The prologue to “Romeo and Juliet” is written in sonnet form. A sonnet is a fourteen line poem which follows a precise rhyme sequence a logical structure. It is typically a love poem that is written to deal with conflict issues. As conflict is a key theme to “Romeo and Juliet”, William Shakespeare must have thought it appropriate to introduce this particular play with a sonnet.
In the prologue the audience is made aware that violence and conflict are going to be a strong theme in the play. Shakespeare does this by using certain words and phrases that are normally associated with violence and conflict. For example he says, “From forth the fatal loins of these two foes,” in this phrase the words “fatal” and “foes” are words that would be generally associated with violence and battle. A second example of this would be when Shakespeare uses this phrase, “From ancient grudge break new mutiny”. Here the word “grudge” is one that is generally associated with violence.
The Capulets and Montagues are sworn enemies. Escalus, Prince of Verona informs both of the families that if there is any more violence he will execute those who are responsible. Romeo, a Montague, and his cousins secretly attend a Capulet party- where Romeo falls in love with Juliet Capulet; they agree to marry the next day. After the wedding there is a fight between the houses, which results in Romeo’s best friend Mercutio being killed by Capulet Tybalt, Romeo gets revenge by killing Tybalt and is banished. Lord Capulet arranges a marriage for Juliet, so she takes a potion to appear dead, sending a letter to Romeo telling him to collect her so they can escape together. A problem then follows when Romeo doesn’t get the letter explaining the plan and kills himself, believing she is actually dead. Realising her lover has killed himself, Juliet commits suicide upon waking up.
Romeo and Juliet (Act 1 Scene 1) opens with the argument between two Capulet servants, Sampson and Gregory. Shakespeare used this to start the play as it involves lower classes, and much of the audience would have been made up with lower class people (in the pit). It is set in “A public place”, which means that it is going to be busy, so other citizens would also be effected by the fight, and with the Capulets’ reputation on the line, Sampson and Gregory must try to give a good impression. The audience knows that they are looking for trouble because they are armed with swords and bucklers. They use chatty, often, abbreviated language, which would be very typical of common-folk then, and can often still be seen in today’s society. The quarrel is very bawdy, (which could more easily be compared with a scene from one of Shakespeare’s comedies – if you did not know better, you may assume this was a comedy, not a tragedy). However the opening of the play bears no reflection to the certainly tragic ending. Gregory is quite an honest, ordinary character who always notices Sampson’s self confidence and makes fun of it “’Tis well thou art not fish; if thou hadst, thou hadst been poor John.” , whereas Sampson is proud, boastful and outgoing- despite his real cowardice when it comes to actually facing his enemy. He is also quite boastful of his sexual prowess, saying that he will “thrust his maids to the wall”! This suggests that they almost want enemies to arrive so that they can find out who is the bravest.
Sampson bites his thumb to provoke an attack from the Montague’s without the on watching public knowing. They address each other rather politely “sir” so that people who hear them do not believe that they are trying to start the fight, whilst also being sarcastic. After the fight Romeo Montague’s cousin Benvolio comes to the scene. Benvolio is translated to mean peace maker- which is an excellent reflection of his character within the play. He comes to the scene and commands both sides (including his own) to “Put up your swords”. Soon after Tybalt (a Capulet) arrives, he is someone who enjoys violence “and talk of peace! I hate the word”. The citizens of Verona do not like the feud. It has plagued their streets for centuries and they want an end to the bickering- we know this because the First Citizen says “Down with the Capulets! Down with the Montagues!”
The Prince (Escalus) who represents peace and authority within Verona, tells the citizens of “If ever you disturb our streets again, your lives shall pay the forfeit of the peace”- meaning that they would be executed. He focuses a lot on the work “you” to show that it is the whole of Verona’s wish that the streets were undisturbed. He uses metaphors, as they are very powerful devices and add a lot of emphasis, such as “you beasts” to show how angry and disappointed he is. “Beasts” are uncivilised creatures, and he is saying that the two families are uncivilised and can’t act as a community. The two families should be joining together to fight off enemies from outside Verona, however they are too bothered about fighting one another.
There is now a clear switch to the second conflict type in the scene. Lady Montague is concerned about her son-Romeo because he hasn’t been himself recently. She, her husband (Lord Montague) and Benvolio have all noticed the sudden change in behaviour. Bevolio says that early that morning he saw Romeo “walking”, whilst Lord Montague has often caught his son trying to make “an artificial night” as well as crying, sighing and shutting himself away. With night representing darkness and depression, as opposed to light, health and happiness. They all see that Romeo is depressed and that he wants to shut himself away from the world. Montague compares Romeo to “the bud bit with an envious worm - meaning that he is like an apple that’s insides have been eaten by a worm- making it look nice on the outside, but rotten in the middle. He is constantly being eaten away at. He will be destroyed before he has the chance to blossom into a man.
The audience’s first impression of Romeo is of a sad young man who is confused within his mind. He is deeply in love with a woman and this is causing such uncertainty. He makes comments such as, “Out of her favour, where I am in love,” showing his deep love for Rosaline. It is causing him to become confused. He is sick of having to think about this, he wants people to stop asking him what is wrong and just leave him alone, he asks Benvolio to talk about something else, “Yet tell me not, for I have heard it all.”
Romeo is like a Petrarchan lover because he is in love with a young girl called Rosalyne; however she doesn’t like Romeo which makes his love unrequited. Here Shakespeare uses oxymorons and short sentences to connotate the turmoil in Romeo’s head-“brawling love”; “loving hate”; “heavy lightness”; “serious vanity”; “Feather of lead”; “bright smoke; cold fire” and “sick health”. These also reflect the opposition that runs through the play: Capulets and Montagues; Youth and Age; Love and Hate; Light and Dark. This shows that Romeo is very confused as he cannot put together a sentence properly; he has other things on his mind.
Romeo compares Rosalyne to Dian because Dian is the Greek Goddess of chastity- to remain chaste, or single He wants to have Rosaline all to himself, if he can’t have her then nobody else can. His cousin tells Romeo to “examine other beauties” and look for other girls. However Romeo refuses to believe that there would ever be anyone else apart from Rosaline, “O! Teach me how I should forget to think”.
Romeo uses a lot of military language: “purged” “choking” “cupid’s arrow” to describe the inner turmoil he is experiencing - We can compare this to the physical conflict that is happening between the two families as they fight with each other.
Act 1 Scene 1 is an incredibly powerful scene within the play, showing both the physical and emotional conflict that is there throughout the play. I think that Act 1 Scene of “Romeo and Juliet” is an excellent introduction to the play. It introduces some of the characters and shows their state of mind clearly; it also gives information that will resurface later in the play, such as Romeo’s fickleness with relation to love. The similarities between the two types of conflict are clear, showing how people are affected by both types of conflict.
The 2 types of turmoil reflect each other throughout the play, right to the final scene where both are finished by the deaths of both Romeo and Juliet. I think that each character- in some small way- shows both type of conflict. The two types of conflict are similar as they both cause people a lot of difficulties throughout the play, they both leave scars (visible or not).
The conflicts also show differences: the physical conflict is external and leaves marks that can be seen; whereas the emotional conflict is internal and although it may be more painful it leaves no scars on the outside. They both intertwine throughout the play, and they meet in rather a violent way at the end, which leaves both physical (the deaths of Romeo and Juliet) and emotional (the grievance and sorrow of both families) conflict with the characters this reflects the idea of conflict being a central theme throughout the whole play, not only Act 1 Scene 1.
