Romeo Flashcards
Meeting juliet
IAMBIC pentameter, so we can see that his emotions are heightened.
Its a shared sonnet when they first meet.
“o she doth teach the torch to burn bright” Passionate metaphor
Juliet like a dove. In paganism dove is the goddess of love and sexuality and war and they
“True beauty” this is real love unlike for rosaline
Romeo describing Juliet as “Holy” and a “Shrine”.
We see that romeo worships Juliet.
The religious imagery suggest their love is something divine.
The love for Rosaline he is quickly forgotten
Holy means specially recognised as sacred by a religion.
However this is blaphemeous and this is foreshadowing of the idea that Romeo and Juliet’s love is doomed
“Juliet is the sun”- Romeo
- metaphor- we cannot live without the sun so is an extended idea that without Juliet he would die, foreshadowing that this is true
- “sun”- celestial being, she is beyond reality
- blason poetry- largely used in Elizabethan era, audience not surprised
- ‘is’- no questioning, short sentence shows it’s unarguable, their love is inarguable
- sun gives vitamin d, Juliet is this vitamin d for R’s survival
“O loving hate! … bright smoke, cold fire”- Romeo
- oxymorons shows insecurity, shouldn’t feel this way if he was in love, suffering from unrequited love, can’t love and hate at the same time
- when meeting Juliet the fact that he was like this emphasises his love for Juliet
- ‘cold fire’ a fire is meant to warm you up, if it’s cold it defeats the purpose of it, his love for Rosaline was pointless
- audience worried for R’s wellbeing
- the fact that she didn’t like him goes against stereotypes as men should dominate relationship
“This holy shrine”
“two pilgrims”- Romeo
- ‘pilgrims’ they are going in a journey together (to death)
- extended metaphor of religion, Romeo uses this to convince J to kiss him
- ‘holy’ means sacred and ‘shrine’ is saintly, comparing J to an image of a saint, their love is pure and passionate
- their love is divine and R had moved from the artificial love with Rosaline
- this would be seen as blasphemous, defying god by comparing her to a saint, there will be consequences
- CONTEXT: he would be frowned upon by using these words
- not only are they in conflict with their family but also with religion
“O swear not by the moon, the inconstant moon, that monthly changes in her circled orb”- Juliet
Romeo’s sworn by the moon that he will love J forever
- CONTEXT: girls married off very young, don’t yet understand how love works
- Juliet is scared that R’s love for her won’t be constant, just like the changeable moon
- we see Juliet’s need for constant love, due to lack of love from parents and resulting in the relationship with the nurse
- demonstrates her immaturity and shows how young she is
- this contradicts on her practical view of love
- contradicts with society, CONTEXT: they believed in swearing by planets and astronomy, believed in ‘love at first sight’
- doesn’t understand that she can’t have constant love
- R is swearing by something that changes, it means nothing to J
