"Romeo and Juliet" by William Shakespeare.
"Romeo and Juliet" by William Shakespeare.
Look again at Act 5 scene 3 lines 1-170. Explain why this scene is dramatically
Important. Consider closely:
* Where the scene is set.
* How the language of the characters show their feelings.
* Why the audience might find the scene interesting.
* How the tradgedy of the play.
" Romeo and Juliet" is one of Shakespeare's most famous plays, about two star-crossed lovers who take their life to be together because of their family's feud. It is most tradgic, as this essay will show. Act 5 scene 3 is the climax of the play as Romeo and Juliet commit suicide because of the family feud. The scene is therefore dramatically important, as the audience will find the setting, language and characterisation and the tradgedy interesting and intense.
Act 5 scene 3 was a dramatically important scene as it is part of the tradgedy in the play. The audience are kept in suspense from the outset. The whole scene is surrounded by death because the setting is in a graveyard. This creates a spooky atmosphere. It's also set at night and the fact that the characters are surrounded by death gives a sense that something bad is going to happen. Torches create shadows, and the fact that the torch has to be put out creates an element of secrecy:
" Give me thy torch, boy. Hence, and stand aloof.
Yet put it out for I would not be seen."
Paris and his Page are able to hide in the darkness easily and it adds to the sense of danger. Romeo arrives with Balthasar, a crowbar and a mattock, knowing that Paris is also there builds up suspense and tension. He smashes the gate open; it's like a barrier, keeping him from Juliet and then talks as if he is talking to the gate:
"Thus I enforce thy rotten jaws to open,
And in despite I'll cram thee with more food."
Romeo is not afraid to enter the tomb and is very desperate. Knowing that Juliet is in there and he is going in there to kill himself to be with her gives him courage. He enters and refers to Juliet as light:
"For here lies Juliet, and her beauty makes
This vault a feasting presence full of light."
Inside the tomb it is very peaceful and eerie, also quite dark as there is only one torch. ...
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"Thus I enforce thy rotten jaws to open,
And in despite I'll cram thee with more food."
Romeo is not afraid to enter the tomb and is very desperate. Knowing that Juliet is in there and he is going in there to kill himself to be with her gives him courage. He enters and refers to Juliet as light:
"For here lies Juliet, and her beauty makes
This vault a feasting presence full of light."
Inside the tomb it is very peaceful and eerie, also quite dark as there is only one torch. But to Romeo, Juliet is brighter than the torches. Romeo dies and setting moves back outside where Friar Lawrence imagines what is to come before he enters the tomb. Death is ever present in the setting. Friar Lawrence was scared to enter which contrasts with Romeo. Juliet awakes, confused and wants reassurance. It is very rushed and this builds tension to the audience.
This scene shows many of the characters language and feelings. When Paris talks to Juliet's tomb, he sounds very sympathetic, the audience do not feel sorry for him, as it was an arranged marriage. This contrasts with Romeo because when he comes he is being intensely emotional and rushes:
"By heaven, I will tear thee joint by joint,
And stew this hungry churchyard with thy limbs."
In this scene many of the characters express their feelings in the way they speak, for example, Romeo speaks very violently and then tenderly when he sees Juliet:
" -Here, here will I remain,
With worms that are thy chambermaids. O, here
Will I set up my everlasting rest."
Romeo's feelings change throughout the scene. He first, is very impatient and desperate; his language makes him sound impetuous and decisive:
"-Tempt not a desperate man.
Fly hence and leave me. Think upon these gone;
Let me affright thee. I beseech thee, youth,
Put not another sin upon my head"
He then enters the tomb and slows down when he talks to Juliet, he speaks to her very tenderly and tries to comfort her. When he does so, he notices she does not look really dead:
"Thou art not conquered; beauty's ensign yet
Is crimson in thy lips and in thy cheeks,
And death's pale flag is not advanced there"
This is dramatic irony because the audience know she isn't really dead, Romeo doesn't.
Friar Lawrence comes after Romeo has commit suicide and is very anxious about what is to come after Balthasar tells him that Romeo is already there. He is in shock and disbelief when he finds Romeo and almost panics. Once Juliet awakes she is calm but confused, wonders where Romeo is and wants reassurance. Unlike Romeo, she's says very little and seems resolved when she realises Romeo is dead. Friar Lawrence urges Juliet to go and hide quickly before someone comes:
"Stay not to question, for the watch is coming.
Come, go, good Juliet; I dare no longer stay,"
Juliet wants to stay with Romeo and kill herself and orders the Friar to leave without her:
"Go, get thee hence, for I will not away"
Again, Juliet is not afraid and her firm statement shows she is decisive and reasoned. Juliet is in control and thinks of a way to kill herself:
"What's here? A cup closed in my true love's hand?
Poison, I see, Hath been his timeless end."
She then turns very desperate and begins to panic as someone is coming, they would stop her to kill herself, stop her be reunited with Romeo. Her short sentences and rhetorical questions give us a sense of her urgency. She finds Romeo's dagger and is relieved as someone approaches the vault:
"Yea, noise? Then I'll be brief.
O happy dagger!
This is thy sheath; there rust, and let me die."
Juliet stabs herself and dies. Lying together symbolises they are reunited at death. The audience feel pity but at the same time we wanted them to be together.
This is most tradgic, we feel helpless because we knew Juliet was alive when Romeo came, and him dying so recently adds to the tradgedy. The audience think "Why?" they could of lived, but then the feud would of continued. Because they both died, the feud settled their differences and this shows that love conquers hatred. So in a way, we are glad they died because it settled the feud and they were together in the end, but we are sad that they had to die at all. In the end, it all comes down to fate. Fate controlled Romeo and Juliet's lives and they had no control. We feel that the lovers are doomed through no fault of their own.
Mischance's that could of made things different could have been Tybalt's death, if Romeo didn't kill him, he wouldn't have been banished and he could of stayed and had a secret marriage with Juliet. The two lovers struggle to break free of what fate threatens in dreams and the future:
"Then I defy you, stars!"
Romeo says this when he finds out of Juliet's death. So it wasn't all fate, Romeo and Juliet's decisions throughout the play may have had consequences. For example Romeo deciding to go to the Capulet ball. If he didn't go, he wouldn't of met Juliet in the first place. But again, fate had a hand in it.
In conclusion, this scene is dramatically important because of the main things that happen. Paris, Romeo and Juliet's death create the importance of the play as the whole play was building up to this scene. And because of the way it was written, the audience are in suspense and tension.