Act+2+Scene+4

Before this scene Romeo informs the friar of his newfound love and asks the Friar to marry him to Juliet. Friar Laurence agrees to Romeo thinking that it could heal the rift between the feuding families. Mercutio and Benvolio has discovered that Tybalt has sent Romeo a challenge to duel, and Mercutio is amused at the thought of an encounter between Romeo, the romantic, and Tybalt, the fashionable "Prince of Cats." Romeo then arrives and engages in a long series of linked puns and quibbles with Mercutio. The nurse and peter, another servant, enters. Mercutio teases the Nurse mercilessly before he and Benvolio leave. The nurse is angry at her treatment, and takes her anger out on Peter. She then turns to Romeo, warning him that he’d better not be playing with Juliet’s emotions. Romeo tells the nurse that Juliet should go to confession that day. He also involves the Nurse by asking her to get a rope ladder for him so he can sneak into Juliet's chamber that night to consummate their marriage.  After the witty and wildly sexual verbal jousting, Juliet is anxiously waiting for the Nurse’s return from meeting with Romeo.
 * Act 2 Scene 4 **
 * Scene summary **

The scene is set in a street and is also filled with lots of character movement such as the entrance of Benvolio and Mercutio, after that, Romeo suddenly enters. Later on the Nurse and Peter also arrive. At the beginning of the scene, Mercutio and Benvolio create pace in their conversation, bantering about, generating a lively scene. Mercutio also sings to tease the nurse, which creates comedy.
 * Dramatisation **

Alliteration is also evident in the text when Romeo says **//“ //****//O single-soled jest, solely singular for the singleness.” //** A malapropism is a joke where the right word is replaced by a similar sounding word. This is demonstrated several times by the Nurse and Mercutio: A pun is a joke based on the use of a word that has more than one meaning. In this scene, Mercutio constantly exchanges witty comments with Romeo. **//“O, their bones, their bones!” //** is a pun on the French bon, which is an over-used phrase like pardon me. He also uses a pun on Romeo’s name commenting **//“Without his roe, like a dried herring”, roe meaning fish eggs //**//<span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Constantia','serif'; font-size: 17.3333px;">. //<span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Constantia','serif'; font-size: 17.3333px;"> As well as other examples such as: <span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Constantia','serif'; font-size: 17.3333px;">Irony is shown when Mercutio continues to ridicule Romeo as a Petrarchan lover for employing the popular love poetry of the sonnets. However, his speech is ironic because he still believes that Romeo is in love with Rosaline, and he never discovers Romeo's love for Juliet. These rapid, highly energized exchanges between the two friends reflect Romeo's own feelings of anticipation at his upcoming wedding. <span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Constantia','serif'; font-size: 17.3333px;">Allusion is evidently used in the text when Mercutio is sarcastically describing Tybalt as the Prince of Cats, alluding to the audience about Tybalt’s sword skills. <span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Constantia','serif'; font-size: 17.3333px;">Another example of Allusion is when Mercutio teases Romeo by alluding to the poet Petrarch and six mythical and historical women who inspired love poetry, which is ironic, that relates to tragedy. <span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Constantia','serif'; font-size: 17.3333px;">Repetition is used in Mercutio’s speech when he says **//<span style="color: #cc00ff; font-family: 'Constantia','serif'; font-size: 17.3333px;">“ //****//<span style="color: #cc00ff; font-family: 'Constantia','serif'; font-size: 17.3333px;">By Jesu, a very good blade! A very tall man! A very good whore!” //** <span style="font-family: 'Constantia','serif'; font-size: 17.3333px;">Similes are also used in this scene when Mercutio describes Romeo’s love like a blithering idiot who runs up and down looking for a hole to hide his toy in. //** “by art as well as by nature, for this driveling love is like a great natural that runs lolling up and down to hide his bauble in a hole.” **// <span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Constantia','serif'; font-size: 17.3333px;">Tybalt’s hate is personified which is a typical trait of Shakespearean theatre, indicating that Tybalt is the obvious antagonist. Rosemary is also presented as a token of remembrance between lovers and for the dead. <span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Constantia','serif'; font-size: 17.3333px;">Romeo is almost always depicted outside, and never seen in the Montague home. This represents the freedom he has due to his gender, status and wealth in the Italian society. When Romeo and Mercutio exchange witty comments, Mercutio then states **//<span style="color: #cc00ff; font-family: 'Constantia','serif'; font-size: 17.3333px;">“now art thou Romeo, now art thou what thou art” //**<span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Constantia','serif'; font-size: 17.3333px;"> which is signifying Romeo’s youth and vivacity. Romeo changes throughout the play, at first appearing as a very melancholy character because of his lovesick obsession. Later on, his declaration of love towards Juliet makes him develop into a romantic. <span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Constantia','serif'; font-size: 17.3333px;">Benvolio is Romeo’s cousin and closest friend. When he found out that Tybalt had issued Romeo with a challenge he starts to worry. Mercutio claims that Benvolio would **//<span style="color: #cc00ff; font-family: 'Constantia','serif'; font-size: 17.3333px;">“quarrel with a man for cracking nuts” //**//<span style="font-family: 'Constantia','serif'; font-size: 17.3333px;">; //<span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Constantia','serif'; font-size: 17.3333px;">Benvolio is not violent because he demonstrates in the first scene that he tried to reconcile the fight. It is almost ironic that Mercutio is often the one fighting whilst Benvolio keeps the peace. <span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Constantia','serif'; font-size: 17.3333px;">The Nurse is very attached to Juliet and only wishes the best for her. This is evident when she warns Romeo **//<span style="color: #cc00ff; font-family: 'Constantia','serif'; font-size: 17.3333px;">“If ye should lead her into fool’s paradise, as they say, it were a very gross kind of behaviour, as they say.” //**<span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Constantia','serif'; font-size: 17.3333px;"> She also helps Juliet arrange a secret marriage to Romeo, and keeps that secret from the Capulets, which demonstrates her loyalty towards Juliet. <span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Constantia','serif'; font-size: 17.3333px;">Tybalt is described as fiercer than **//<span style="color: #cc00ff; font-family: 'Constantia','serif'; font-size: 17.3333px;">“the Prince of Cats” //**<span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Constantia','serif'; font-size: 17.3333px;"> which establishes his arrogant behaviour. He issues a challenge to Romeo and hunts him down to fight with him after a minor incident that has not even upset the host of the party, his uncle that also displays his hatred towards the Montagues. <span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Constantia','serif'; font-size: 17.3333px;">Mercutio is the jester of the play and is also a good friend of Romeo. He is often silly and irreverent. He loves entertaining people and making fun of them. He is also always linking many things to sex and is full of imagination in his speeches. <span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Constantia','serif'; font-size: 17.3333px;">Both lovers disregard their families, reputations and eventually their lives because the power of their love is so strong. The fact that Romeo had devised a plan for them to be secretly married shows that Juliet and Romeo’s love has quickly become a mutual obsession. <span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Constantia','serif'; font-size: 17.3333px;">There is also love between friends and family. The Nurse’s attachment to Juliet allows her to assist Juliet in willfully disobeying her parents by marrying his enemy. <span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Constantia','serif'; font-size: 17.3333px;">The news of Tybalt's challenge threatens to involve Romeo in the violence of the family feud. While Romeo is well liked in the community and has a peaceable reputation, Tybalt is a proud and vengeful foe. He is determined to confront Romeo despite Lord Capulet's opposition to continuing the feud. <span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Constantia','serif'; font-size: 17.3333px;">The nurse only shows loyalty towards Juliet because of her motherly attachment towards her. She helps Juliet and Romeo devise a plan for their marriage without consulting with the Capulets. <span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Constantia','serif'; font-size: 17.3333px;">Their youthful passion leads them into arranging a secret marriage without having their parent’s consent. <span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Constantia','serif'; font-size: 17.3333px;">The setting is different from the original text because the scene is based in the streets of Verona but in the film, it’s situated at Verona beach. <span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Constantia','serif'; font-size: 17.3333px;">Mercutio to Romeo <span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Constantia','serif'; font-size: 17.3333px;">“Why, is not this better now than groaning for love? Now art thou sociable, now art thou Romeo” <span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Constantia','serif'; font-size: 17.3333px;">Lines 83-84 <span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Constantia','serif'; font-size: 17.3333px;">Romeo’s instructions for the Nurse to tell Juliet <span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Constantia','serif'; font-size: 17.3333px;">“There she shall at Friar Laurence’s cell <span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Constantia','serif'; font-size: 17.3333px;">Be shrived and married.” <span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Constantia','serif'; font-size: 17.3333px;">Lines 171-172 <span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Constantia','serif'; font-size: 17.3333px;">“Blind bow-boy’s butt-shaft” <span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Constantia','serif'; font-size: 17.3333px;">Lines 37 <span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Constantia','serif'; font-size: 17.3333px;">“Without his roe, like a dried herring” <span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Constantia','serif'; font-size: 17.3333px;">Lines 34-35 <span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Constantia','serif'; font-size: 17.3333px;">“O their bones, their bones!” <span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Constantia','serif'; font-size: 17.3333px;">Lines 83-84 <span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Constantia','serif'; font-size: 17.3333px;">“Why, is not this better now than groaning for love? Now art thou sociable. Now art thou Romeo.”
 * <span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Constantia','serif'; font-size: 24px;">Poetic devices: **
 * //<span style="color: #cc00ff; font-family: 'Constantia','serif'; font-size: 17.3333px;">“If you be he, sir, I desire some confidence with you.” //**//<span style="font-family: 'Constantia','serif'; font-size: 17.3333px;"> (The nurse means “conference”, not “confidence.) //
 * //<span style="color: #cc00ff; font-family: 'Constantia','serif'; font-size: 17.3333px;">“She will indite him to some supper.”” //**//<span style="font-family: 'Constantia','serif'; font-size: 17.3333px;"> ( ////<span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Constantia','serif'; font-size: 17.3333px;">Benvolio makes fun of the Nurse by saying, “indite” instead of “invite”) //
 * //<span style="color: #cc00ff; font-family: 'Constantia','serif'; font-size: 17.3333px;">“I will tell her, sir, that you do protest, which, as I take it, is a gentlemanlike offer.” //**//<span style="font-family: 'Constantia','serif'; font-size: 17.3333px;"> (She says “protest” when she means “propose”) //
 * //<span style="color: #cc00ff; font-family: 'Constantia','serif'; font-size: 17.3333px;">“That’s as much as to say, such a case as yours constrains a man to bow in the hams.” //**//<span style="font-family: 'Constantia','serif'; font-size: 17.3333px;"> (Which implies Romeo’s business was sexual) //
 * //<span style="color: #cc00ff; font-family: 'Constantia','serif'; font-size: 17.3333px;">“Thou hast most kindly hit it.” //**//<span style="font-family: 'Constantia','serif'; font-size: 17.3333px;">(This is sexual double entedre) //
 * //<span style="color: #cc00ff; font-family: 'Constantia','serif'; font-size: 17.3333px;">“Pink for flower.” //**//<span style="font-family: 'Constantia','serif'; font-size: 17.3333px;"> (Referring to the female genitalia) //
 * //<span style="color: #cc00ff; font-family: 'Constantia','serif'; font-size: 17.3333px;">“Why, then is my pump well flowered.” //**//<span style="font-family: 'Constantia','serif'; font-size: 17.3333px;"> (Romeo plays along: pump= shoe and penis) //
 * <span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Constantia','serif'; font-size: 24px;">Context analysis: **
 * <span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Constantia','serif'; font-size: 24px;">Character analysis: **
 * <span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Constantia','serif'; font-size: 24px;">Setting: **<span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Constantia','serif'; font-size: 17.3333px;">This scene is set in the street of Verona.
 * <span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Constantia','serif'; font-size: 24px;">Themes: **
 * <span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Constantia','serif'; font-size: 21.3333px;">Love **
 * <span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Constantia','serif'; font-size: 21.3333px;">Violence and Hate **
 * <span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Constantia','serif'; font-size: 21.3333px;">Betrayal and deceit **
 * <span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Constantia','serif'; font-size: 21.3333px;">Youth **
 * <span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Constantia','serif'; font-size: 21.3333px;">Film adaptation: **
 * <span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Constantia','serif'; font-size: 21.3333px;">Key quotes: //Also refer to passage analysis// **