Act 1 Scene 5 Romeo and Juliet Essay

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Romeo and Juliet English GCSE Year 10 Essay

Explore the ways that Shakespeare makes Act 1 Scene 5 of Romeo and Juliet dramatically effective

William Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet is a love story about two teenagers who fall in love with each other, “two star struck lovers”. There are many themes in this play but in Act 1 Scene 5 the two key themes are Love and Hate. The love shared by the youngest of each house hold and the hate shared throughout the two households. The audience don’t know much about Romeo and Juliet at first, all they know is that Romeo is from the Montague household and Juliet is from the Capulet household and that both of these households are high in status. In this scene the audience expect Juliet to meet Paris and for her to make her judgement on him to weather or not she will marry Paris, “Read o’er the volume of young Paris’ face, And find delight writ there with beauty’s pen; Examine every married lineament. They will also expect Romeo to meet Rosaline again and for there love to continue.

Shakespeare opens up Act 1 Scene 5 by introducing the audience to the servant. He uses the servants to inform us about the party and open up the party. At this point it is a very busy atmosphere, “away with the join-stools, remove he court-cupboard look to the plate”. This makes this part of the scene effective because it makes us wonder if they will be able to successfully get everything ready in time. Shortly after this the servants are excited about the party and feel as if they are part of the party because they hope for a treat, “Good thou, save me a piece of marchpane…” This makes the atmosphere pleasant as well as the jokes being made. This is effective because in a couple seconds you can see that it goes from a very stressful atmosphere to a calm and pleasant atmosphere. While the servants are busy doing this Lord Capulet welcomes his guests “Welcome Gentlemen!” this shows us that he is light-hearted and is in command of his party. Encouraging the women to dance by making jokes is effective because it makes us think about the situation more, “Ah, my mistresses, which of you all, Will now dent to dance? She that dainty, she I’ll swear hath corns”. After Lord Capulet has teased the ladies, he goes on to talk to his cousin about how they used to be fit for all the dancing. “For you and I are past our dancing days, how long it’s since last yourself and I were in a mask?” This adds to the dramatic effect of this scene because it shows the audience that these family balls have been going on for generations.

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The dramatic effect of Romeos speech when he first sees Juliet is to set the scene for the trouble that is to come and tells us something of Romeos character.

Firstly Romeo doesn’t even know who she is because the quotes “What lady’s that which doth enrich the hand? Of yonder knight?” The effect on the audience is quiet strong because they know that Juliet is the daughter of the rival Capulet family, Romeo is talking to a servant and is quiet obviously entranced by her looks even thought he knows nothing about her. “It seems she hangs ...

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