How does Shakespeare use language, characters and dramatic devices to evoke sympathy for Juliet, in act three scene five Essay Example For Students

How does Shakespeare use language, characters and dramatic devices to evoke sympathy for Juliet, in act three scene five? Essay Act 3 scenes 5 evokes Shakespeares pity from the audience in many ways the use of language, characters and dramatic devices creates the general feeling of sympathy for Juliet. I personally feel Shakespeares best use way of provoking sympathy is through the use of the character Capulet and how he uses isolation and manipulation to turn others against Juliet. We first feel sorry for Juliet with in seconds of this scene when Romeo, her true and passionate lover, must quickly leave her as he is banished and Juliets mother is coming. As Romeo and Juliet are together on the balcony Juliet has a premonition that Romeo will die and says as one dead in the bottom of a tomb. Either my eyesight fails, or thou lookst pale. The audience feel discomfort and sorrow, as this will remind the audience of the truthful prologue. Her premonitions and quick parting from her husband, who has doubt they will ever see each other again, leads the audience of both modern and Elizabethan society to feel sorrow and to be filled with sympathy for Juliet. The audience continues to feel sorry as this is one of the first times they have a substantial speaking scene with lady Capulet and she enters by banging loudly on the door desperate to get in. It works well in getting the audience to feel sorry for her as her mother has no idea of the relationship between her daughter and Romeo meaning they are not close and do not understand one and other. Shakespeare also has the use of language to help him provoke sympathy for Juliet Lady Capulet senses Juliets sadness and believes it to be for her cousins recent murder she uses the line but much of grief shows still some want of wit. It is as though she is saying being this sad is stupid. It also shows how patronizing and what a turbulent relationship with her parents she has. Whilst her nurse treats her like an adult her mother treats her like a child calling her stupid and under developed. Yet the things she has been through makes her seem older and more mature, she is to be married to an older man, Paris, yet has just married Romeo who was also older. All of this is something you would expect in an adult experienced in life and relationships, not a young teenager. This re-enforces the sympathy from the audience the ignorance shown from her mother towards Juliet and the recent events of her life. This shows the lack of communication between Juliet and her mother. It shows how cold their relationship is. The audience realises just how little information is shared in their relationship as Lady Capulet believes it is the loss of her cousin that has sent her into this depression when it is actually the loss, pity and regret of Romeo her true love. This shows the turbulent relationship she faces and how she seems to have no solid friend or thing to lean on. Shakespeare uses irony showing the audience the true ignorance of Lady Capulet. This is when Lady Capulet decides to have Romeo killed and Juliet is forced to go along with it so as not to seem as though she has feelings or views other than pure hatred for him. In return for the line keep Tybalt satisfied; Juliet replies, indeed I never shall be satisfied. It is taken by Lady Capulet as a way of showing Juliet showing hatred towards Romeo yet it could be interpreted by the audience as the feelings of Juliet towards everyone but him that she will never be satisfied until he is in her arms. The audience would pity Juliet for this because she must pretend to hate and deny her lover for Romeo, whose life she fears for mere minutes ago. It would be considered odd in a modern day society that a girl of fourteen could feel so passionately for a boy of only sixteen, as usually at this age girls commit to nothing so serious. This in turn could again provoke sympathy as it shows just how strongly she feels for Romeo and how broken hearted she is at his exile, it also shows how worried she is for him, that he is constantly top priority on her mind. However in the times in which Shakespeare wrote this play it is much more normal for a girl to be married so young. As forced or arranged marriages were much more the norm, this would mean the feelings for Romeo would not be taken so much to heart by the Elizabethan audience as they are to those of modern times. All the world's a stage - from Shakespeare's As You Like It Act 2, Scene 7 EssayOne of the most important characters in the play, not only this scene, is the nurse. She provides Juliet with, what seems, her only friend through out. She is the only one, minus Romeo, who is in knowledge of her forbidden marriage, when the nurse says, whilst alone and under no obligation of Capulet, I think you happy in this second match, Juliet has lost her only friend and is now alone and isolated. I feel some of the most sympathy would be evoked for Juliet in this because they would see just how alone and desperate she is. This isolation is also a common factor of modern day suicide, the feeling of loneliness, the fact Juliet must now control all her feelings and emotions and keep everything to herself is a very clear and suicidal move written by Shakespeare. Juliet becomes more apparently suicidal as she begins to be withdrawn and in agreement with the nurse, in the Baz Luhrmann production Juliet is shown saying amen as a watery almost none compliance saying almost with no meaning, yet I feel it could also mean that she is doing it as a was of saying I agree to all of the past speech and that she means what she says about how she would rather be dead than be with Paris. Juliet continues after the nurse leaves with if all else fail, myself have the power to die. It is now clear how desperate and suicidal Juliet now is and that she has lost what seems the will to live. The audience now feels shock and desperation for her, as they realise how the prologue is slowly unravelling. In conclusion we realise that as a modern audience we have hugely different points of sympathy and views to that of an Elizabethan society. Whilst this society would pity many of the pressures and unstable knowledge of her place with both her family and her place in the society she lives in alone. An Elizabethan may feel she should accept her place being less in control and understanding how she is to marry and bare children. We are also sickened be Capulets abuse and use of women and how he feels his sex makes him dominant of the household the shakespearian audience may feel this the norm also as the globe theatre in those days was more populated by men. This scene, I feel, is a turning point in the play it is where a risking but generally joyus life is catapulted to a suicidal mad town of fear, devastation and realisation of the things expected of a girl so young yet perceived as so old. From when she is spoken over like a child yet expected to marry and commit like many people do in there late life-wise twenties. Not only does this scene evoke sympathy for Juliet s does it for the nurse and lady capulet and all others under the reign of Capulets dominating power. We realise that it is from these fatal loins of the two familys that the true sadness and forbidden love of two star crossd lovers and their tragic tale form and create one of the greatest love stories of all time.