“Doth with their death bury their parents’ strife.” – This line shows us that with the couples death, the ancient grudge between the families, is forgotten.
And the continuance of their parents' rage,
Which, but their children's end, nought could remove,
These lines tell us that nothing other than the death of Romeo and Juliet could stop the bickering between the families.
The hatred between the two families is shown from the outset, with the first scene opening with a quarrel between Montague’s and Capulet’s. This quarrel disturbs the city and this is the first time that we see the prince, prince Escalous who warns the families that they have disturbed the peace of the city too many times and that the next time they disturb the peace, there will be trouble. Friar Lawrence is shown to be an expert in potion making as when Romeo comes back from the masked ball Friar Lawrence is busy picking flowers for potions. Romeo and Juliet want to wed straight away to show their love for each other, Friar
Lawrence agrees to marry the couple to try and stop the feuding between the families.
Tybalt wants to fight Romeo but Romeo says no as he is now part of Tybalt’s family as he and Juliet are cousins. Tybalt does not know that Romeo and Juliet are married. Nor does anyone else except the nurse and Friar Lawrence. Tybalt fights Mercutio- Romeo’s friend instead. Mercutio is killed and as he is dying he blames the families and shouts “A plague o' both your houses!” this shows that the whole city blames the rivalry between the Montague’s and Capulet’s for all the fighting and the bad things that happen. This shows us that Romeo and Juliet is not a play just about two lovers, or two families but a story of a whole city. Everyone in Verona is affected when the Montague’s or Capulet’s have a quarrel or fight. Shakespeare shows that it is a story of a city by the lines-
“The people in the street cry Romeo,
Some Juliet, and some Paris;”…
This shows us that the whole city is upset about the deaths of Romeo, Juliet and Paris. The people in the city all know each other and everyone is mourning the couple and Paris’ deaths.
After the death of Mercutio, Romeo fights Tybalt for revenge, and kills him. Romeo gets banished by Prince Escalous. This is one of the first times in the play we hear Romeo or Juliet refer to death. Romeo says that he would rather die than be banished, as he will now have to live without seeing Juliet. He tries to kill himself, but is stopped by the Nurse. Shakespeare prepares the audience for the final scene in many ways, but the most often used way, is that he refers to the couple killing themselves and talking about death a lot. This makes the audience think that maybe this is what happens in the final scene.
The fact that Juliet’s parents want her to marry County Paris shows that the relationship between Romeo and Juliet will never work. Juliet does not want to marry Paris, and even if she did she would not be able to as she is already married to Romeo. Her parents are trying to force her to marry Paris as they think she is grieving for her dead cousin Tybalt, but we as the audience know that she is more upset about not being able to see Romeo again. Juliet agrees to marry Paris after her father threatens to disown her.
Juliet is distraught as she cannot see her husband, her beloved cousin has been killed by her husband, and she is being forced to marry the county Paris against her wishes. She does not know what to do so she goes to Friar Laurence to seek help. The friar as we already knew is an expert in making potions, and offers Juliet a potion to make her appear dead this is how he describes the potion, and the state in which Juliet will appear.
FRIAR LAWRENCE
Hold, then; go home, be merry, give consent
To marry Paris: Wednesday is to-morrow:
To-morrow night look that thou lie alone;
Let not thy nurse lie with thee in thy chamber:
Take thou this vial, being then in bed,
And this distilling liquor drink thou off;
When presently through all thy veins shall run
A cold and drowsy humour, for no pulse
Shall keep his native progress, but surcease:
No warmth, no breath, shall testify thou livest;
The roses in thy lips and cheeks shall fade
To paly ashes, thy eyes' windows fall,
Like death, when he shuts up the day of life;
Each part, deprived of supple government,
Shall, stiff and stark and cold, appear like death:
And in this borrow'd likeness of shrunk death
Thou shalt continue two and forty hours,
And then awake as from a pleasant sleep.
Now, when the bridegroom in the morning comes
To rouse thee from thy bed, there art thou dead:
Then, as the manner of our country is,
In thy best robes uncover'd on the bier
Thou shalt be borne to that same ancient vault
Where all the kindred of the Capulets lie.
In the mean time, against thou shalt awake,
Shall Romeo by my letters know our drift,
And hither shall he come: and he and I
Will watch thy waking, and that very night
Shall Romeo bear thee hence to Mantua.
And this shall free thee from this present shame;
If no inconstant toy, nor womanish fear,
Abate thy valour in the acting it.
Shakespeare is preparing the audience for the final scene, by making the scenes a lot shorter from act four, scene one, the scenes start becoming significantly shorter. As the scenes are shorter we know that something big is going to happen, it is building up to the climax.
I think that the fact that Friar Lawrence chooses a potion with such effects that Juliet would appear dead is also preparing the audience for the final scene of the play, as the family and the whole city think she is dead, and have a funeral for Juliet, carrying her through the streets of Verona and laying her in the tomb where all the kindred of the Capulet’s lie. So in this way the audience are prepared for what is going to happen when Juliet does die. But this is all in the plan for Juliet not marrying Paris, Friar Lawrence and Juliet, have no idea that the plan could go wrong. And they have no idea that the couple could actually end up dead. Another time Shakespeare is preparing the audience for what will happen in the final scene, is when Romeo kills Tybalt. The Nurse has to break the news to Juliet, and as she is describing what has happened, Juliet thinks she is saying that Romeo is dead, she thinks her husband is dead and the reaction she gives towards thinking her husband is dead, prepares us for the final scene.
Throughout the play lots of different themes are developed, love, hate and fate being the most recognisable, we see lots of different types of love. The nurse and Juliet share a kind of love as if a mother would have towards her daughter. Lady Capulet does not show that much love towards her daughter, and as we learn early on in the play, the nurse has been a mother to Juliet ever since she was born, looking after her as if she were her own child. We also see love between Romeo and Juliet, they both love each other to the point of death. We know they would do anything for each other, and cannot bear to be apart. Another type of love we see is the love that Paris has for Juliet, but this feeling he has for Juliet, is not mutual as she only has love for Romeo. In the play Paris tries to get Juliet to admit she loves him to Friar Lawrence, Juliet does not want to disappoint Paris, but she cannot say that she loves him because she does not want to betray her husband Romeo. Juliet will also not say that she loves Paris, as she does not.
PARIS
“Do not deny to him that you love me.”
JULIET
“I will confess to you that I love him.”
When Juliet says to Friar Lawrence, “I will confess to you that I love him”, she is saying that she loves Paris, she is actually talking about loving Romeo, she is trying to disguise this by saying him and not Romeo this way Paris thinks Juliet is saying that she loves him, but Friar Lawrence knows who Juliet is talking about.
Hate is another theme that is developed during the play. We see hate between the Montague’s and Capulet’s, as they have been rivals ever since anyone can remember. We see hate more so between specific people, for example Tybalt and Romeo. They are from opposing families and hate each other for different reasons also. This hate develops during the play, as Romeo hates Tybalt even more after Tybalt kills Mercutio, Romeo now feels he needs revenge on Tybalt and so kills him. Romeo’s hate for Tybalt however, turns to love as he has married Tybalt’s cousin Juliet, and is now part of the family. Romeo feels ashamed of himself after he kills Tybalt as he is killing a member of his family. In the final scene however, the hate between the Montague’s and Capulet’s turns to reconciliation and love. As the death of their children has brought the two families closer, the families now realise that their fighting and bickering has caused the death of the things they hold closest to them, their children and relatives.
Another theme we see developing is Fate, and the idea that fate and destiny do not fit in with time, time works against the couple. Romeo and Juliet wed, and just an hour after the wedding Romeo kills Juliet’s closet cousin Tybalt. We also see fate and destiny when Romeo first arrives at the tomb and Paris is there, Paris is angry with Romeo as he thinks that Juliet has died through grief of her dead cousin Tybalt, and Paris blames Romeo as he killed Tybalt. It is fate that the two characters are at the tomb at the same time and that Romeo kills Paris. Another example when we see time working against the couple is when Juliet is “dead” and Romeo commits suicide because he does not want to live without Juliet. Romeo dies just seconds before Juliet wakes up. We as the audience wonder what would have happened if Juliet had woken up just a few seconds earlier. We also know that this would not have happened if Friar Lawrence had saved Romeo and Juliet. He could have done this by not leaving the tomb and or arriving just a few seconds earlier.
