Romeo and Juliet: dramatic sense of romance and danger

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In Act I, Scene 5 of Romeo and Juliet there is a dramatic sense of romance and danger. How does Shakespeare convey these emotions to the audience through his text? Consider how Bas Luhrmann’s interpretation of this scene has brought out the emotions present in the text.

In Act 1, Scene 5 of Romeo and Juliet there is a dramatic sense of romance and danger.  This is an important scene in the play because it is when Romeo sees Juliet for the first time and immediately falls in love with her.  Tybalt, Juliet’s cousin, gets angry when he recognizes Romeo because he dislikes the Montagues where there is a war between the Montagues and the Capulets.  Tybalt wants to fight him, but the Old Capulet restrains his nephew.  Romeo and Juliet speak to each other as it were a sonnet and fall in love with each other.  As the guests are leaving the Capulet house, Juliet questions her Nurse about the identity of the unknown young man who was so attractive.  She confesses to herself and to the audience that she has fallen in love with him.  These leads up the tension and fight between Romeo and Tybalt because the Montagues and the Capulets have a war between each other and as Romeo flirts with Juliet the Capulet, Tybalt’s anger will then emerge.

        Verona is a patriarchal society which means that the men are usually in charge of the women and so Juliet must do as her father tells her, including marrying the man he has chosen for her.  This constraint on Juliet contributes to the tragedy, as does the feud between the Capulets and Montagues which therefore Juliet cannot choose to marry the son of Lord Montague and therefore the marriage has to remain a secret.  This is a personal, not a political tragedy like Shakespeare’s other tragedies.  It is concerned with love, hate, families, marriage and secrets as well as other issues.  Being such a personal tragedy it still has an impact on the audience of the 21st century.  

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        Capulet welcomes his guest effusively, “Welcome, gentlemen! Ladies that have their toes Unplagu’d with corns will walk a bout with you.”  He is pleased to welcome Romeo and his friends although he doesn’t recognize them but likes the idea of wearing a disguise and the fun this could lead to, “That I have worn a vision”.  This shows that his manner in welcoming his guests is very flirtatious and playful.  By having Capulets talking to several different people during the course of his speech, Shakespeare shows that Capulet is rich.  He talks to his cousin about the last time they ...

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