An Analysis of the Dramatic Qualities of Act 3 Scene 1 of William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet

An Analysis of the Dramatic Qualities of Act 3 Scene 1 of William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet

Act 3 scene 1 is very effective because of where it is placed in the

play. We have just ended on a happy note in Act 2. Friar Laurence

wanted to unite the Montagues and the Capulets. So we have a scene

full of love and joy, the wedding between Romeo and Juliet. This is a

great contrast as what comes in the next scene is quite the opposite.

Everything that has been before this has been closer to one of

Shakespeare's comedies, rather than his tragedies. There are comic

figures in the play such as Mercutio and even one of the main

protagonists in the tragedy, Romeo. He fits the comic role because he

falls in and out of love very quickly. We see this as when we first

meet him at the beginning of the play he is in love with Rosaline, yet

as soon as he meets Juliet he falls in love with her. To us this seems

quite ridiculous and quite hilarious. In fact most of the events

before Act 3 scene 1 have been largely positive, but it is at this

point in the play where the happiness, from the previous scene, is

shattered and the course of action of the play is now a relentless

path to tragedy.

We can tell that this was going to be a tragedy because even though

the events before this have been positive, the language that is used

reflects the fact that this play is a tragedy. It refers to fate and

stars many times throughout the play. They play opens with the chorus

describing Romeo and Juliet as

"Star-crossed lovers"

Meaning that they are ill fated from the moment the meet. Again,

before Romeos and his friends reach the party he dreams that...

... middle of paper ...

... their entire social world. Romeo watches his

best friend dying as he wouldn't fight because of his love for Juliet.

They

both defy their families.The powerful nature of love can be seen in

the way it is described, or, more accurately, the way descriptions of

it

so consistently fail to capture its entirety. At times love is

described

in the terms of religion, when Romeo and Juliet first meet.

"Romeo and Juliet" does not make a specific moral statement about the

relationships between love and society, religion, and family; rather,

it

portrays the chaos and passion of being in love, combining images of

love, violence, death, religion, and family in an impressionistic rush

leading to the play's tragic conclusion,

"For never was a story of more woe

Than this of Juliet and her Romeo".