Capulet, the host of the party, is anxious that nothing should go wrong at his party should it count against him in the ‘status battle’ between the Capulets and Montagues. He displays light-hearted jokes, (“…she I’ll swear hath corns…”) exemplary politeness, (“Welcome, gentlemen!”) And puts many to shame with his dancing skills, telling the other men to dance “More light”. He sees himself as the figurehead of the party, and thinks that if anything goes wrong it will be his fault. As the scene goes on, however, Capulet has to calm Tybalt to keep the party from turning into chaos. In this section of the scene, Capulet displays some reason, (“…a virtuous and well-governed youth.”) but this is mainly to his own advantage, as he does not want his party spoiled, (“You’ll make a mutiny among my guests!”) Characterising Capulet as a man with a good head for business. As Tybalt argues, Capulet’s now-obvious temper flares again and in the dialogue he scolds Tybalt for wanting to pick a fight, and throws degrading remarks at Tybalt, (“…boy”… “princox”). This is key to the dramatic impact of the scene, as it not only juxtaposes Romeo & Juliet’s love against Tybalt’s hate creating interest and elevating the love to show its ‘true love’ status, but also, in letting Romeo stay, opens the door to let Romeo meet Juliet, a significant moment in the play.
Tybalt’s hate is predominant throughout almost every scene, and is only kept in check by other characters such as Prince and Capulet. His no-nonsense over-violent style is apparent from his first lines in the play (“…Turn thee Benvolio, look upon thy death…”) to his first lines in this scene (“This, by his voice…my rapier, boy.”) He uses very few complex sentences and many descriptive similes and metaphors to describe his hate, almost as many as Romeo describing his love. (“…Convert to bitt’rest gall.”) Tybalt introduces dramatic expectation: in his mind, he will not allow Romeo to go unpunished, and the audience know that at some point Tybalt will get his revenge. Dramatic irony is introduced by “bitt’rest gall”, as Tybalt is not only proved right, but this can apply to Romeo as well, his relationship to Juliet “Now seeming sweet” but as the audience know, this will end in Romeo’s death from “bitt’rest gall” (poison). His patriotic anger towards the Montagues is turned towards Capulet when he is not allowed to kill Romeo, and this shows Tybalt is a generally angry person, and it shows how easily he can be angered, and how easily he can create a feud “bred of an airy word.” Tybalt finishes each of his parts in the dialogue with a rhyming couplet, (“…kin...sin” … “…spite…night”) signifying finality and directness.
Romeo’s emotions begin melancholy, leading from his prophecy in Scene 4, but this disappears as soon as he sets eyes on Juliet. Straight away he is using metaphors, (“…enrich the hand of yonder knight…”) and from there he launches straight into a twelve-line sonnet. Light and dark contrasts and references are used all the way through Romeo & Juliet, (“Her beauty makes this vault a feasting presence full of light”) and this also occurs in this sonnet: (“O She doth teach the torches to burn bright!”) This sonnet is one of the richest sections in the whole play for comparisons and metaphors, (“…As a rich jewel in an Ethiop’s ear”… “…A snowy dove trooping with crows”) and also features biblical references (“…make blessed my rude hand”). It also proves Benvolio’s claim to be right: (“I will make thee think thy swan a crow”). This sonnet makes it sound as if Romeo and Juliet have found ‘true love’, Romeo banishing all thoughts of Rosaline (“…I ne’er saw true beauty till this night”), but also signifies the beginning of the “fearful passage of their death-marked love”. As the dialogue between Romeo and Juliet commences, Romeo’s biblical references are prolonged. (“…profane…” … “…Holy shrine…” … “…Sin…” … “…Pilgrims…”) This elevates Romeo’s love to an almost angelic devotion. The dialogue also features an irregular rhyming pattern, starting as a-b-a-b, (“…hand…this…stand…kiss”), then moving to a b-c-b-c pattern (“…much…this…touch…kiss”) and then to a d-e-d-e pattern (“…too…prayer…do…despair”), finishing with a rhyming couplet. (“…Sake…take”) This poetic style was popular with English poets in the time of Queen Elizabeth 1st for writing about courtly love. These smitten, breathless praises help show the suddenness of the love, and leaves much dramatic expectation for the rest of the play. Romeo’s feelings are then turned to confusion and desperation as he learns that Juliet is a Capulet, using short, shocked lines and simple sentences. (“O dear account!”) Juliet’s feelings are likewise; her “only love sprung from her only hate!”- She feels despair that she must “love a loathed enemy.”
Overall, the most powerful form of language in the scene is invariably the love struck dialogue and preceding sonnet spoken by Romeo and Juliet. This is because the meeting is probably the key moment in the whole play, when the prologue’s words come true and the audience know that Romeo and Juliet are to begin their “fearful passage of…death-marked love”. It brings in a lot of dramatic expectation because of this, and the meeting itself is dramatic irony, juxtaposing love against hate. It conveys the strongest emotion in the whole play, love, and does this with the richest variety of praising comparisons, subtle metaphors and clever similes in the whole play. It enraptures the audiences in delight that this couple have finally met, but also milks sympathy for the “star-cross’d lovers”, and these contrasting emotions tear the audience in half, as they know that Juliet’s ironic words will be proved true in both the happy and sad sense: Her “grave is like to be her wedding bed.”
