Act 1 Scene 5 of William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet

Act 1 Scene 5 of William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet

I am going to write about why Act1 Scene5 prepares the audience for

what is going to happen in William Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet".

They play is based on two characters from two rival families, the

Capulets and the Montagues who fall in love at a party in 1.5. Tension

between the two families is obvious because of the fight in 1.1

between Tybalt Capulet and Benvolio Montague and their group.

1.5 is set at the great hall in the Capulet's mansion, Romeo and his

friends have dressed up and went uninvited to a party. The first and

most important thing to note is the huge rivalry between the two

houses. Tybalt finds out that Romeo and his friends have come

uninvited and so he sends his servant to get his weapon. He is stopped

by his uncle from starting yet another fight with his nemesis. This

tension prepares the audience for the fight which takes place in Act3

Scene1. In the fight Mercutio, a friend of the Capulets is killed.

Romeo is angry and fights with Tybalt, Tybalt falls. The whole play is

based around the fight; there is no way now that Romeo can ever live

with Juliet. Juliet's mother wants him dead "For blood of ours, shed

blood of Montague".

In Act1 Scene5, Romeo meets Juliet for the first time. He sees her and

instantly wants to know more about her. He asks the question "Did my

heart love till now?" he believes he has never been in love as much as

this moment. This forms a strong bond between him and her for the rest

of the play, so much so that he will die for her. This till-the-death

bond gets the audience ready for the ending that we know. When they

first meet Romeo tells her that his lips are like two pilgrims wanting