Written Coursework

Written Coursework

Chosen Extract: Act 2 scene 1 and Act 3 scene 5

Word count: 1880

Romeo and Juliet, written by William Shakespeare, is a play that tells the love story between Romeo and Juliet. The first balcony scene, act 2 scene1, was extremely beautiful; it seems great to see Romeo and Juliet exchange their love. However, since Romeo and Juliet were so young, I first started to doubt about their love to each other. After reading the second balcony scene, which is Act 3 scene 5, I found that Romeo and Juliet’s love wasn’t so stable that it was changed by Romeo’s banishment and their desperation. Thus, I acted in Romeo’s perspective and used intensive emotion, opposite tones, two music styles and contrasting color costumes to stage the balcony scenes to show how desperation changed Romeo and Juliet's love and ultimately caused the tragedy.

In Act 2 scene 1, I used optimistic settings such as colors and objects and acted tenderly to show Romeo and Juliet’s new young love. The first part of the whole scene was bright. There was a big table with some red and yellow artificial flowers. We set the table as the balcony. Behind the table, there was a window also decorated by some flowers to be the room. The flowers were significant because I wanted to imply that their love was similar to those flowers, which were extremely beautiful at first, but then perished and died. It meant that Romeo and Juliet’s love would be vivid in the first balcony scene. Juliet was standing behind the window and I was coming from another door on the left of the window. Both characters were wearing red because it’s a passionate color. It told the audiences about how they dropped in love deeply and it would be obvious when the costumes changed in the second scene. Then, it would show the comparison clearly. Also, the background music was relaxed and lively to suit a background based on happiness. The settings in Act 2 scene 1 helped to emphasize the brightness of Romeo and Juliet’s love at first.

In the start of the scene, the two lovers show that their love was much more important than everything, such as their identity and their family. Romeo says, “It is the east and Juliet is the sun” (2.1.3). It shows that he is faithful to Juliet at first in case to show the difference in the second balcony scene. Then, Romeo swears how he loved Juliet, “Lady, by yonder blessed moon I vow” (2.1.112). However, Juliet was anxious by the variable of the inconstant moon. Then, Romeo starts to promise again and again tirelessly. Swearing for several times doesn’t bother him at all. It’s a clear contrast to the second part that Romeo asks to leave when Juliet begs him to promise. He has been so patient in this part, when his love to Juliet hasn’t turned sour yet. In term to show how Romeo’s yearn for Juliet’s love, I hold my hand, and pointed to Juliet’s window to seen her as my god. When Juliet asked Romeo to banish his identity as a Montague, I was anxious and rushed to Juliet’s sight to say, “I take thee at thy word” to show Romeo’s attention on Juliet’s sweet request (2.1.53). When Juliet wanted me to pray and swear, I pretended there’s the moon on my left and turned to it to bless. Then, I turned back to Juliet and stared at her to praise her beauty and asked for the exchanging of love. The first balcony scene was truly beautiful for both characters at this point.

Towards the close of Act 2 scene 1, Romeo and Juliet have slanged so long together even Romeo were about to leave; I began to create a contrast to the ending of the second scene through the dialogue and action as well.

Juliet has heard some voice and leaves. Then, Romeo says, “Being in night, all this is but a dream” (2.1.147) to show how happy he is to find that the generous night brought him Juliet’s love and how much he was afraid that it doesn’t truly happens, Then, Juliet returns; an interesting point in this part is Juliet leaves and returns to Romeo for several times. When Juliet leaves, Romeo just stays and waits for Juliet’s returning quietly. When Juliet returns, he continues expressing his love. In the whole process, he has never been out of patience. Even after Juliet totally leaves the stage, Romeo still remains staying under Juliet’s window and loathed to leave. He even doesn’t want to have any sleep and rushes to Friar Lawrence’s cell to make sure that Juliet would marry him instead. However, how Romeo behaves in the second part of the scene shows how unstable his patient and love is. To perform Romeo’s sentimental love, I acted exaggerated by holding Juliet’s hand and stared at Juliet every time that she’s about to leave. I felt shorted-winded. By showing his happiness to notice Juliet’s love, I walked around, kept whispered and use my hand to show how excited Romeo was exaggeratedly. I also touched my heart to show how it speeded up when Romeo thought he find his “true” love. Even though Romeo doesn’t speak a line to ask Juliet to stay, I expressed he wasn’t willing to see Juliet’s left. By returning to balcony again and again, Juliet also shows that she’s not willing to leave. I emphasized the line “A thousand times the worse to want thy light” (2.1.165) to show how much Romeo wanted to stay with Juliet. I acted extremely exciting and talked as a stammer person. It helped me to show that Romeo is too emotional and happy that he even lost his ability to talk. I moved around quickly and keep scratching my hair to show that Romeo was thinking about what he should do next could help him to marry Juliet the fasted. The first balcony scene ends with full of sweetness and love, and then, the desperation destroys them in the second balcony scene.

The other part of the performance is Act 3 scene 5, the second balcony scene. In this scene, the tone was totally changed that I acted truly depressed and frustrated. This part of the scene was dark; even though the over all setting of the balcony didn’t change at all, the performers changed their color. Both characters were inside the room when the scene started, and I was going to leave to another door when the scene about to end. I wore in black while Juliet wore in white. Both of them are grave colors to imply their dark future. Black also showed constrain and the strong indefinite of his future with banishment. The unchanged background can show the difference between costumes more clear. For music, I put a slow music and it’s lifeless to emphasize the desperation in case to give a big contrast in comparing the first and second balcony scene. The cold and dark settings of Act 3 scene 5 could bring the audience a sense of desperate and then cause the contrasting.

The desperation brought by the banishment changed Romeo to be angry and impatient very soon, and I acted impatiently as well. In the start of Act 3 scene 5, Juliet asks Romeo to stay by telling him the day hasn’t come yet. However, Romeo should be frustrated and he soon says, “It was the lark, the herald of the morn, No nightingale” (3.5.6-7). It showed that Romeo wouldn’t say any words sweet any more but tell the cruel truth. Their love has changed that Romeo cared less about Juliet’s feeling than his own future. Then, when Romeo says, “Come death and welcome. Juliet wills it so. How is ’t, my soul? Let’s talk. It is not day”, it means that he’s being ironically to show his anger and he thinks Juliet doesn’t care about his life or she will let him go (3.5.24-25). Then Romeo says” More light and light, more dark and dark our woes” (3.5.36). It means that Romeo was desperate with his future since he could only feel the darkness even the light is coming; it also implies when Romeo leaves the balcony, their actions will lead them to the final tragedy. I was holding Juliet’s hand when the scene started, but then I shook her hands away to show that I was tired to please her. I raised my voice when I said it was the lark to show the audience that what Juliet thought was childish and Romeo wouldn’t change his mind to leave. To show Romeo’s anger after Juliet’s retaining, I was nearly roaring to my partner and I was speaking extremely loudly and the actress of Juliet showed like the crazy Romeo scared her a lot. When I asked for more light, I opened the window to let light in and then used my hand to cover my eyes to show I cannot afford the harm that the light would brought me in the ending of the story. Compare to the first balcony scene with full of love voice and sweet, the start of the second balcony scene was darker and full of quarrel and desperation.

Then, when Romeo leaves Juliet, the condition is really similar to the first time with his language, but also with different attitude that I became desperate and impatient to comfort Juliet and became confused about the future. They have been saying a thousand times of goodbye in the first balcony scene, and they also say thousands of times of goodbye in the second balcony scene as well. Romeo is keep-saying goodbye in this scene: “Farewell, farewell. One kiss and I’ll descend” (3.5.42); “Farewell. I will omit no opportunity” (3.5.47-48); “Dry sorrow drinks our blood. Adieu, adieu” (3.5.59). However, it’s not showing their love, but tells how Romeo wants to leave Juliet in a hurry. Juliet asks Romeo to stay and asks to hear love all the time, but Romeo just talks briefly to cope with her. Then, I acted like I was totally bored by Juliet and I was impatient to interrupt her some times even. When I said to give her the last kiss, she moved her lips to me. However, I actually just held her hand and put it down even without touching it by my lips. I wanted to emphasize that Romeo’s mind was already took by the desperation and it wasn’t left any space to think about Juliet. Thus, the difference in the attitude of the second balcony scene showed how desperation changed both Romeo and Juliet’s love.

To conclude, since the desperation changed Romeo and Juliet, it made them to be crazy and depressed. Then it forced them to do crazy things such as drink the poison or double suicide. If Romeo has show his care more about Juliet more about the second scene, then they wouldn’t be so desperate or feel guilty about each other. Then, it wouldn’t force them to die. In summary of the whole scene, I tried hard to think in a young man’s perspective and showed his frivolous and frustration. I think I did a good job in showing how desperation causes the tragedy by performing Romeo. Admittedly, desperation can change people, not just for love, but the whole life.