The Emotions and Emotional Voices Portrayed in Romeo and Juliet
The emotions portrayed in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet play an important part in the composition of the play. The two crucial emotions that are introduced in Act One and used throughout the play are the antonyms of love and hate. Contrast between these emotions are used in the first act, which supplies us with a more realistic situation. The complicated and conflicting relationships between the characters in the play are explored and portrayed by these emotions.
In Act One Scene One, the strong emotion of hatred emerges. Shakespeare introduces the emotion of hatred before love because it lays a foundation and also established the feud between the two houses, so we can understand how hard Romeo’s love for Juliet is later on in the play. In this first scene, Sampson and Gregory, two Capulet servants, are engaging in a crude conversation directed at the Montagues, ‘One of those Montague dogs always gets me going. They refer to the Montagues with the metaphor, ‘dogs’ because this is a derogatory term and implies that the Montagues are a much lower class than them and are like animals. Within the first few lines, Shakespeare used various puns in Sampson and Gregory’s conversation to interest the ‘groundlings’ who were poor and typically less intelligent people that came to see Shakespeare’s plays. Shortly after, also in Act One Scene One, the conversation embarks on a slightly more graphic direction, where the Capulet servants use sexual innuendos addressed towards the Montagues, ‘I will push Montague’s men from the wall, and thrust his maids to the wall.’ This imagery shows the sheer disrespect the Capulets have for the Montagues and those affiliated with them. The fact that the Capulet servants are talking about the Montagues in this way shows that the feud has spread from the heads of the household right down to the servants who advance to make snide and unprovoked comments, this shows the extent to which the families hate each other, even towards those in the
In Act One Scene One, the strong emotion of hatred emerges. Shakespeare introduces the emotion of hatred before love because it lays a foundation and also established the feud between the two houses, so we can understand how hard Romeo’s love for Juliet is later on in the play. In this first scene, Sampson and Gregory, two Capulet servants, are engaging in a crude conversation directed at the Montagues, ‘One of those Montague dogs always gets me going. They refer to the Montagues with the metaphor, ‘dogs’ because this is a derogatory term and implies that the Montagues are a much lower class than them and are like animals. Within the first few lines, Shakespeare used various puns in Sampson and Gregory’s conversation to interest the ‘groundlings’ who were poor and typically less intelligent people that came to see Shakespeare’s plays. Shortly after, also in Act One Scene One, the conversation embarks on a slightly more graphic direction, where the Capulet servants use sexual innuendos addressed towards the Montagues, ‘I will push Montague’s men from the wall, and thrust his maids to the wall.’ This imagery shows the sheer disrespect the Capulets have for the Montagues and those affiliated with them. The fact that the Capulet servants are talking about the Montagues in this way shows that the feud has spread from the heads of the household right down to the servants who advance to make snide and unprovoked comments, this shows the extent to which the families hate each other, even towards those in the