In the next part of the play Romeo and Juliet meet for the first time. Although of the name of the play there are not many scenes in which both Romeo and Juliet are in together. But this is one of them. It is Romeo who first spots Juliet and he falls in love with her immediately, although his presence at the part is only to act upon his crush on Capulets niece Rosaline. We can tell that Romeo has fallen in love with Juliet because he says. ‘Did my heart love till now? Forswear it sight! For I ne’er saw true beauty till this night.’ So he is thinking that because he feels so in love with Juliet that he thinks that when he was in love before with Rosaline he hadn’t felt the same way as he felt when he was near Juliet. From this line we can also pick up that Juliet is of true beauty. This is a very important part in the play because if Romeo had never met Juliet then there would have been no story and none of the events would have occurred. Also the language in this scene that Romeo is using in very descriptive, the descriptive language s mainly used when he is referring to Juliet, for example, he says. ‘Beauty too rich for use, for earth too dear.’ Shakes pear also compares Juliet too the rest of the women that have attended the party and who are in the room. ‘A snowy dove, trooping with crows.’ He is meaning like all the rest of the women are like dog ugly compared to Juliet. And all of the descriptive language that was used was about beauty.
When Tybalt (Juliet’s Cousin) finds out that the Montague’s have gate crashed the party, he is not best pleased and he gets really angry an annoyed. We can tell this because of the way he talks to one of the serving men, ‘Get me my rapier boy!’ We can also sense that he is not happy with this situation and that he does not see Romeo as a friend, because he says to Capulet. ‘It fits when such a villain is a guest, I’ll not endure him!’ This is showing that he wants to hurt Romeo and does not want to endure his presence any longer. Tybalt feels this way towards Romeo and the rest of the Montague’s due to the fact that both families of Capulet and Montague’s have been fighting for years and although the fight is not his, he is so evil blooded, he still wants to fight. He wants too stick up for his family, just as Rome sticks up for his. Tybalt is probably annoyed at this point because of the fight in the street of Verona. Although Romeo was not at this fight Tybalt still holds a grudge against him for being a Montague.
When Tybalt goes and sees his uncle (Capulet) and tells him about Romeo being at he party but Capulet rebukes Tybalt and tells him to just play it cool and leave it. Capulet does this because he does not want his party to be ruined. He had also heard good things about Romeo. Things like him being a ‘pleasant youth’ he just does not want to get involved in all of the childish mayhem that is happening, we know this because he says ‘I will withdraw but this intrusion shall now seemingly sweet convert to bitterness gall.’ This makes Tybalt even angrier and he does decide to take on Romeo. This has a major effect on the play because it leads to the death of Romeos best friend Mercutio and also the death of Tybalt himself. But it also sets up that Romeo has been banished to the deserts, where he is supposed to live because he is blamed for the death of Tybalt. This has an effect on the audience because we can see that actually Capulet is not bothered with the fight between the two families anymore and the battle is not of the Capulet and Montague anymore but of their descendance.
In the next part of this scene, Romeo comes close enough to talk to Juliet and when he does he is keen to kiss her, he is making up little stories of why he should kiss her. They are hidden from the rest of the people in the party and Romeo says to her which makes us know that he wants to kiss her; ‘O then dear saints let lips do what hands do! They pray: grant thou, lest faith turn to despair.’ This s an increased passion in the play and brings more of a romantic feel to the audience for the first time. When Juliet is there with Romeo, she is at first reluctant to let him kiss her but then all of his sweet talking makes her give in to him and she can see that she is in love with this complete stranger. She says in return to his question to her. ‘Saints do not move, though grant for prayers’ effect I take.’ This is setting a feeling of Dramatic Irony in the scene and helps the play to follow through to the further scenes. And from this moment on Romeo or Juliet can resist each other.
When Juliet is pulled away from Romeo they are both still fascinated which each other and who each other are. Romeo is very curious to know who this beautiful girl actually is, he goes up to ‘Nurse’ one of Juliet’s close friends more like a family member and he asks her who Juliet is. And to that she tells him that Juliet is the only child of Capulet, he is disappointed but he can’t stop his undying love for her. So he decides to keep this point fro his best friend Mercutio and the rest of the Montague’s. We can tell that he is disappointed because he says ‘Is she a Capulet? O dear account my life is my foes debt!’ This knowledge will lead to complications and misfortune deeper into the play.
Towards the end of the scene, all of Capulets guest are leaving, he is upset at this happening but he is also very tired and so he is still good humoured to the guest that he is saying his farewells to. ‘Nay gentlemen, prepare not to be gone; we have a trifling banquet towards.’ He is still polite to all of his guests even though he knew that some of the gatecrashers were Montague’s, his enemies.
The scene concludes with Juliet asking Nurse who Romeo is, and also showing her youth by asking the same question about some of the other guests that have attended. When Juliet finally does talk about Romeo and asks who he is, Nurse replies that he is the only son of her father’s sworn enemy Montague. Juliet is distraught by the information that she hears. ‘My only love sprung from my only hate.’ But she decides to still carry on the love affair with Romeo. Later I the play she marries him but keeps this secret from her family until her cousin Tybalt am killed by Romeo. This means that she can never reveal that she is married to Romeo, this part I the scene has a major impact on the rest of the play because like Romeo knowing that she is a Capulet there will be more complications between the families.
My whole view on this scene is that it is a very powerful moment in the whole of the play. It is a part where most of the story line is brought together and, if this scene was not in there then there would not be all of the consequences that happened throughout the rest of the play. I believe that the audience would respond well to this scene because as well as having anger and fighting in it there is love and some misfortune. But it has every single theme in the play brought into it and is an interesting scene to watch also because most of the main characters are in and you can see how all of them react around each other.