Act 1 Scene 1 is the first violent scene of Romeo and Juliet. In this scene different members of the Capulet and the Montague households become involved in arguments in a public place in Verona and when they lose their tempers, swords are drawn. The first thing to happen is a fight. This starts by Abraham a servant from the Montague household saying
“Do you bite your thumb at us sir?” Sampson a servant from the Capulet household replied
“Yes I do bit my thumb at you sir.”
This is a symbol of violence. This starts a quarrel and leads to a fight. Once the fight ends the Prince warns both the families that the next person to fight will be punished (he may be killed or banished from Verona).
The second violent scene in which there is violence leads to the deaths of Tybalt and Mercutio. The scene takes place on a street in Verona and happens soon after Romeo and Juliet get married. Benvolio wants to avoid a fight with the Capulets and he suggests to Mercutio that they should go home. He says
”We talk here in public haunt of men: Either withdraw unto some private place.”
This shows us that Benvolio is trying to say don’t fight here lets go home. In this scene Mercutio is in the mood to fight. When Tybalt arrives at the place, Mercutio says
“And but one word with one of us couple it with something.”
This shows us that he means if he wants a fight I am ready or say one cruel phrase and I will fight you. When Tybalt and Mercutio speak to each other there is tension between them. They say
“Consort?, What, dost thou make us minstrels? And thou make minstrels of us, look to hear nothing but discords Here’s my fiddlestick, here’s that shall make you dance. ‘Zounds, consort?” Mercutio replies
“I will not budge for no mans pleasure.”
This means that he will stand strong on his own belief. When Romeo turns up Tybalt tries to provoke Romeo into fighting. Tybalt tries to start a fight with Romeo by saying
“Thou art a villain”
This is a great insult to Romeo who is of noble birth. Romeo tries to reason with Tybalt by saying
“Villain I am none, Therefore farewell.”
Then Tybalt orders Romeo to take out his sword and fight. Tybalt wants to fight Romeo because Romeo has done damage to his family as he says
“Boy, this shall not excuse the injuries.”
Romeo doesn’t want to fight as now he is family, because he married Juliet and Juliet is Tybalt’s family. Because Romeo didn’t want to fight Tybalt and Mercutio began fighting. This starts by Mercutio saying
“Good king of cats.” Tybalt replies
“Thou art a villain. I am for you.”
As this fight ends the result is Mercutio’s death. This is a tragic scene for the play, when Romeo sees his friend dieing his mood changes. He becomes more aware what had happened and became more violent this is shown when he says
“Now, Tybalt take the villain back again. That late thou gavest me. Either thou, or I, or both, most go with him.”
Then they start fighting. Tybalt dies. Romeo kills Tybalt because Mercutio was a good friend of his and he didn’t want to see him suffer. As a result of the deaths of Tybalt and Mercutio, the Prince banishes Romeo from Verona. He says
“Romeo is banished.”
This consequence is terrible for Romeo as he will not be able to see his wife Juliet again.
If I was to direct Act 1 Scene 1for a stage performance I would consider a lot of thing such as lighting, special effects, scenery and music. I would set this scene somewhere modern such as on the road of a street where people can watch out of their windows when they are fighting. There would also be cars which would get smashed up when they fight. One group the Montagues would be, as it is a hot summer Saturday afternoon, wearing Jeans, t-shirts and baseball caps tipped to the side sat down on the wall. The other group the Capulets will be stood up on the other side of the road talking and will be wearing shorts with their t-shirts over their shoulders. Both these groups will be carrying knifes, baseball bats and cricket bats. Anyone that gets in their way will lose their life. I would change the music from silent (where they are biting their thumbs at each other and staring) and gradely get louder and faster as they begin to fight. This means that no-one will be able to interfere and stop them. The lighting will change from dark to light as the music changes. This hopefully will grab the audience’s attention. Every time the music got louder somebody in the background would shout “FIGHT!” It will also grab their attention as they’ll have to look closely to see what is happening when it is dark. The only special effects that I would use would be tomato ketchup as blood and plastic as their weapons. At the end of the fight the music and lighting will change to become calmer this will relax the audience. When the Prince is saying his speech the spotlight will be on him and he will rise from under the stage getting taller and taller and his voice getting louder and louder. There would be a very calm song in the background. For the rest of the scene I will have Romeo and Benvolio walking down the street where they were fighting talking and looking at the mess. There would be no music to this part as they aren’t talking loudly. The spotlight will be following them and it will change colour from time to time and then at the end of the scene the lights will dim and it will go dark.
The second scene in which there is violence leads to the deaths of Tybalt and Mercutio. The scene takes place in the streets of Verona and happens soon after Romeo and Juliet get married. I would direct this scene in Verona but I would put it on the steps of a nightclub with the music on full blast that has got a good beat. When Tybalt starts fighting with Mercutio the people out of the nightclub come out and start shouting “FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!" After Mercutio dies. The music goes silent and the spotlight is on him and it will be red as it stands for death. When Romeo and Tybalt start fighting the crowd starts shouting again. When Tybalt dies the crowd goes quiet. As a result of Mercutio’s and Tybalt’s death Romeo gets banished. The prince appears from the nightclub the spotlight following him and the music getting slower. As the Prince banishes Romeo the colour of the light changes, the music gets faster and then slower. As the Prince finishes his speech the music goes silent and the lighting goes dim. Everything goes dark and quiet.
I think that the play Romeo and Juliet is violent because in every scene there is either arguing or fighting between the two families. The thing that I remember the most is the hatred and the love. I think this because in the play hatred forms love as you see with Romeo and Juliet. My favourite scene in the play is where Juliet is having a party and falls in love with Romeo. I think it is the best scene because we find out how Romeo is and how much he means to Juliet. It also starts the story of Romeo and Juliet when they have an affair.
