Written Course Work Assignment from Yichen.Li

Yichen.Li

IB Literature & Performance

Jennifer Guarino

Nov. 25th. 2016

Written Course Work Assignment On Romeo and Juliet Act 4 Scene 1

“Romeo and Juliet”, one of the most famous drama works from William Shakespeare. Because of the popular story and sorrow plot. “Romeo and Juliet” has being miscalled as the four Shakespeare’s famous tragedies. The story, mainly talked about two main characters who were born in two noble families, Capulet and Montague, which were opposite to each other. However, main characters, Romeo and Juliet, fell in love with each other. But because of their families contradictions, they chose to secretly get married and eventually died in front of each other. This result surprisingly made two families be reconciled. Many lovers in the history and nowadays believe their love would be same as Romeo and Juliet’s: unbreakable. Shakespeare used a lot of poems in “Romeo and Juliet”, especially in the structure of the story, he switched the story between tragedy and comedy, so the readers could relax during the comedy part but get the sense of tragedy. At the same time, William Shakespeare increased the importance of the supporting roles, in his play, not only main characters can advance the story, but also supporting roles can also do the same job which readers will naturally feel the development of the story. Moreover, he believed that drama needs to reflect different styles because of different roles, the importance of the drama is to let everyone believe that the stage is a lively world, actors live on it rather than acting on it. 

In this lovely but also tragic story, I played the role of Friar Lawrence who stayed in the middle but he is one of the most important characters in the story to promote the plot. He was a combination between a friar and an alchemist, which showed the position aspect and also the negative aspect. Then I chose the Act 4 Scene 1, when Juliet went into the basement of the church to find Friar Lawrence then used a knife to threat him then being comforted by Friar Lawrence and then took a vial in order to escape the marriage. This play is located at the almost ending of the play, the interaction between Friar Lawrence and Juliet and their speaking tones and also their actions showed the mood of Juliet and also the characteristics of Friar Lawrence and Juliet. Then during the rehearsal of the scene, it helped me to have a new understanding on  Friar Lawrence: from the perspective where Juliet went to see Friar Lawrence in order to get help, it is from a young person asks help to an older, so during the practice, it helped me to see how Friar Lawrence step by step to persuade Juliet to take off the knife and then found a vial to solve the problem. In this scene, it showed both the Friar Lawrence’s roles of a friar and an alchemist. 

Because my performance is not a full soliloquy so I have a partner called Sam, who plays the role of Juliet on the stage.  So our performance starts in the Romeo and Juliet Act Four Scene One when Juliet went into the church to find Friar Lawrence in order to seek a solution for the marriage. The scene starts inside the church and ends in the church. In this scene, Friar Lawrence used a lot of “ Hold Daughter! Hold, then go home. Hold, get you gone!” to illustrate his worries. During the interactions between Friar Lawrence and Juliet, readers hardly knows that who is pushing the development of the story because two main characters both talk very aggressively and show strong theme. Which in the talking of Juliet, she’s upset and very helpless because of the marriage with Paris and also got “ betrayed” by her mom and nurse, so her actions on the stage will be very drastically. Compared with Friar Lawrence, who is very polite and calm on the stage, because he is older than Juliet so in Juliet’s version, when there’s no Romeo to rely on, Friar Lawrence becomes the man who she finally can believe on. Then in the end of the play, the Friar Lawrence speaks that: “ Hold, get you gone, be strong and prosperous in this resolve. Tomorrow I will send a friar with speed to Mantua, with my letters to thy lord.” These two sentences, first one he comforts Juliet do not be afraid and she needs to face the difficulties because she chooses to marry with Romeo. The second sentence he summarizes what will he do tomorrow which at the same time let Juliet believe that everything will be ok and everything will be resolved. During the conversation between Friar Lawrence and Juliet, Friar Lawrence never shows impatience and flurried in front of Juliet. After readers finishes reading the whole play, they will have direct understand the position of two main characters, obviously, Friar Lawrence stands in the higher position. Also, there’s one word reflects their relations, in the setting of the play, Juliet is the daughter of the Lord Capulet and Lady Capulet, and the Friar Lawrence is only a friar who works in the church. When Friar Lawrence want to call Juliet, he may need to say Young Capulet rather than a daughter. However, in the show, Friar Lawrence calls Juliet as “ daughter”, which reveals that under his mind, because he watched Romeo grow and develop day by day, so he already treated that boy as his own son. So when his son has a girlfriend and then they got marriage, but now there’ s another person wanted to destroy this happiness, from a father’s perspective, he can not let this thing happen. Then due to the death threat from Juliet, he suddenly shows his worries and impatience in front of that girl, so he used daughter rather than Young Capulet showed his side on this farce. 

During the performance, I tried to show the patience and calm of Friar Lawrence during the soliloquy and the conversation with Juliet. First, in the beginning of the play, Friar Lawrence sat on the chair in the left stage because Juliet interrupted Friar Lawrence negotiation with Paris about the marriage, so I set up the stage with two chairs in order to clearly show the situation, which I, Friar Lawrence, was talking with someone in the church. Then Juliet stood on the stage right in order to show that she was not in the church and she went to church to find Friar Lawrence. Then she knocked the door and said the first line, “ Are you at leisure, holy father, now;” Then I turned around but did not stand up because even though Juliet was the daughter of the Capulet, but Friar Lawrence was a friar and was older than her, so I did not show any reaction in order to show their equal status. Then after I saw off Paris, I turned around and faced Juliet. Then my action showed Juliet that we will begin our conversation. During our communication, I played the role of calm and smart, my voice was stable and always comforted Juliet, for example:” I do spy a kind of hope. And this shall free thy from this present shame.” For playing the role of Friar Lawrence, except the part the part when Juliet used the knife to threat me, all the time I needed to act as calm because Juliet needed my support. In the contrast, Juliet was helpless and not very calm, especially when I said that: “Hold, then, go home, be marry and give consent to marry County Paris.” She acted vey angry and did not understand my idea, she used so many body actions, like tugging hair and walking around to show her feeling. So because we designed two different characteristics of Juliet and Friar Lawrence, though our body actions and our speaking part, we hope to use that to increase the understanding of our roles and the plot deeply. 

Friar Lawrence did not only comfort Juliet but also at the same time he was thinking about the solution. Such as when he said, “ I do spy a kind of hope.” Then he immediately said that “ Which craves as desperate an execution, as that is desperate which we could prevent. “ In his talking, Juliet will follow with Lawrence’s mind to find the solution. After Juliet wanted to know the solution, Friar Lawrence detailedly explained everything for her, which included the whole plan, vial’s effect and what will they do after she awake. Especially when he talked in the part of the vial, he will express fanaticism towards the vial, so at this time, Friar Lawrence would begin to move and not pay attention on Juliet until “ And then awake as from a pleasant sleep.” After I finished a long talking about the effect of the vial, I moved from stage left to the center of the stage, not only help everyone understanding our actions but also at the same time, my position changed means that the theme of the story changed, obviously from the book the readers knew that after Juliet drunk the vial, she will be buried in the vault and Romeo will miss my letters then died in front of Juliet, the readers will totally know the change of the theme from love, marriage to death, however the audience may not know it, so I change my position and Juliet’s emotion will help to know the situation and they may know that my position changes meaning foreshadowing something.  Then after I finished talking all things about the plan and vial, Juliet quickly answered that:” Give me! Give me! O, tell not me of fear!” So immediately I answered her that: “Hold, get you gone, be strong and prosperous in this resolve, I will send a friar with speed to Mantua, with my letters to thy lord.” Then I will be silence a moment, and then I went out, at that moment silence I wanted to create a feeling that Friar Lawrence wanted to remind Juliet something but he didn’t speak out.  In the end, my last line was to say Farewell to Juliet, so at this time, I did not face her and say Farewell, in the contrast I just waved my hands on my back, so I think this action had a feeling about resignation and helplessness, even though through the play Friar Lawrence always comforted Juliet and guided her what should she do. However he was only a friar, he did not have much power so after he went out, he may had a feeling about powerlessness, so, in the end, I added this action to reinforce this feeling. Then Friar Lawrence’s movement also showed his feeling, his movement was not fast, but was step by step, then I closed the door. 

Performing an epic story was very challenging but also interesting. For the challenging part, I could hardly combine the speaking part with the action part, in the beginning, I can not do speaking and acting at the same time. Then I watched a lot movie version about church scene, so I find out a way to use lines reminding me about the actions and also use actions to help me remind the lines. In the preparation of the performance, I did a lot of analysis of Romeo and Juliet language and stage setting. Which gave me a lot of discovering on how did Shakespeare describe characters’ movements, also analysis the language use in the scene helped me to understand each character deeply. Through the whole scene, even Juliet and Friar Lawrence had different characteristics, but their final goal was to let this couple out of this shame and be re-together.