Romeo Flashcards
(49 cards)
Our first meeting of Romeo establishes him as a…?
Melancholy character, unhappily in love and a stereotypical courtly lover
How does Shakespeare establish Romeo as a melancholic, courtly lover?
Through symbolic locations and actions (wandering in the sycamore (sickamour) grove; through Montague’s descriptions of him as a ‘heavy son’, avoiding the light
Romeo’s first words are full of exclamations but also slightly cryptic puns, oxymorons and antithesis, such as…?
‘O brawling love, O loving hate/O heavy lightness, serious vanity’
What do Romeo’s antitheses and oxymorons suggest about him?
He is conflicted; partly because he is unhappy and unrequitedly in love
What is a line that sums up Romeo’s attitude to the feud?
‘What fray was here? Tell me not for I have heard it all’ - he is uninterested
What does Benvolio suggest that Romeo gives ‘liberty’ to?
His eyes: ‘examine other beauties’
When Romeo sees Juliet his language shifts dramatically - how?
Instead of using contradictory language (oxymorons and antitheses), he uses richly poetic and hyperbolic elevating language to describe Juliet
Romeo’s language about Juliet keeps returning to a key trope - what is it?
Light - Juliet teaches the torches to ‘burn bright’ and is compared in the balcony scene to a series of radiant things (the moon, the stars)
When Romeo and Juliet meet, they spontaneously share what?
A sonnet (that ends with a kiss)
The sonnet that R and J share contrasts strongly with the earthy and material language used about love by Sampson and Gregory and which two other characters?
The Nurse and Mercutio
In a key plot moment, Tybalt identifies R as a gatecrasher and wants to fight him, calling him a ‘villain’: how does this set up the action at the climax?
When Capulet stops Tybalt fighting Romeo, he merely waits and challenges him, coming to find him on the streets in 3.1
For Romeo love proves stronger than the honour code in which phase of action?
The rising action
Why does Shakespeare use religious imagery for Romeo and Juliet in the pilgrim/shrine sonnet?
In order to elevate their love above the other language used about relationships
Mercutio tries to stop Romeo from heading to Capulet’s orchard by what method?
Teasing him with crude sexual jokes about conjuring up Rosaline’s ‘quivering thigh’ to tempt him back
In the balcony scene all of the imagery (and even Romeo’s eyes) are focused…?
Upwards - the implied proxemics of the scene are all turned towards the night sky - with Juliet as the brighter light
How does the language of Romeo and Juliet contrast in the balcony scene?
He is very poetic and hyperbolic - he is reckless and single-minded; she is cautious and wary
In what ways are Romeo and Juliet similar in the balcony scene?
They both offer to give up their name and deny their fathers etc - showing Shakespeare presents their love as something that takes them out of society
Juliet asks Romeo very directly, ‘How camest thou hither…?’ But he answers…
Poetically: ‘with love’s light wings did I o’erperch these walls’
Towards the end of the balcony scene, the idea of time and the dangers of rushed love are raised by Juliet, who says:…?
‘I have no joy of this contract tonight/It is too rash, too unadvised, too sudden’
In 2.3 Romeo makes a witty reference to his mutual love when he tells FL…?
‘On a sudden one hath wounded me/That’s by me wounded’ (a reference to Cupid and his arrow, with the balancing phrasing reinforcing that this is mutual love
FL says to Romeo…’women may fall when there’s no strength in men’ when he finds out about Juliet, which means
He thinks Romeo is changeable and fickle
Romeo stands ‘on sudden haste’ but FL reminds him that…
‘they stumble that run fast’ - yet another reference to time that warns the young lover(s) of the dangers of too sudden love
Mercutio mocks Romeo with references to Petrarch and tragic heroines because…
He is cross that Romeo left them after the party
When the Nurse appears, Mercutio draws Romeo in crude sexual banter, calling her…?
A pimp or an old prostitute
