save her. Lord Capulet is short tempered, and in their household he is the law. Lady Capulet is cold hearted and easily pushed around by her husband. Juliet is young, yet very mature and clever, and has a mind of her own. Romeo is strong hearted, has a mind of his own and is very clever with words. The nurse is crude yet is very caring but is in a predicament because she loves Juliet as her own but cannot disobey lord Capulet or she will loose her job, she also knows If Juliet runs away with Romeo then she would loose her job so in my opinion that is also part of the reason she tells Juliet to marry Paris.
We as the audience sympathise for Juliet because of her predicament, she has no one left; her mother and father want nothing to do with her and the nurse has betrayed her. She has nowhere to go. The only person she has left now is her husband- Romeo but he is banished or he will die; and because of the way she has been treated. Everything has happened so fast in such a short space of time everything has changed. Juliet has little choices left and she is running out of time to make them.
In my opinion, Act 3 Scene 5 of “Romeo and Juliet” is a key scene to the play. The way in which the scene is written and structured is fantastic and has room for very little improvement. To see this acted out on a stage would be a great privilege for any one. From this scene alone we get a very good idea on what the characters in this scene are like, and how they are supposed to be portrayed.
