Essay On Romeo And Juliet Act 5

Acting is made up of several little elements and decisions. Audiences are unaware of the thought and effort that goes into making a scene. All of the elements must be thought out in excruciating detail, including things the audience thinks are happenstance. The audience sees all of those parts come together in the perfect scene. When performing William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, several ideas had to be tossed around to see which would make put the scene at its best. Scene three of act five is the most intense scene of the entire play of Romeo and Juliet. In our interpretation of a piece of the scene, we chose to keep the lights off. The scene takes place at night. Paris is at the grave, grieving Juliet, as he believes she is truly dead.
Instead of Juliet laying on the floor, she was laying on a table holding flowers. Juliet’s death was a tragedy for the entire community. Her death is seen as more of a tragedy than Tybalt's. Her death was a blow to the Capulet family. Her death meant something because it started the chain of events that led to even more tragedy. Her death was not real but it was for the everyone around her. We kept Juliet on the table to show just how important her fake death was to events that followed. Romeo did not ever receive word that her death was fake and so he set off to find her and kill himself. This led to Paris’s death because he was mourning Juliet, and not realising that Romeo was her lover, he challenged him and lost his life. Romeo ultimately drank poison and killed himself, and finally, Juliet, after she woke from her death-like slumber, unable to bear Romeo’s death, killed herself. All of this culminated in the two feuding families, the Capulets, and Montagues to overcome their rivalry and reconcile. This tumultuous course of events was set in motion by Juliet’s death. She was placed on a table with a blanket underneath her and flowers in her hand because of her importance. She was not just tossed aside. Her death was the key to the ending that Shakespeare had in
There were parts that were already set. Romeo dies from poison, and he dies in the tomb. However, it was up to interpretation on whether Romeo lays down next to Juliet or falls on the floor next the table where she was laying. We decided to have Romeo fall with his head and arms still on the table. Based on our placement of the tomb, if Romeo fell on the floor, he would not have been seen, and the rest of the scene would not have been able to be seen. Also, Romeo dies looking at his true love's face. If he were to lay down next to her, it would have been difficult for him to look upon her face because the table she was laying on could only fit one person. After Romeo’s death, Juliet wakes to see poison in his hand, and she has easy access to his dagger, as she pulls it out to kill herself. By Romeo falling with himself still propped on the table, Juliet could easily get the poison from his hand and the dagger from his waist. Even though the audience may think that Romeo just died, how he died was meticulously planned