Although the play is seen as a love story, hate and tragedy play a major part. Shakespeare uses the feud between the two families throughout the play to highlight the near impossibility of the young couple’s love. This is effective because it turns Romeo and Juliet’s love for each other into a struggle for eventual survival. This draws the audience in and reminds them of their own first true love, both the feelings that were evoked and the risks that were taken. Ultimately this involves the audience and allows them to sympathise with Romeo and Juliet.
Shakespeare also brings the two families together at the ball to display that what should be a joyous occasion is ruined by the feud. Shakespeare sets the play out like this to almost demonstrate a moral that fighting can destroy lives, which it eventually does in Act 5, Scene 3 when the two lovers commit suicide. This again shows that love can produces many emotions, for example Romeo and Juliet felt hate towards their family, which stemmed from their love for each other. This helps to enforce the ambiguous nature of love and hate. Both emotions, that are meant to be very different, do in fact share identical qualities and feelings. Both could induce pain, frustration and anger for instance. This is effective because it enables the audience to relate to each emotion.
To convey these previous points Shakespeare uses many literary techniques. During Act? Scene? While Romeo and Juliet are talking, Shakespeare presents their conversation by including a sonnet made up of three quatrains and one rhyming couplet. Having the characters perform the sonnet together shows their unity. The sonnet is also important because of the ten syllables per line; this helps to portray the natural rhythm of their relationship and that they are ‘in sync’ with one another. “To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss”. This is a constant rhythm that is also like the continuous rhythm of their love for each other.
Throughout the play extended metaphors are used. In Act 1 Scene 3 the theme of love is raised, in this care Lady Capulet’s love for Juliet, in an extended metaphor of writing between the lines eighty-five and ninety-four. Lady Capulet believes Juliet needs a cover or husband; she believes this should be Paris and not Romeo. This highlights the period the play was set. In Elizabethan England, Juliet would be married at her young age of thirteen. Elizabethan audiences saw no problem with this as it was another part of their customs but audiences nowadays question why Shakespeare had thee main character to be very young. If the play was set in the twenty-first century that we are in, Juliet might be in her twenties, which is a huge difference. This highlights not only the changes in time but that “ a text is a product of a period in history”.
Shakespeare continually alters the pace of the play through bout punctuation, “quarrel, sir? No. sir” and sentence length. “Retain that dear perfection which he owes” Shakespeare uses heavily punctuated sentences like the one in Act 1, Scene 5, to portray both hate and the tense atmosphere. He also does this by using short sharp sentences. This is effective because it maintains the audiences attention, and makes them aware of the tension other than through the characters actions.
Shakespeare uses language also to indicate classes. Shakespeare has the upper class’s talk in rhyme with many rhyming couplets. He makes the conversations seem, almost poetic.
“Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight?
For I ne’er saw a beauty till this night”
The rhyme and rhythm indicate and educated background, which only the upper class could afford. It somehow gives more value to their love- as if it were the purest on earth. Romeo and Juliet speak in rhyme when talking about their love, this is contrasted with the lower class characters, they make bawdy comments and almost hi=de their true feelings. This again indicated educated and non-educated backgrounds.
Shakespeare uses linguistic and literary techniques to show the characters and how they have changes have altered. At the beginning of the play Juliet is modest and obedient, this is shown through her language and the tone of her speech.
“madam I am here at your will”
This shows a very meek and mild child who wants to please everybody. This changes throughout the play and as the strength of her love causes the development in her character, Juliet becomes more rebellious and direct.
“Proud I can never be of what I hate”
This could be put down to a number of things, Juliet becoming a teenager since she is only thirteen; the death of her close cousin, Tybalt, or her love for romeo. I feel this is effective because it leaves the audience to question whether her relationship has ultimately changed her. This brings out the parental instincts in each member of the audience and makes them question what they would do if Juliet were their daughter. Shakespeare, by doing this, again highlights that love can develop many emotions not jus happiness.
I feel that Act 1, Scene 5 is particularly effective for showing the main themes of love and hate. By having the first meeting of the “star- crossed lovers” juxtaposed with the hate and fury of Tybalt who tells Capulet he will “not endure him” (Romeo) shows that both love and hate co-exist but either can present a danger to the other. Shakespeare uses both the feud and the love between Romeo and Juliet to show that other people’s emotions cannot cause others to felt he same. This is shown through out the play, just because the Capulet and Montague’s are fighting and feel nothing but hatred toward the other does not mean their children will. This is shown to be the exact opposite.
Shakespeare introduces the prince and his speech, Act 1, Scene 1, to summarise the fighting and make the audience question the themes, “will this play be simply about hate and family feuds?” this is effective because when the lovers are introduced their audience immediately warm to them. This is because the couple are a relief from the fighting. The couple also bring back memories fro the audience of what they had to do to be with their first true love. They audience see the couple as the ‘happy ending’ in the play which is shown to be tragically false and ironic.
By having the two contrasting events in the one scene so early in the play I feel, kick-starts the action and immediately makes the audience sympathize with Romeo and Juliet. By doing this so early in the play allows the audience to develop strong feelings and a personal relationship with them so when the end for the couple arrives the audience are affected more. The relationship the audience built with two main on stage characters, Romeo and Juliet, heightens the tragedy of their death and emphasizes the waste of their death and feud between the two families. The audiences’ feelings of love towards the couple change to anger and almost hatred towards the remaining family members. The audience’s emotions are mixed which again shows the many sides of love, when both families realise what their fighting has done. The audience fell relieved that they have both finally seen that the feud cannot continue, but the audience feel annoyed that the young couple had to die from both families to realise that. The audience also wish that the Capulets and Montagues could have seen the error of their ways earlier in the play. This reinforces the message/ morals the audience are to take from the play.