Once the Prince has slowed the pace of the scene the amount of tension doesn’t decrease, instead the mood changes from anger to being impatient and agitated. After line 105 in this scene the love is all very superficial – Romeo lives with his eyes and not his heart, compared to in Act 2 scene 6 when Romeo is talking to Friar Lawrence. His love is then from the heart; he speaks of Juliet as an intelligent person and an equal to him, as opposed to the way he sees Rosaline as a sexual object of beauty. The iambic pentameter shows its falseness and when Romeo describes his love he focuses on what he can see ‘lovers eyes’, ‘rich in beauty’ and ‘fair lady’s brows’. As well as this love being artificial it is also closely followed by hate whenever it is mentioned ‘ O brawling love, O loving hate’, showing that in the play, and in life, that there is no love without hate, and vice versa.
Although the love in this part of the play is presented in a negative way the language in the techniques used (such as the personification, the use of metaphors and similes and oxymoron’s, ‘heavy lightness serious vanity’.), make it very real and the juxtapositions relate it to the rest of the play.
Act 1 scene 5 is a very pivotal point in the play as without it the ending would be entirely different, the consequences from this scene are what make the play. It’s in this scene that Romeo and Juliet meet for the first time, there is irony in it as neither of them went to the party in a positive mood least of all in a mood for love and yet that’s what they both found, love. Throughout this scene there are lots of varying moods starting with the carnival atmosphere in the party. Everything is very chaotic and all the characters are just doing what they want to do. Then Romeo sees Juliet for the first time and he is completely lovestruck. Whilst Romeo is in awe of towards Juliet he is unaware that Tybalt has seen him and that there is so much hate at the same time, the audience sees this and the power of the two themes is enhanced. After the hate has calmed slightly Romeo and Juliet meet for the first time, and she feels the same way as he does. From then on the mood doesn’t change until just before the end when the find out that their families are feuding. Neither of them can quite comprehend what is happened and the shock and disappointment is evident. When Juliet says ‘ My only love sprung from my only hate!’ this is shown. Shakespeare uses this variety of moods to interest all of the social classes in the audience and also to show the differences between love and hate and the way in which they fuse together.
Immediately after Romeo first glimpses Juliet it is clear that she has made a big impact on him with the use of iambic pentameter and the rhyming couplets of his last word in each line. The rhyming couplets can also imply that they are destined to become a couple. Although these structures also make his love seem superficial, as his love for Rosaline was, and he sees Juliet as an object ‘a rich jewel in Ethiop’s ear’, as opposed to his equal. Hate then interrupts this theme of love with Tybalt seeing Romeo and immediately the atmosphere changes to very bitter. This reintroduction of hate again implies that there is always love and hate and without one there can’t b the other, in the same way as in Act 1 scene 1. It is after this outburst of hate that Romeo and Juliet meet for the first time.
As soon as they meet the language becomes very romantic and there is no prose mentioned at all. Between them they form a sonnet, within this religious imagery is used. Shakespeare uses these to show the intensity and the purity of their love. It is noticeable that within the sonnet the lines are split evenly showing that they are equals. However Romeo has a very rose-tinted view of her and because of this he puts her on a pedestal and almost worships her (also implied by the religious imagery). Not content with having completed one sonnet between them Romeo and Juliet start another and are then disrupted by the nurse. This can show that when they become a couple things won’t run smoothly and there will be problems for them.
The way in which Shakespeare presents love and hate suggests that although love is more powerful than hate, in the end hate is more dangerous and has the biggest overall impact. He does this by intertwining the two themes and focusing on them in relation to each other creating enthesis on all the differences between them.
By Haleema Butt 11s