I personally think that it might actually have been better if the Prologue didn't tell us that Romeo and Juliet will die, but I never watched the play and maybe it just works as a good foreshadowing and a strong introduction to the mood of the story.
Act 1 Scene 5 is the part of the play where I think the contrast between love and conflict is being shown in a best visible way. I would divide this scene into two sections, one of which is the dialogue between Romeo and Juliet – this one is about love, as shown by quotes from it such us ''My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand, To smooth the rough touch with a gentle kiss.'' (Romeo to Juliet) – and the other the discussions between Tybalt and other people, which is about conflict as he wants to kill Romeo, villian from the other family (''It fits when such a villian is a guest; I'll not endure him.''). The scene takes place in the house of Capulets, Juliet's and Tybalt's family, where a big ball is organized. Romeo and his friends actually came here primarily to make fun of their enemies' family, and this is the reason why Tybalt is so angry (angrier that he would be in a different case), but everything changed when something that should never have happen took place; Romeo saw Juliet and fell in love with here outright. He forgot his previous love, Rosaline, saying ''I ne'er saw true beauty till this night.''. At this moment, a literary tradition is shown, very often (and very well) used in Shakespeare's drama; dramatic irony. It can be described as that ''Audience knows more than the characters about something important to the story's plot.'', and in this scene, it lies in the fact that when Romeo falls in love with Juliet, talks to her and she falls to him, they don't know, that they in fact are, or are supposed to be, the worst enemies. At the end of the scene, there is another reference to conflict that relates to this – when they have to separate, they ask other people about who each other was, because they are both convinced that they must marry the other one. When Romeo is told that his new love is his enemy, he says ''Is she a Capulet? O dear account. My life is my foe's debt.'' and when Juliet finds out about it, she says ''My only love sprung from my only hate. Too early seen unknown, and known too late.'' Here she speaks about what we call dramatic irony – she saw him too early, before she knew that he is an enemy; if she did know it, she could precede falling in love so that there would be no problem. She continues by saying ''Prodigious birth of love is it to me. That I must love a loathed enemy.''. Also, both fragments show that although Romeo and Juliet now understand that their new love is their worst enemy, this doesn't change their mind – they still want to marry each other, and even if they realize that it is terrible, they take loving each other as an unchangeable fact. Along with Tybalt's thirst for Romeo's blood (he even says that killing Romeo, he would feel absolutely no guilt: ''Now by the stock and honour of my kind, To strike him (Romeo) down I hold it not a sin.''), this blind will to marry each other works as a massive foreshadowing; we know that this cannot end up well, as Tybalt is mad to kill (saying ''Fetch me my rapier, boy.'') someone who just found that he will love his cousin forever.
In Act 1 Scene 5 there are some interesting things to notice. One of them is that the newly found love changed and will case changes to the characters of both Juliet and Romeo – Juliet begins to stop being just an object in the hands of her parents, and starts to make her own decisions that relate to her love, whilst Romeo starts to think more – before this happened, he was just a young man thinking of having fun all the time, but now he have to challenge something big. Moreover, the language of the scene is quite interesting; most of all the religious metaphors which appear when Juliet and Romeo are talking to each other, such us (Romeo) ''O then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do: They pray: grand thou, lest faith turn to despair.'' or (Juliet) ''Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much, Which mannerly devotion shows in this; For saints have hands that pilgrims' hands do touch, And palm to palm in holy palmers' kiss.'', and lots more. This also has to do with the historical context of religion. Other context to be found in the scene may be the problem of marrying someone you aren't supposed to marry; Juliet and Romeo want to marry each other, but they will have a big problem with it, as we can predict, understanding that if their parents knew about it, they would never let them do it, and in the time of Shakespeare it was unthinkable to get married to someone as far as your parents didn't agree.
Act 3 Scene 1 can be, although only roughly, described us a fighting scene, because a big fight is to be seen here. However, there is a lot more in it. It is also important to know that it is a turning point in the play; the first death takes place here and the more tragic part of the story begins. There are four main characters in the scene: Tybalt, the angry one who wants to injure others and feels really mad; Benvolio, who is the one trying to keep the situation calm, is afraid of a fight and doesn't want it; Mercutio, who is the one trying to make fun and doesn't understand or care about the danger; and Romeo; who doesn't want a fight but isn't very helpful when trying to prevent it. The whole scene develops in the spirit of rising tension. Shakespeare creates this mood by how all of the characters are behaving: Benvolio uses metaphors to suggest that he is afraid of fighting, and audience may think that if he says this it will probably take place; Romeo's way of acting seems effeminate to the other characters and makes them angry; Tybalt is quite mad and the way he acts suggests that he will have the fight and killing anyway; and Mercutio's jokes don't fit into the rising tension so the audience can see that they just provoke Tybalt so the killing will begin. I will now show how the tension rises at the beginning:
The first words we hear are from Benvolio: ''The day is hot.''. Saying this he suggests that anger is in the air; he thinks that at this day people are more likely to be aggressive. Also, saying ''We shall not escape a brawl.'' or ''...mad blood stirring.'' he makes it seems that fight will definetly take place if they meet the Capulets. But after these words audience still doesn't have to be really afraid, because Benvolio's words also mean that he doesn't want to fight and will try to precede it or stop it. It gets worse, when Mercutio disagrees, using similes to say that he is not afraid and doesn't care about the whole fight thing (''thou act like one of these fellows...''). Audience can now feel that it will not be good once they will actually meet the Capulets and Mercutio won't stop making jokes. Moreover, Mercutio is not only joking. He also say that he will not try to make peace because it is against his mind, even though they are on a public place and fights are banned under the punishment of death or being banished from Verona (''Men's eyes were made to look, and let them gaze; I will not budge for no man's pleasure, I.''), so he is not actually against fighting. Then, the Capulets and Romeo arrive, so the audience can now be sure that fight will take place.
Itt is also important to notice where the dramatic irony is expressed in the scene. In the previous scene, something sharply contrasting with events that now take place happened; Romeo married Juliet. The dramatic irony here lies in the fact that Tybalt doesn't know this, so when he tries to injure and kill Romeo, he doesn't understand that he is now his brother-in-law, although Romeo is trying to tell him that he must love him now, as a part of his family. Another literary tradition shown here is foreshadowing; it could be said that what Benvolio says at the beginning is foreshadowing to what will happen in the scene, and that the scene, full of tension and violence, makes it seem that the story as a whole will not end happily (which is, after all, true). If we want to consider the theme love and conflict, we should note that the whole scene is about conflict between two families, and the love here is shown in Romeo's character, whose love to Juliet changed him; he acts more effeminate now (he even admits this himself, saying ''O sweet Juliet, Thy beauty hath made me effeminate. And in my temper softened valour's steel.''), not wanting to fight with Tybalt and even saying ''Tybalt, the reason why I have to love thee...'', which is not expected. Tybalt gets angry about the fact that Romeo doesn't accept his challenge, and Mercutio continues the fight, misunderstanding what Romeo wants when he, after Mercutio tries to protect him, tells him ''Gentle Mercutio, put thy rapier down.''. This has to do a lot with the cultural context – masculine honour. Men were expected to fight and being a skilled fighter was understood to be good. Mercutio thinks that when Romeo is, for some unapparent reason, not fighting, he is the one who has to take his place against the attacking Tybalt. Romeo admits that this is bad in a way, saying ''My reputation comes down.''. I don't like, and other people also criticized, this Shakespeare's approach to fighting. My own opinion on the scene is that it is depressively ironic; mostly because of how Mercutio doesn't care about the peace Romeo tries to make and how stupidly he behaves, thereby partially causing his own death, which is a result of what happens in the scene. If I was to answer the question ''Who is mainly to blame for Tybalt's death?'' I would say that it is Tybalt himself, since he was so aggressive and also not skilled enough to win the fight, although Mercutio, because of his behaviour. and Romeo, who was unable to control his anger after his friend died, can be blamed as well.
In Act 3 Scene 5, love is represented only at the beginning, where Romeo leaves Juliet's room and kisses her before going. It is also a very sad love, because if we know the story, we also know that this is the last time Juliet sees Romeo alive. But the theme of conflicts has a massive representation, mostly because of what Juliet's father does and says. The whole point in the scene is that Juliet's parents want make her marry Paris, a young noble who loves her and who they decided would be an ideal husband for her, but she in fact can't do this since she is already married to Romeo. When speaking to her mother, she (actually quite successfully) tries to make her think that she is mourning for the dead Tybalt and hates Romeo because he killed him, but she in fact uses double meanings (which are also an interesting aspect of language), which allow other people (i.e. the audience) to see that what she means is that she loves him and forgives him for killing her cousin, for example in ''Feeling so the loss, Cannot choose but ever weep the friend.'' on which Lady Capulet responds ''Well, girl, thou weep'st not so much for his death, As the villian lives (showing great hatred for Romeo; she wants to have him dead) which slaughter'd him.'', thinking that her daughter weeps for Tybalt, whilst she does so for Romeo. By making Juliet say these double meanings, Shakespeare is perhaps trying to make it seem that she is very intelligent (she might get wiser because of the problems she had to challenge). However, when her mother starts to speak about marriage, she gets terrified. This has to do with the cultural context of religion; it was against God to marry twice, so she cannot get married with Paris, but she can't tell that to her parents. She ceases to speak composedly (as seen in ''Now, by Saint Peter's Church and Peter too, He shall not make me there a joyful bride, I wonder at his haste: that I must wed.''). We can see that she strongly believes in what she thinks and that she would never forsake Romeo.
However, her father, lord Capulet, appears and drastically shows that there can be no discussion about whether Juliet will marry Paris or not. He shous at her, using similes (also interesting language aspects) to show he is angry ''My fingers itch.'' (so he is so angry he would hit her) and to intimidate her ''Or I will drag thee on a hurdle thither,'' ''But, as you will not wed, I'll pardon you: Graze where you will you shall not house with me...''. He is showing her absolutely no mercy, understanding her as an object (''An you be mine, I'll give you to my friend.''). This has a strong connection with another historical context – patriarchy. He hasn't got such an amount of power over her life just because he is a parent and she is his offspring, but also because he is a man and she is a woman. In this time, all rights that a woman had were given to her by a man who controlled her at a time; her father, carer or husband. Patriarchy also stands in the core of all problems with marriages in this time; most marriages were arranged by the parents or the man who wanted to get married, and a woman couldn't just married whoever she loved. This scene is also full of dramatic irony; Juliet's mother hates and wants to kill Romeo, and both of her parents want her to marry Paris, but they don't know she is already married to Romeo.
I think this scene is sad; I felt with Juliet, mostly because both her mother (Juliet: ''O sweet my mother, cast me not away.'' – Lady Capulet: ''Talk not to me... for I have done with thee.'') and, in a way, the nurse whom she trusts (Juliet: ''O God! O Nurse, how shall this be prevented? … What say'st thou? Has thou not a word for joy? Some comfort, Nurse.'' - Nurse: ''...I think it best you married with the county. <Describes how good he is.>''). And after that, the story gets even worse; until it ends in tragedy.
~~ Albert Ferkl 10BG
