Explore the Ways That Shakespeare Makes Act 1 Scene 5 of Romeo and Juliet Dramatically Effective

Romeo and Juliet is a tragic story of love set in Verona. At the start of the play, the audience see a prologue, which informs them that the story is going to end in tragedy. The play is filled with huge contrasts of emotions. At the start of the play we see a fight between the Montague’s and the Capulet’s filled with violence and hatred when the play is actually about love. This contrast between love and hate will become apparent as you go further through the play.

The play starts with the serving men and servants setting the tables. This is important as it gives an insight into the lower class point of view (groundlings) who would be standing watching the play. The speech made by cat the start of the play is very important as it sets the mood for the rest of the party and also the rest of the scene. He starts by welcoming the guests and jokes with them saying that if the ladies did not dance they had an affliction of corns on their feet. This tells us that Capulet is trying to put across an image that he is quite jolly and light hearted. Capulet then says that he is too old to take part in this party and it is important that Shakespeare uses this line as there would probably be a very slight age gap between the actor or Capulet and the rest of the actor’s on stage. The mood of the Capulets is much different in this part of the play than the fight at the start of the play when they appear very aggressive. At the moment they are putting themselves across as warm and welcoming people. They are not interested in fighting they just want everyone to enjoy the party and Shakespeare uses this for dramatic effect.

The speech between Romeo and Juliet is very important and Shakespeare makes it dramatically effective in many different ways. It is important to remember hat back in these times, women were not allowed to act on stage so Juliet would have been played by a man, therefore the words that describe Juliet need to portray how beautiful she actually is. Romeo starts with the phrase ‘Oh, she shows the torches how to burn bright’, which refers to what Capulet, said in his earlier speech ‘More light’ indicating that the servants need to add more light to the building. This indicates that to Romeo, Juliet stood out from the crowd, which adds to the powerful words, which Romeo uses to emphasise the point of how beautiful Juliet is. Romeo then goes on to say ‘Her beauty is too good for this world which refers to religion as Romeo is saying that Juliet is so beautiful she is almost godlike. Romeo then says that Juliet outshines other women like a dove in the middle of a flock of crows which implies that compared to Juliet, Rosalie (the woman he was previously obsessive about is like an ugly crow. This is a very bold statement to make and again this emphasises the fact of how beautiful Juliet is meant to be and also that Romeo may fall too easily for someone and is infatuated by love. Next, Romeo says that he will touch her hand with his rough and ugly one, implying that maybe Juliet is too good for him which will come apparent when they engage in a speech later in the scene.

The speech of Tybalt Is very different from that of Romeo’s who’s speech is full of flowing and graceful words which puts him across as a kind and gentle person. Tybalt however, uses cutting aggressive words full of hatred. He says ‘This, by his voice, should be a Montague which could tell us two things. Firstly, the Montague’s and the Capulet’s may have very different accents or it could also tell us that Tybalt hates the Montague’s so much he can tell one just by the sound of their voice. Tybalt then says ‘Fetch me my rapier, boy’ which emphasises the fact that Tybalt is a violent man and really despises anyone who is associated with the Capulets. Tybalt thinks that Romeo has come to mock the Capulet party but in in reality he has come for a very different reason. He then says ‘To strike him dead I hold it not a sin’. Shakespeare makes this very dramatic, as the audience do not know if another fight is going to break out between the two