When Romeo first notices Juliet, he instantly falls in love with her and is taken away by her beauty. He compares her to jewels and other expensive goods which show he thinks very highly of her, “Like a rich jewel in an Ethiopia’s ear.” The tension at this part of the scene is quite high as we know Romeo has fallen in love with Juliet when he is forbidden to do so. This is also dramatic irony as Romeo is unaware that Juliet is a Capulet. The last line “For I ne’er saw true beauty till this night” shows Romeo never really loved Rosaline and Juliet is the most beautiful girl he has ever seen. Shakespeare was very successful at this part as he has shown the audience the love Romeo holds for Juliet. The dramatic irony effect was also successful as people of the crowd would be shouting at Romeo telling him Juliet is a Capulet.
After Romeo first catches sight of Juliet, Tybalt recognises Romeo’s voice and asks a servant to get his “rapier” (weapon). The tension at this part is at its highest throughout the scene as the audience know the aggressiveness of Tybalt’s nature. The last two lines of Tybalt’s opening speech to this scene, are both rhyming couplets ending in “kin” and “sin”. These two words together suggest anger and unpleasantness and portray negativity. However, this contrasts with the last rhyming couplet “sight” and “night” which suggests love and happiness used by Romeo and shows positivism. This is the first time Shakespeare has explored the love/hate theme of this scene. As Tybalt marches up to Romeo, Capulet stops him and asks what is wrong. Tybalt tells Capulet that Romeo is here to ruin the party. Tybalt describes Romeo as a villain which back in 16th century was a major insult. He repeats this insult many times which shows the hatred he holds for Romeo, “Tis he, that villain Romeo.” Capulet follows this by starting to praise Romeo saying he has a great reputation throughout Verona, “Verona brags of him to be a virtuous and well governed youth.” He then continues to say how he does not want a fight in his house which once again shows his value for people’s thoughts and respect, “You’ll make a mutiny among my guests!” The last thing Tybalt suggests before his exit is that Romeo will be punished and dealt with in due course. “Now seeming sweet convert to bitter gall!” This once more shows Tybalt’s anger and hatred for Romeo. Shakespeare was very successful in this section of the scene as he has shown the audience how violent Tybalt can be. He also achieves to involve the audience as the tension was extremely high and the crowd would be shouting comments at the actors. He created this tension as he cleverly used a soliloquy resulting in a character standing and acting alone on stage, which in this case was Tybalt.
Subsequently to Tybalt’s rage, Romeo and Juliet meet for the first time. The tension at this part has decreased slightly from Tybalt seeing Romeo but is still exceedingly high. The love/hate theme is also being used as Shakespeare shows the hatred from Tybalt by using rhyming couplets such as ‘shall’ and ‘gall’, and then immediately after shows Romeo using rhyming couplets such as ‘this’ and ‘kiss’. When Romeo and Juliet first speak to each other, a very romantic and poetic tone is used by the characters, “My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand.” This illustrates the passion and strength of the love between the two characters. Also, Romeo and Juliet continuously refer to each other as religious objects, such as ‘holy shrine’ and ‘pilgrims’ which indicates Romeo thinks Juliet is heavenly and vice versa. The last sentence Juliet says to Romeo is “You kiss by the book” which illustrates he is a good kisser. This shows she enjoyed their time together. I think Shakespeare’s intention for this part was to show the audience the strength of the love and bond between Romeo and Juliet and also to get the audience involved. This is because once again dramatic irony is used as Romeo does not know Juliet is a Capulet and Juliet does not know Romeo is a Montague. The audience would therefore shout remarks to the actors, trying to warn them about what may happen in the future.
While Romeo and Juliet are talking, the nurse comes to tell Juliet her mother wants her. Romeo then asks who her mother is and the nurse replies the lady of the house. The tension at this point in the scene has dropped a great deal but once again is considerably high. After Romeo’s realisation that Juliet is a Capulet, Shakespeare tries to portray Romeo as being sad and heart-broken. He achieves this by using phrases like “My life is my foe's debt.” This again shows the audience the strength of the love between the characters. Dramatic irony is also used here for a short while as Juliet does not yet know that Romeo is a Montague and the audience eagerly await her reaction. I think Shakespeare’s aim for this part was to show how much Romeo loves Juliet and how heart-broken he was to find that his only true love was his enemy.
As Juliet goes with the nurse, she stops as she wants to find out who Romeo is. However, she does not point to Romeo straight away and points to other boys first. Shakespeare has done this to delay the awareness of finding out Romeo is a Montague. The tension is equally high as the part before when Romeo found out Juliet was a Capulet. Also, dramatic irony is still being used as she does not yet know who Romeo is. When Juliet finally points to Romeo the nurse replies ‘I know not.’ This furthermore delays the apprehension. Juliet then begins to suugest how heartbroken she would be if Romeo turned out to be married. This makes the audience significantly tense as they know Juliet will become despair to find out that Romeo is the only son of her enemy. The nurse at long last tells Juliet who Romeo is and Juliet becomes highly distressed. We know this as she uses phrases like ‘My only love sprung from my only hate.’ Shakespeare has very cleverly used an oxymoron, love and hate, which flow in nicely with the contrasting love/hate theme. In this scene Shakespeare wanted to achieve the idea that Juliet’s happiness and excitement can be shattered just by the news that Romeo is a Montague.
Overall, I think Shakespeare was very successful in this scene as he cleverly created areas of great intensity. This would undoubtedly involve the audience and would result in them to shout continuous remarks at the actors. Also, dramatic irony was used tremendously as for the majority of the scene Romeo and Juliet were unaware of each others true identity. An additional technique used exceptionally well was the love/hate contrast. In certain places Shakespeare followed a positive happy moment with a negative, angry and tense moment. This contrast consequently allows the audience to develop mixed feelings. Also, Shakespeare shows how everything is ‘set up’ through this scene to allow it to be explored further in the rest of the play such as the love/hate contrasting theme. I personally feel Shakespeare’s intentions for this scene was to portray to the audience how Romeo and Juliet form a special, strong and unique bond within the first few seconds of meeting each other.
By Rahul Chowdhry