Romeo and Juliet is recognised as being one of the most beautiful pieces of literature in existence. When written in 1594, by William Shakespeare, its full credit was easily obtained as the topics discussed and shown in the play were relating to that time period. Generations later, the play of love, hatred and tragedy was performed in theatres worldwide. The play is a tale of two star-crossed lovers who discover that they are both participating in a feud which has lasted for centuries, leaving both Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet off limits from each other. Shakespeare discussed the feud between the two families, which correlated at the time to the feud between the Catholics and Protestants. The themes running through the play address the issues of the consequences of immature blind passion, hatred and prejudice. Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet are young teenagers who fall deeply in love but their families are bitter enemies. Regardless of the feud between their families, they marry in secret. They make every effort to conceal their actions but the story ends in tragedy. The secrecy of their marriage soon leads to tragedy as Juliets cousin, Tybalt is unaware that he is now related to a Montague and challenges him with a fight to the death, the fight will end the feud, determine who is dominant and therefore banish one of the families for once and for all.
In Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare frequently uses dramatic irony, a situation where the reader knows more than the characters do. Many of the characters, especially the nurse, purposely employ this technique. His usage helps readers understand the intensity of the love between Romeo and Juliet. By use of dramatic irony, Shakespeare enhances the idea that Romeo and Juliet are deeply in love with each other. The nurse uses dramatic irony when she tells Juliet of Tybalt's death by only telling her "we are undone, lady, we are undone! Alack the day! He's gone, he's killed, he's dead." She purposely leaves out a name, and because of this, Juliet fears it's Romeo. She cries "o Romeo, Romeo! Whoever would've thought it? Romeo! O break my heart! Poor bank rout, break at once! Vile earth, to earth resign, end motion here, and thou and Romeo press one heavy bier!" at this terrible news. By doing this, Shakespeare shows how Juliet would feel if Romeo actually died in the battle. She is so terrified of Romeo's death, that she almost disregards the fact that Tybalt, her kin, had been killed. Juliet thinks of Romeo as someone closer than even her Capulet family and his well-being is everything to her. The quote For now the day is hot tells us the day atmosphere is growing in temperature and the situation is getting worse and less comfortable.
Pathetic fallacy is a form of personification, and act 3 scene 1 brings us Romeos quote; O, I am fortunes fool! Benvolio tries to persuade Mercutio into going home I pray thee, good Mercutio, let's retire: The day is hot, the Capulets abroad, and, if we meet, we shall not scape a brawl. Benvolio, being a peace keeper, did not want to stand by and watch Mercutio duel one of the Capulets of which there were many that hot afternoon and on a hot day you feel hot and upset because of the heat, tries to get the fight between Tybalt and Mercutio off the streets We talk here in the public haunt of men: Either withdraw unto some private place, And reason coldly of your grievances, Or else depart; here all eyes gaze on us. Benvolio tries to move the fight off of the streets of Verona so that they cannot be watched by the public.
When the Capulets enter, Romeo closely follows. Tybalt calls Romeo a villain Romeo, the hate I bear thee can afford No better term than this, Thou art a villain Tybalt calls Romeo a villain to coax him into dueling him but also because he will have no regrets in slaying him, becomes angry at Romeo this shall not excuse the injuries that thou hast done me, therefore turn and draw Tybalt says this because he thinks Romeo is mocking him and wants to duel him right away. Romeo tries to be nice to Tybalt I do protest I never injured thee, But love thee better than thou canst devise., Romeo says this because he does not want to hurt a cousin he just gained through marriage to Juliet, Romeo is trying to stop Mercutio from dueling Tybalt Gentle Mercutio, put thy rapier up. Romeo is so blinded by his love for Juliet that he does not want anyone to get hurt for something he does not want to do. Mercutio calls Romeo a coward O calm, dishonorable vile submission: Mercutio says this because Romeo decided to stand down like the common coward, he also tries to coax Tybalt into dueling him (he draws) Tybalt, you rat catcher, will you walk? he wants to fight Tybalt for Romeo instead.
Act 3 Scene 1 is the main turning point of the play where it becomes a tragedy, the scene begins with Mercutio humoring everyone and then enters the happily married and love-struck Romeo refuses to fight Tybalt now that he has married Juliet; Tybalt thinks that Romeo is mocking him but still refuses so Mercutio decides to fight for Romeo because he has dishonored himself. Romeo tries to stop them fighting but ends up getting Mercutio killed, filled by his rage he kills Tybalt, both families rush to where Tybalt and Mercutio lay dead the scene ends with the Prince declaring the banishment of Romeo.
Tybalts character does not change at any point before or during Act 3 Scene 1, because he is a fiery person. Romeos character is kind, gentle, loving person before Act 3 Scene 1 but during the scene he is gentle and loving only for half the scene until the death of his best friend Mercutio when he avenges him.
Mercutios character is humourous, joking and sarcastic before Act 3 Scene 1 and is humourous, joking and sarcastic during the scene too up until his death which was because of Romeo when he suddenly turns on Romeo. Benvolios character is a hot headed, concerned, a good and loyal friend and a peace loving person which does not change before or during Act 3 Scene 1.
The order of events can be as effective at raising tension as the actual events themselves. A lot of the play relies on us learning things at a certain time instead of what the events actually are, for example when Romeo turns up while Tybalt and Mercutio are fighting, Romeo could not have timed his entrance at a worse time. The timing of the events makes the play include more tension and more interesting and dramatic. If Shakespeare had chosen not to time the events well, the play would not be as effective and dramatic and the tension would not be as great.
The language in both fight scenes was used to increase tension a lot of the time. Just using certain words gives the audience a very good idea of the character and can increase the tension very dramatically. A prime example of this is when Benvolio was splitting up a brawl between low rank people from the Montague and Capulet families to Tybalt telling Benvolio to Turn thee, Benvolio, look upon thy death. This tells the audience Tybalt is a very fiery character. Another word is peace. Benvolio says I do but keep the peace and Tybalt replies What, drawn and talk of peace? I hate the word, /as I hate hell, all Montagues and thee. So with the word peace, a word that would have released the tension a bit, the tension increases again as Tybalt spits the word back at Benvolio along with Tybalt telling him he hates Hell, his family and him. Back then to have someone say that about you and your family was an awful thing and you would fight it out in the name of your family however Benvolio seems more level headed and does not want a fight which he would almost certainly get killed because Tybalt is a maniac and an incredibly good fighter.
The scene is structured around events. It has a three stage line up of typical events, starting with a normal event; Benvolio Mercutio chatting in the streets, leading to a shocking event; the murder of Mercutio, finishing with a consequent event; Romeo being exiled from Verona for the murder of Tybalt. The structured sequence of events could affect the audience in 2 ways; it could surprise them with the quick change of events throughout the scene or it could bore the audience, as one action sequence makes another predictable, e.g. the death of Mercutio causes the audience to guess that Romeo is going to go and seek revenge.
Shakespeare uses a range of language devices to create a number of different moods, atmospheres and effects for the audience.
Shakespeare builds the tension in this scene by showing us aggressive sides to each of the characters for example Shakespeare makes Romeo try and befriend his enemy which enrages Tybalt who then fights Mercutio in place of Romeo and gets killed, Romeo is then enraged because of the death of his best friend and reacts to this by killing Tybalt. The audience having already seen this knows that it can only end in tears for everyone.
If repetition used in small quantities, it can set a wondrous atmosphere for the audience and get them thinking. Shakespeare uses this method in act 3 scene 1 when Mercutio repeats a curse 3 times at the time of his death, a plague a both your houses. The significance of repeating the curse 3 times tells us that he thinks Both the Capulets and the Montagues are responsible for his death, if there had not had been a generational feud passed down then he would not be dying. Mercutio wants them to be punished so with his last breathes he repeats the curse to reinforce his point. This hypes up the atmosphere because it leaves the audience wanting to know if the curse will affect the 2 families or not. In addition it reveals the true feelings of Mercutio, as up until now the audience would have thought that Mercutio was a Montague, but in fact the repetition of the curse tells us that he sat in fact sat on the fence.
A pun is a phrase or word that has a double meaning. Ask for me tomorrow and you shall find me a grave man- Mercutio. The two possible meanings of the pun are either, find me tomorrow and I shall be in my grave, or find me tomorrow and I shall be a happy man. The effect of the pun leaves the audience with a second question, Will he live or die?
Shakespeare doesnt use many stage directions in Romeo and Juliet; if he does they are very short. Shakespeare had left it for the actors to improvise. This means that modern readers have to interpret out the stage directions for themselves. In a later version of a Romeo and Juliet film, the characters were placed in the modern day life, wearing modern day clothes. This gave the audience something to relate to, and I feel it was a very effective technique used by the director. If I was to direct a Romeo and Juliet film I would use a very similar method, trying to relate the play to the modern world, maybe I would not include guns but more knives and more hand to hand combat, because they would be the weapons used in the play and this might be easier for the audience to understand as some lines of the play refer to the sword. I would tell Romeo to be a very dreamy sort of character. He day-dreams a lot and is always very passionate about how he feels. Juliet I would tell to be a more level headed character, she would be crazy about Romeo but more hesitant about the situation and she thinks they are rushing their relationship. It does mention it in the play but I think that it needs to be a bit clearer to the audience.
In my opinion I think that Act 3 Scene 1 is by far the best scene in Romeo and Juliet because it shows many sides of the characters like Mercutio who is most of the time making a fool of someone he fought against Tybalt for Romeo, Romeo shows a loving nature towards Tybalt because he has just married Juliet, Tybalts cousin and does not want to start a fight between them and Tybalt not knowing this begins to think that Romeo is mocking him it is also the main turning point of the play because it ends with the banishment of Romeo from Verona by the Prince.
In conclusion, I believe that Shakespeare uses dramatic devices in a explosive way to shock the audience, as well as preparing them for an even bigger event. Without act 3 scene 1 a handful of the key events are lost; Mercutios death, Romeo change of character, breaking the tense atmosphere build up to the death of Romeo and Juliet, therefore the magnitude of act three scene one is crucial .
There are a few too many mistakes made by the characters in Romeo and Juliet, but its not whether we make mistakes, its if we learn from them or not. Shakespeare wanted us to see the mistakes made in the play, and learn from them. Lessons like; let sleeping dogs lie which you could interpret as leave past quarrels in the past, or tell the truth, keeping secrets could kill! The story of Romeo and Juliet can be related to the morals, in addition to todays society. In the play the Montague and Capulets fight for no apparent reason, much like the modern world where war takes place and the reason for it is lost. We should learn to tell the truth before misunderstood perception takes place, and we regret the events that have take place.
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