'How is Love Presented in Romeo and Juliet in Acts - 1 Sc 5; 2 Sc 2 and 3 Sc 5.

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Riyadh Abdulla 10J4               Reading C/WK 1                             Teacher – Mrs Monaghan 

                                                       “Romeo and Juliet”

By -William Shakespeare  

  In this essay I will concentrate on the love aspect in one of William Shakespeare's most popular tragedies, written during the 16th century - Romeo and Juliet.

 This essay will mainly concentrate on three key scenes and these are as follows – Act 1 Sc 5; Act 2 Sc 2 and Act 3 Sc 5. In these scenes I will show how Shakespeare portrays the love aspect in Romeo and Juliet – and in these scenes it is shown in a clear, clever and coherent way. Shakespeare shows this cleverly by the use of stage-craft and dramatic irony to show clear organisation of characters on stage when the play is being acted to a large number of audience. Even the structure in which the scenes are organised can be interpreted,noticed and referred to by the audience as the play graduates. Not only this; the ingenious linguistic features that Shakespeare uses can be used to show tension,timidness, love and even happiness.

 This essay will give a thorough analysis of the three ways in which Shakespeare portrays the love aspect. Structure, stage-craft, language and some cultural issues that might can show this.

  During  Act 1 Sc 5, in terms of structure, Shakespeare has the audience waiting until this scene to introduce Juliet and the two lovers together. Shakespeare does this in order to  inform us, the audience, about the history of both the Montagues and Capulets in the previous scenes, of how long they have been feuding and Romeo's previous attitudes towards (unrequited) love, this is done in order to emphasise how true,  yet dangerous Romeo and Juliet's love is, remembering that both of them are from the feuding families. True love is emphasised from the moment Romeo sees Juliet, by the way he fearlessly approaches her without showing any timid remarks; he no longer thinks about Roslaine.  Shakespeare makes the audience aware that Romeo being in the Capulets' party is wrong and this emphasis is shown by the structure.  And as soon as Romeo is allured by the presence of Juliet, the audience may worry that Romeo will be in potential danger, the audience soon find out that he has dropped his 'love' towards Rosaline quickly when he figuratively expresses it to Juliet, even before he knows her at all. From the first line of Romeo's description of Juliet he refers to light,“O she doth teach the torches to burn bright.”                                  

  Romeo does this from the first line in-order to emphasise how Juliet's beauty shimmers brighter than the torches at the party. This already signifies to the audience a huge difference in the way Romeo approached Rosaline and the way he has approached Juliet. In Act 1 Sc 1 we see Romeo's depression by closing his curtains, described by Lord Montague – this of which brings darkness, the opposite of light. Even his friend Benvolio guesses that it has something to do with 'love'- meaning normal, average teenage love. On the other hand, when he describes Juliet, we are given the image of light – signifying a sign of freedom, innocent and true love.

   The extract from lines 43-53 continues to figuratively express the beauty of Juliet using devices such as alliteration ('burn bright') this gives extra effect, which in return will impress the audience and is noticeable. All these devices used from the first time he speaks about Juliet emphasise his attraction to her like no-other woman he has seen, as we pretty obviously never see him describing Rosaline in such a way in the previous scenes.

 This supernatural attraction is emphasised in Act 1 Sc 5, in the Capulets' party. Audience are repeatedly  notified about how Romeo and Juliet's love is fated.  Even when Romeo's life is under threat by fiery Tybalt, in the middle of a conflict,“To strike him dead, I hold it not a sin.”                                              

 Romeo completely ignores the situation, acting in a total uncaring way, and, instead, seizes his chance to talk or to be with Juliet regardless of how life risking the consequences of his action may be – this further emphasises the idea that they are fated to be together, shown in the prologue.

 In addition to this, with further analysis, we can see that that Shakespeare has also chose to set this scene at a public place – a place full of danger in terms of Romeo's concern, where he may even be vulnerable to possible death – we can link this back to Romeo and Tybalt's conflict, which proves that if Romeo and Juliet possibly met in another place, or another party not related particularly to her family, this would not have happened, this can be linked to the belief in astrology and how the stars 'control' their fates in every possible way, this is the reason why they even met in the first place.

 Even stage-craft puts an emphasis onto this by the organisation of characters within this open, unsafe setting on stage.  Shakespeare allows the audience to view this in a distinctive way, he mixes love (Romeo and Juliet) with lust and hatred (fiery Tybalt's aggression towards Romeo). This is evidently shown when Tybalt declares a fight with Romeo,when Romeo, at the same time, describes his love towards Juliet. This mix of two ironic themes portrayed by the characters at the same time on stays emphasises to the audience, that no matter how 'inappropriate' the situation may be at the time, Romeo will not miss his opportunity to meet this woman, Juliet – this emphasises the idea that they are fated to be together emphasises in the prologue.

  Shakespeare purposely uses  language in an aggressive way, this is shown by the use of monosyllabic terms. Romeo and Juliet's sonnet is organised in a meaningful, easy to follow structure where both Romeo and Juliet are given either a line or two each, this technique orders and make it easier for an audience to follow through, and an Elizabethan audience would carefully follow through it; because they thought it would have been entertaining to carefully analyse Shakespeare's organisation and use of language. The structure and language in their sonnet plays a considerable amount in terms of their fate or relationship. The structure of the lines makes it easy for an audience to distinct between a sonnet and the 'normal' acting, mainly due to the rhyme in sonnets and the tension built when more is clues are revealed about the play – which will surely entertain an audience during that time, thus, in return, making  it easier for the audience to follow through their conversation relating to love. In other words, Shakespeare gives Romeo and Juliet more lines when there is anything relating to love or marriage. We are shown why a sonnet is important  by the way it emphasises to the love aspect. The innocence of this relationship is shown by the repetition of the word  'sin' which is used to show, by merely kissing, that they are doing something deliberately wrong – this can be linked to Juliet's warnings that are given in Act 2 Sc 2 about the possibility of him being killed, this is because she knows that what he is doing is 'sinful' or wrong.

  After Juliet is escorted away by the nurse, Romeo asks who her mother was, and discovers that she was a Capulet. The audience will think that Romeo might be angry/depressed or simply upset, but instead, Shakespeare twists his reaction instead makes the audience discover his true love towards Juliet, showing that she is now the 'owner' of his life:

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                                            “I she a Capulet?

                                              O dear account! My life is my foe's debt.”

 The dramatic language Romeo uses signifies that Juliet, after their meeting, is a high priority in his life, we can link this to Act 2 Sc 2, where Romeo develops his idea, and think of Juliet's status as greater than human, we ...

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This student has explored the play in great detail, looking closely at language, structure and social and historical issues. Outstanding quality.