Romeo & Juliet - The Balcony Scene

How Does Shakespeare present idyllic
teenage love in the Balcony Scene?

Romeo and Juliet is a play about teenage love that breaks through the conflict of two families, the Montagues and the Capulets. Act II scene 2 - or the balcony scene - one of the best-known scenes in all of Shakespeare, symbolises many of the broader themes of this play. The scene is set at the Capulets’ mansion, where Romeo has climbed over the orchard wall (despite the fact if the guards find him they will kill him) into the estate, where he finds himself underneath Juliet’s balcony. The balcony scene is an important part of the story. It tells us more about the characters and their personalities, and what they are willing to do for each other. Before this scene, we have seen the party, where Romeo and Juliet first met and supposedly fall in love. This is an example of Shakespeare’s portrayal of idyllic love; they have only just met and already Romeo is putting his life at risk just to see his ‘love’. At the end of the scene, Romeo goes to see a friend of his, Friar Lawrence about getting married to Juliet. As we know from the prelude that both Romeo and Juliet are going to die, so we can understand that this is a cause to their deaths and that Romeo is unwittingly compounding the problem.

Scene 2 comes immediately after a particularly short episode with the cynic, Mercutio and after all the action of the party, Romeo on stage alone would have a powerful theatrical effect on the audience who would now be especially attentive. It opens with Romeo’s soliloquy, which is littered with exaggerated speech. The soliloquy is a dramatic tool used so that characters can share their feelings with the audience and here Romeo expresses the extent to which Juliet has affected him. His extravagant phrases compare Juliet to the sun radiating ‘a stream so bright/ That birds would sing and think it were not night’. This rhyming couplet is a fairly banal cliché and the epic imagery – the frequent reference to stars and heaven – are an exaggeration of the girl he has met but once. This imagery also tells us of the distance he feels between her because of the social status that separates them; their families are at bitter war. This soliloquy also gives us an insight into Romeo’s character. We can see here that he is somewhat immature, and despite having sworn his love for Rosaline at the beginning of the play, after meeting a girl once at a party he has already got over this and is after the next woman. This presents teenage love and gives us the impression that even though Romeo swears his love for Juliet, it still may only be a phase, which he may get over that very weekend. The use of the balcony is significant here as well. It shows that Romeo is looking up to Juliet, and she is above him not only in social status, but also in maturity.

Before Romeo reveals himself to Juliet, we hear her talking about Romeo and describing the frustration she feels that they may never be able to be lovers and will always be separated by their families quarrel. This shows that she is only imagining what could have been and is considering the consequences and obstacles of their love, whereas Romeo does not dwell on these and without any hesitation he is risking his life for this girl. This compares their characters and shows us that although Juliet is only fourteen and three years Romeo’s younger, she is still thinking ahead about the long term-effects their love can instigate. She is taking into account the families argument, and the punishments issued by the Prince that states any agitator of violence can be sentenced to death; a punishment she would surely not want to be given to any of her family or her love. She also sees her boundaries, and recognises that her and Romeo are at different ends of the spectrum; two ends that are never meant to meet and only the most severe consequences will emerge if they do. This is why she refers to Romeo’s heritage, and she questions why he is a Montague. She does not mention the name Montague, however, which can show that maybe she is so frustrated about it that she does not want to remind herself of his name, and so she can just think about her Romeo, the romantic boy that is not like her families enemy. She then goes on to say how she would be willing to change her name, if he would only swear his love for her.