Key Skills in English


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of servants, have been living there for a very long time. When the brawl breaks out between feuding members of the Capulets and Montagues, citizens enter the brawl shouting ‘Down with the Capulets! Down with the Montagues!’. From this detail, we see that the feud is deeply affecting the general population of the city. The fact that a Prince resides in Verona further emphasises its size and importance. The Prince gives us the information that there have already been, ‘Three civil brawls, bred of an airy word’, but also refers to what was once ‘the quiet of our streets’. This suggests to me that Verona was once a law-abiding city where people could live in peace, but that this has now changed and the streets are dangerous places to roam. This setting is important because many significant events take place on the streets of Verona. It is here that Romeo receives the news about the Capulet ball. It is here that Tybalt kills Mercutio and in turn, is slain himself. The heat associated with an inland location in Italy also contributes to the feeling that people can get overheated and that passions can be easily aroused.


(b) The atmosphere in this scene is skilfully created by the language and imagery used by the feuding servants. Images of love and sex are mingled with images of violence and death when Sampson refers to his ‘naked weapon’, makes bawdy jokes about cutting off the ‘maidenheads’ of the Montague women and creates puns on the words ‘thrust’ and ‘strike’. The audience of the time would have probably found the jokes and puns on words amusing, creating an atmosphere of comedy, but I personally think that the atmosphere is more threatening than funny. The threat of the Prince changes the mood: ‘If ever you disturb our streets again, / Your lives shall pay the forfeit of the peace’. This serves to create a sense of foreboding and doom.


(c) The vulgar jokes of the Capulet servants, written in prose rather than verse, initially suggested to me that the feud was more ridiculous than serious and that the young men had been caught up in nothing more than silly shows of bravado. The hatred of Tybalt, contrasting sharply with the peaceful character of Benvolio, made me suspect that love and hate would be central themes in the play. Capulet and Montague seemed equally foolish when they needed to be restrained by their wives. Lady Capulet’s sarcastic comment that a ‘crutch’ would be more fitting for Capulet than a ‘sword’ and Lady Montague’s determination that her husband ‘shalt not stir a foot to seek a foe’, made me think that the women were more sensible than the men and perhaps would be able to assert some control over the situation. However, the Prince, speaking in lofty blank verse, impressed me the most with his determination to restore the peace of Verona, even if that meant imposing the death penalty on future offenders. When Romeo entered the scene after the brawl, his disinterest in the feud was remarkable. I was intrigued by his attitude and wondered how the disturbances on the streets of Verona would have an impact on his life.


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Unit 1: Drama


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