Written Course Work Draft 2

Rujian, Zhou

IB Lit & Perf

Ms. Guarino

12/2/2016

Written Coursework: Analysis of Performance Based on Act IV Scene II from Romeo And Juliet

As one of the most famous plays in the world, William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet tells a story between two star-crossed lovers. I and my partner chose Act 4 Scene 2 from the play and performance the conflict between Lord Capulet, play by me,  and Juliet, play by my partner in this scene. This scene is not the highlight of the play, but it shows how the families affect the love between Romeo and Juliet and it is the lead of the tragedy ending for the play. In the performance, I analysis Lord Capulet’s characteristics and emotions from the foreshadowing, repetitions and comparisons in his lines; then use these analyses into body languages, tones, and directions in my performance.

The Act 4 Scene 2 of Romeo and Juliet tells about conflicts between Lord Capulet and his daughter Juliet. Lord Capulet is one of the major characters in the play. He is the father of Juliet and the head of the Capulet family. He is a very dominate person, who is angry because of Juliet’s disobedient in the early of the scene. He says “How now, my headstrong!”(4.2.15) when he meets Juliet who just comes back from Friar Laurence. Here, he is angry because his dominant position is threatened by Juliet. He planned to let Juliet marry to Paris and hold an extraordinary wedding ceremony to raise his family reputation. When Juliet disobedient him by refusing to marry with Paris, Lord Capulet feels he does not control his daughter anymore and becomes angry. Also,Lord Capulet says “Send for the County; go tell him of this: I will have this knot knit up tomorrow morning”(4.2.23-24), I see him as a character who thinks the family reputation much more important than any things. He thinks about the wedding immediately after Juliet’s confession, but he does not ask about why Juliet changes in a short time. I think in his mind, the wedding, which he wants to use to raise his family’s reputation after the death of Tybalt, is more important than Juliet’s feeling. He shows his greedy here by thinking the family reputation is more important. This is understandable for Lord Capulet, who is in charge of a big family like Capulet. From these, I see this character as a dominant, and greedy person.

In the performance, I interpret the dominant, and greedy of Lord Capulet. Firstly, I always put my head toward air to show Lord Capulet is confident. I intend to show the dominant part of Lord Capulet by showing this. Also, when he shouts at his servants, I raise my hand and point to the other side. By doing this, I want to show Lord Capulet has the power to control his servant’s actions and he is the king who controls everything in the house. When I say the line “Send for the County; go tell him of this: I will have this knot knit up tomorrow morning”(4.2.23-24), I say it faster, raise the voice, and focus on the words “send”, “go”, and “tomorrow morning”. Here, I want to show Lord Capulet’s happiness of succeeding his plan by fasting the speed. By emphasizing on the action words and time, I also let my audiences can understand what is happening even though I speak the lines quickly. I interpret an image of a boss in the performance. I use my tone, make my voice louder and sounds more like strict orders to the servants. The sounds more dominate. Lastly, I decide to wear white shirts with a tie inside and a gray sweatshirt outside, and having a watch on his arm for this scene. This shows an image of a wealthy person and likely a person who in charge of a company for audiences. The using of costume help me to build the character without doing actions, it also let my audiences easy to understand the wealthy background of Lord Capulet. In the performance, I use all of these techniques to build the character of Lord Capulet as a dominant and greedy.

The emotion change of Lord Capulet from angry to happy is significant in the scene. At the beginning of the scene, Lord Capulet shouts to his servants about the marriage arrangements “Sirrah, go hire me twenty cunning cooks” (4.2.2) and “Go, be gone” (4.2.8). He wants to make the wedding shocks the whole city, impressive all his guests, and raise his family reputation. However, his daughter Juliet disobeys his expectation and refuses to marry Paris. At this point, Lord Capulet's plan seems to fail. I see he shows anger and anxiety by saying “We shall be much unfurnish’d for this time” (4.2.9) to other people. The word “Shall” shows that Lord Capulet has a perfect plan in his mind, but the plan is interrupted by Juliet’s disobedient. Then He reminds himself that Juliet went to Friar Lawrence and did not come back yet. The words “for this time” foreshadowing that he thinks the time is rich to prepare the wedding. None of the words directly shows the character's anger, but as a reader, I can feel the character’s anger by the concepts of the words. It is impressive that Shakespeare used only foreshadowing here to infer readers that Lord Capulet is angry. Then Lord Capulet gets more angry to Juliet and has an outbreak of his emotion, which he describes his own daughter as “A peevish well-will’d harlotry it is” (4.2.13). The unpreparable words from this line show Lord Capulet is so angry that he nearly loses his mind. It is unimaginable that a father can say such words to his own daughter. In total, Lord Capulet is angry, anxious and nervous about Juliet’s wedding in the first half of the scene.

In order to express the anger of Lord Capulet, I use my body language, tones, and facial experiences during my performance. After ordering the servants, I leave a time to show some body movements. I walk back and forward on the stage, then look at my watch. The walking allows me to show Lord Capulet’s anger, as well as the watch help audiences to understand Lord Capulet is anxiously about the time. In addition to this, I also use the guest list, which for the beginning with line “So many guests invite as here are writ.”(4.2.1). I throw this guest list on a table on the stage to support the expression of anger. Moreover, I use my facial expressions to show my anger. When Juliet comes in front of me, I open my eyes as large as I can and stare at her straight into her eyes. At the same time, I hold my fist tie and push my body forward to Juliet. These show the anger and anxiety of Lord Capulet before Juliet’s confusion.

In the second half of the scene, Juliet, who listens to Friar Lawrence, has her kneel down in front of Lord Capulet and pretends to agree on the marriage. Then altitude of Lord Capulet changes immediately into happy. He says “Why, I am glad on’t; this is well: stand up: This is as’t should be”(4.2.28-29). He repeats words like “glad”, “well” and “This is as’t should be”(4.2.28-29) to show how he is glad about Juliet’s decision. This repetition clearly shows his emotion changes from angry to happy. When I read the line, I see this many of repetition of positive words, I know the character is feeling positive emotion. This also appears to Lord Capulet’s attitude toward Juliet, which he says “stand up”(4.2.29) to her and let her stand up. It is an action that shows Lord Capulet’s care toward Juliet. The also make a comparison to his attitude before and after Juliet’s confusion. Lord Capulet describes Juliet as “peevish” before the confusion, then he let Juliet stands up and accomplishes her as “This is as't should be” Furthermore, Lord Capulet can not sleep because of happiness, as he says “I will walk myself to County Paris” (4.2.44-45). His mind is full about the bright future he dreams about, as he says “All things shall be well”(4.2.40). These two lines show Lord Capulet is so happy that sees only the good things happen to him. He does not aware that Juliet is lying and inside of her, the seed of the tragedy is secretly growing. This significant differences of Lord Capulet’s emotions make the character more real for me and show a clear comparison for readers to show Lord Capulet’s emotion.

At the second half of the scene, Lord Capulet’s mood turns into happy. I expressive his happiness by the interaction with Juliet, body language and tones. Firstly, when Lord Capulet happily let Juliet stand up, I highlight this action by gently lower my body and pull Juliet up. By letting Lord Capulet lowing and initiative to let Juliet stand up, I show that Lord Capulet has the emotion change. This also makes a comparison with my movements earlier for the audience to see. After letting Juliet stand up, I also touch Juliet’s head while saying the line “This is as’t should be” (4.2.29). This movement not only shows Lord Capulet’s positive emotion to Juliet but also support the dominant  characteristic of him. Also, by doing the action like stand up and touch the head, the action match with the lines. This makes the whole scene make more sense. Moreover, I lower my voice and make the tone softer. I want to show Lord Capulet become more care about Juliet at the time and show his happy mood by this. By putting all these small details together, I show the emotion change from angry to happy of Lord Capulet.

I and my partner record our performance in a black box theater. The background for the scene is all black, and we put some furniture on the center stage. Those Furniture show the scene happen inside of the house and provide some background information for our acting. There is not light or sound design in the scene because the scene is happened Juliet’ house, where does not require special light or sound effects. When we finish recording, I watch the video several times. I notice there are differences between what I was trying to interpret on stage with what I actually did on the stage. For example, I tried to use the facial experience to expressive the emotion of anger, but it turns out not significant to seen in the video. Also, I notice that the average speed of voice I used is too fast. Even though speeding up the tone can help to expressive the emotion of the character when every line goes too fast, the audience can not catch up with every word in the performance. After all, I think the performance is successful because it tells the story complete and with some good body language and tone in it, but there are a lot of space for me to improve in the future.

To perform Lord Capulet is a challenge, but I learn how to analysis the lines and interpret the character in the process. I have a basic understanding of being an actor will like. Also, it is interesting for me to think of an actor, who decide what he or she want to do on the stage. I know there are a lot of analysis of the character before the performance, and there are many ways to perform the character. More importantly, I learn from my performance that there is nothing remain unchanged on the stage of theaters. There is alway challenges to overcome and achievements to celebrate. This performance is a unforgotten experience and I am very happy to work with my teacher and my partner.

Bibliography:

• Shakespeare, William, and Richard Hosley. The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet. New Haven: Yale UP, 1954. Print.