The beginning of the play starts with a prologue, the main point of this is to get the audience’s attention and set the scene but to also explain the whole outline of the play. By doing this Shakespeare is also acknowledging one of the main themes of the play, which is fate. In the prologue Shakespeare chooses to use a lot of violent language- “Their death...Civil blood makes civil hands unclean...Parents rage...”-. Blood is associated with fighting and battles; ‘Rage’ is a strong word, hinting towards anger. This establishes the violent, angry mood of the play.
However, the prologue also informs the audience other themes involved in the play. Fate plays a big part in the play, we learn that the two lovers meeting will lead to unfortunate events happening, -“A pair of star crossed lovers take their life...”-, this quote is saying that their death is inevitable and this also links in with the violent theme. Also by telling the audience how the play is going to end, this then becomes fate in action as the audience know what’s going to happen next. This is a good use of dramatic irony because we learn the outcomes of the play and all through it we know what will happen if a character chooses a certain path. The prologue also hints that we aren’t meant to on anyone’s side-“Two houses both alike...”- the two rival families are both the same and so this gives us the chance to make our minds up.
In the first scene, we see a street brawl between the servants of the two families; this first scene shows us how the hatred has run through not just the family but the servants also,-“When I have fought with men, I will be cruel with the maids- I will cut off their maiden heads...”-, this shows how violent the feud has become because even the servants are talking about raping the oppositions maids. ‘Maiden heads’ was a slang word for virginity.
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