In the modern day version of the play, Romeo’s solitude and confusion is portrayed much more clearly as he is seen alone, sitting by the seafront composing oxymoron’s in his notebook, these oxymoron’s are symbolic of his confusion over Roseline.
Such as: “Misshapen chaos of well-seeming forms,
Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health”
But then he meets his cousin Benvolio and his mood changes almost instantly into a much more light hearted one. This suggests that his grief is not entirely genuine, and he might even be forcing it upon himself as he thinks that it is the kind of thing a person ‘should’ be feeling under these circumstances. Romeo is a character who seems to be more in love with the idea of love itself rather than actually being in love.
When we first encounter Juliet in both versions, she is shown to be a very sensible and intelligent girl, who remains almost completely calm, and faintly amused, while her mother and nurse fluster around her about marrying Paris. However, we do get a certain sense that Juliet holds her mother in a fearful manner, and speaks carefully around her so as not to offend her or upset her, for example:
Lady Capulet; “Speak Briefly, can you like of Paris’ love?”
Juliet: “I’ll look to like, if looking liking move; but no more deep will I endart mine eye than your consent gives strength to make it fly”
When Juliet meets Romeo however, her character undergoes drastic changes and she becomes rasher and more childlike.
The ‘party scene’ (Act 1: scene 5) at the Capulet mansion is the scene in which Romeo and Juliet meet for the first time and supposedly ‘fall in love’ and is arguably one of the most pivotal scenes in the film.
Before the scene begins Romeo and his friends are gathered elsewhere and we catch a glimpse of Mercutio’s rather disturbed character. However, the most interesting occurrence here is Romeo’s premonition. Once he has calmed Mercutio down, he goes on to say;
“I fear, too early: for my mind misgives
Some consequence, yet hanging in the stars,
Shall bitterly begin his fearful date
With this night’s revels, and expire the term
Of a despised life closed in my breast,
By some vile forfeit of untimely death,
But he that hath the steerage of my course
Direct my sail! On, lusty gentlemen”
Romeo is of course speaking of the terrible events that are going to happen because of his and Juliet’s meeting that night, though he does not know it himself. This gives the audience small idea of what is yet to come in the play, and of the importance of this scene.
In both version of the film (and in the play script itself) Romeo and Juliet first meet each other whilst the rest of the crowd is entranced by a solo singer. As soon as their eyes meet they are clearly besotted with each other, but Juliet is soon drawn off by her nurse to dance with Paris. Though even whilst dancing with Paris Juliet is clearly thinking of Romeo, and often shoots glances in his direction.
Soon Romeo manages to steal Juliet away from Paris, and they talk to each other for the first time, although by this time Romeo is already convinced that he is in love with her. And for a short time they are left undisturbed to get to know each other, but then Juliet is called away, and they are each told who the other is and a look of dismay quickly crosses both their faces as they realise what has happened.
The next scene is the infamous ‘balcony scene’ (Act 2: Scene 1) which contains many of the plays most well known quotes, this is also the first scene in which we can see how meeting Romeo has altered Juliet’s character from a sensible and rational girl to being very impulsive.
At the start of the scene we have Romeo hiding behind a bush while we listen to Juliet argue with herself over her predicament with Romeo. At first she seems to be in turmoil over the fact that he is a Montague;
“Romeo, Romeo, where for art thou Romeo?”
Which basically means “why must you be a Montague”, but eventually she comes to the conclusion that it doesn’t matter what his name is, she loves him anyway.
“That which we call a rose, by any other name would smell as sweet”
Meaning that she does not care what his name is, as it does not change who he is
Which of course is overheard by Romeo, and he immediately jumps out of his hiding place and begins to declare his undying love for her. When Juliet mentions that if he is found then he will almost certainly be killed, Romeo says that he would be willing to lay down his life in the name of their love. This is slightly ironic as this is exactly what he does later in the film. It is also slightly ridiculous, since they have known each other only a few hours and already he is willing to throw his life away for her.
The rashness of their ‘love’ for each other is further demonstrated when they promise to marry each other the following day.
To me it would seem that Romeo is desperate for someone to love, and since he could not receive those feelings in return from Roseline he turned his interests to Juliet, who is very inexperienced in relationships and will therefore be much more impressionable and easier to seduce. Imagine you are a 14 year old girl who has never been involved with a man before, and then a handsome young man comes along and instantly begins to speak at length of how much he loves you, you would be blown over, as Juliet clearly is. We can tell this by the way in which her character has changed since we first saw her, instead of the mature young woman we saw in the opening scene she appears to have reverted into an impulsive school girl upon meeting him.
This will obviously will (and in fact does) end in disaster, two people from warring families who believe themselves to be desperately in love with each other can’t possibly end well. The character of Romeo himself is a dangerous one, he instantly became infatuated with Juliet, and anyone who can become so obsessive in an instant is a dangerous and unpredictable person to be around. I think that Juliet was merely unfortunate in meeting him since otherwise she seemed to be a very intelligent and sensible girl.
In fact we are even given a rather large clue by Romeo himself that the play will end in tragedy just before the party begins. If only he had heeded his own warning.
