Dramatic Patterns In Romeo And Juliet

Vivian Pham Pham 1
Blair
Language Arts
20 March 2014 Rise of one person at the expense of another, contrasting worlds, disguises, and redemption reveal the four most common Dramatic Patterns found throughout The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet. To start with, rise of one person at the expense of another is a pattern that ultimately describes an individual whose actions take effect upon themselves. In this case, an example of this pattern would be how the Nurse
and Lady Capulet try and convince Juliet to marry Count Paris. Lady Capulet, who barely speaks to Juliet since she was born, surprisingly beckons her to accept Paris’ hand in marriage. When the Nurse hears Lady Capulet’s request, she also tries to persuade Juliet to marry Paris. This example exposes to the audience how both of the characters are personally setting up the marriage for Juliet only to satisfy themselves. Count Paris is blood related to the Prince, and knowing if they got Juliet to marry him into the family, his wealth will be shared upon with them. They both consider how much advantages they would get over Juliet’s wellbeing and happiness. Take the Nurse for instance, in the play, the audience may recognize that she over exaggerates how lovely the idea of marrying Paris when she apprehends the idea of the service she was going to get within Paris. Another example of this pattern is when the Friar agrees to marry Romeo and Juliet. Like the first example, this reveals the greediness within Friar Lawrence. Within the first few scenes before agreeing to the marriage, he disagrees greatly of Romeo’s love for Juliet and mentions how he tends to rush relationships to an expense.
Pham 2
After pondering over the idea, he realizes that their forbidden love can patch the Capulet and Montague houses back together in peace. He quickly changes his mind and decides to wed them both, assuming he will get all the credit for mending the feuding households together. Additionally, contrasting worlds is another dramatic pattern that discloses this play and contrasts the differences between the servants and their masters.
A scene in the play that specifically describes this pattern is when the servants were having a personal party within the Capulet party. When the audience thinks about servants, they think about the responsible tasks that they have to savor for their masters. The audience least expects the servants to have a laughing matter at their own leaders’ party. In this case, the Capulet servants are not respecting their roles, but instead, act as equal within the household to try and gain more privileges. In addition, another instance of this dramatic pattern is when Juliet’s father calls the Nurse by her first name, Angelica. While in the midst of preparation for the wedding, Lord Capulets is running around, overexcited, and giving orders. He gives a task for the Nurse to complete and ends up mentioning her by her first name. The Nurse, astonishingly, replies and teases her master as he takes in the laughter. This might have prompted the reader to infer that Lord Capulet and the Nurse had an affair. If the audience truly thinks about it, it is remarkable that he calls her by her first name. Last time he spoke to her, he was calling her hurtful names when she went against Juliet and Paris’
marriage.
Furthermore, disguises is an additional dramatic pattern that supports the building block of the plot of The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet. The first example of this pattern is when Lord Capulet warms up to Paris about marrying Juliet. When Paris asks Lord Capulet for Juliet’s hand in marriage, he tells him that Juliet is too young of an age to get married. This reveals that he is
Pham 3 lying and hypercritical because he vowed to his wife when she was just as young as Juliet was. The reader may notice that Lord Capulet is playing hard to get, and instead of easily handing Juliet to Paris, he suggests that Paris should get to know Juliet at the masquerade party before marrying her. In addition, another illustration of disguise is when the Friar pretends that Juliet is dead. When Juliet comes running into Friar Lawrence’s cell, she demands him to find a way to keep her from marrying Count Paris or she will kill herself right then and there. He panics and tells Juliet that he consumed a potion that will make it appear as if she is dead, but only for a certain amount of time. The Friar’s plan was to have Juliet beg her father for forgiveness and agree to the marriage with Paris. She is then going to ingest the potion and appear dead in the morning. The Capulets will then place Juliet in the Capulet tomb, and when she wakes up, Romeo will be there to reassure her. She will then return to Mantua with Romeo, and be unrestricted to live with him away from their parents’ hatred. What the Capulets do not know is that Friar Lawrence lied about her being dead, and reassured them to quickly start the burial for Juliet so they will not suspect a thing. Having to lie about Juliet’s death prevents his idea from backfiring.
Moreover, the dramatic pattern that ties the conclusion of the play is redemption. Redemption is when the characters of the storyline begs for the forgiveness of others. An example that reflects this pattern is when the Friar confesses and asks for mercy when he is caught. In the last act of the play, the Friar’s plan had miscarried and Romeo and Juliet ended up committing suicide individually. After being caught by the watchmen, he quickly confesses how he secretly married Romeo and Juliet thinking that he could bring the Capulets and Montagues together. He mentions how destroyed Juliet was for having to marry Paris and he offered her a
Pham 4 sleeping potion to trick everyone that she was dead.
The Friar also mentions that he sent a letter to Romeo which failed to deliver about the false death of Juliet, thus leading to Romeo killing himself over disbelief. After seeing Juliet awaken from her deep sleep, the Friar mentions how he tried to convince her to come with him where he will cast her away to be a nun. When Juliet refuses to go with him, he runs away as the group of watchmen closes in. While asking for forgiveness, the reader can tell that the Friar does not pity up to the Prince. He gives himself up to Prince Escalus and asks for consequences and sacrifice knowing the tragedy he has done to both of the houses was his fault. Another instance where the characters seek redemption is when Lord Capulet makes up with Lord Montague. After they both lost their only child, they both realized that no more lives should be taken from the aging dispute. Now knowing that his daughter is married to a Montague, he calls Romeo’s father, his brother. To go alongside their apologies and forgiveness, Lord Capulet promises to make a monument of Romeo while Lord Montague makes a monument of Juliet in honor of their
characters.