The Story of A Star Crossed Lovers

Analyse the dramatic effectiveness of Act 1 scene 5 of Romeo and Juliet, exploring how Shakespeare creates an atmosphere of romance and danger in the scene.

William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is one of the most recognisable plays of today. The play was written in the early 1600’s. Back in the 1600’s many things where different, for example woman where not aloud to act due to the patriarchal society therefore all these parts where played by young males. Also many girls married at an early age and arranged marriages where normal. The play is a tragedy however the subject of love dominates the play, but there are many other themes, such as death, honour, fate, loyalty and suicide. Many of these are universal themes and are still used today.   The play is based on a pair of “star crossed lovers” who’s whose deaths ultimately unite their feuding families as stated in the prologue. Act 1 scene 5 is of the most dramatic scenes as it is where Shakespeare creates both atmosphere and danger it is also where the story begins.

Shakespeare uses a range of dramatic devices to hook the audience and create a sense of romance, danger and expectation. In the prologue we learn what will happen in the play, many would question why Shakespeare does this. Shakespeare done this because in the theatre people would come and go as they please so he would need to grab everyone’s attention to make them stay for the whole duration of the play. By having a prologue it creates dramatic irony this makes the audience want to watch the events step by step that lead to the death of two loved ones. The prologue also creates tension and suspense especially when it states “take their life” as suicide would have been a new theme for the audience,   in my opinion I think that a prologue is a good way to gain peoples attention and keep them on the edge of their seats. Shakespeare was very successful at doing this as the play was very popular. In the play Shakespeare left out the use of stage...