Romeo and Juliet Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Romeo and Juliet - Coursework ExampleDramatic Devices in Shakespeares Romeo and Juliet Formal patterning is the meticulous arrangements of events, characters and scenes that help shape and form a plays storyline. This is an important dramatic device because it allows the audience to discern and anticipate the flow of the story enough to gain interest and pay mop up attention to it. To achieve this in Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare constructed parallel scenes where characters that are about to play important roles in the tragic end are constantly present and developed, help build the momentum and anticipation of the tragic end. Formal patterning is also employed to build a close synergy between opposing ideas much(prenominal) as comedy and tragedy, triviality and seriousness, laughter and tears, minuteness and vastness, youth and age, and of course, love and death.2 The use of this device keeps the audiences interest from straying away because of the remote nuances of the play. Dra matic irony, on the other hand, is another device that keeps the audiences attention because it grants important knowledge to the former that is not shared by few of the important characters. The tension that this knowledge creates, especially when the characters lack of knowledge threatens the turn of events, necessarily gets the involvement of the audience, and hence, keeps it focused on the play. The employment of dramatic irony in Romeo and Juliet does not only happen in the course of the later scenes, but is strewn throughout the play in small doses so as not to trim its impact in the last act. Foreshadowing is another dramatic device and it means the employment of suggestive words or images that indicate to the audience what lead happen next in the course of the play.3 The purpose of foreshadowing is to build suspense because it allows the audience to anticipate the next scenes, engage in guesswork and clear them by closely following the story. This motivates them not to k eep their attention off the play. Shakespeare employs this technique abundantly in Romeo and Juliet, largely through the chorus and the dialogues of various characters. The prologue, for example, speaks of a pair of star-crossed lovers take their life that hints to the audience a tragedy about to happen in the course of the play. Two Scenes as Concrete Examples Formal Patterning In Act 1, Scene 1, the characters of Tybalt, Mercutio and Paris, among others, are introduced. Tybalt plays a pivotal role as his death serves as a catalyst in Capulets decision to adopt off Juliet to Paris and Romeos banishment from Verona. He is introduced early on in Act 1, scene 1 as a vain, proud and battleful cousin of Juliet. He is likewise made to appear in subsequent scenes where his aggressiveness and hatred for the Montagues become more and more evident. The early introduction of such characters as Tybalt, Mercutio and Paris, among others, and their recurring presence in subsequent acts and scen es allow their respective