What is the importance and dramatic effectiveness of the scenes studied in Romeo and Juliet?

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Coursework         Tom Hallatt         M10

What is the importance and dramatic effectiveness of the scenes studied in Romeo and Juliet?

Shakespeare’s R & J is known as one of the most love-tragic stories ever seen and whenever a new reader reads the play or sees the play, throughout, they are absorbed into it almost from the prologue! R & J is one my all time best plays ever read and I am now going to tell you why in talking about some of the scenes studied in class and to talk about how each scene has its own importance and dramatic effectiveness in the play of R & J.

        Act one scene three is about when the mother of Juliet (Lady Capulet) calls to see her daughter, reasons for this is because later she asks the nurse “How long til Lammas-Tide?” Because it tells us that Juliet will be fourteen soon, which by in Shakespearean times is a prime age to get married due to the such low life expectancy in those days. Recommended by Lady Capulet, Juliet should consider marrying soon and later on we find that Count Paris is a perfect match for her. Lady Capulet also hints to Juliet that Paris will be attending the party hosted by Capulet tonight. Juliet promises nothing but she says that she will make an attempt to see what he is like. Meanwhile, during this scene nurse embarrasses Juliet about when nurse was looking after he since she was a little baby, and how fast she has blossomed into a beautiful young lady. During this Lady Capulet gets angry and tells her to, “Hold thy peace…” Then she brings up the theme of marriage I stated earlier. Nurse tells Juliet to “...go girl seek happy nights to happy days.” They leave to attend the party.

        In act one scene three there are many different choices by Shakespeare in the uses of language used to making the scene effective. Languages that include for example, he has used a lot of imagery, such as: “…lady, such a man as all the world – why he’s a man of wax.” Here the nurse has described Paris like wax, like an idol, perfectly structured etc. This is effective use of language because it gives a description of what Paris is like before we as the audience sees him. Another use of imagery comes in, later on in the scene, Lady Capulet Paris’ life would be complete with Juliet: “…this precious book of love, this unbound lover, only lacks a cover.” So Shakespeare has used words like love to associate it with book and cover as if Paris is the book and Juliet is the cover. This example also proves effective by saying that Juliet would basically be the cover to any mans book because she is perfect that’s why Lady Capulet thinks that Paris and Juliet should go well together. Act one scene three’s language throughout is very effective and Shakespeare has shown this in many uses of forms of language.

        Shakespeare develops further understanding of the character development throughout act one scene three. How he achieves this is by showing the high expectations of Lady Capulet, example, getting the best bachelor around to marry Juliet. Our understanding pf the nurse develops as well by seeing her uses of coarse language i.e.: “…go girl seek happy nights to happy days.” Shows that she is talking about sex and so that Julie only gets the best. Nurse also shows to us that her dead baby Susan replaces Juliet in the way she talks about Juliet as if it was her own child. Juliet’s character develops throughout this scene by Shakespeare showing to us that she ‘tries before she buys.’ Example is about Paris: “I’ll look to like, if looking liking move…” All this character development throughout this scene takes our understanding of that particular character to a new level.

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        Shakespeare furthers the audiences understanding of the plot development effectively. How Shakespeare achieves this is I notice that Lady Capulet wants Juliet to marry already and we know that Juliet is not entirely happy with it because of he saying that she will only meet him because I think deep down she knows there is someone better than him that’s right for her and because we know from the start that R & J be with each other, Shakespeare makes sure that the audience thinks this and he has make this point clear effectively, and with great effect. So this ...

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