Shakespeare uses foreshadowing and foreboding to hint to the audience at what the lovers' fate will be. We know something bad is going to happen because Shakespeare uses language like "severing clouds in yonder east:" and "nights candles are burnt out," Knowing the lovers fate brings even more suffering upon the audience as they know that every course of action the lovers make won't alter the ultimate outcome. The audience also feels powerless because they want to warn the couple, but obviously can't. For instance at the end of the play when Romeo believes Juliet is dead. We want to shout out to him, "she's alive!" before he drinks the potion and ultimately kills himself. At this point the audience is in emotional agony because they know two lives have been wasted due to a simple misunderstanding, and at how if Juliet had woken a few seconds earlier both characters would have survived. The scene starts off with just Romeo and Juliet alone but then as more characters are introduced, the tension mounts and the situation soon spirals out of the control of the young lovers.
Shakespeare uses imagery patterns like birds because back in those days birds were a sign of death, "It was the nightingale and not the lark." This is like an omen and we know someone is going to die. Shakespeare uses metaphors to provide the audience with pictures so they can visualise the scene more easily, especially during scenes set at night: "Yond light is not daylight" The actors in the film directed by Baz Luhrmann use facial expression and emotion in their acting to make sense of these old-fashioned expressions for a modern audience, for example, "hollow of thine ear".
At the start of the scene Romeo is speaking calmly and lovingly to Juliet. They are under the covers of the bed and it is a very romantic scene with words whispered softly. This is in direct contrast with how Capulet says his words later on in the scene. He shouts at Juliet and is very angry when she says she won't marry Paris. He uses insults like "you green-sickness carrion!" and "You tallow face!" Capulet is so enraged because he feels Juliet is being disrespectful to him, and ungrateful: "doth she not give us thanks?" We sympathise with Juliet because of her dilemma and because Capulet won't let her follow her heart, if she refuses to go to the church he will "drag thee on a hurdle thither".
Juliet at the start of the scene is also talking very lovingly and calmly because she is so happy and with Romeo all by themselves. She really doesn't want him to go but she knows that he must because he will be executed or banished. It is vitally important that Shakespeare conveys the depth of love between the couple when they are together because, ironic as it may seem, they don't appear that often together alone in the play. He does this by drawing out the exits they make from each other, which conveys the passion between them when they don't want to leave each other, but have to. In Act 3 scene 5 Romeo waits until the last minute before he leaves, and even then once he drops down off the balcony he continues speaking, eventually leaving seconds before Lady Capulet enters.
Shakespeare uses contrast in his play to make it more interesting for the audience. There is a big contrast between the language of the young and old characters. The younger characters speak romantically and calmly while the adults are angry and distressed. They are talking with raised voices which contrasts to the calm voices of the kids. Shakespeare creates sympathy for the young couple by showing their opposites; their love appears so great because the violent conflict between the two families and the tension between Juliet and her Father is so great.
The scene's concentration on the theme of fate relates to previous scenes. At the very start during the prologue the newsreader says, "A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life." This seals the pair's fate; they are destined to commit suicide. In the last scene the curse comes true when they die in each others arms after both believing the other was dead. To give this important piece of information away at the beginning may seem to spoil the plot somewhat, but in fact Shakespeare did it to create dramatic irony, which involves the audience by making them feel they know something the characters don't.
In Act 3 Scene 5 Shakespeare uses double meanings to create dramatic tension. Juliet says a lot of things that she doesn't really mean. She says, "God pardon him! I do, with all my heart; and yet no man like he doth grieve my heart." to Lady Capulet. Lady Capulet thinks she only forgives Romeo for killing Tybalt but she is still angry with him. What she really means is that she loves Romeo with all her heart. Another example is when Juliet says, "O, how my heart abhors to hear him nam'd and cannot come to him to wreak the love I bore my cousin Tybalt upon his body." Her mother thinks she wants kill Romeo but she's really upset about him having to face execution or banishment. Knowing the real meaning, the audience can feel closer to the lovers because we feel we have more in common with them than Juliet's parents, who believe she wants Romeo executed.
This scene is important to the play as a whole because it is the last time Romeo and Juliet see each other alive. It is full of foreshadowing and foreboding to create dramatic tension. It marks a point of no return in the play because parting is the only option for the couple. The scene is varied in the way it is both tender and cruel, it shows Romeo and Juliet at their most intimate in bed together, but it is also the last time they see each other properly. When Romeo leaves they are not even sure if they will ever see each other again, and neither does the audience, creating dramatic tension.
