Romeo and Juliet English Coursework
Romeo and Juliet
By William Shakespeare
Discuss how Shakespeare creates tension in Act 3, Scene 5,through his presentation of relationships between adults and children
Act 3, Scene 5 is an important scene in the play because it shows a change inrelationships which greatly affects how the watching audience sees some of themajor characters in the play. It is also a part of the play which greatly increases thedifficulty in Romeo and Juliet’s marriage, and adds much tension, which translates onstage to entertainment.This essay aims to outline some of the ways Shakespeare uses the relationshipsbetween adults and childrenIn order to understand why this scene is tense, we must look at what has happenedin the play before our key scene, and gain some understanding of Romeo andJuliet’s awkward situation.Romeo and Juliet are from two prominent and feuding families who reside in the cityof Verona, a real city in northern Italy. As far as the audience are aware, they aretheir parents’ only offspring, the only other ‘children’ in the family (other thannondescript ‘kinsfolk’) are Benvolio and Tybalt, cousins to Romeo and Julietrespectively.As only children, their parents are naturally protective of them – Juliet’s father,especially. Towards the beginning of the play, in Act 1, Scene 2, Paris asks Capuletfor permission to marry his daughter. In Elizabethan times (when the play waswritten and performed), it was the job of the father to give away the daughter, as if she were a present or his property, rather than her own person.Rather than just give away his daughter to Paris, a young nobleman, kinsman to theprince, and someone who would be seen as a ‘good catch’ for a husband, he tellshim