Interest and Tension in William Shakespeare's Act One of Romeo and Juliet

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Interest and Tension in William Shakespeare's Act One of Romeo and Juliet

William Shakespeare was a famous and successful play writer who lived

in the Elizabethan times. Some of his most memorable and famous plays

were Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, Twelth Night and Hamlet. He was

successful because he was able to entertain a whole range of people

from groundlings to royalty. He used a technique that would grab the

attention of anyone, his dialogue. He would use different genres like

comedy, romance, action and violence, so it would appeal to all ages

and genders. Often he would add a rude joke to lighten things up.

In the Elizabethan era it was not known for theatres such as the Globe

and Rose to use scenery, props and costumes. In most plays the

audience would not know where the scene was set, the time or the

weather, but Shakespeare would describe all of these things in the

dialogue. The audience could visualise the surroundings of the actors

better with this technique.

Humour was one of the main genres which contributed in grabbing the

audience's attention. Shakespeare uses humour before the fighting

because he wants to show the audience how the two enemies provoke each

other before the violence starts. This is effective because Sampson

and Gregory have an exchange of harsh and rude jokes, the audience now

knows that there is going to be fighting but yet are amused.

At the start of Act 1 Scene 1 Sampson and Gregory start the scene off

with humour. Sampson and Gregory start an argument over a simple

misunderstanding. Sampson says 'Gregory, on my word, we'll not carry

coals'. Gregory takes what Sampson says the wrong way and rep...

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two lovers are so into each other it will be hard to break them apart.

In Act 1 Scene 1 of Romeo and Juliet Shakespeare has used a number of

techniques to capture the audiences attention. He has used a number of

genres including Comedy, Violence and Action and Romance and Sex to

grab the audience's attention and to make it appealing to different

types of people from groundlings to Royalty. The variety of characters

would add more interest as each character was unique. Dialogue and

poetic language make it more appealing and creates tension and

suspense. Tybalt was aggressive and was a famous swordfighter; this

would give tension as the audience would know with Tybalt's temper a

fight would start.

Overall Shakespeare has created interest and tension for his audience

of Act 1 Scene 1 of Romeo and Juliet.

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