Romeo and Julliet Essay

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How does act one scene one provide an effective opening to ‘Romeo and Juliet’?

Mustafa Latif

                In Shakespeare’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’, the first scene provides an effective opening scene. This essay shows how and what effected the audience in act one, scene one in the classical 1594 play. The factors that will be explored are how the actors play their roles, how action can be manipulated to have a greater effect upon the audience, the effect of a character and dramatic devices and how those factors added effect to the audience in 1595 (when it was first preformed).
                The effects of a character can also be added in when the characters are not there. For instance the fact that Romeo and Juliet don’t appear has an effect on the audience. The first thing that happens in Romeo and Juliet is two Capulets appear. This in itself is effective. It is because the audience would expect two of the main characters to appear, so when the play pushes two ‘nobodies’ out onto the first scene, the audience then know that when the main characters do appear it’ll be more interesting rather then just letting them go in the first second of the play. The audience would want Romeo and Juliet to appear because of the title (‘The Lamentable Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet’), humans – including the audience – want to see if the two characters are worthy of being giving the play title (they wouldn’t call it Romeo and Juliet because they are two boring characters). They do this because they want to judge, ever since the beginning of time humans have wanted to judge, this play lets them do that however Shakespeare deprives them of there desperate judging in this first scene. This creates an effect where the audience are so eagerly awaiting the arrival of Romeo and Juliet that they don’t want to take there eyes of the play. In a way it creates suspense, the audience want it but are being made to wait for it. It’s like keeping a child from Christmas but they have paid to be deprived – which makes it worse and has a greater effect.
                However one could say that they do not appear in the first scene because the first scene is so full of hate that the writer wanted to show that the two main characters are not part of this hatred. “What, drawn, and talk of peace? I hate the word, as I hate hell” is what Tybalt says; it foreshadows the whole scene (and maybe the whole play) and shows that the scene will be violent which means that Romeo and Juliet will not appear.
        I think that the writer used the scene to show that Romeo and Juliet are not part of the hatred because it engages the audience more, meaning that it will have a greater effect on the audience. An effect where the audience will it will keep the audience fixed onto the stage because they want to see the moment where Romeo and Juliet do appear so it can let them to fulfil there need to judge.  

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                The effects of action are also used in Romeo and Juliet. In the first scene there is a fight scene. This can build up suspense. It can do this by differing who is in a more domineering position, so it could show Benvoilio wining in one bit and Tybalt wining in the other. This has an effect where the audience don’t know who is going to win and will keep watching to see who wins this fight.
                However the director could use the element of surprise on the audience. This is where the director shows one of the two fighters ...

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