Act One of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare

2052 Words5 Pages

Act One of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare In Act 1, the audience are introduced to the major conflicts of the Capulets and Montagues, via the fighting of the servants. Whilst this is happening, Benvolio is convincing Romeo to take his mind off of the one he "loves," and go to the Capulet ball, however Romeo insists that he has eyes for no one except Rosaline, that is until he meets Juliet. It is important that the audience are able to make links to predict events because it helps them to feel involved in the play. Act 1 Scene 1 is set on a street in Verona, where we see two Capulet servants: Sampson and Gregory, who are bragging about their part in the feud with the Montagues. This is where we first see Shakespeare's use of puns and double meanings, for example we hear Gregory say "To move is to stir, to be valiant is to stand." They appear to be talking about courage, but "to stir" means to have sex and "to stand," means to have an erection, which also introduces Shakespeare's uses of Bawdy language, which becomes a major part of the Nurses character. This is a link to the rest of the play as it shows that bawdiness will be a part in the play. The Audience may feel that this is an unusual opening to the play, as it is humorous and fast paced, therefore the audience would probably know from the prologue "death-marked love" that it is a tragic storyline that would expect it to be slow paced and emotional. Sampson and Gregory are extremely casual in the first scene; "A dog of that house" shows that they believe they are stronger than they are as they call the Montagues dogs, which is an insult. When two Montague ... ... middle of paper ... ...that her "only love sprung from her only hate. Too early seen unknown, and known too late." Showing that she feels far too much for him to be able to stop the relationship. Juliet then hides her thoughts and feelings from the nurse and goes off to join her mother. In conclusion I think that there are a great deal of links between act 1 and the rest of the play that help to prepare the audience for the up and coming events. It gives a taster of the characters and their traits and shows the audience what will happen in the form of the contrast between fighting and love. The prologue gives away the storyline but still leaves the audience asking questions. Altogether, I believe that Shakespeare included links to the rest of the play in act 1 so that the Audience could get a feel for the play and become more involved.

Open Document