Shakespeare also uses a lot of dramatic irony in Romeo and Juliet, but mostly in the last act. For example at the end of Act 5 Scene 1 Romeo says: “to Juliet’s grave” and when he does reach the grave in scene 3 he treats the place where Juliet rests as a tomb and describes and acts as if it is a grave: “I descend on this bed of death”. He also thinks she is dead: “thence from her dead finger a precious ring.” This creates a dramatic effect by making the audience frustrated and makes the audience more in touch with the story as they want to tell Romeo that she is not dead, but they can’t. This creates suspense as the audience then want to know how Romeo will act as he has the poison. Thus, this creation of drama elevates the situation to another level.
The scene itself is a microcosm of the whole play. It includes the harsh deaths and fighting and the horror, but also the intense love and beauty. Paris’ soliloquey is one of heaps of beautiful imagery: “Sweet flower, with flowers they bridal bed I strew…which with sweet water nightly I will dew…the obsequies that I for thee will keep.” However, he also includes grotesque imagery: “thy canopy is dust and stones”, “with digging up of graves” and “with tears distilled by moans.” Romeo does practically the same by developing these grotesque images further: “By heaven I will tear thee joint by joint, and strew this hungry churchyard with thy limbs. The time and my intents are savage-wild, more fierce and more inexorable far than empty tigers, or that roaring sea.”, “Thou destestable may, thou womb of death, gorged with the dearest morsel of the earth, thus I enforce thy rotten jaws to open.” And “with worms that are thy chamber-maids” However, just like Paris, he compensates this slightly by describing to Juliet’s beauty: “For here lies Juliet and her beauty makes this vault a feasting presence full of light”, “Death that hath sucked the honey of thy breath hath had no power yet upon thy beauty.”, “Though are not conquered; beauty’s ensign yet in crimson in thy lips and in thy cheeks,”. This is a key creator of drama as the combination of talking about the grotesquery of the death and the beauty of Juliet contradict and contrast each other, and this conflict is a representation of the conflict between the families, and the confusion and distortion that both Romeo and Paris where experiencing at the time.
Paris’ speech is shorter than Romeo’s, and Romeo’s has more meaning and emotion than Paris’. Romeo’s entrance and soliloquey in the scene is a dramatic device because it creates suspense as we want to know how Romeo will act now that he is at the tomb. There is more conflict where Romeo uses the oxymoron “womb of death” to describe the grave. This shows the conflict that Romeo is feeling, which has been explained in the previous paragraph. Romeo also personifies death: “And death’s pale flag is not advanced there”, “And that the lean abhorred monster keeps thee here in dark in paramour” and “The doors of breath, seal with a righteous kills a dateless bargain to engrossing death”. This personification of death creates drama as we realise that Romeo is about to commit suicide as he describes death as being a person who he has bargained with and who is overcoming him. He also makes a lot of references to light: “A grave? O no, a lantern, slaughtered youth;”, “her beauty makes this vault a feasting presence full of light.” He has described Juliet in earlier scenes with light. In Shakespearean days, light was associated with purity and beauty and the angels. A person of light would be all good, heavenly and would be non-sinful as holiness was also important in those days. Thus, Romeo’s speech builds drama by his emotional descriptions of Juliet’s beauty, but also his anger and sorrow in the way he personifies and describes death.
In his soliloquey, he is also not the Elizabethan lover that we see him as before. Before he acted on his love rather than logic or thinking things through. Nevertheless, in his last speech he seems to have dignity and emotion rather than courtly convention or fashionable euphemisms.
Conflict is not only evident in the words of scene 3, but also the action. There is the duel between Paris and Romeo: “P- I do defy thy conjuration, and apprehend thee for a felon here. R- Wilt thou provoke me? Then have at thee boy…P- O I am slain. If thou be merciful, open the tomb, lay me with Juliet. R- In faith I will.” This conflict is producing drama because we have seen fights before, and many deaths. Romeo describes Paris as a “boy”. This shows how angry they were at each other and how passionate that they were for Juliet because they were willing to fight over the body of a dead woman. However, after the fight Romeo agrees to lay Paris next to Juliet, which shows how he can change so quickly. This probably occurred because it is now only Romeo and Juliet together, but also that this is the second person he has killed in the story, and is probably very upset and confused as he Paris, and he might think that Juliet’s death may have been his fault as well.
We have already shown how Romeo personifies death. But Romeo also describes and feels death in many other ways other than personification that also lead to how Romeo’s soliloquey generates drama. Romeo shows that he is afraid: “Let them affright thee” and that death is lustful: “That unsubstantial death is amorous”. Because of this burden he is carrying, the death in all of its sin and ugliness is a great relief for Romeo: “Thou desperate pilot, now at once run on the dashing rocks thy sea-sick weary bark.”. His opinions and his talk of death create tension in the audience as the talk of death itself is very dramatic and that the audience know that he will commit suicide soon, and death is also dramatic.
Fate and tragedy are very large dramatic features of the play and is developed throughout, even in the prologue to the end. In Shakespearean days, the stars were used to read futures, like modern day horoscopes. In the play there are lots of references to death like the various forms of death such as torture and madness. We see the madness in Romeo’s speech as he is constantly saying things that conflict and confuse each other. And Romeo’s fate was indeed death as he died shaking off the “yoke of in auspicious stars”. Blank verse adds impetus movement to his many speeches throughout the play, especially the last soliloquy of Romeo. Fate creates drama as is causes the audience to expect things and there want things to happen. This in turn creates suspense. Tragedy also plays a part. Tragedy itself is drama. And this story is a tragedy because of its lack of ethics and its plentiful of death of patagonists such as Tybalt and Mercutio, who did not have to necessarily die. The story’s lack of ethics makes it a tragedy because, in Shakespearean days, the act of suicide meant that you would go to hell and it would be a sin.
The entrance of Friar Lawrence also brings drama in his words. He creates an awareness of horror and darkness in his working: “To grubs and eyeless skulls”, “gory swords, to lie discoloured by this place of peace”, “Thy husband in thy bosom lie dead; an Paris too.” This development of horror makes drama as it is just after the death. His dialogue is also short and succinct which picks up the pace. Also the horror grows more when he describes death again: “A greater power than we can contradict hath thwarted our intents”.
The pace of the scene also helps produce the dramatic effect. Quick speeches of both Paris and Romeo are in fast blank verse and then the fight combined has a very quick pace. And then after this quick pace we have Romeo’s long soliloquy which slows things down. And then his death is quick which shows the sense of urgency for death. This can be seen in the bitter irony of “O happy dagger”. Then Friar Lawrence makes a short entrance and then exits. This calms down the scene, which then prepares the audience for more drama at Juliet’s suicide. Then the quick entrances of all the watches (super-numeries, the Prince, and the families. This is a lot of entrances in one go. This raises the pace. Then Friar Lawrence explains the situation with ruins the pathos as he drags his speech on for a long time. This constant change of pace and pathos creates effective drama because there is drama, then a rest and then more drama.
In conclusion, Shakespeare uses many gadgets to create drama, through imagery, language, characters, death and horror and pace. Because of this Shakespeare has created a tragedy with a simple plot and complex issues.