There also the matter of Tybalt Juliet’s cousin who despises the Montague’s but he especially hates Romeo and wants to fight him but Romeo does not because he has married Juliet and is trying to make the peace. “Good Capulet, which name I tender.” Act 3 Scene 1 Line 64
Mercutio
William Shakespeare wrote the character of Mercutio to make people laugh and include a little comedy in the tragic play. Mercutio is known as the one with all the jokes, he likes to make people laugh, and also Mercutio likes to fight. Mercutio is Romeo’s best friend although he is not technically a Montague he is on their side and also has a feud with the Caplets. In Act 3 scene 1 Mercutio dies because he was angered that Romeo did not want to fight Tybalt so he fights him himself but this fight was his last as Tybalt cuts him in the stomach and kills him, Mercutio cursed both the family’s for doing this to him just before he dies.
“A plague a’both your houses! Though have made meat of me.
Act 3 Scene 1 line 96-97
Tybalt
Tybalt was a character of power in the Capulet family and maybe had the biggest hatred for the Montague family especially Romeo, (when he found out they had gotten married.) Tybalt is Juliet’s cousin and is a serious man who does not joke or laugh, Tybalt was written by William Shakespeare as a tough guy. Tybalt liked to quarrel a lot and at anything everyone has noticed this even Mercutio. “Thou wilt quarrel with a man for cracking nuts.”
Act 3 Scene 1 line 17
Romeo
Romeo is one of two main characters; he has lost a girl who he believes was the one for him, he is saddened with his loss and becomes very lonely and sad until he meets Juliet who he loves at first site, but little does he know that she is from the Capulet family and this is the beginning of an end for both him and Juliet. When he finds out he still goes out with her secretly even though the two families are in a feud, hoping to resolve this he marries her and tells Tybalt and thinks they will make peace but everything goes wrong Tybalt kills Mercutio and Romeo kills Tybalt and is banished. At the end Romeo and Juliet die a tragic death but with this death came peace. Romeo is a loving character who is just looking for romance and happiness.
Dramatic tension
William Shakespeare creates a lot of dramatic tension like in the prologue. “A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life”
Prologue line 6
This tell us that there are going to be two star-crossed lovers, star-crossed is when two stars cross each other but when they meet and are destroyed, this builds up the tension as the audience think how does this happen; but William Shakespeare did not stop there. “Doth with their death bury their parents’ strife.”
Prologue line 8
This indicates that the only way to stop the feud is their death that does occur, Shakespeare gives most of the play away in the prologue but that is because he knows they don’t want to know what happens but why it happens.
There are a couple of fight scenes at the start which builds up the tension it does by making the audience think what’s going to happen next are they going to have a big fight scene at the end and there just waiting for it to happen.
Dramatic devices
The type of stage used for the play was made to look like the streets and house holds of Verona because the audience are used their town and would be more comfortable watching a play that was set in Verona.
The thing that kept them most interested was the fighting and nothing else; because in Shakespeare’s time all people wanted to watch was people fight, that’s probably the only reason why they attended the play, and that’s why Shakespeare had a fight scene right at the start to interest them in the play.
How things changed after the fight
After the fight everything was different for Romeo and Juliet the fight had changed everything for them, up until the fight everything was going well for both but now that Romeo has been banished and Tybalt dead Juliet has lost 2 close people that she loved very much on the same day that night Juliet had grieved Tybalt’s death and the fact that Romeo was banished. The fight had changed Juliet’s farther also he was angered by his niece’s death. Unaware that Juliet had wept that night Juliet’s farther had arranged for her to get married to Count Paris as soon as possible but Juliet could not withstand the pressure it was all to much with the death of her cousin and the banishing of her husband she refused to marry Count Paris and decides to fake her own death with Friar Lawrence’s, Friar Lawrence sent a message to Romeo of what Juliet was going to do but things went terribly wrong Romeo did not receive the message instead he received another message of Juliet’s death Romeo could not believe he rushed back into town to see for his own eyes he gets there and sees her lying on the table thinking she was dead he thought he had lost his love out of his grief he kills him self Juliet wakes and finds Romeo dead she was also in terrible grief she takes the dagger from Romeo and stabs herself.
Conclusion
This tragic love story of Romeo and Juliet is written very carefully it is full of Puns and oxymoron’s it also has a rising and falling of action this is a very smart technique the story starts with a lot of action to get the audience interested but then the action falls and its all talk and romance that’s when the audience gets bored but then all of a sudden there is an uprising of action in Act 3 Scene 1 which gets the audience interested again there is also a trick he uses in his plays he writes one word which has 2 meanings this is called pun for example when Mercutio is coming to an end he says “Ask for me tomorrow and you shall find me a grave man.” ct 3 Scene 1 line 89-90
Grave can mean two things serious and dead so Mercutio is joking around he is saying find me tomorrow and find me a serious man but he also means dead man, this is how the write William Shakespeare plays with the words. William Shakespeare is a cunning writer and he knows it and wants to show off. “The which if you with patient ears attend. What here shall miss, our toil strive to mend." Prologue line 13-14
William Shakespeare adds romance Romeo and Juliet’s love, comedy that Mercutio attends to, sorrow the feud between the two families and tragedy the death of Romeo and Juliet and the all the other deaths.
Mohammed Elobied 11M3
