“Did my heart love till now? forswear it, sight!
For I ne’er saw true beauty till this night”
This implies that Romeo never really loved Rosaline, as he is using a rhetorical question which means he has never loved before. He is using short sentences, which shows seriousness; this shows the audience that he is completely sure that he is in love with Juliet. He also uses the word “beauty” meaning that Juliet is the most beautiful person he has ever seen, her beauty is something he hasn’t come across before. This also shows the love towards Juliet. When Romeo says this, the audience sees the true love. There is absolutely no tension, as the audience is only feeling two emotions: love and happiness. To furthermore show Romeo’s feelings, Shakespeare uses a metaphor: “So shows a snowy dove trooping with crows” This creates imagery of how pure and perfect Juliet is compared to all the other women, such as Rosaline, which are referred to as crows. Crows are seen as ugly and dark and by contrasting a dove and a crow, juxtaposition is used. The use of these language devices makes the sentence very strong and shows absolute seriousness about the feelings that Romeo is encountering. Shakespeare uses a lot of metaphor, juxtaposition and Oxymoron to show feelings between Romeo and Juliet, throughout the whole of the play.
When Tybalt sees Romeo at the party, the emotions of the audience quickly changes. It turns from love and happiness to tension and fear, this is because Tybalt says:
“Fetch me my rapier, boy”
As soon as Tybalt says this, the audience gets extremely tense, as they know from the prologue already that Romeo IS going to die, but they don’t know when, so they think this might be when he dies. This sentence is very short, so it really shows Tybalt’s vigorous and pure hate towards all Montagues. Tybalt has never even met Romeo before, but as he knows that he is a Montague he immediately hates him and wants to kill him straight away without even thinking about it first. This sentence shows Tybalt’s personality which is ruthless, hateful and violent. He says this sentence to one of the servants, and by calling him ‘boy’ as he shows his authority and shows he thinks he is better than some people. By saying ‘fetch’ he shows that he wants to take urgent, quick action. It is a commanding word, which again, shows authority.
Lord Capulet tells Tybalt to leave Romeo alone, as he doesn’t want to be embarrassed at his own party and also because he thinks Romeo is a nice gentleman. Tybalt responds to this by saying:
“I will withdraw, but this intrusion shall,
Now seeming sweet, convert to bitt’rest gall.”
When Lord Capulet tells Tybalt to leave Romeo alone, it takes a bit of persuading first. This shows the audience that Tybalt really does hate Romeo and wants to kill him really badly. But as he does listen to his uncle in the end, it shows that he has respect for him and listens to his advice and does not want to embarrass him in front of everyone. However, he says that, although now everything is fine now, he will get Romeo in the end. This makes everything tense because the audience doesn’t know when he is going to kill Romeo or what is going to happen next. He says ‘bitt’rest gall’ which means that when he does get Romeo, it will be horrible and bitter. This again shows Tybalt’s personality. It also shows that Tybalt is loyal to his family by hating the Montagues. So this sentence really does intensify everything because the audience does not know what is going to happen now and they also don’t know if Tybalt will actually kill Romeo.
Romeo thinks he is unworthy of Juliet and he thinks she is too good for him, he lets her know this by saying:
“If I profane with my unworthiest hand,
This holy shrine, the gentle sin is this;”
He is saying that he does not feel worthy of touching her hand as the thinks her hand is better than his. A shrine is something you worship, and by using this word he is showing that he basically worships Juliet. When Romeo and Juliet talk to each other, they use a sonnet form. Each person says the same amount of lines, this shows that they respect each other and that they are equal and neither of them are better than the other person. Also, the sonnet contains religion. By using words like ‘pilgrim’ and ‘sin’, the audience knows that they really do love each other and that they are completely serious about this as the Elizabethan audience was very religious, so religion would not be used as a joke. Sonnets show serious love; this is why Shakespeare uses a sonnet. When Romeo and Juliet are talking, they flirt with each other which leads up to their first kiss, when they flirt the audience feels more relaxed and the tension from the last scene is released.
When Romeo finds out that Juliet is a Capulet, he is shocked and does not know what to do.
“Is she a Capulet?
O dear account! my life is my foe’s debt.”
This shows the audience that he is completely shocked when he finds out Juliet is actually a Capulet. By using the word ‘o’ he shows how shocked he is and it shows exaggeration, he also shows this by using an exclamation mark. He is also using short sentences, which also shows shock and surprise. By saying “my life is my foe’s debt” he is showing that he is powerless, and that he can’t fight the Capulets now because he is in love with a member of their family. When he finds out Juliet is a Capulet, he audience gets really tense because they don’t know what is going to happen now. He says he owes his life to his enemy, which is ironic because he basically does, as he dies because of the families hate. At the end of the scene, Juliet also finds out which family Romeo belongs to, and says: “My only love sprung from my only hate” Shakespeare uses oxymoron for this sentence to show the complete tragedy of this dilemma. The stark contrast in the sentence shows the audience how serious both the hate, and the love is. Throughout the rest of the play, Juliet decides to keep seeing Romeo, which also makes the audience realise that their love has no boundaries.
Romeo is the only man Juliet wants, she tells the audience this by saying that if he is married, she might as well die.
“Go ask his name- If he be married,
My grave is likely to be my wedding bed.”
This shows how much Juliet loves Romeo. It would kill her if he was married and she says if he is, her grave is likely to be her wedding bed, which is really ironic as that is what basically happens. She dies on the day that she was meant to be getting married to Paris, so she sort of does die on her wedding bed. Juliet does not want to be with anyone else except for Romeo, she shows this when she says that if he is married she might as well be dead. This creates tension in the audience as it suggests to them that Juliet may die soon as they know the two families hate each other and they may not allowed to see each other and so Juliet might kill herself. When Juliet says this, it’s at the end of the scene. When the scene is finished, Romeo and Juliet know that they’re enemies and the audience is left confused and very tense. They will have a lot of questions on their minds because they don’t know what is going to happen now, or if Romeo and Juliet are still going to see each other or if this is the end of their relationship and they also ask themselves when Romeo and Juliet are actually going to die, because in Act 1, Scene 5 there were lots of opportunities for Romeo to be killed.
So overall, there is an extremely strong contrast between love and hate in Act 1, Scene 5 which makes the audience go from tense to happy to tense again. Shakespeare uses a lot of language devices, such as metaphors, which make the sentences more meaningful and stronger, oxymoron which creates stark contrast and juxtaposition, which are the complete opposites, love and hate, in this scene. It shows the love between Romeo and Julie and the hate between the Montagues and the Capulets. Shakespeare also uses a lot of exaggeration to intensify. He does this by using exclamation marks and short sentences. The end of the scene also intensifies the play, as Romeo and Juliet find out that they are enemies and are meant to hate each other, but how can they hate each other when they love each other so richly and entirely, regardless of anything?