In Shakespeare’s day the audience were much better listeners than we are today, and even the “groundlings” would follow the complex punnery with ease.
Shakespeare also caters for all his audience, from bawdy sexual innuendo for the commoners to subtle changes in speech patterns for the intelligencia from which much can be deduced. However this creates problems for modern directors, as this will be lost on all but the most apt listeners of a modern audience, limiting somewhat its appeal but not diminishing its greatness.
This play is aimed mostly at the younger generation; it is nor by definition a great love story, the limit of its greatness being the puerility of the lovers. Shakespeare displays his immense skill in depicting various types of love, including hopeless love, unrequited love, self-pitiful love, (the love of being in love and wallowing in self-pity) and true love, this being the one that stands out from the rest in the dream-like R&J courting scenes. As demonstrated by their language in their first interaction, Romeo and Juliet love each other in different ways. Romeo’s love for Juliet is all consuming and he conveys it using huge exaggerations and stratospherically profound imagery, and her love for him is naïve yet pragmatic, she worries about inconsequential details such as whether he will consider her too easily won, (another oxymoron) and she, despite her inferior chronological age, in many ways more mature than him. E.g. when he reveals himself in the balcony scene she is worried for his safety, while he seems to think that the physically feeble Juliet would be able to single handedly fend off the house guards! This is reminiscent the audience’s occasional flicker of hope that the prologue has got it wrong and their love can overcome anything.
Shakespeare also uses subtle juxtaposition of scenes for various effects e.g. scenes of Romeo wooing ladies is often followed by scenes of Paris doing the same, offering a direct comparison of the two men as lovers.
Shakespeare also included many metaphors and puns containing cultural, mythical and historical references, which would be a point of interest for many members of the audience.
Shakespeare uses many other techniques to increase and sustain dramatic impact, some of them being; the variety of settings and pace, dialect (the most obvious being the change from iambic pentameters to prose making lines stand out, e.g. in the first meeting of Romeo and Juliet) the quick fire repartee and sexual punning, and possibly the most important the expectation of characters to say and do things by which they are defined e.g. we expect Mercutio to make a joke at every possible opportunity, the nurse to trail off into unceasing anecdotes at every given chance, and Benvolio to make peaceful compromises.
The opening two acts set the scene and whet the appetite for the rest of the play, as well as establishing both our expectations of the characters and the expectation of imminent disaster.
The character of two of the characters, Benvolio and Tybalt, are almost entirely defined by lines 60 to 64, Act One Scene One, particularly in the phrase “I do but keep the peace” from Benvolio, whose name means peacekeeper, and our expectations of him are rational, reasonable peacekeeping remarks. One of the reasons Shakespeare’s characters are so believable is because they are so complex; they can act differently at different times and show different sides to themselves. However Tybalt seems to be an exception; he is always egotistical and bawdy, and this is demonstrated in his claim to hate the word peace, as well as all Montagues.
Another interesting point by Shakespeare in this play is how people are judged rightly or wrongly by their names; would a rose by any other name smell as sweet? Romeo and Juliet overcome this when Juliet realises that Romeo’s name doesn’t matter, saying that he is himself, not a Montague, and should not be judged by his surname. However the personalities of Merctuio and Benvolio are reflected in their names; Benvolio, peacekeeper, Mercutio; Messenger of the Gods, Mercury, reactive, he is like a catalyst used by Shakespeare to speed up the action and prevent boredom.
The play poses some problems to a modern director whose skills in adaptation to suit audience will invariably never compare to Shakespeare’s, the main reason is that although the actors may have the skill to convey the plot and mood to the vast majority of the audience many of the play’s elements including the subtle language changes, the quick-fire punning and the numerous mythical, biblical and historical references will go over most of the audiences head. However this will not spoil the play for the audience, it can still be enjoyed because of the fast moving plot and romance.
