He again speaks against the Montagues and shows his more evil and cruel side by saying that once he has killed the Montague men he will either cut off the heads of the maids or rape them “heads of the maids, or their maidenheads”. This is very crude and violent and shows just how much Sampson despises the Montagues.
Sampson and Gregory take a cowardly route and the two plan to instigate, allowing the Montagues to start the fight: “take the law of our sides; let them begin.” The Montagues then enter, and bites his thumb at the Montagues. This is a violent gesture and a disgrace to the Montagues and coaxes them into starting the fight.
Benvolio sees the fight, tries to stop it but when Tybalt intervenes he is forced into a fight himself; so begins the 'new mutiny' of the prologue. Tybalt says “turn thee, Benvolio; look upon thy death”. Benvolio then says “I do but keep the peace; put up thy sword, or manage it to part these men with me”. Here the contrasting themes peace (or love) and hate are shown, Tybalt trying to start a fight and Benvolio trying to keep the peace. Tybalt says, “talk of peace! I hate the word, as I hate hell, all Montague's, and thee” which really shows the strong theme of violence.
Act 3, Scene 1 is the pivotal scene in the play; as it sets in motion the chain of events, which results in the death of, not only Mercutio and Tybalt, but also Paris, Romeo and Juliet.
From the very beginning of the scene, even Benvolio knows that there is conflict in the air. Not only is it a hot day when tempers could be on a short fuse, the Capulets are out and about and brawl could arise easily. "The day is hot, the Capulets abroad…we shall not scape a brawl”. The words “mad blood stirring” in the next line make you think of boiling blood, which in itself is a very violent and angry image. This makes you start to suspect that violence is to follow.
Not only does Benvolio think a fight is possible; he has no idea at all, and neither does Mercutio, that Romeo and Juliet have just been married. This dramatic irony causes many completely different conflicts altogether - especially when Tybalt wants to fight Romeo.
Tybalt calls Romeo a villain “Thou art a villain”, he does this to coax him into duelling him, but as Romeo turns a blind eye to the offensive words Tybalt becomes angry with Romeo “this shall not excuse the injuries that thou hast done me”.
Romeo considers him family, but the others think he's being a coward when he refuses to fight. "Tybalt, the reason that I have to love thee Doth much excuse the appertaining rage”.
Romeo tries to be nice to Tybalt “I do protest I never injured thee, But love thee better than thou canst devise”, Romeo says this because he does not want to hurt a cousin he just gained through marriage to Juliet, and he doesn’t want to hurt Juliet by killing her cousin. This is yet another sort of conflict for Romeo because his friends expect him to fight Tybalt, but he knows he can’t because of Juliet.
Because he refuses to fight conflict arises between him and his friend Mercutio. Mercutio calls Romeo a coward “O calm, dishonourable vile submission”, because Romeo decided to stand down. Mercutio also tries to coax Tybalt into duelling him “(he draws) Tybalt, you rat catcher, will you walk?” he wants to fight Tybalt for Romeo, because he will not do it himself.
Tybalt knows that the conflict between him and Romeo will grow if he kills Mercutio, so he thrusts his sword under Romeo’s arm and into Mercutio. As he is dying Mercutio says “A plague a’both your houses! They have made worms’ meat of me”, in my opinion the words “They have made worms’ meat of me” are the most violent imagery throughout the three scenes; Mercutio is saying that the feud between the two families has reduced him to rotting meat crawling with maggots.
Romeo becomes overcome with anger when he is told that Mercutio is dead, and when Tybalt enters he says “And fire-eyed fury be my conduct now”. This sentence shows both violence and conflict, the alliteration and violent imagery of “fire-eyed fury” shows the violence of Romeo’s hate for Tybalt. Conflict is shown in the whole sentence, because Romeo is letting his anger take over, and that is sure to lead to a fight between him and Tybalt and most certainly either one’s death.
Benvolio tells the story of Mercutio and Tybalt’s deaths by using mostly quite violent imagery to describe the scene; “With piercing steel”, “with one hand beats Cold death aside”, “they go like lightening”. As the scene comes to a close the Prince exiles Romeo from Verona and says that if he is found in Verona again he will be executed; “Else, when he is found, that hour is his last”.
Act 3, Scene 5 is important to the play because it is the last scene in which Romeo and Juliet see each other fully alive, and not dead or drugged to look as if they are. It is also the scene in which domestic violence is shown.
The conflict rises as Juliet refuses to marry Paris; “He shall not make me there a joyful bride” Juliet refuses because she is already married to her only love, Romeo.
Capulet enters and at first is filled with compassion for his daughter as he sees her tears, thinking that she is still crying for Tybalt, lines 126 to148. His sympathy immediately turns to anger and the conflict raises a little more as he is told she is refusing to marry Paris; “How, will she none? doth she not give us thanks?”
When Juliet replies, ”Not proud that you have, but thankful that you have” he maddens and becomes more violent. He mocks his daughter; ” ‘Proud’, and ‘I thank you’, and ‘I thank you not’, And yet ‘not proud’ ”, and then uses threatening words and violent imagery to scare her; “I will drag thee on a hurdle thither” (a hurdle being a frame on which prisoners were dragged to execution), “you green-sickness carrion!” (pale-faced and rotting meat), “you baggage!” (prostitute). At this point in the modern film of ‘Romeo and Juliet’, the conflict is at it’s most as Juliet’s father hits her to the floor.
In Capulet’s long speech, lines 176 to 195, he calls Juliet many names and refers to her as an object to him; “A whining mammet, in her fortunes tender” meaning Juliet is a puppet whinging at her unchangeable fortune, “And you be mine, I’ll give you to my friend” meaning he will give her away like giving a cheap coin to a beggar,
He finishes with the words “And you be not, hand, beg, starve, die in the streets, For by my soul, I’ll ne’er acknowledge thee / I’ll not be forsworn”. Capulet is saying that if she does not marry Paris she can go and die in the streets for all he cares, because he will forget about her, and that he will not be denied or disobeyed by her. This shows just how violent Capulet, who is a usually calm man, can be.
Now Juliet turns to her mother begging for her to at least delay the marriage to Paris. Juliet threatens her by saying “Or if you do not, make the bridal bed In that dim monument where Tybalt lies”; she will kill herself if her mother doesn’t delay the wedding. However, the violent threat doesn’t work her mother, Lady Capulet simply ignores the threat and says, “Talk not to me, for I’ll not speak a word. Do as thou wilt, for I have done with thee.”
When Juliet is left alone, she speaks her last words of the scene; “If all else fails, myself have power to die”. Juliet means that if she can find no other way of getting out of the marriage she will commit suicide, which in itself is an awfully violent thing to do.
I think that violence and conflict are very central to ‘Romeo and Juliet’ because it keeps the audience interested and on the edge of their seats, especially when there is a fight going on. Violence and conflict are also the main factors make the famous play a tragedy.
When I think back to reading the three scenes, the main paired theme that sticks in my head is the theme of violence and love, and hoe Shakespeare uses them together most of the time.
My favourite scene of the three is Act3, Scene1 because it is the scene that knocks over the first domino in a long chain of events that eventually lead to the play’s famous ending.
