R&J scenes notes

<Characters>

Juliet: Capulet's daughter who falls in love with Romeo.

Romeo: Montague's son, who is loved and respected in Verona.

Mercutio: Kinsman to the prince and friend of Romeo.

Tybalt: Lady Capulet's nephew and Juliet's cousin.

The Nurse: Juliet's nursemaid, who acts as a messenger for Romeo and Juliet.

Friar Laurence: A brother of the Franciscan and a person who advises both Romeo and Juliet.

Capulet: Juliet’s father and reluctant to consent to Juliet's marriage with Paris.

Paris: A noble young kinsman to the Prince.

Benvolio: Montague's nephew and friend of Romeo and Mercutio.

Montague: Romeo's father

Sampson: Servant of the Capulet household.

Gregory: Servant of the Capulet household.

Abram: A servant to Montague.

Prologue:

Brief introduction about the background story of Romeo and Juliet's families. Also it shows the grudge and hatred between the two families.


Act 1 Scene 1

The scene starts with two capulet servants Sampson and Gregory, and shows the strong hatred between Capulet and Montague. Sampson and Gregory are waiting for some Montague servants to pass the street, and they starts make a sexual jokes about women and reveal their resentment toward the Montagues. When they saw two Montague servants who are Abram and Balthasar, the capulet servants bite their thumb at them which result the begin of the fight between Abram and Sampson. Later, Benvolio, Romeo’s cousin, appears in order to stop their fighting. Also Lord Capulet arrives to the battle soon, and ask for a sword to join their fight; however, Lady Capulet restrains him from the battle. Before the fight gets larger, Prince Escalus appears and force people to return to home and warn them in order to make a street of Verona safer. Later on, the family asks Benvolio where the Romeo is, and Romeo appears in the scene. Benvolio asks Romeo why he feels so melancholy, and Romeo responds that he likes a woman called Rosaline, and he can not stop thinking about her. The unrequited love is the reason of his depression.

The first scene certainly showed the resentment between Capulet and Montage through showing the servants' battle. Also, Romeo appeared into the scene for the first time, and showed that his love emotion toward a woman called Rosaline. I thought first scene was more based on background story so that audience are able to notice the relationship between Romeo and Juliet's families.
Actually it was pretty difficult to understand most of the story in the book due to ancient Renaissance words and Shakespeare's own writing style. For example, it wasn't easy to fully understand the sentence with his own writing style and words in " Tis well thou art not fish; if thou hadst, thou hadst been poor John" from Gregory. "

Act 1 Scene 2

The scene starts with the discussion between Capulet and Prince. Paris hopes that he can marry with Capulet’s daughter, Juliet. Juliet is still young, but Capulet also urges Paris to win her heart. But Capulet respects Juliet’s opinion that he thinks it is more important if Juliet also wants to marry with Paris or not. Later, Capulet invites Paris to the annual Capulet masquerade being held that night; he also sends servant called peter to deliver rest of the invitations. However, since peter is not able to see, he asks Romeo and Benvolio to help him giving invitation to people. While Romeo and Benvolio are reading the list, Benvolio finds that Rosaline is also invited. Therefore, Benvolio suggests they crash the party to see Romeo’s love toward Rosaline isn’t really special. After Romeo hear that, Romeo agrees to go to the party to prove that Benvolio is wrong.

I think this scene was pretty interesting because the important character “Prince” appeared who is later becoming as Romeo’s rival. Also the last part of the scene shows that Romeo will go to the party which is becoming one of the most important places where Romeo and Juliet fall in love to each other. Scene 2 makes me expect about Romeo and Juliet’s first meeting.

Act 1 Scene 3

Before the masquerade starts, Lady Capulet asks Nurse to find Juliet. When Juliet enters her room, Lady Capulet dismisses the Nurse then calls her back soon. Later, Nurse recalls incidents from Juliet’s childhood, and makes some sexual jokes. Lady Capulet can’t quiet the nurse, but Juliet does. Lady Capulet asks Juliet how does she think about marriage and tells Juliet that she had already given birth to Juliet in her age. Also she reveals that Paris seeks to marry with Juliet; Juliet responds that she will look at Paris to see if she can love him, but she has no mind to look him deeply as her mom hopes.

I think this scene introduces Juliet into the stage and explores the theme of youth, old, and marriage. Additionally the scene reveals all different attitudes among The nurse, Lady Capulet, and Juliet toward the love and marriage. Through the scene, I could feel some gap between Juliet and her family members; while Juliet views love as a spiritual quality, her parents treat marriage as economic and sexual concerns without caring about Juliet’s feeling much. The scene shows how Juliet views about love, and a small confliction between Juliet and Lady Capulet of thinking the meaning of marriage.

Act 1 Scene 4

Romeo, Benvolio, and Mercutio walk toward the Capulet’s ball. Romeo says he will not dance at the party because he stills feel melancholy about his love toward Rosaline. Mercutio makes jokes of Romeo, makes comments about Romeo’s love into sexual metaphors. Romeo says he dreamed that going to the party was a bad idea, and he has a bad feeling of going there because he has some senses that the events will set fate in motion and result in his ultimate death later. On the other hand, Mercutio works himself into a fervor and starts talking about dreams and Queen Mab. The speech begins as a kind of fairy tale, but it soon becomes more nightmarish with revealing violence. The scene ends with Romeo following his friends to party although he felt something displeased about it.

Act 1 Scene 5

The scene starts in the masquerade, Capulet welcoming the disguised Romeo and his friends. During Romeo watching the dance, he catches sight of Juliet. He doesn’t know who she is, but he immediately forgets about rosaline. At the same time, Tybalt overhears Romeo asking about Juliet; therefore, he recognizes Romeo and prepares to attack Montague.  However, Capulets gets furious that Tybalt would ruin the party so he stops him. When Capulets goes away, Tybalt promises to himself to revenge Montague, and exits from the stage. Back into the party, Romeo approaches Juliet; their first conversation is fourteen line sonnet, in which they develop a complicated religious metaphor and gets close to each other. Then, Romeo guides into a kiss and they kiss twice. They fall in love, but not until they find out that they are belong to enemy houses

I think scene 5 is a really important scene that one of the major events happened. It shows the meeting between Romeo and Juliet, and their beginning part of the love. In line 52, I could find out that Romeo really liked Juliet’s appearance through the quote “torches to burn bright!.” On the other hand, the scene also reveals later confliction between Tybalt and Romeo. The scene 5 is the key part showing Romeo and Juliet’s love, and makes me to curious about what will happen in the next scene.