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

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

Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy play written by William Shakespeare. Act

1, scene 5 is an essential scene in the play. The main two themes are

the emotions, Love, and Hate.

I think this scene is so vitally important because it is the first

time Romeo and Juliet set eyes upon each other and it seems predicted

and they are instantly love struck. I think Shakespeare did this so

that the audience felt like they were perfect together but, this would

also make their ‘foreseen’ deaths (from the prologue) a lot harder for

the audience to bear. So the audience is told the play will come to a

horrifying climax at the beginning, ‘from forth… star crossed lovers

take their lives.’

This scene also sets up the chain of events that Tybalt and Romeo will

fight, and maybe we can assume that from Romeo’s success at the party

with Juliet, that his luck will probably hold out and he will win the

fight against Tybalt, which he later does.

This scene is also so important because it contains a monologue and

the monologue contains religious imagery. This would have been so

vital for an Elizabethan audience to know because a monologue tells

them what will pretty much happen, and adding religious imagery adds

fate and mystery to it, and adds lots of tension to the scene, so it

informs the audience, but doesn’t give away too much.

Romeo and Juliet’s kiss sets up the play for their tragic suicides at

the end of the play and it seems that every step of love they reach a

tragic event happens to match it, e.g. Tybalts death, Mercutio’s

death, Romeo banned from Verona and consequently the ‘star crossed

lovers’ suicide over false news.

Love seems to balance out hate in this play and the language of love

is written in sonnet form, Shakespeare’s speech does form perfect

sonnets for Romeo’s lines to Juliet and also in Romeo’s monologue.

Sonnets meant to an Elizabethan audience that this couple are perfect

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