Tension and suspense, in this scene, is created by Shakespeare in two ways. Firstly, there was an opportunity for conflict when Romeo, just having seen Juliet, is himself seen and recognised by Tybalt, Juliet’s cousin. “This, by his voice, should be a Montague.
Fetch me my rapier, boy.”
Tybalt asks for his “rapier”, or weapon, which shows that he wants to fight Romeo and this causes tension for the audience because we know that Romeo has just noticed Juliet and if there is a fight now they will not be able to talk. However, there is not a fight in this scene as Capulet, Tybalt’s uncle, tells him to leave Romeo alone, “Content thee, gentle coz, let him alone”.
Capulet is no more a friend to the Montagues than Tybalt is but he has a good reason not to want Tybalt to start a fight with Romeo, “You’ll make a mutiny among my guests.
You will set cock-a-hoop!”
He doesn’t want a fight to start between his guests or cause any disorder and with Capulet being the head of the house Tybalt has no choice but to comply and leave Romeo alone for the time being.
It is this bit of tension which lays the foundations for the fight in Act three scene one. When Tybalt is told to leave Romeo alone he says, “I will withdraw; but this intrusion shall
Now seeming sweet convert to bitterest gall.”
This shows that, although Tybalt leaves Romeo alone for the time being, he wants to take revenge on him for daring to come into the Capulet house and even though he seems sweet at the moment he will turn bitter.
The second creation of tension and suspense for the audience lies in the fact that we know the identities of both Romeo and Juliet. When we see them talking we know that they belong to opposing families and we know the consequence of their meeting, which is death. We know this from the prologue, “The fearful passage of their [Romeo’s and Juliet’s] death-mark’d love,
And with the continuance of their parents’ rage,
Which, but their children’s end, nought could remove”.
This shows that they are fated to die and only this will end their families’ rivalry. Upon finding out each other’s identities, Romeo and Juliet realise the reverberations that this might have on their families. Romeo says, “Is she a Capulet?
O dear account! My life is my foe’s debt.”
This tells us that he realises that by being in love with Juliet, he owes his life to the Capulets.
Juliet says, “My only love sprung from my only hate!
Too early seen unknown, and known too late!
Prodigious birth of love it is to me,
That I must love a loathed enemy.”
This shows us that she believes her love for Romeo is foretelling evil, but she still loves him because she realised his true identity too late.
Another one of Shakespeare’s techniques that make him a skilful playwright is choosing issues that are of interest to his audience. In this scene we see how the Elizabethan concept of courtly love, between Romeo and Rosaline, makes way for true love, between Romeo and Juliet. Romeo’s courtly love for Rosaline is shown in the scenes leading up to Act one scene five where Romeo is seen to be pining after a woman who does not love him back and in fact probably doesn’t even know that she is the subject of Romeo’s desires. When Romeo sees Juliet he pushes all thoughts of Rosaline out of his head, “Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight!
For I ne’er saw true beauty till this night.”
He is renouncing all knowledge of his love for Rosaline; just at the sight of Juliet who he believes has true beauty, the like of which he has never seen before.
We could believe that Romeo is a very fickle man and that he will soon be denying all knowledge of his love for Juliet but when they talk to each other we know that this is not true. In Shakespeare’s time women were not allowed to act so a young boy would have had to play Juliet and because of this, love could not be shown through lots of passionate kissing. Instead, Shakespeare portrays their love in their language. The first fourteen lines that the “star-cross’d” lovers share form a perfect sonnet which was accepted in Elizabethan times to be a sure sign of love and therefore an appropriate way for Romeo and Juliet to express their love for each other. Romeo says the first quatrain, Juliet the second and the last quatrain and ending couplet are shared between Romeo and Juliet. Shakespeare does allow one small kiss between Romeo and Juliet but this is not really needed as by this point the desired effect has already been achieved.
The imagery that Shakespeare has used in Romeo and Juliet’s first meeting is particularly effective. Romeo refers to Juliet as a holy shrine, “If I profane with my unworthiest hand
This holy shrine, the gentle sin is this
My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand
To smooth this rough touch with a tender kiss”, and says that if he has defiled Juliet’s hand by holding it in his then he will kiss her, with his lips which he refers to as pilgrims, to remedy this. Basically he is telling us that he has come to worship Juliet whom he sees as a saint.
When Juliet answers Romeo she carries on the religious metaphor calling Romeo a Palmer, a pilgrim carrying a palm leaf, “Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much,
Which mannerly devotion shows in this;
For saints have hands which pilgrims’ hands do touch,
And palm to palm is holy palmers’ kiss.”
This shows that she has taken into account what Romeo has said about her being a saint allows Romeo to ‘worship’ her by the touching of hands, which she refers to as a kiss.
Romeo, wanting a real kiss, asks Juliet, “Have not saints lips, and holy palmers too?”
He is carrying on the holy imagery to convey to Juliet that he wants to kiss her. Juliet’s reply shows that although she probably wants to kiss Romeo, she will not, “Ay, pilgrim, lips that they must use in
prayer”
She is using the religious metaphor to give a suitable answer, because in Elizabethan days it would not have been considered appropriate for Juliet to give in straight away and kiss Romeo. In the end though, Shakespeare gives the audience what they would have been waiting for, the lovers’ first kiss! Shakespeare’s use of the extended metaphor in this first meeting is extremely successful.
Another issue of Elizabethan interest that Shakespeare conveys in this scene is the relationship with Juliet and her wet nurse compared to that of Juliet and her mother. Although we do not see Lady Capulet in this scene, we have seen from the scenes preceding that Juliet has a very formal relationship with her mother, “Madam, I am here. What is your will?”
Compared to this relationship between mother and daughter, Juliet’s relationship with her nurse is very informal, “Come hither, Nurse. What is yond gentleman?”
This shows that Juliet doesn’t feel embarrassed to speak to Nurse whereas when talking with her mother she waits to find out what is wanted of her before saying anything.
The contrasting language between the wealthy characters and the servants helps to make this scene dramatic and creates a clear way for the audience to know who is poor and who is wealthy. Shakespeare has written all the lines of his wealthy characters in blank verse with a stress pattern of iambic pentameter. On the other hand his servants’ speech has no pattern to it. This is basically the same as a modern play having its poorer characters speaking in slang and it’s wealthier characters speaking in formal English, which is very effective.
All in all Act one scene five is a very dramatic, interesting and spectacular scene and Shakespeare used many techniques to make it so.
Act three scene one is also a dramatic scene and many of the same techniques are used although they have slightly different purposes in this contrasting scene. The positioning of this scene is one thing that helps to make it dramatic. It comes straight after Romeo and Juliet’s wedding, which although we don’t see it, we know has happened, and before Romeo and Juliet’s wedding night. The fact that their wedding night comes after this scene is crucial because it tells us that Juliet has chosen Romeo over Tybalt who Romeo has slain.
Another way Shakespeare made this scene effective was in the creation of the character, Mercutio. When Romeo refused to take up Tybalt’s challenge to him, Mercutio stepped in, and took up the challenge for him to withhold the family honour “O calm, dishonourable, vile submission!
Alla Stoccata carries it away.
Tybalt, you rat-catcher, will you walk?”
He thinks that Romeo refusing Tybalt’s challenge means that Tybalt has won and that he is dishonouring his family. In the fighting that follows, Mercutio is killed and this is what creates the anger that causes Romeo to kill Tybalt, “Alive in triumph, and Mercutio slain!
Away to heaven, respective lenity,
And fire-ey’d fury be my conduct now!
Romeo realises what he has done and throws aside his respect for Tybalt who is now his cousin. If it weren’t for the creation of Mercutio, this scene would not be as dramatic because it would just be Tybalt challenging Romeo and them fighting till Tybalt died.
Just like there was in Act one scene five, there is some dramatic irony in this scene. Shakespeare made sure that we know why Romeo did not want to accept Tybalt’s challenge but Mercutio, Benvolio and Tybalt were in the dark about Romeo’s marriage to Juliet. This makes it more interesting for us when Romeo does finally kill Tybalt because we realise that they were cousins and that Juliet will be in a very difficult position, having to decide between her love for Romeo and her love for her murdered cousin.
This scene also reminds us just how fast moving the plot of the whole play actually is. Romeo and Juliet only met a day ago, got married just minutes before this scene takes place and now Romeo has killed Tybalt. This fast moving plot makes the entire play very dramatic because it means there is no time for relaxing, so to speak. The audience, and indeed the characters, are forever on the edge of their seat wondering what is going to happen next.
Shakespeare made this scene visually extravagant, like Act one scene five but in a different way. The visual effect in this scene is seeing the characters fighting and two of them dieing. Just like people today love a good car chase in a movie, the Elizabethans loved a good sword fight in a play. Shakespeare knew this so he made the scene more dramatic for the Elizabethans by having two sword fights instead of just the one.
The differing dynamics between characters in this scene makes it interesting and dramatic. As I have already mentioned, Romeo speaks very politely to Tybalt and wishes him no harm,
“I do Protest I never injur’d thee,
But love thee better than thou canst devise,
Till thou shalt know the reason of my love”
This contrasts greatly with the unpleasant and offensive way that Tybalt speaks to Romeo,
“Romeo, the love I bear thee can afford
No better term than this - thou art a villain”
This shows that Tybalt holds contempt for Romeo whereas as Romeo says that he has nothing but love for Tybalt.
In conclusion, the two scenes, Act one scene five and Act three scene one are crucial to the plot of the play as a whole. As such, Shakespeare used many techniques to make these two scenes as dramatic and as striking as possible. To hold the audience’s attention during these two scenes Shakespeare used his skills as a dramatist to produce effects such as, dramatic irony, tension and suspense and he used language to highlight many emotions. I believe that Shakespeare was an expert playwright and even though I do not live in Elizabethan times I still appreciate his plays. For people living in Elizabethan times the appeal of Shakespeare’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’ would have been far greater than it is for me because Shakespeare knew what appealed to his audience and wrote his plays so that they would enjoy them. Also, Elizabethan audiences would not have had to analyse the plays in detail and would have been able to enjoy them as pieces of theatrical brilliance!
By Jane Garvani
