The way Shakespeare maintains the audience’s attention is by using humor as well as tension this keeps the audience on their feet. In the beginning of the scene Shakespeare uses humor to get the audience interested in the play.
The type of humor he uses is the three servants calling each other by nicknames witch sounds funny.
At the end of the scene it turns into dramatic suspense, as the beginning of the scene and the end of the scene are completely opposite. At the beginning of the scene there is humor, but at the end of the scene it finishes with tension and wretchedness as at the end Romeos sees Juliet dead as she is not dead she has taken a medicine which makes her sleep for 48 hours to make it seem enough to the dad and County St.Paris that she is dead, as Romeo was to get a letter about the fake death as he doesn’t and falls to think that she is dead so then when he took the poison and right before he killed himself Juliet touched his cheek but it was too late he took it. Also Romeo chases Tybalt and shoots him this makes tension and sadness as you see him fall to the ground. So all of this is to keep the audience interested, not bored.
In this part the Capulet is happy because his daughter is getting married to County St.Paris so he draws a party and invites all Capulet’s to enjoy the masks and have fun. As the party is going to be a masked ball this means all actors wear masks.
As a part from the scene Capulet says ‘ladies will have their toes unplagued with corns will walk about with you’, this implies that if they are able then they should dance.
Capulet and his cousin talks with him about how long it’s been since they danced and were in a mask, he also said that they were both past there dancing age and will have to just remember their good old times.
This part is where Romeo sees Juliet and so uses metaphors to describe how beautiful she looks such as ‘as a rich jewel in an Ethiops ear’; this means that when a black man wears an earring it stands out as she is the earring.
This speech is like a poem, by using religious imagery of beauty for Juliet. Whenever he touches Juliet by the hand, his hand is blessed.
Romeo says that he will stand and watch Juliet wherever she goes. He says in the speech that he hasn’t seen love until this night, so now he’s seen love at first sight.
As Tybalt set’s eye’s on Romeo in enmity, he’s aggravated that he is here at the Capulet’s party and wants to kill him; he also says that if he kills Romeo it’s not a sin, so he’s making up his own rules and show no respect to the guests upon him.
Capulet says to Tybalt to leave Romeo alone because he’s a nice young man and does not want to create any dilemma, as the Capulet lays down the rules and he told off Tybalt. Capulet said that he is to give respect to Romeo and not to be rude, as Capulet does not want a war upon his guest’s.
Capulet is in charge as the way he speaks to Tybalt is in a higher ranking than Tybalt and should show some respect. He calms Tybalt down by telling Tybalt that Romeo is here for no trouble and that he has peace among Capulet’s guests .He says that he is the master and Tybalt calls the Capulet ‘uncle’, by respect for the family.
At this point Romeo initially sets eyes on his loved one for the first time and cannot resist the temptation. The created tension in this scene is when they both kiss, but St.Paris is just near them but doesn’t see them, as they go to a different room they kiss each other in extreme love. Juliet goes back to St.Paris, Romeo stands and watches her go everywhere and plus Juliet looks at Romeo and doesn’t take a glimpse at St.Paris to show her love to him.
When they both kissed Juliet said ‘you kiss by th’book’, this shows that Juliet knows Romeo is a professional at kissing as she knows by the way he kissed her, he’s possibly kissed girls before.
Love and hate are two different themes; as you love you can’t hate.
This whole scene is about how quick love can turn to hate so fast, and that you should love your enemies even though they do not cause any trouble to you. Keep you’re friends close but you’re enemies closer.
My favourite part is where Romeo explains how much he loves Juliet by using metaphors. It was so interesting because of the language he uses to describe Juliet is so excessive, as it is so appealing when you can use metaphors such as Romeo.
