Romeo and Juliet - How Act 3, Scene 1 Acts As A Turning Point

So I wrote this in English as part of my folio and wanted to share it with y'all. Enjoy!

“Romeo and Juliet” is a play written by William Shakespeare. In this I am going to show how important Act 3 Scene 1 is to the play as a whole and how it acts as a turning point.

The play is about two families that are alike in class but hate each other. They face tragedy when Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet meet at a Capulet party. They fall in love and get married. Tybalt kills Mercutio and Romeo gets revenge by killing Tybalt. The Prince banishes Romeo from Verona. Juliet’s father arranges for her to marry a man called Paris. She doesn’t want to marry him so she takes a potion that makes her appear dead. Romeo finds out she’s dead and goes to her tomb to kill himself. Juliet wakes up to a dead Romeo and she stabs herself to death.

In Act 3, Scene 1 Tybalt appears in the street looking for Romeo. Tybalt wants to fight Romeo because he showed up at a Capulet party. Romeo refuses to fight Tybalt because he has just married Juliet who is Tybalts cousin. Mercutio gets angry because Romeo declined the fight. He fights Tybalt and Romeo tries to stop it. Tybalt manages to stab Mercutio and he runs away. Mercutio dies and Romeo goes to find Tybalt to get revenge. Romeo then kills Tybalt. The Prince banishes Romeo from Verona as punishment. This is a turning point because Friar Lawrence agreed to marry Romeo and Juliet and this makes us think everything is going to go well for the couple. When Romeo kills Tybalt and he is banished we realise then that things are going to go horribly wrong. Our suspicions are confirmed when Juliets father forces her to marry Paris. Then she takes the potion and Romeo thinks she is dead so he kills himself and then Juliet does the same.

The prologue lets us know that the families don’t get on: “Two households, both alike in dignity…
From ancient grudge to new mutiny.”
This tells us the families are the same as each other but they are filled with hate. They have been fighting for so long that they can’t remember how it started. The prologue also tells us the play is going to have a tragic ending: “A pair of star-cross’d lovers take their life.” It’s as if they where destined to kill themselves.
The first scene prepares us for the events of the key scene. We open to a scene of fighting between the Capulet and Montague servants. Benvolio asks Tybalt to keep the peace but Tybalt says: “What drawn and talk of piece! I hate the word,
As I hate hell, all Montague’s, and thee.” This makes us think that Tybalt is an aggressive character who loves to fight. After the fight has been broken up, we see Romeo’s character contrast sharply with what has gone before: “What fray was here?
Yet tell me not, for I have heard it all.
Here’s much to do with hate but more with love.” Romeo seems like a very sensitive man. He’s very romantic and he is preoccupied by love. He’s a dreamer and he wants love more than hate. We get further warning of what is going to happen in Act 3, Scene 1, at the Capulet ball. Tybalt is furious that Romeo has come to his cousins’ home: “This is a Montague our foe,
A villain that is hither come in spite,
To scorn at our solemnity this night.”
He desperately wants to fight Romeo because he feels Romeo had no right to step foot into the house.

In Act 3, scene1 Romeo has just come from his wedding. This ties in with the theme of love. However, Tybalt then arrives wanting to fight Romeo. Romeo will not fight Tybalt because he has just married Juliet. Romeo does not want to hurt her. After Tybalt kills Mercutio Romeo’s nature changes: “Either thou or I, or both, must go with him.” Romeo is no longer a man who doesn’t like fighting. He wants to fight Tybalt to the death. After Tybalts death, Romeo is banished from Verona and after spending his wedding night with Juliet, he leaves. When he leaves Juliet says something that suggests there is going to be a tragic ending: “Methinks I see thee now, thou art so low
As one dead in the bottom of a tomb.” This means she imagines that something bad is going to happen. It’s almost as if she has seen into the future where they kill themselves.

After the turning point in Act 3, scene 1, the main theme in the play changes from love to hate. We see this when Capulet wants Juliet to marry Paris: “Hang thee, young baggage, disobedient wretch!
I tell thee what, get thee to church a’ Thursday
Or never after look me in the face!” This means that unless Juliet marries Paris her father will disown her. Act 3, Scene 1, has also changed the character of Juliet. She becomes more mature and grown up and makes her own decisions rather than relying on her nurse. However, this ends tragically. The nurse thinks Juliet should marry Paris. This was not the answer Juliet wanted to hear so she goes to Friar Lawrence for advice. His suggestion is that she takes the potion and he will tell Romeo what their plan is. Romeo will then come and get Juliet and they will run away together. This ends badly because Romeo doesn’t receive Friar Lawrence’s message and he ends up thinking Juliet has actually died. He goes to her tomb, drinks poison and dies.

William Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” is a tragic play in which Act 3, Scene 1, acts as a turning point. This is a turning point because people start getting killed and hate comes into the story. At the beginning we thought everything was going to be fine but when the turning point came everything changed.