How Does Shakespeare Devise In Romeo And Juliet

How does Shakespeare use dramatic devise in Act3 Scene1 of Romeo and Juliet in order to make it such an interesting, exciting, and important scene?

Romeo and Juliet, one of Shakespeare’s early plays is about two young lovers from rival households that feel the only way they can be together is to get married. Like some of Shakespeare’s best work Romeo and Juliet fits into the tragic genre; although it could be considered a comedy as it starts out a comic play, and stays comic until the death of Mercutio in Act3 Scene1. The play is based on opposite themes; love and hate, passion and moderation and honour, all of which run throughout. One main theme is fate as Romeo predicts his own death. Act3 Scene1 fits in the play as the turning
point, when the mood turns from happy to sad, Romeo and Juliet’s relationship causes trouble although no one knows about them becoming married. The scene progresses as Romeo refuses to fight Tybalt, even thou he was insulted so instead Mercutio goes in for the fight and is killed, the theme of honour appears here in the way one friend died for another, in Elizabethan times would be gratefully looked upon, as Tybalt had just killed his best friend Romeo now seeks revenge ending up killing Tybalt, which results in his banishment.

Throughout this scene, Benvolio acts as the narrator by playing his part, which tells the story… ‘…the day is hot and the Capels are abroad, And if we meet we will not scape a brawl…’
Benvolio tells the audience that it is a hot day with people’s emotions running high and if the Montague’s and Capulets meet, they will not escape a fight. Near the end of the scene, Benvolio has a monologue telling the prince and the rest of the community what has just happened with Romeo, Mercutio and Tybalt, in which he is subjective, ‘thou slew thy kingsman…Tybalt her slain, whom Romeo’s hand did slay…with gentle breath, carm look, knee’s humbly bowed…’ Benvolio talks about how Tybalt killed Mercutio, reminding everyone he was a member of the Princes family, before Romeo even thought about fighting and that Romeo tried to tell Tybalt there are reasons they should not fight. Benvolio is slightly biased toward Romeo firstly because they are cousins, and because two people have died already today and Romeo was acting in revenge, it was not his first choice of what to do.
The fight in this scene is not the first, Montague and Capulet youngsters often argue in the streets. ‘…the Prince expressly hath, forbid this bandying in Verona streets…’ This is Benvolio narrating, reminding the characters what the must not do and informing the audience of what the prince had said. Romeo reminds Tybalt and Mercutio who are fighting as well that, if the prince or any members of ‘The Watch’ see them, they will be executed. Romeo, Mercutio, and Benvolio gatecrashed a Capulet party, which caused trouble with Tybalt who now seeks revenge; this is part of the on-going feud between the families.

Shakespeare starts the scene with the lines ‘I pray thee good Mercutio lets retire: the day is hot and the Capels are abroad. And if we meet we will not scape a brawl, for now these hot days, is the mad blood stirring’ By Benvolio saying ‘I pray thee good Mercutio lets retire’ he is almost begging Mercutio to let them go home, Shakespeare tells us it is a hot day and the Capulets are around. This piece of speech sets the whole mood for the
scene. This makes the audience have expectations about what will happen, with a hot day people automatically think of tensions running high and trouble stirring. Shakespeare has to set the scene like this because in Shakespearian times in a theatre, they would not have been able to create such an atmosphere with the backdrops and lighting so they had to set the scene through the words that are spoken.

Shakespeare contrasts this scene with the previous (Act2, Scene6) which is the romance scene in which Romeo and Juliet marry. This end up being a contrast with the following scene because in the beginning Romeo refuses to fight because he is still too happy and excited to seem to care about anything else, even if Tybalt has challenged him to a duel. ‘Tybalt, the reason I must love thee. Doth must excuse the appertaining rage…’ Romeo tells Tybalt that they must love each other for reasons that cannot be explained, this confuses Tybalt and everyone else, the families have hated each other for years, so what has brought on this sudden change, Tybalt thinks Romeo is messing him about. This scene involves ‘dramatic irony’ because the audience know more about what I going on than the characters on stage.

‘A plague on both your houses’ are Mercutio’s dying words, he says this line three times, this adds tension to the scene, repeating this means we know it’s his true feelings. At this time people were just recovering from the plague, so to wish this on ‘two’ families is major, he can do this because he is not related to either family, this of course is yet again linked with fate. However, as Mercutio dies neither the characters or audience are 100% sure, it’s true; Mercutio switches from blank verse to prose. This scene creates good suspense because Romeo holds out long enough for you to think there will be no chance of him getting involved in the fight. Mercutio and Tybalt are having a bit of a joke insulting each other and play fighting but it all turns serious when Romeo enters the scene. ‘(Enter Romeo)… well peace be with you sir, here comes my man’ Tybalt stops fighting Mercutio, thanking him as if he had been a warm up fight or just to entertain his friends, but when Romeo refuses to fight, Mercutio rises to the duel with happens to be his last. The Elizabethan audience and the characters would be shocked at the fact Romeo refused to duel, it would have been seen as a lack of respect for your family name. Tybalt also calls Romeo a ‘villain’ which at the time would have been seen as a huge insult, if you were called a villain you were being classed as a common person, you were being looked down on. Written as an Old Italian story ‘Romeo and Juliet’. The play is based on a poem by English poet Arthur Brooke. In transferring the poem into a four-act play, Shakespeare made some major changes, he changes the age of Juliet to 13, two years younger than she was in the poem, but we have never known Romeo’s age. People say watching the play it is really fast and exciting, this may have something to do with the fact Shakespeare wrote the play to be set in 4 days rather than the 9 months the poem is based in. We do not exactly know when the play is written but it is assumed around 1200 or 1300 when Mantua and Verona were at the height of their power, Verona was ruled by a prince who had absolute power. Conflict between the characters is easily seen, the main obviously between Tybalt and Romeo, which is seen throughout the play, this keeps the audience intrigued, they want to know more than they already do, the Elizabethan audience would have liked knowing things the rival character didn’t. Another interesting conflict is between Mercutio and Benvolio, although both close friends of Romeo’s they rarely ever seem to manage to agree… Benvolio starts by saying… ‘And I were so apt to quarrel as thou art any man should buy the fee-simple of my life for an hour and a quarter’ The fee simple is legal ownership so Benvolio is saying if he were to quarrel like Mercutio, he would need to buy the ownership of his life or die soon, in this piece of speech Benvolio also ominously forecasts Mercutio’s death, returning to the theme of fate. We know Benvolio fears meeting the Capulets, as he knows a fight will follow. Mercutio just laughs at him, thinks his fears are petty and accuses him of being a quick-tempered quarreller. As in both groups ‘Benvolio and Mercutio ’and‘Romeo and Tybalt, the set of characters clash.

Entrances and exits of characters play a big part in this scene even thou we know the play was written like this, they always make you think ‘what if…’ he had walked in a minute later, how would it have panned out then, would this still have happened. ‘Help me into some house, Benvolio, or I shall faint. ‘A plague a’ both your houses! They have made worms meat of me, I have it, and soundly too. Your house’s!’ (Exit with Benvolio) Shakespeare wrote of Mercutio dying off stage but in Franco Zeffirelli’s version he die’s on stage. In Baz Luhrmann’s film part of you still feels as though Mercutio is still joking as he hobbles off set with Benvolio, the next entrance is the one we fear most, Benvolio returns to tell us our favourite character is dead.

Overall, this scene has the effect of fear and happiness running in on each other the feeling overlap sometimes with each at the same time. The scene is definitely exciting and interesting; so much is going on, the fighting, passion, the confusion of feelings and so many more. Act3 Scene1 becomes the turning point in the play because the mood changes from happy to sad, the characters movements feel a lot ……………