Act 1, Scene 5 is a turning point in the development of the

play. How does Shakespeare explore the themes of love

and hate in this scene? What methods does he use to
create tension?
Act 1, scene 5 is a major turning point in the play Romeo and Juliet.
Shakespeare explores love and hate rather dramatically through the
characters Tybalt, Romeo and Juliet.
Romantic love is first shown when Romeo first sets eyes on Juliet at
the Capulet party. He uses metaphors to describe her beauty, such
as a snowy dove trooping with crows He is referring to Juliet as a
pure dove, using juxtaposition of colours to emphasise their
differences.
Family love is then shown in this scene by Tybalt, which later on
leads to bitter hatred. Tybalt finds out Romeo, a Montague is at the
Capulet party and is only there to make fun of them. Tybalt swears
he will have his revenge. This part of the play also creates tension
for the audience, as they wonder how this tension and anger will
affect Tybalt and how he will react.
In these lines Shakespeare explores romantic love at the Capulet
party. When Romeo first sees Juliet he does not know who she is but
immediately falls in love with her: doth enrich the hand the word
enrich tells the audience Romeo thinks of Juliet as rich or better as it
seems such a powerful word. So by sentence the audience can
already tell that Romeo is in love with Juliet.
Romeo thinks she is so beautiful he uses a metaphor to describe her
beauty: A jewel in an Ethiops ear Shakespeare uses this sentence
to let the audience know Romeo thinks she is beautiful as a jewel
could be referring as a diamond that sparkles bright against the
background, in this case the Ethiop, who is a black African man.
Shakespeare wants to emphasise to the audience that Romeo is
certain that Juliet is the only one in the room who is truly beautiful
by using more metaphorical language: She hangs upon the cheek
of night the effect of this language can make the viewers realise
that in Romeos eyes, she is a star in the night sky, and it is dark,
because Shakespeare wrote cheek of night. This suggests Juliet
stands out amongst the other women who are dancing.
Further on in this scene, Shakespeare presents hatred through the
character Tybalt, Juliets cousin. He shows the audience how much
he hates Romeo, a Montague, when he recognises his voice and
finds out he is at the Capulets party. He thinks the only reason he is
there is to fleer and scorn at their solemnity. Another type of love
can be said to have been used here and that is family love. He loves

his family so much he in no way wants to be made fun of, especially

by the son of his enemy, Romeo. He thinks the only reason Romeo
has gatecrashes this party is to make fun of the Capulets, and to
humiliate them.
Tybalt shows his anger to the audience by saying fetch me my
rapier. This is his first response and the simplicity of the line shows
how desperate Tybalt is to get rid of Romeo in any way possible.
When Capulet does not allow Tybalt to fight Romeo, Let him alone
Tybalts anger becomes greater than before and now wants revenge
on Romeo even more: Now seeming sweet, convert to bittrest gall.
This line sows the audience Tybalts anger and hatred towards his
enemy when he says this party may seem happy and wonderful, but
will turn into a bitter poison afterwards.
In lines 92-109 Shakespeare explores Romeos love for Juliet and
Juliets love for Romeo by the use of religious language. Romeo says
to Juliet: If I profane with my unworthiest hand, this holy shrine
The word profane means blasphemy, or spoil, and he is referring to
Juliets hands as a holy shrine, so thins sentence suggests Romeo
wants to spoil Juliet, who is pure, with his unworthy hands.
Romeo carries on to say: My lips two blushing ready pilgrims stand.
This sentence suggests that with his blushing red lips he wants to
kiss Juliets hands. Juliet replies: Good pilgrim you do wrong your
hands too muchand palm to palm is holy palmers kiss. Palmer is
an old-fashioned word for pilgrim. She puts his and her palms
together hinting that it is a pilgrims kiss. Her reply suggest that
Romeo and Juliet are well suited for each other because she
developed on Romeos metaphorical language, his religious
imagery, which also means she is interested and flirting back.
Romeo continues to woo Juliet using religious imagery. He insists on
kissing her: let lips do what hands do which means they kissed
with hands, so must kiss with lips. Juliet replies: saints do not move,
though grant for prayers sake. She is referring herself to a saint
and saying they do not move, so she is not moving. Romeo says
Then move not while my prayers effect I take, thus from my lips, by
thine my sin is purged. Which means if she is not willing to kiss him,
he will kiss her himself.
When Romeo and Juliet start kissing Romeo says Give me my sin
again again, he is referring to religious language which was very
important in Elizabethan times because people were very religious
and saw religion as a very serious matter.
Romeo is distraught when he finds out his beloved Juliet is a sworn
enemy. We know this when he says O dear account Shakespeare
has employed a pun on the word dear. The word can mean love, in

this case, Juliet, or it can mean expensive, so Shakespeare has

written this to let the audience know Romeos love is going to be
costly in terms of his suffering.
My life is at my foes debt. This line could be referring to his future
happiness; his foe is the Capulets and debt, meaning he owes his
life to them. So the audience realise Romeo is prepared to do what it
takes to be with Juliet.
Juliet is just as horrified to hear that Romeo is the son of her great
enemy, the Montages. My only love sprung from my only hate this
is a paradox and means the only person she has ever loved is,
ironically, from the only family she ever hated.
Tension is created in this scene when Tybalt tells Capulet about
Romeo being at their party. Capulet does not allow Tybalt to fight
him at his party he shall be endured meaning he will welcome him.
Tybalt refuses to listen to him, which already had the audience tense
because Tybalt is supposed to obey his uncle, as that was the
custom in the 16th /17th century.
When Tybalt still does not obey his uncle, Capulet established his
authority Am I the master here or you? Meaning Tybalt should obey
his uncle, as he is the head of the house. This has the audience
tense because they are scared as how Tybalt will react to this.
Another part of this scene, which creates tension, is when Romeo
and Juliet find out they are descendents from feuding families. Love
a loathed enemy this is a paradox and means Juliet loves someone
she is supposed to hate, which creates tension for the audience
because they were so well suited for one another but then found out
they cannot be together.
Shakespeare explores themes of love and hate in a number of
different ways. He explores Romeos romantic love through the use
of metaphors, which can include juxtaposition, oxymoron and
paradoxes comparing Juliet, who is pure and beautiful to the other
guests who are just in the background.
Shakespeare then writes about physical love through the use of
religious imagery, to show the audience that Romeo and Juliets love
is serious, like their religious talk.
He writes about hate through the voice and simplicity of Tybalts
answer fetch me my rapier boy, a simple statement shows the
audience Tybalt does not need to think twice before harming Romeo.
He also creates tension for the audience when Romeo and Juliet
both find out they are from feuding families. The audience are

worried about what they will do and how they will come about the
situation.