Romeo and Juliet - How does Shakespeare shape our response to the lover's first meeting in Act I Scene V?

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Martin AlbaziEnglish Coursework Romeo and Juliet Ms O’shea Romeo and Juliet How does Shakespeare shape our response to the lover’s first meeting in Act I Scene V? Shakespeare shapes our response to the lover’s first meeting in a number of ways. Romeo and Juliet is set in the town of Verona. It is a story of two feuding families the Montague’s and the Capulet’s. Verona is divided by civil war between these two noble families. We are told of an ancient grudge in the prologue but are never told in detail. This was a common way to introduce a play, the words of a chorus would silence an unsettled audience at the beginning and set the atmosphere. The chorus informs and wets the appetite of the audience as it predicts the outcome and fate of the “star crossed lovers”. This keeps within the realm of a Greek tragedy. The families’ siblings Romeo and Juliet meet by fate at a party and fall in love and plan to marry, but Juliet’s mother is planning Juliet’s marriage to Count Paris. But in secret Romeo and Juliet marry through Friar Laurence who hopes this would bring the two feuding families together but the story ends in
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tragedy as the ancient grudge between the two families conquers true love. Throughout the story there are many different themes surrounding the main one of true love between Romeo and Juliet. There is hate, between the two families, feuding, which is continuous between the fiery Tybalt and the Montague boys. There are always secrets and tensions, through the nurse whose role is the messenger between Romeo and Juliet but she likes to torment them by keeping them in secret from the messages. Shakespeare has drawn the nurse with wonderful thrill and much of the humour is derived from her foibles. ...

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