We are looking at the language in Act 2 Scene 2 and examining how it educates the audience about the characters and setting. When Shakespeare presented Romeo and Juliet in front of an audience around 1595 he had few props so therefore limited setting. Shakespeare's Elizabethan audience created what the setting looked like in their minds by listening to the elaborate description Shakespeare wrote. They lived in an aural society where they needed little visual source to understand. We live in a visual society where we have televisions and film visual impact is what appeals to a modern audience. Shakespeare's actors would have just been on a blank stage covered with a canopy. There would also probably been a balcony where musicians would play in the party scene but also probably where Juliet would have acted the famous balcony scene.
Act 2 Scene 2 begins after the party where Romeo and Juliet first saw each other. Now Romeo is running off to see Juliet again. Mercutio shouts out rude things to make him come back but Romeo simply says that he has not felt love before and how love scars you so he does not no how it feels. "He jests at scars that have never felt a wound". This informs the audience about Mercutio's character, that he has no time for love or more likely he is scared of love. This is a contrast with Romeo who needs love. We can tell this by how he wallows in his self pity and how he is completely infatuated by Juliet. This line also tells us that Romeo thinks he has been in love with Rosaline. It also tells us that Mercutio is a good friend, as he knows that it is too dangerous for Romeo to go back as he is a Montague and does not want to see him hurt. .
This scene begins with the two characters Romeo and Juliet alone. Shakespeare has structured the scene in this way so the characters can express themselves openly without the other person hearing them. An example of this is when Romeo idolises Juliet as the sun," It is the east and Juliet is the sun".