Sunday, May 18, 2014

What are the audience's expectations of act 1 scene 5?Juliet judge Paris; Romeo will cheer up and try to find Rosaline.

The audience is probably feeling many emotions and the expectations could take many avenues at this point.  The audience is hopeful at the end of Act I Scene 5 that Romeo and Juliet will defy fate and end up as a happy couple.  Even though they know of each other's families at the end of Scene 5, they are willing to defy anyone or anything to be together. This makes the audience feel that despite the foreshadowing in the Prologue using the words: "misadventured" and "death-marked," to name a few, they will still beat the odds. 

Romeo's speech at the end of Scene 4, as he approaches the Capulet's feast, indicates that he sees things going terribly wrong and that this will lead to his eventual demise.

Tybalt vows to kill Romeo and get his revenge because he is a Montague and he dared to enter the Capulet's feast.  The audience will see Tybalt as a serious threat to the couple's happiness.  He says, "I will withdraw, but this intrusion shall, Now seeming sweet, convert to bitter gall."

I think that even though we know Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy, we are also hopeful, as an audience, that love will prevail and will overcome the obstacles.  I also think the audience feels that they are on the edge, fearing the worst, but hoping for the best.

Reference:  The Language and Literature Book by McDougal Littell           

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