How is the Audience Kept Interested During Act 3 Scene 1 of William Shakespeare’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’
William Shakespeare’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’ is doubtlessly one of the most easily recognisable and well known pieces in all the Shakespearean works, if not the whole of English literature. "Romeo and Juliet" is a tale of two young ‘star-cross’d lovers’ who, amidst the turmoil of their feuding families, manage to sustain a relationship of true love which, ultimately, is destined for destruction. This play still has modern appeal because it is the ultimate love story and adaptations of the play still exist all over the world in many different formats. The themes which are explored in this play are violence, forbidden love and fate.
Act 3 Scene 1 opens with Benvolio and Mercutio speculating the chances of a conflict because the ‘capels’ were around. Tybalt approaches them and issues a challenge with Romeo. Romeo enters and refuses Tybalts challenge. Disgusted at his friends effeminate nature, Mercutio affronts Tybalt. Tybalt slays Mercutio and enraged Romeo slays Tybalt. The scene ends with Romeo being banished from Verona.
The Elizabethan audience could have related with this scene because it was commonplace for the Upper class nobility to pull their swords out to settle disputes. To further add to my point, skill in fencing was a requirement for all Upper class nobility, so it was usually a contest of skill , not so much strength.
Also there are several aspects that make this scene interesting for an audience; dramatic tension, dramatic irony, its relation to the rest of the play and the portrayal of the characters and their language.
Act 3 Scene 1 greatly contrasts with the scene before it, because in that scene Romeo and Juliet had just got married. Here there is a prevalent feeling of love, positivity and romance. Also, when the Friar married them both he hoped the two families could be ‘Two in one,’ suggesting the two families would unite over their marriage. This is ironic because instead of the two families uniting over their marriage, unbeknownst to them they would eventually unite over their deaths. In Act 3 Scene 1 though, there is a powerful mood of hatred, violence and bloodshed. This scene is a pivotal point in the play, because it sets off a tragic chain of events, making it crucial to the whole play itself.
So far the audience may have perceived this play as a comedy because of Mercutio’s never ending wit and humour. Mercutios death and the build up to his death could have changed the play to a tragedy. As Mercutio is the jester of the play , when he dies all the humour and jokes die with him. In the build-up to Mercutio’s death , he goads Tybalt by calling him a ‘rat-catcher,’ because in folklore, Tybalts name means king of cats, so Mercutio says this to mock Tybalt . Mercutio knows by doing this, would aggravate Tybalt, adding to his already violent nature.
Even whilst dying Mercutio lives up to his humorous reputation when he says ‘You shall find me a grave man.’ Here Mercutio uses double entendre because the quotation has two meanings, one of them being that tomorrow he will die and be buried in a grave. The second meaning to this is that Mercutio states he will be serious, because grave means serious. We the audience know that Mercutio is the epitome of wit and humour, but he implies that if he gets wounded that badly and survives his personality will change. Furthermore he tries to play down his injuries when he says ‘Ay, ay, a scratch, a scratch,’ by saying this he is making his injuries seem a lot less serious than they actually are. This show us a lot about Mercutio’s personality, in that he is so proud and egotistical that even when he is drawing his last breath , he cannot accept or even acknowledge that another man has overpowered him, especially someone like Tybalt who he loathes. We the audience, may only assume that if Mercutio admits his weakness, he may feel robbed of his masculinity.
The audience would be in absolute awe as all this was happening , because all these events are crammed into one scene. This heightens the audiences anticipation, making them immensely interested.
When Romeo kills Tybalt he realises the misfortune that this will cause when he say ‘O, I am Fortune’s fool.’ Romeo is cogitating how his actions have been those that fate, or fortune wanted and he has now fulfilled fate’s desire by killing Tybalt. In that respect fate has made a fool of Romeo.
In Shakespearean England cosmology and astronomy were heavily believed in. This could have influenced Shakespeare greatly in writing this play. In addition, fate and destiny play a crucial part in how this play turns out, because it is the result of fate that inevitably kills Romeo and Juliet.
Many instances in the play reveal that the love of Romeo and Juliet would end in death, even from the very beginning it is evident that they were destin
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