Romeo and Juliet Flashcards
(57 cards)
1
Q
“O brawling love, O loving hate”
“Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health” (Act 1 Scene 1)
A
- Oxymoron mixes joys of love with emotional anguish of unrequited love. Mimicked in repetition of ‘O’. ‘Loving hate’ stresses Romeo’s inescapable turmoil.
- Romeo’s lover is conventional much like his conventional language. Cliches used suggests this love is artificial and Romeo idealises love.
- “Love” and “hate” conflict each other suggesting love in Verona is enclosed in a bubble of hate. Death and violence permeate Romeo and Juliet and both are passionate emotions.
- Romeo’s hubris is love
2
Q
“Is love a tender thing? It is too rough, too rude, too boisterous and it pricks like thorn.” - (Act 1 Scene 4)
A
- Highlights Romeo’s inexperience in love. Allows Shakespeare to craft Romeo’s character development due to Juliet.
- Could insinuate Romeo’s desire to be in love leads him to fall in love with any beautiful women - ingenuity. Emphasised by the Petrarchan lover character trope.
- Rhetorical question contrasted by assertiveness of ‘it is too rough, too rude’ - Romeo is fickle
3
Q
“O. she doth teach the torches to burn bright.” (Act 1 Scene 5)
A
- Juliet is described in a celestial manner to capture her beauty for audience members who would not be able to see her
- Light is a recurring motif in R+J, reflects Romeo’s belief that Juliet is adding light to his life literally and metaphorically. However, the pair have not spoken, Romeo’s initial attraction is superficial.
- Radiation of light amplified by the close proximity of ‘crows’ which are close, alluding to their dark future. Crows symbolise bad luck/death. Juliet’s light is weakened by this darkness - their impending doom
- Rosaline ‘rich in beauty’ but Romeo ‘ne’er saw beauty till this night’ - superficial and hyperbolic. Wonders if his heart ‘love till now’ - unsure about what love entails.
4
Q
Structure of Act 1 Scene 5
A
- Shakespeare employs a Shakespearean sonnet, reserved for love, with three ABAB quatrains and a rhyming couplet.
- Creates an intermingling of speech between R+J, linking the literary content to the form.
- Sonnet form is also used in the prologue. Fate alludes to their love ending in tragedy.
5
Q
Religious imagery in Act 1 Scene 5
A
- Use of religious imagery (‘holy’, ‘shrine’, ‘pilgrims’) used to show Romeo’s pure intentions for a ‘tender kiss’, indicates a divine love.
- Blasphemy in ‘dear saint’ reflects the conflict the couple will face from both the family and the community. Seen as idol worship in Elizabethan Anglican Church.
6
Q
“Let lips do what hands do.” (Act 1 Scene 5)
A
- Similarity between ‘prayer’ and ‘kiss’ despite conflict between sex and religion. Prayer indicates a spiritual intimacy yet kissing requires physical intimacy.
- Perhaps, Shakespeare is suggesting that even religion does not agree with their love - tragic fate.
- Conflict is sex and religion. Sex (hand, lips, kiss) meets religion (holy, shrine, pilgrims). The lovers’ physical desire is controlled by religious concern.
- Romeo moves from an idealised love to a genuine version.
7
Q
“Arise, fair sun and kill the envious moon” (Act 2 Scene 1)
A
- Juliet the ‘fair sun’ brings light to Romeo’s life. The dark-light motif is repeatedly used, perhaps referring to the dark bubble encapsulating the relationship.
- Goddess of virginity, Diana is the ‘moon’ personified. Her envy is due to the fact that Juliet is still in her service. Romeo wants Juliet not to remain in her service. In Romeo’s affections, Juliet reigns supreme.
- Romeo’s sexual view of love is shown here, he was full of resentment that Rosaline was ‘strong proof of chastity well arm’d’, reflecting his lustful tendencies.
8
Q
“But soft! What light through yonder window breaks? It is the East and Juliet is the sun.”
“bright angel” (Act 2 Scene 1)
A
- Romeo describes Juliet using cosmic imagery that exaggerates her beauty.
- Hyperbole is used to enhance Juliet’s beauty - cosmic imagery is shown in “bright angel”.
- Romeo, the “bright angel” is not of this world. The balcony acts as a physical separator between R+J - reflects a difficulty in communication that caused their tragedy.
- Romeo confesses his love using the blason, representing his idealistic love - love is overwhelming.
- Balcony symbolises the pedestal he has put Juliet on.
- Shakespeare devotes himself to the positive joyful and romantic nature of their love
9
Q
“With love’s light wings did I o’erperch these walls”
“I have night’s cloak to hide me their eyes” (Act 2 Scene 1)
A
- In such a state of rapture that he refuses to take seriously Capulet’s threat to him. Breaks the part of a courtly lover who must behave with restraint.
- The alliterative ‘love’s light wings’ suggests Romeo can overcome the physical barrier which acts in the same manner of their family. Contrast between R+J’s love and the lexical field of conflict creating a slight imbalance, reflecting the batter between the passionate natures of love and hate.
- Romeo’s joyful verse compared to Juliet’s strong and practical terms contrast societal expectations.
10
Q
Symbolism of night in R+J
A
- The scene takes place at night time, illustrating the difference between the world in which they feud and the bubble in which their love blossoms.
- Their love flourishes at night, an allusion of the forbidden nature of their love.
- As night ends, the two are forced to part to avoid being discovered and explored - the artificial light of discovery may be shone upon them.
11
Q
“Love-devouring death do what he dares” (love)
A
- Romeo is growing reckless - evident when he says that death can do what it likes. Death is controlling life.
- ‘Death’ is consuming life emotions such as ‘love’, reflective of the society in which love and hate are competing. Death will ultimately win.
12
Q
“And so, good Capulet, which name I tender As dearly as my own - be satisfied” (Act 3 Scene 1)
A
- Climax of the play. Romeo comes face to face with conflict and has to make a choice. By refusing to duel with Tybalt, Romeo accelerates the violence.
- Dramatic irony presents differences between Mercutio and Tybalt, the provokers, and Romeo prioritising peace and reconciliation
- Romeo’s ‘love’ of Tybalt suggests that he puts Juliet’s needs above his own - increasing maturity
- Tybalt being a ‘good Capulet’ goes against Romeo’s familial values and roles as a Elizabethan man in Verona - Romeo has adopted pacifist tendencies, defying masculine expectations of loyalty and honour.
13
Q
“Beauty hath made me effeminate”
“Fire-eyed fury be my conduct now” (Act 3 Scene 1)
A
- A man too much in love had lost his masculinity or becomes ‘effeminate’ in Edwardian society.
- ‘Effeminate’ suggests that he accepts societal responsibilities yet they can only lead to death. There are multiple versions of Romeo - the public, honourable man and the private, passionate lover - conflicted between the equally passionate two sides of him.
- ‘fire-eyed fury be my conduct now’, fricative alliteration of the metaphor shows Romeo resorting to the patriarchal feudal sense of loyalty and honour
- Initially guided by the passionate nature of love yet the equally passionate hate is driving him to conflict, affecting his ‘conduct’.
14
Q
“O, I am fortune’s fool”
A
- Romeo’s cry reflects his unluckiness in killing his new wife’s cousin, resulting in his banishment - fate
- Romeo’s fortunate to be alive, but a fool to have killed Tybalt. Romeo’s fortunate to have loved Juliet but is a fool in the end for taking his life when Juliet is only sleeping. In this predicament, Romeo is fortune’s puppet. Shakespeare plays with the idea of fortune as he is ultimately in control.
15
Q
“Night’s candles have been burnt out…I must be gone and live or stay and die” (Act 3 Scene 5)
A
- His plain, monosyllabic statement – ‘I must be gone and live, or stay and die’ – proves that he is wide-awake to the stark alternatives before him - character growth
- Romeo and Juliet’s meetings take place at night. The harsh reality of ‘jocund day’ will arrive and put an artificial light on their relationship - to avoid this, they have to part.
16
Q
“For here lies Juliet, and her beauty makes This vault a feasting presence full of light.” (Act Five)
A
- Juliet’s light reiterates the points that Romeo has made prior to this. In Act 2 Scene 2, Juliet’s beauty is as radiant as the sun: ironically; she appears to turn darkness into light and death into life.
- Tension builds - dramatic irony as Juliet’s light is evident as she is not dead.. The darkness of the tomb is offset by Juliet’s light - imbalanced perhaps spiritual.
17
Q
‘Death, that hath sucked the honey of thy breath, Hath had no power yet upon thy beauty. Thou art not conquered.
Beauty’s ensign yet Is crimson in thy lips and in thy cheeks’… (Act Five)
A
- ‘crimson’ suggests Juliet still has life. The dramatic irony of the makes the tragedy within it even more notable. The rhetorical question ‘Why art thou yet so fair?’ has a logical answer - Juliet is not yet dead.
- Superficial - Romeo emphasises Juliet’s beauty through the personification of ‘Beauty’.
18
Q
‘Here’s to my love!’…‘Thus with a kiss I die.’ (Act 5)
A
- World has worn out Romeo and Juliet, the expectations of the society and the forbidden nature of their relationship has led to their death.
- Passion cannot be stifled, and when combined with the vigor of youth, it expresses itself through the most convenient outlet (suicide and potions). Romeo and Juliet long to live for love or die for it. Shakespeare considers this suicidal impulse not as something separate from love, but rather as an element as much a part of it as the romantic euphoria of Act 2.
- In death, Romeo and Juliet retain their love and they create a world where they can be together.
- Tragedy of death juxtaposed by the realisation that their love will be immortalised.
- Romeo defying fate (‘I defy you, stars’) actually brings about Juliet’s and his tragic fate. Fate is a greater force than him and Juliet.
19
Q
‘Madam, I am here. What is your will?’ (Act 1 Scene 3)
A
- Use of ‘madam’ reflects the relationship between Juliet and her mother. ‘Madam, I am here’ is distant and formal; illustrating the respect Juliet has for her mother.
- Formal noun ‘madam’ suggests an awareness of her mother’s superiority. Detachment emphasises the contrast between the formal language used to her mother and the informal language for the Nurse e.g. ‘thou’ a pronoun reserved for close friends
- Interrogative question ‘what is your will?’ shows that Juliet has had to learn to conform to her mother’s requests - a rather typical portrayal of Elizabethan woman.
20
Q
“I’ll look to like, if looking liking move”
A
- Proves Juliet’s obedience p formal and eager as expected
- Could be an allusion to Juliet’s rebellion. Alliterative ‘l’ sound creates a tongue-twisting sound, adding further confusion to the already ambiguous response - suggests Juliet’s emotional maturity.
- Suggests an awareness that there must be something better, beyond the concept of marriage that reinforces female social subordination.. Because her concept of love transcends the temporal issues of family feuds, oppression of women, and generational differences, it is doomed to become the victim of those jealous forces.
21
Q
“Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much…For saints have hands that pilgrims’ hands do touch, And palm to palm is holy palmers’ kiss.” (Act 1 Scene 5)
A
- Speak in quatrains; the passionate pilgrim, Romeo, speaks first, and unlike other 16th century traditional sonnets wherein the female voice is silent, Shakespeare gives Juliet the right of reply, showing a greater sense of power.
- Juliet’s rejection of the intimacy Romeo wants, suggesting they hold hands instead, shows she is conforming to the chaste innocence expected of young Elizabethan women.
- Juliet’s coyness, as she continues to complete Romeo’s rhymes and ‘share’ a figurative heartbeat in the iambic pentameter with him, is evident.
22
Q
“O Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou Romeo? Deny thy father and refuse thy name “
“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose By any other word would smell as sweet.” (Act 2 Scene 2)
A
- Juliet’s plea for Romeo to give up his familial name illustrates her own abandonment of herself to love. However, Juliet emerges as a careful, thoughtful character aware of the risks of their love.
- She applies a sharp intellect to her anguish, distinguishing between a thing and a label. Juliet shows a perhaps unexpected wisdom.
- Shakespeare conveys that social statuses do not give you integrity or values; moral superiority is not related to your surname. Shakespeare also presents Juliet’s growing assertiveness.
- Their names determine social relationships and can be prohibitive. Juliet’s maturity contrasts Romeo’s fickleness.
- Juliet’s soliloquy would be seen as shocking to the 16th century audience of Romeo and Juliet.
- Example of the tension between social and family identity (represented by one’s name) and one’s inner identity. Juliet believes that love stems from one’s inner identity
23
Q
“If they do see thee, they will murder thee.” (Act 2 Scene 2)
A
- Juliet’s emphatic warning to Romeo illustrates their different reactions to danger. Romeo, the Petrarchan lover believes that love will save him and he has been given ‘love’s light wings’ whilst Juliet talks in ‘strong and practical’ terms - a reversal of societal expectations
- The monosyllabic directness of ‘I would not for the world they saw thee here’ shows that Juliet is more aware of the risks of their love.
24
Q
“O, swear not by the moon, the inconstant moon That monthly changes” (Act 2 Scene 2)
A
- Juliet cuts Romeo off - growing assertiveness contrasts societal expectations. Challenging idea that she should be socially subordinate to a man.
- The goddess of chastity is personified by the moon. Virginity is also ‘inconstant’, it can be taken away.
- Juliet is much more conservative in her love for Romeo; she encourages Romeo to fully invest himself in their relationship
25
“My bounty is as boundless as the sea My love as deep” (Act 2 Scene 2)
- The simile used is equally giddy and places her love on a cosmic scale. Although, Juliet is much more wary, she believes in everlasting love which ‘infinite’ connotes.
- Contrasts Paris, who Juliet will ‘look to like’. Juliet’s love for Romeo surpasses the feelings she could ever feel in an arranged marriage with Paris.
26
“It is too rash, too unadvised, too sudden; too like the lightning” (Act 2 Scene 2)
- Romeo’s impulsive passion is a flawed quality which sparks both love and hate similarly to ‘lightning’.
- Juliet’s on guard about how ‘rash’ their love is, she hopes that it is not temporary like lightning: electric and forceful but only for a matter of time before it dissipates.
- The repetition of ‘too’ amplifies the difficulty their love will bring. Their love is ‘too rash’ which ultimately results in their death.
- Romeo’s ‘unsatisfied’ to Juliet’s ‘unsatisfaction’ adds a sexual dimension
27
“Parting is such sweet sorrow”
- Illustrates the oxymoronic nature of love. Bitter for them to part but ‘sweet’ that they can do so on loving terms. ‘Sweet’ that they love each other but bitter that love will lead to their eventual death.
- The fatal flaw in the relationship is hat it cannot be carried on except by the employment of intermediaries. Romeo and Juliet receive their information about and from each other only second hand - leads to their tragic fate.
28
“I will not marry yet; and when I do, I swear It shall be Romeo, whom you know I hate Rather than Paris.” (Act Three)
- Use of verbal irony shows that Juliet is emotionally intelligent; her mother lacks the ability to keep up with her.
- Proclaiming her love for Romeo, whilst convincing her mother of the opposite, displaying her intelligence. This repeated use of confusing language by Juliet is used by Shakespeare to highlight her rebellious nature.
- Shakespeare situates this maturation directly after Juliet’s wedding night, linking the idea of development from childhood to adulthood with sexual experience
29
“Good father, I beseech you on my knees, Hear me with patience but to speak a word. [She kneels down]’ (Act Three)
- Still upholds loyalty to the her father; Juliet is lowering herself to be below him. This is in line with social expectations. Juliet is below him on stage; and in life. Juliet is Capulet’s property - he has the power to control her actions and can change from a caring, doting father to Juliet’s worst nightmare. Juliet is trapped in the ‘bondage’ of her life by her father.
30
“Make the bridal bed In that dim monument where Tybalt lies”
- Juliet gains the strength to defy her father which may be linked to her sexual maturity. Although, she becomes aware of the limits of her powers. Suicide is a brute force which allows Juliet to take back control of her destiny. It foreshadows her death.
- Later in the scene, Juliet defies the Nurse, marking the pivotal transition from one’s youth to adulthood.
31
‘Yea, noise? Then I’ll be brief. O happy dagger, This is thy sheath. There rust and let me die. (stabs herself with ROMEO’s dagger and dies)’
- The oxymoronic phrase ‘happy dagger’ is due to the fact that the dagger is the only way that Juliet can achieve true happiness by being with Romeo and immortalising their love
- The Friar’s embodiment of good and evil are united in a single act: suicide. Juliet tries to kill herself with a kiss: an act of love as intended violence.
- Here, violence intermingles with love to culminate in Romeo and Juliet’s violent death. Their love is tainted by their violent death and vice versa. Their ultimate sacrifice of life is what is necessary for Romeo and Juliet to be together once more, suicide becomes an act of romance.
32
Lord Capulet
- Lord Capulet is initially introduced to the audience as aggressive despite his age, he is ready to fight (“What noise is this? Give me my long sword, ho”). Capulet displays the masculine values of loyalty and honour - he adheres to societal expectations, something which is clearly shown through his relationship with Juliet. The aggression here is repeated in Act 3 Scene 5. Capulet has the power to control who and when Juliet marries.
33
“Let two more summers wither in their pride, ere we may think her ripe to be a bride” (Act 1 Scene 2)
- Shakespeare uses the semantic field of nature with the nouns ‘summer’, ‘wither’ and ‘ripe. Through this metaphor, Juliet is objectified to a piece of fruit. Like a fruit, she is a commodity for her father’s business transaction.
- Fruit metaphor is significant as it is this miscalculation about his daughter’s maturity and his over exaggeration of how long it will take her to mature - which leads him into conflict
- Juliet is primarily a commodity. Her youth and innocence are used to convince Paris to marry Juliet. Capulet does not express genuine fatherly concern instead he half-heartedly declares that his ‘will to her consent is but a part’'.
- Here Capulet embodies a kind, gentle father but his power to force her into a marriage if he feels is implicitly presented. Thus, parental influence in this tragedy becomes a tool of fate: Juliet’s arranged marriage with Paris and the traditional feud between Capulets and Montagues, will eventually contribute to Romeo and Juliet’s deaths.
- Juliet is the ‘hopeful lady’ of his ‘Earth’, this conveys her importance to him and further suggests that she is the only important thing left to him due to the miscarriages experienced by the Capulets. The noun ‘hope’ conveys the high ambitions for Juliet held by Capulet.
- Use of rhyme is reflective of the older generation, trying to give advice to the young.
- Juliet referred to as a ‘stranger in the world’, there is an inherent sense that Capulet wants to protect his daughter who is deemed to be naive and innocent against the terrors of the world.
34
‘Hang thee, young baggage! Disobedient wretch!... Speak not. Reply not. Do not answer me...My fingers itch.’ (Act 3 Scene 5)
- ‘Baggage’ and ‘wretch’ shows that Capulet is objectifying Juliet and dehumanising her. As a disobedient woman, Juliet has to be reminded of her position. She is socially subordinate to her father and Capulet, and her objectification reflects that she is just a commodity..
- Capulet asserts his superiority with imperative verbs. Juliet is going against his expectations, unused to being disobeyed due to being an upper class patriarch in 16th century Verona.
- ‘My fingers itch’ is reflective of Capulet’s agitation and anger towards Juliet. The frustration may be directed to Juliet not agreeing to fulfill his only role - ensuring that his daughter marries a suitable man.
- Captures Capulet’s ability to change from a kind, concerned father to Juliet’s vengeful enemy.
- Capulet also refers to Juliet as his ‘only child’, reflecting his disappointment towards her.
35
"hang! Beg! Starve! Die in the streets! / For by my soul I'll ne'er acknowledge thee." (Act 3 Scene 5)
- Capulet's sudden transformation illustrates his tendency toward impulsive, cruel, and reckless behavior.
- Juliet feels so strong that she defies her father and learns her position in a male-dominated society as a result. Her father’s reaction catalyses the speed of which Romeo and Juliet’s tragic fate occurs.
- Calls his daughter a ‘whining mammet’ because of her refusal to marry Paris. A ‘mammet’ can connote to a mentally feeble person. Juliet is a “mammet” because she is resisting her father’s patriarchal right to enforce her marriage to who he chooses and because her father alleges her tears to be an act of deception
36
‘Death lies on her like an untimely frost upon the sweetest flower of all the field.’ (Act 4 Scene 3)
- Capulet earlier refers to Juliet as carrion. Links to Act I, Scene 2, when Capulet says "the earth hath swallowed all my hopes but she." These passages blend the Friar's concept of nature as a cyclical force taking life to give life.
- Death is personified to emphasises its prevalance in this society and the power it wields. It is an inescapable force, Capulet, a member of the patriarchy cannot compete with it - he is powerless.
- The use of the adjective “untimely” links to the idea of fate - Juliet is too young to die without a cause. The phrase “untimely frost” emphasises how Juliet’s body heat mimics one of a dead person, this use of situational irony is satirical - Shakespeare is making fun of the family’s reaction to Juliet’s death.
‘sweetest flower’ reflects Juliet’s beauty, her family’s distress lies in the fact that they have lost their beautiful daughter.
37
“Death is my son-in-law, death is my heir My daughter he hath wedded”
Juliet is presented as the bride of death. Capulet thinks that Juliet has been “deflowered” by death, the use of situational irony is present here as the audience knows that Juliet has been “deflowered” by Romeo. Death personified keeps taking things from Capulet; his daughter, her virginity and his duty to get her married. The use of foreshadowing is also present her as Juliet is not dead so Capulet’ words are ironic.
38
“No less? Nay bigger. Women grow by men.”
| “Thou wilt fall backward when thou hast more wit (Act 1 Scene 3)
- The Nurse reveals that women, even as infants, are seen as sexual objects. The Nurse tells a s story about how her now-dead husband implicated Juliet in a sexual joke.
- The purpose of women was to breed evidenced as ‘women grow by men’.
- Initially, the Nurse is presented as crude although the more conservative Lady Capulet requires the Nurse to talk to her daughter, reflecting her parental abilities.
- The Nurse is shown here to have a sexual view of love, the purpose of a relationship is to have children.
39
- Well, think of marriage now. Younger than you / Here in Verona, ladies of esteem / Are made already mothers’.
- Love is based on duty and obligation; one must oblige to what the society expects you to do.
40
“Then hie you hence to Friar Laurence' cell; There stays a husband to make you a wife...I am the drudge and toil in your delight, but you shall bear the burden soon at night” (Act 2 Scene 5)
- The use of the word ‘cell’ is reflective of the idea that Romeo and Juliet are stuck with each other for the rest of her life (Divorce was difficult in the Elizabethan era). The Nurse may be trapping Juliet into a marriage with Romeo, which may not benefit Juliet.
- ‘Hence’ suggests that the Nurse is attempting to rush Juliet into marrying Romeo without thinking about it, she is acting as the catalyst. As a motherly figure, she would want Juliet to marry someone who was a suitable partner for he
41
"I think it best you married with the county" (Act 3 Scene 5)
- The Nurse changes from an ally of Juliet to someone who betrays her during the second half of the play. Here, she is portrayed as the villain at least in Juliet’s mind.
- The Nurse is structurally Juliet’s last option. Her mother (“I have done with thee”) has grown hostile towards her and her father has threatened to banish her from the family house.
- This may reflect the Nurse’s guilt as she pressured Juliet to marry Romeo and only after seeing the familial conflict occur, the Nurse advises Juliet to change her mind. Her betrayal may have been allowing Juliet to marry Romeo and therefore the only resolution is to commit even more sin by marrying twice.
- Her dirty-minded manner of looking at love cannot comprehend a love like Juliet's.
- Selfishness might play a role in wanting her beloved Juliet to stay in Verona and marry Paris.
- Stands up to Lord Capulet when he is yelling at his daughter "You are to blame, my lord, to rate her so," a bold move considering her place in society - understands the consequences of her love more than the idealistic Juliet does.
42
“For this alliance may so happy prove To turn your households' rancor to pure love”
- Romeo and Juliet’s love has the potential to end their familial hate. Ultimately, their familial hate ends their feud as it leads to the deaths of both Romeo and Juliet. Friar Lawrence is supposedly the voice of reason.
- The alliance is expected to be ‘happy’, this is an example of dramatic irony as the audience is aware of the fact that Romeo and Juliet ‘take their life'.
- 'alliance': The Church considered that the marriage of a man and woman symbolised the marriage of the Church and God and therefore was unbreakable. Although, marriage in the wider community was also the union of families.
43
“Young men's love then lies/Not truly in the hearts, but in their eyes”
- Friar comments on the idea that Romeo's love is ingenuine. Romeo's perception of love is rooted in Petrarchan ideals. It is simply physical seen in ‘Forswear it sight, Did my heart love till now’.
- Through Jesu Maria, Friar Lawrence could be suggesting that true love is Biblical.
- Romeo declared his love for Juliet as soon as they met, forgetting about his supposed love for Rosaline. The Friar is questioning whether Romeo is able to identify true love through this metaphor.
- The Friar’s view of love was shown earlier when he was concerned about whether Romeo had sex with Juliet. He speaks against premarital sex as a Catholic priest
44
“These violent delights have violent ends/And in their triumph die, like fire and powder” (Act 2 Scene 4)
- The wiser and older Friar Lawrence understands the dangers of the two young lovers' marriage in light of the feud between their families.
- Friar Lawrence foreshadows the ‘violent’ tragedies that Romeo, Juliet and the wider community will have as a result of their love. Their love is too swift, their irrational actions will have violent ‘end’. Their love will result in an explosion like ‘fire and powder’, this metaphorical explosion occurs.
- Friar Laurence is pleading with Romeo not to act too impulsively in his love of Juliet. Rather than letting it explode inside him, he should let it burn slowly so that he can remain clear-headed.
45
“Love moderately: long love doth so;/ Too swift arrives as tardy as too slow.”
- Wisely advises the lovers to beware of the sin of overindulgence.
46
Conflict in Act 1
Romeo and Juliet begins with Gregory and Sampson, Capulet servants, and Abraham and Baltazar provoking a physical confrontation between them and Abraham and Balthazar, servants of the Montagues. Shakespeare provides all the background information needed to understand the world of the play. It is significant that Shakespeare opens the play with a prime example of male aggression. Male aggression is portrayed as a key part of this Veronian society. The recurring theme of violence and the need for dominance permeates itself throughout the play.
47
Significance of Conflict in Act 1
In the brawl, he portrays all of the layers of Veronese society, from those lowest in power, the servants, to the Prince who occupies the political and social pinnacle. He further provides excellent characterization of Benvolio as thoughtful and fearful of the law, Tybalt as a hothead, and Romeo as distracted and lovelorn, while showing the deep and long-standing hatred between the Montagues and Capulets.
The origin of the brawl, rife as it is with sexual and physical bravado, introduces the important theme of masculine honour. In Verona, a man must defend his honour whenever it is transgressed against, whether verbally or physically.
This concept of masculine honour exists through every layer of society in Verona, from the servants on up to the noblemen. Montagues and Capulets are gloriously tragic, they are also supremely privileged and stupid, since only the stupid would bring death upon themselves when there is no need for it.
48
“They have made worms’ meat of me.”
- Mercutio fights Tybalt and receives a fatal wound. As he dies, he continues to talk with his usual cynical wit. He imagines himself after his death in strictly physical and very unromantic terms: as meat for worms. This marks a turning point in play.
- Up until now, violence has only been threatened, and for the characters and the audience alike it’s been more a source of excitement than grief.
- Now, one of the play’s most appealing characters is dying. From this point forward, the play’s violence will be brutal and unrelenting. Tybalt will die, then Paris, and finally Romeo and Juliet.
49
"If love be rough with you, be rough with love; prick love for pricking" (Act One)
- Significant because it prevents Mercutio as Romeo's foil. Mercutio's character is developed as one believing in action and emerging the victor of the conflict rather than dwelling in melancholy as Romeo does - foreshadowing
- Love is personified to show its control over Romeo, similarly Death is later personified. The personification of these two different forces enable us to see how they are both intertwined with each other. Love and death are seemingly inescapable from one another.
- Prick is a colloquial term for sex showing Mercutio's bawdy nature, Romeo's broken heart can be patched with sex.
50
‘Ay, ay, a scratch, a scratch; marry, 'tis enough. Where is my page? Go, villain,
fetch a surgeon.’ (Mercutio: Act 3)
- This is the point where everything goes downhill and fate takes over. Romeo must choose between saving his family name and his love for Juliet. In the heat of the moment he makes a rash decision and kills Tybalt. This leads to his banishment, and consequently the death of himself and Juliet - catalyst
51
“A plague o’ both your houses”
- It is Mercutio's expression of his own anger as he is dying, since he believes that the Capulet-Montague feud is what led to his death.
52
“Do with their death bury their parents’ strife” (prologue)
- For Romeo and Juliet, their death is predetermined. The audience are made aware of the bittersweet consequences of their love from the beginning of the play. The lovers will die in order to end their families’ feud. Similarly, their marriage was also expected to end the conflict. Here, the literary content matches the form. The use of the sonnet form typically reserved for love used in a prologue with a lexical field of death is resemblant of the juxtaposition of love and death also used to end the conflict.
- The double meaning of burying ‘strife’ with death is prevalent as when the lovers die, they will be buried and so will the familial conflict.
53
“For never was a story of more woe Than this of Juliet and Romeo” (Prince Act 5 Scene 3)
- The choice to end the play with a rhyming couplet creates a sense of finality. Acts as a harsh reminder of the tragedy which has engulfed their love. he prevalence of conflict in their society has surrounded their love from its beginning. Part of the reason of this ‘woe’ is the necessity of honour and male aggression with Verona.
- The ‘star-crossed’ lovers were always destined for this ‘violent’ end.
- The use of a couplet symbolises the reunion of Romeo and Juliet with their families.
- The abrupt ending echoes the harsh finality of life especially in a society where weapons were easy to handle and tempers could easily rise.
- Our choices are ultimately controlled by fate or other higher powers. Romeo could not defy fate as he was only human. The Prince is a voice of reason and justice.
54
“The ape is dead, and I must conjure him” (Mercutio)
- Mercutio is commenting on the idea that love makes you change however he feels that Romeo has died. An ape has connotations to being animalistic. This suggests that Mercutio believes that love is physical and a man should be very sexual.
55
“Maids call medlars...thou a poperin pear” (Mercutio)
The alliteration of ‘maids’ and ‘medlars’ compared to the plosive alliteration of ‘poperin pear’ creates the idea that men are superior to women. The harshness of the p sound could reflect the dominance men had ever women and the importance of their sexual needs, evidenced by the idea that Mercutio thinks Romeo wants an ‘open-arse’.
Mercutio refers to a mistress as ‘that kind of fruit’, he sexually objectifies women.
56
"Peace? I hate the word, As I hate hell, all Montagues, and thee." (Act 1 Scene 1)
Emphasises Tybalt's attitudes towards male honour. This feud is ingrained in Veronese society. Peace is dishonourable to Tybalt as violence permeates every aspect of this society. To be violent is to be masculine. The hatred towards Montagues is unjust.
57
"Tybalt, you ratcatcher, will you walk?"
| "O calm, dishonourable, vile submissiion"
Reveals Mercutio's attitudes towards masculine honour. To be honourable, one has to fight and defend themselves. In a society where swords were used recklessly, Shakespeare is perhaps insinuating that the characters should avoid violence, honour and pride is not good - Mercutio's fate.
- Mercutio defends his honour by defending his friend.
