How Does Shakespeare in the Play Romeo and Juliet Make Act One Scene Five Dramatically Effective? - page 1
Keywords: Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet Dramatically Effective Act One Scene Five 1 5 masked ball A*
By Glamurus on 02/11/2006
Level: GCSE Key Stage 4 (Years 10-11)
Page Number: 1 of 8 pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
How Does Shakespeare Make Act One Scene Five Dramatically Effective?
The play Romeo and Juliet was written by William Shakespeare in the 1590s. Up until act one, scene five, a prologue outlines the plot of the play, followed by violent confrontation between the Montague and Capulet families, who are enemies. Capulet accepts bachelor Paris’s request to marry his daughter Juliet, and Romeo and his friends find out about the Capulet’s masked ball. Lady Capulet converses with her daughter and tries to persuade her to marry Paris. Finally, there is a scene where Romeo and his friends, including Mercutio are getting ready to sneak into the Capulet’s party.
There are many dramatic techniques used in this play, including plenty of dramatic irony. For example, in act one, scene five, the audience know that Romeo and Juliet are from rival families, but they are not aware of this when they first meet, and the young lovers don’t find out about each others identities (they are from rival families) until the end of the scene.
The audience’s initial reaction to the main characters could include Juliet being mature and level-headed, and Romeo easily swayed and in love with the idea of being in love rather than the person he is infatuated with (Rosaline). Mercutio is portrayed as playful optimist. Juliet’s nurse is also joyful but is much more motherly towards Juliet than Lady Capulet, who doesn’t seem to connect well with her daughter.
One of the ways Shakespeare makes act one, scene dramatically effective is by the contrasting emotions that run throughout the scene. The wide range of characters onstage works on the same principle – many characters' personalities contrast and conflict.
The scene starts with talk amongst the servants, their knockabout humour is written in prose to clearly show they aren’t of the noble class, and this leads on to the hustle and bustle of getting ready for the Capulet’s party. This shows the growing anticipation of the entire household as the colour and movement of the scene increases. It’s dramatically effective because it draws the audience in to the start of the scene. They get caught up in the excitement before the masked ball, and this causes the subsequent action to affect the audience more. This part signals the start of the juxta position in the scene and looked busy and ‘true to life’ on stage; Romeo
Last 5 comments…
There have been no comments posted for this article, but you need to register if you want to be the first!