Throughout Act 1, Scene 1 violence and conflict occur a number of times. At the beginning Sampson and Gregory are walking the streets searching for trouble, Gregory instigates a conflict with Sampson by telling him that he’s more likely to run away then to fight: ‘To move is to stir, and to be valiant is to stand. Therefore if thou art moved, thou runn’st away.’ Sampson then replies: ‘A dog of that house shall move me to stand. I will take the wall of any man or maid of Montague’s’ this means that he will take on any Montague, male or female. Later, they meet some servants from the house of Montague and begin to taunt them: ‘Nay, as they dare. I will bite my thumb at them, which is a disgrace to them if they bear it.’ This means he insulted them. Then they start a fight, beginning the violence. A Montague called Benvolio arrives and tries to stop the violence: ‘Part fools. Put up your swords, you know not what you do’ but then Tybalt, a Capulet, attacks him. Citizens of Verona, the place in which the play takes place, then come and try to stop the battle however the leader of the house of Capulet comes and tries to join in but he is restrained by his wife: ‘A crutch, a crutch! Why call you for a sword?’ by this she means that rather than having a sword, he is so old he ought to be asking for a crutch to support himself. Just as the head of the house of Montague attempts to join the fray, Prince Escalus appears, quells the riot and informs the two leaders that if anyone ever disturbs the peace again they will be executed.
Shakespeare presents violence and conflict in Act 1, Scene 1, as a trivial thing since it used to happen all the time in Elizabethan times. Even the servants of the two families are very violent people as is shown when Sampson says: ‘I mean, an we be in choler, we’ll draw’ this tells the audience that Sampson and Gregory are ready for violence and looking for trouble. The fact that they want to fight the Montague’s specifically shows that they contain a lot of hatred towards them.
Shakespeare makes violence and conflict in the play dramatic for the audience by initially introducing conflict i.e. even the opposing families servants are arguing later, this escalates into violence i.e. Tybalt and Mercutio fighting and ultimately this ended in death. This scene is important to the rest of the play the reason being it introduces the characters, family’s and shows amount of violence and conflict that will be throughout the rest of the play.
In Act 3, Scene 1 Mercutio causes fight between him and Tybalt while Benvolio urges him stop: ‘I pray thee good Mercutio, let’s retire. The day is hot…’ here Benvolio is telling Mercutio to go inside as the Capulets are looking for trouble. When Tybalt and Mercutio start to brawl Romeo arrives and tries to break them up. Tybalt then insults Romeo in an attempt to provoke him into a fight, but Romeo responds calmly and will not take up the challenge: ‘Tybalt the reason that I have to love thee doth much excuse the appertaining rage…’. Mercutio is incensed at this apparent cowardice and challenges Tybalt. They fight. Romeo tries to stop them but in the confusion Tybalt stabs Mercutio. As Tybalt and his companions run away, Romeo realises that Mercutio is wounded and says: ‘Courage man, the hurt cannot be much.’ He says this as he doesn’t think Mercutio’s wound is fatal. Mercutio then says: ‘No ‘tis not so deep as a well…’ saying this Mercutio blames Romeo because he came between him and Tybalt and thus caused his death. As Romeo realises what he has done, Tybalt returns and Romeo in his fury kill him. This scene begins with conflict i.e. Mercutio looking for trouble and ends with violence and death i.e. Mercutio’s fight and then death.
Violence is presented in this scene in a horrific way as there is a fight which ends in the death of two main characters. Shakespeare makes this scene dramatic by having two murders which in Shakespeare’s time would be punishable by death as one of the 10 commandments were broken therefore Romeo has to die at the end of the play because otherwise the audience wouldn’t watch the play.
This scene is important to the rest of the play, the reason being that Mercutio is killed and Romeo takes the life of Tybalt. This insures Romeo’s death in the eyes of the audience and angers the Capulets because of Tybalt’s death.
Within Act 3, Scene 5 violence and conflict are plentiful. Firstly, Juliet’s mother insults Romeo, Juliet then appears to agree but uses words that could also mean that she loves Romeo. Lady Capulet then tells Juliet to prepare to be married in two days time: ‘Marry my child, early…’ Juliet is horrified and tells her mother she will do no such thing: ‘He shall not make me a joyful bride…’ the audience will then know that there is social conflict between Juliet and her mother. Juliet’s father loses his temper when he hears Juliet’s refusal: ‘God’s bread, it makes me mad…’ this means that he will disown Juliet if she doesn’t marry Paris. The scene ends with Juliet in tears on her way to Father Lawrence.
Shakespeare presents violence and conflict in this scene with Lord Capulet insulting his daughter: ‘Hang thee, young baggage! Disobedient wretch!’ He makes it dramatic for the audience because the audience already knows that Juliet is married but her father does not this makes the audience ask what’s going to happen to Juliet because she cant marry twice therefore she is in serious trouble. Juliet has also broken one of the Ten Commandments by dishonouring her mother and father with her disobedience. This would be seen as a great sin by the people in Elizabethan times as they were very religious.
This scene is important to the rest of the play because her father says he will disown her if she doesn’t marry Paris: ‘Graze where you will you shall not house with me’ and she is in a dilemma because she can’t marry two times. Her mother also doesn’t want anything to do with her, this is shown when she says: ‘Talk not to me, for I'll not speak a word Do as thou wilt, for I have done with thee.’
I think Shakespeare made his play violent because in those times people were very religious and they wouldn’t have watched his plays if they wasn’t violent. This is why he couldn’t write Romeo and Juliet as just a love story as that wouldn’t have been allowed in those times; therefore he covered up the love in the play with violence and conflict.
The violence in the play has the effect of turning it into a tragedy due to the amount of conflict and the death of Romeo and Juliet. It also creates the image of violence being unfair because of the deaths of so many in the play and the tragic end of the two lovers. The violence in the play has the effect of exciting the audience, causing them to worry and think about what will happen to Romeo and Juliet.
