Act 3 scene 1 is very effective because of where it is placed in the play. We have just ended on a happy note in Act 2. Friar Laurence wanted to unite the Montagues and the Capulets. So we have a scene full of love and joy, the wedding between Romeo and Juliet. This is a great contrast as what comes in the next scene is quite the opposite. Everything that has been before this has been closer to one of Shakespeare's comedies, rather than his tragedies. There are comic figures in the play such as Mercutio and...
its entirety. At times love is described

in the terms of religion, when Romeo and Juliet first meet.

"Romeo and Juliet" does not make a specific moral statement about the

relationships between love and society, religion, and family; rather, it

portrays the chaos and passion of being in love, combining images of

love, violence, death, religion, and family in an impressionistic rush

leading to the play"s tragic conclusion,

"For never was a story of more woe

Than this of Juliet and her Romeo".