Right from the start Shakespeare lets us know there will be conflict throughout the play as in the prologue it says “from ancient grudge breaks to new mutiny. ” And “where civil blood makes civil hands unclean” This lets us know that there will was a past grudge and in this play the grudge will be re-ignited and it also suggests there will be fighting throughout the play and conflict will escalate. These two lines are about the feud between the families. It shows that it is an ancient grudge, which has been brewing for many years.
By repeating the words civil, Shakespeare is stressing the fact that they are all civilians but the pride within each family has led them to violence and evil. The play then goes straight from the prologue into a brawl in the first scene between both houses. It begins with servants from the two houses but later Tybalt, the son of the Capulets, and Benvolio arrive. Tybalt, during the brawl, says to Benvolio about the idea of peace, “As I hate hell, all Montagues, and thee. ” (1. 1. 65)
These are powerful words as Tybalt is ranking Benvolio and all the Montagues at the same level as hell and is expressing extreme hatred and genuine hatred. In Act One Scene One, we are immediately introduced to two servants of the Capulet household, Gregory and Sampson. We see them engaging in informal dialogue that at its best could be described as playful banter. At first the two boast about themselves and about their status that they are above those ‘carry coals’. However they do not just converse about themselves, the conversation swiftly begins to incorporate the Montague family.
The Essay on Capulet and Montague Families at Each Other
Montague rose to each other’s throats and bought the duel to the streets. In the duel, there were two deaths and one was banished. Mercutio, who was a kinsman to Prince Escalus, was slain by Tybalt and Tybalt, cousin to Juliet of the Capulet family, was murdered by Romeo who was banished by Prince Escalus. Mercutio was killed yesterday afternoon by Tybalt when they engaged in a duel. The duel was ...
Shakespere uses the servants here as a device to stir gossip which will eventually result in a fight. “I will push Montague’s men from the wall… The quarrel is between our masters, and us their men”(1. 1. 18) This enforces the feud we have previously read about in the prologue and also helps us to establish the scale of conflict between the two families; the conflict is so large, that even the servants are involved. This line said by Gregory also shows the faith and devotion that the servants have for their family. Gregory and Sampson serve more than one purpose in the first scene.
The argument between Sampson and Gregory at the start of the play is more of a comical hate rather than a genuine one. Sampson begins the brawl between the Montagues and Capulets by flicking his thumbnail from behind his upper teeth, an insulting gesture known as biting the thumb. He engages in this juvenile and vulgar display because he wants to get into a fight with the Montagues but doesn’t want to be accused of starting the fight by making an explicit insult. This has aspects of comedy as the scene of the servants is trivial hate. Because of his timidity, he settles for being annoying rather than challenging.
The thumb-biting, as an essentially meaningless gesture, represents the foolishness of the entire Capulet/Montague feud and the stupidity of violence in general. Moreover, Sampson is clearly the more violent of the two shown in the quotation; “The heads of maids or their maiden heads. ”(1. 1. 23) This shows the audience that Sampson is very aggressive and it is showing sexual aggression and violence which gives the audience the impression that the violence can only get worse as at the moment it’s only on a low level between servants rather than people further up the hierarchy of the two families.
