How Does Shakespeare Make Act One in Romeo and Juliet Dramatic?

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How does Shakespeare make Act one in Romeo and Juliet dramatic? Romeo and Juliet is a love story written by William Shakespeare in the late 1500’s and set in Verona. The general story of the play is about two lovers Romeo and Juliet. They want to be together, but their love is set to fail as they find out they are from enemy families, Romeo being a Montague and Juliet being a Capulet. This is shown dramatically in Act One Scene One when the feud between the two families is introduced by a big quarrel. The mood, theme and atmosphere are then established. In the end the two families do resolve their differences; however, this is due to the loss of both Romeo and Juliet. The main ways Act One is dramatic is through - the use of a prologue, references to death and fate, the different attitudes to love, contrasts in language and the constantly changing mood and action in Act One Scene Five. The prologue is at the beginning of the play and is arguably one of the most dramatic parts of the play. Prologues were a literary tradition used in the Shakespeare era as the audiences were most often drunk or rowdy, so it briefly explained what was going to happen. Due to this, Shakespeare had to make this prologue dramatic so people were more likely to pay attention. He tells everyone that the two lovers die which in fact could make it more dramatic than if we didn’t know because the tension builds up as the audience ask questions such as how will they die. This adds pathos to Romeo and Juliet’s struggle to attain happiness as we know they are doomed to fail. Act One Scene One introduces the audience to the themes, the mood of play and the characters; particularly establishing the theme of conflict. Conflict and violence are dominant throughout most of the play, but are introduced mainly in the first scene. The first sign of this is through a conversation
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