William Shakespeare is one of the most inspiration writers of all time, he wrote many famous plays and sonnets such as “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and “Hamlet”. However clearly his most famous tragedy of work is the story of “Romeo and Juliet”, two “star crossed lovers” who take their own lives in a desperate attempt to fix the disputes between their families.
Shakespeare performed all his plays in the well known “Globe” theatre which was built in 1599. Entertainment and stagecraft was very limited in the Elizabethan era and was significantly different to the present day. The stage was open and there were many limitations for example, there were no lights, sound affects or pyrotechnics which we now all take for granted in the present day. In order to compensate for this Shakespeare set the scene through language and imagery in the dialogue of his characters.
At the beginning of Act 1 Scene 5 the scene is prepared by showing Romeo’s infatuation over his lover Rosaline. This is the key scene the readers have all been waiting for were Romeo finally meets Juliet and forgets everything about his lover Rosaline. On the guest list for the party, which is hosted by Capulet, Rosaline is described as Capulet’s “fair niece”, but she never appears in the play. Benvolio promised to show Romeo and more attractive woman but he doesn’t have anyone special in mind Benvolio persuaded Romeo to go to the party so that Romeo could compare other women in order to forget about Rosaline. Romeo agrees to go, but most likely only because he wants to see Rosaline as he knew she was going to be at the party. We know Juliet is there because Capulet wants to give Paris a chance to meet her which is why he throws a party.
The meeting of Romeo and Juliet dominates the whole scene, and the extraordinary language that captures both the excitement and wonder that the two lovers feel, Shakespeare builds up tension with his readers by delaying the meeting of the two characters for an entire...