The Time Scheme from Act 1 to Act 2 of Romeo and Juliet - Term Paper Example

Analyze the time scheme from Act to Act 2 of Romeo and Juliet, and discuss if it is plausible that the love story of Romeo and Juliet could take place so quickly? Was their love from the first sight? Time, as it is presented in any play, film or other literary text, can most times not be seen as related to reality, as time as experienced in everyday life. This is due to the need of a writer, or filmmaker, to compress events into the time taken to present a story and series of events to the audience or reader. But a writer does have to make events seem realistic, to make the audience understand that time for the characters is passing and being experienced as it would for someone in the world. So, the question of whether time is realistically shown in Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare can be judged against the way an ordinary person in the real world would experience the events of the play. It takes just four days for the tragic events of the lovers to play out. From the time they meet, until the time they are both dead, is an almost unbelievably short period. Juliet is introduced to the play first, and the audience learns that her family plans for her to marry a young nobleman, Paris. Lady Capulet, Juliet’s mother asks her, Speak briefly, can you like of Paris’ love? (1/3/96). At the same time, when Romeo is introduced, he is in infatuated with a young noblewoman, Rosaline. By the time the young lovers first see each other, though, it is obvious that all previous love has died, and indeed they have fallen in love, at first sight (writer’s italics). Romeo’s words are: For I ne’er saw true beauty till this night (1/5/50). For Juliet, the first response the audience shares with her, to the young Romeo, can be found in her words, My only love sprung from my only hate! (1/5/135). It is thus so that they have just met, and have fallen in love. Despite what a modern audience would see as unrealistic, it is possible to explain the love between Romeo and Juliet realistically, including the short time for which they are lovers, marry, and die. The city of Verona, where the play takes place, is presented as a society in which the society is dominated by the feud between two families – Juliet’s Capulets, and Romeo’s Montagues. This feud is historically long-lasting and affects every aspect of the society. Even the servants of the two families feud in the streets of the city (See 1/1). It is thus likely that Romeo and Juliet had never met each other, and that their first meeting hence has the charm of the absolutely new. Clearly, the physical attraction between them does play an immediate role. They are young – Juliet not yet in her fourteenth year, Romeo not older than sixteen – and the emotion of early adolescence is recognized as particularly intense, and dramatic. It is often said that people will always remember their first love as the most intense and the sweetest experience. Both the characters have already been exposed to a sense of the emotion of love, but not yet experienced it as a mutual emotion, and this first experience must have been an intense and highly charged moment. Now old desire doth in his deathbed lie/… now Romeo is beloved and loves again/ … but passion lends them power, time means, to meet/Tempering extremities with extreme sweet. (1/5/Chorus 1-14) The feud between the families also contributes to the intensity of the emotion the lovers feel. They have to keep their love secret for the sake of their families, yet their emotions are strong enough for them to defy the feud. Having to act in secrecy, marry against the prohibitions of the feud, their society, and against the wishes of their parents, must add to the intensity of the experience for these characters. Psychological explanations of their emotions in this first stage of love may serve to justify the unrealistic time frame in isolation. There are, however, other aspects of the context of the play that may add to the understanding of Shakespeare’s choice to hasten these events to such a degree. Love is generally presented in the play as a shallow, conventional set of emotions, in contrast to the depth with which the love between Romeo and Juliet is explored. Mercutio’s words may typify the way Shakespeare presents love in this society: I conjure thee by Rosaline’s bright eyes/ … and quivering thigh/ and the demesnes that there adjacent lie/ (2/1/17-21). It is a physical, superficial, and physical or sexual matter to be made fun of, for Romeo’s contemporaries. Additionally, Juliet’s mother, in her words filled with imagery related to wealth and money, tries to persuade Juliet to accept the arranged marriage with Paris. She describes Paris as a book, but with gold clasps (and) golden story (1/3/93), commenting that Juliet share all that he doth possess (1/3/94). An arranged marriage of convenience, tying two wealthy and powerful families in Verona together, for mutual benefit, is presented as acceptable. The emotions of love have nothing to do with relationships and marriage in Shakespeare’s Verona. Thus, presenting the purity, innocence, and strength of the love between Romeo and Juliet in contrast to the materialistic, feuding, and superficial society in Verona, makes the audience want to believe that this kind of love at first sight (writer’s italics) can exist. Friar Laurence, who marries the lovers secretly on the second day of the play, advises Romeo to …love moderately. Long love doth so. /Too swift arrives as tardy as too slow. (2/6/14-15). It is certainly a belief that love can last long if it is not merely passionate, sudden, and impulsive. But Juliet’s words immediately after those of the Friar, communicate Shakespeare’s intention: …my true love is grown to such excess/ I cannot sum up sum of half my wealth. (2/6/33-34). The emotions between the young lovers are true, and sincere, and have swiftly grown from first attraction to true love. It is difficult for a modern audience to accept that the events of the play, Romeo and Juliet, especially as they relate to the time frame presented by Shakespeare are realistic. Modern audiences tend to want to see the real, and the believable. Nonetheless, the love presented by Shakespeare is evidently ideal, rather than realistic in every detail. Still, a close reading of the play does suggest that this love is attainable, and possible between two young people. Romeo and Juliet truly did experience a …bud of love, by summer’s ripening breath, / prove(ing) a beauteous flower … (2/2/121-122). Read More