ENGLISH Romeo and Juliet ROMEO KEY QUOTES Act

ENGLISH Romeo and Juliet

ROMEO KEY QUOTES Act 1 Scene 1: about Rosaline ‘O brawling love, O loving hate… feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health’. Oxymorons- joys of love with the emotional desolation of unrequited love- repetition of ‘O’ phonetically mimics the anguish Romeo feels when coupled with ‘loving hate’, -represents the ‘inescapable’ inner turmoil that is consuming Romeo. stylish melancholy (love is not returned)- she is pure - adored from far -quality of Romeo’s love is matched by language- demonstrates his immaturity and pretention for deeper love- language reflects youthful, idealised notions- artificial love -excessive use (plethora) of cliche language (‘feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health’) –Romeo mimics the love surrounding him in society- hasn’t experienced love: he has an idealised perception - Hyperbole within loving terms: feelings expressed carefully, but not sincerely- Romeo’s use of cliched poetry: interested in the concept of being in love, but not actually loving someone. An alternative interpretation: desirous of love with anyone who is beautiful and willing to share feelings- ruins our understanding of Romeo’s love when he is with Juliet. Romeo’s love for Juliet outweighs concerns about the origin of love- he forgets about Rosaline- Rosaline is a dramatic device: shows the contrast between pure and ordained love between R+J vs the artificiality of the ‘love’ between Romeo and Rosaline- love is accessed through maturity. Rosaline represents of Romeos fickle nature - illustrate shallowness of Romeo’s emotional state. As the play progresses, Romeo’s use of language shifts to blank verse and rhyme- his expressions sound more genuine.

ROMEO KEY QUOTES Act 1 Scene 4: ‘Is love a tender thing? It is too rough, Too rude, too boist’rous, and it pricks like thorn’. Rhetorical question: Romeo fails to understand love- Romeo is trying to digest the concept of love and break it down- uncertain tone with the rhetorical question is contrasted with an established tone with simile and personification of love with these qualities: Romeo is an inexperienced lover at this point- his only knowledge of love comes from idealised notions of romance in the Elizabethan society around him.

ROMEO KEY QUOTES Act 1 Scene 5: ‘Oh she doth teach the torches to burn bright. “ Romeo speaks of her through light imagery - Rosaline is immediately forgotten. He has immediate respect even though she is a Capulet- his love is more heartfelt than his love towards Rosaline. The verb “teach”: position of superiority- obtains unobtainable knowledge. - angelic- radiates purity and softness. Shakespeare’s metaphor: Juliet's beauty is much brighter than that of the torches – shows her beauty is supernatural and otherworldly. - a poetic exaggeration, since torches can't really be taught- allows audience to recognise Juliet's scale of beauty – a light that helped lead him to her. Juliet is literally and metaphorically controlling the light and happiness in Romeo’s life. ‘So shows a snowy dove trooping with crows’: Avery imagery -‘snowy dove’; -a bright, white symbol of love and peace- Bright dove is juxtaposed by crows- juliets natural beauty is amplified by the darknessblack crows represent the feuding families- sculpt a microcosm of certified sadness and pending failure present as an entire entity. Juliet’s light is strong, as is their love- but it is surrounded by a dark unavoidable sense of impending, inevitable death.

ROMEO KEY QUOTES Act 1 Scene 5: ‘If I profane with my unworthiest hand This holy shrine, the gentle sin is this: My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss. ’ Romeo addresses Juliet as a Petrarchan lover- the division of the sonnet: young man vs silent object of his love - offers a new twist. - the lovers each speak in quatrains; Shakespeare gives Juliet the right of reply, contrasting the familiar structure- showing a greater sense of power of the feminine. - also shows the consideration Romeo has for her. perfect Shakespearean sonnet- with three ABAB quatrains and a rhyming couplet at the end. – perfectly shared, shows that Shakespeare is actively seeking equality - creates a gradual conversational- shows how compatible these two are –shared verse: complementing each other: creates a fixed meter and rhyme scheme. Sharing and use of stichomythia- how closely intertwined Romeo and Juliet are: they copulate their love rhetorically- use of religious imagery (‘shrine’, ‘pilgrim’, ‘saints’, ‘palmers’, ‘prayer’) suggests the admiration the two already hold for each other. The conflict between sex and religion –two semantic fields : vocabulary of the body (hand, lips, kiss, palm etc) vs the vocabulary of religion. They are seething with physical desire whilst simultaneously discussing their religious concerns- attests that love transcends into the realms of agape- take them and their love seriously. - metaphorical description lips: ‘blushing Pilgrims’- attempting to convince Juliet of the purity of his intentions- he wants to get physical, but he is overtly spiritual in his request. Juliet extends the metaphor to describe the act of prayer (joined palms) as a ‘kiss’. - ‘Palm to palm’ prayer is an innocent, religious image that is equated with lip to lip kissing, when Romeo says ‘let lips do what hands do’. The prayer becomes the kiss.

ROMEO KEY QUOTES Act 1 Scene 5: religious imagery: divine love -Romeo moves away from artificial, exaggerated descriptions of his love for Rosaline- genuine love Romeo feels for Juliet highlighted- but the couple are close to blasphemy: the noun ‘sin’. Romeo compares Juliet to an image of a saint. society would’ve rejected this- seen as blasphemy. Their relationship faces conflict from the family feud- but now conflict with religion. - fate and destiny work against them- audience are subtlety reminded here- through their premonitions; they will ultimately be punished for their sins.

ROMEO KEY QUOTES Act 2 Scene 2: ‘But soft! What light through yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Juliet is the sun. Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon’. . . ‘O, speak again, bright angel!. . . As is a wingèd messenger of heaven’ blank verse rather than the rhymed iambic: increasing maturity in this scene. - Cosmic imagery to describe juliet- use of hyperboles: elevates Juliet to the status of a goddess- reigns supreme: the moon goddess of chastity, is ‘envious. - He expresses an unqualified admiration of her: ‘See how she leans her cheek upon her hand!’ ordinary action- is not even noteworthy! - so enamoured of her -compares her to an angel: “A wingèd messenger of heaven. The balcony symbolises a pedestal upon which he has put her- it forces him to worship her from afar use of blazon: Romeo confesses his love-comparison of female body parts to nature- represents the idealistic love, exaggerated comparisons -his love is too overwhelming. He appears fickle. Romeo feels hope as if Juliet is the rising sun- Rosaline is instantly forgotten. Romeo shows a bravery here as Juliet reminds him death is inevitable. ‘bright angel’, - glorifies Juliet and suggests she’s not of this world.

ROMEO KEY QUOTES Act 3 Scene 1: ‘And so, good Capulet—which name I tender As dearly as my own—be satisfied. ’ ‘Fire-eyed fury be my conduct now… O, I am fortune’s fool!’ ‘O sweet Juliet, Thy beauty hath made me effeminate’ romeo offer of peace- misinterpreted by Tybalt as a reason to fight. Romeos ironic refusal to brawl – ‘And so good Capulet, which name I tender As dearly as my own, be satisfied’ – mature credit- pacifist tendency- Mercutio fights Romeo’s battle for him- Romeo tries to act as a peace-maker. Use of imperative verb: shows certainty in his decisions. Juliet’s love has increased maturity of Romeo- he does not want the family to feud. Mercutio despairs at the way Romeo hides his masculinity, during the Elizabethan times it was vital for men to show their masculinity. Romeo and Juliet’s love removes them from the animosity of the feud. This love is flawed by Romeo’s impulsiveness and haste. He says let ‘fire-eyed fury be my conduct now’ the fricative alliteration within the metaphor emphasising Romeo’s anger as he resorts to the patriarchal, feudal sense of loyalty and honour. Tybalt’s death forces Romeo to understand that he is the victim of fate: ‘O, I am fortune’s fool! (again with the fricative alliteration) With Tybalt’s death, Romeo (“O, I am Fortune’s fool”) is doomed to an exiled existence. Even though he had turned his back on the first fight, tried to walk away from the trouble, Fate/Fortune has made a fool of him. Events – in the form of this‘fatal brawl’ – have conspired against him.

ROMEO KEY QUOTES Act 3 Scene 1: ‘And so, good Capulet—which name I tender As dearly as my own—be satisfied. ’ ‘Fire-eyed fury be my conduct now… O, I am fortune’s fool!’ ‘O sweet Juliet, Thy beauty hath made me effeminate’ Elizabethan society generally believed that a man too much in love lost his manliness. Romeo believes this as he states that his love for Juliet had made him ‘effeminate’. It’s almost as if we have two different Romeo’s in this scene: the one who fights and kills Tybalt and the one who wanted to avoid confrontation due to the love and loyalty of his wife. The public feud clashes with the private world of the lovers ultimately leading to tragedy. Act 3 Scene 5: ‘Night’s candles are burnt out, and jocund day. I must be gone and live, or stay and die. ’ the metaphor, ‘night’s candles are burnt out, and jocund day’ - describes the dawn dividing Romeo and Juliet- Once again, light brings separation to the lovers. - Romeo behaves more sensibly/ realistically- plain, monosyllabic statement – ‘I must be gone and live, or stay and die’ – proves that he is aware to the stark alternatives- he no longer disguises the danger of his position. Juliet’s change of mind – “Hie hence, be gone, way” – records her awakening after the romantic night to the ‘harsh’ reality of the Veronese day. She rejects poetic orthodoxy and admits that their parting, previously a ‘sweet sorrow’, is now a necessary division.

ROMEO KEY QUOTES Act 5 Scene 3: 1. ‘By heaven, I will tear thee joint by joint And strew this hungry churchyard with thy limbs. . More fierce. . . Than empty tigers or the roaring sea. ’ 2. ‘For here lies Juliet, and her beauty makes This vault a feasting presence full of light. ’ 3. ‘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 Iscrimson in thy lips and in thy cheeks’. . . 1. ‘I will tear thee joint by joint and strew this hungry churchyard with thy limbs’. - shows violent side of Romeo- builds a gory image, violent verbs ‘tear’ and ‘strew’, shock the audience - portray him as savage and bloodthirsty. - animalistic imagery: ‘savage-wild’ and ‘empty tigers’ : portrayed as a wild beast torn from his family and his humanity. As Romeo charges into the tomb, a ‘detestable maw, ’ he sheds much societal pretense that previously influenced his behaviour. His plans are ‘savage-wild, ’ Romeo has separated himself from his family/ the feud/Verona, and now from his humanity. 2. This vault a feasting presence full of light. ’ reiterates the idea that Juliet’s beauty is as radiant as the sun- she’s able to turn darkness into light/ death into life-tension mounts: - Romeo contemplate his own death. - he feels ‘merry’ at the prospect that his suicide, means he will join Juliet in death. Romeo refuses to go gentle into that good night: by dying for Juliet- making a heroic statement- importance of their love. Takes place in the dark of night- relationship flourished at night, they provided the other with light. - light and dark imagery: Juliet acts as source of light in the tomb. ‘her beauty makes / This vault a feasting presence full of light. ’ Such images simultaneously make the audience all the more aware of how close the lovers come to finding joy — making their end in darkness all the more tragic. 3. Dramatic irony: He observes that there is still colour in her cheeks- naturally puzzled by ‘crimson’ colour: Ah, dear Juliet, Why art thou yet so fair? Tragically, he does not know – whereas we do – that Juliet is merely comatose - there is a logical answer to his rhetorical question

JULIET INTRODUCTION In Romeo and Juliet, set in Verona, but written in England in 1597, Shakespeare presents protagonist Juliet Capulet as a ‘round’, complex, multifaceted character. As an Elizabethan playwright, Shakespeare was writing in a Patriarchal society, where the rights, needs and opinions of men were considered more important than women. Because of this, an Elizabethan audience may be expecting Shakespeare to present Juliet as a ‘typical’ woman: compliant, respectful and passive, indeed a ‘flat character’ who is presented as uncomplicated and someone who does not change throughout the course of the play. This ‘typical’ portrayal is presented most clearly in the extract from Act 1 Scene 3. However, Shakespeare challenges these stereotypes, which is why I will explore the play as a whole, as well. To the surprise of both an Elizabethan and modern audience, Juliet changes throughout the play, from an obedient character to assertive, rational, deceptive and fiercely loyal, not to her father, but to her ‘sworn enemy’, Romeo. This essay will focus on how Shakespeare presents Juliet’s change from a respectful, submissive daughter at the beginning of the play to a fearless, defiant character at the end of the play.

JULIET KEY QUOTES Act 1 Scene 3: ‘Madam, I am here. What is your will? ’ ‘I’ll look to like, if looking liking move’ Juliet is obedient and overly formal (typical characteristics of a young Elizabethan woman): ‘Madam I am here’-respect shown to her mother- reveals the distance between them-The formal noun ‘madam’ Juliet’s aware of mother’s superiority -creates contrasts between Juliet’s informal and formal language: ‘thou’ to address the nurse- pronoun used between close friends - Juliet is used to being instructed by her mother: ‘what is your will? ’ use of interrogative. Juliet’s clear anticipation of conforming to another of her mother’s requests. Juliet compliant with their sharp demands at this stage –used to contrast disobedience in later scenes. - Shakespeare subtly hinting at Juliet’s rebellious nature. - ‘I'll look to like, if looking liking move. ’ her response to her mother clever and evasive. Alliteration of ‘l’ - tongue twisting effect- confusion and adds to Juliet’s vague response- shows her emotional maturity – rejects her mother’s + Nurse's materialistic/sexual views of love. - she seems to comply to tradition- but aware that there is something better (beyond marriage) -reinforces female social subordination- anticipates her rebellion against her parents-as they grow apartspiritual view of love- not tainted by economic and sexual concerns. - 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.

JULIET KEY QUOTES Act 1 Scene 5: ‘If he be married. My grave is like to be my wedding bed. ’ ‘My only love sprung from my only hate!’ Juliet expresses the connection between love and hate : ‘My only love sprung from my only hate!’ and marriage and death : ‘If he be married. / My grave is like to be my wedding bed. ’ - use of antithesis and mirrored sentence structure-Juliet recognises that love and hate are intertwined- Her statement echoes ominously- proleptic irony- The movement of the play is towards the Elizabethan realisation that Romeo and Juliet’s wedding bed is a grave- the image of death as a bridegroom for Juliet is repeated throughout the play to maintain an atmosphere of impending tragedy.

JULIET KEY QUOTES Act 2 Scene 2: ‘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. ’ Juliet’s plaintive plea – ‘O Romeo, Romeo – wherefore art thou Romeo? ’ –repetition of his name- shows her obsessive illustrates her own abandonment of herself to love. Even so, Juliet emerges quickly as a careful and thoughtful character who is more aware than Romeo of the risks that their passionate love involves. In spite of her self-abandonment to love, Juliet is strong and practical. At once, she brings her clear-sightedness to the problem of Romeo’s surname: ‘What’s in a name? That which we call a rose By any other word would smell as sweet. ’ Immediately, she applies a sharp intellect to her anguish and differentiates between a thing and its label. She shows wisdom: more clearly than the older generation, she understands that a man’s name goes no way towards describing his character; no matter what one calls it, ‘a rose’ [= a handsome young man] retains its physical beauty and its integrity. Juliet's soliloquy examines one of the play’s main themes — the importance of words and names. Juliet compares Romeo to a rose and reasons that if a rose were given another name, it would still be a rose in its essence. If Romeo abandoned his family name, he would still be Romeo. Juliet calls into the night for Romeo to ‘refuse thy name’ and in return, she will ‘no longer be a Capulet. ’ Therein lies one of the great conflicts of the play — the protagonists' family names operate against their love. While their love blossoms in oblivion to any barriers, the people who affect their lives use their familial battles to impose separation upon the two young lovers. She asks, ‘What’s in a name’. In their case, it determines social relationships and can be prohibitive. She claims that a name does not sum up a man’s character. She mourns that their names make them enemies. Shakespeare shows Juliet as a character with remarkable maturity for a young girl; if the other characters also displayed such maturity and foresight then the violence and prejudice between the families would subside. Shakespeare suggests that discrimination and prejudice could be settled if people accepted others in a genuine and heartfelt way and looked beyond appearances and labels. (Also consider the fact that Shakespeare affords her the right of reply in sonnets, which is unusual in other typical 16 th century sonnets. )

JULIET KEY QUOTES Act 2 Scene 2: she questions ‘What’s in a name? ’ - Juliet’s growing assertiveness/defiance - challenges the law of identity/idea of her surname - shaped by the Patriarchy: ‘O be some other name…a rose by any other name would smell as sweet’. Her use of this analogy indicates how logical she is, and she interrogates the importance of semantics: Shakespeare exemplifies her intelligence and ability to rationalise what she sees as irrational, mainly the feud that is continued by the Patriarchal figures in both families. She articulates the idea of denying her father and refusing‘thy name’, and although we acknowledge that this is a soliloquy and she believes no one is listening, and therefore she can speak more freely and openly, both an Elizabethan and modern audience would be stunned at the thirteen-year-old’s maturity and boldness.

JULIET KEY QUOTES Act 2 Scene 2: ‘If they do see thee, they will murder thee. ’ ‘I would not for the world they saw thee here. ’ ‘O, swear not by the moon, th’inconstant moon’ ‘My bounty is as boundless as the sea, My love as deep’ ‘It is too rash, too unadvised, too sudden, Too like lightning’ The scene takes place at nighttime, illustrating the way Romeo and Juliet's love exists in a world quite distinct from the violence of the feud. Throughout the play, their love flourishes at night — an allusion to the forbidden nature of their relationship. As night ends and dawn breaks, the two are forced to part to avoid being discovered by the Capulet kinsmen. Romeo and Juliet fear that they might be exposed — that the artificial light of discovery might be shone upon them, thereby forcing their permanent separation. Juliet’s emphatic warning ‘If they do see thee, they will murder thee’ illustrates the different reactions of Romeo and Juliet to their common situation: whereas Romeo speaks a rhapsodic verse, Juliet talks in ‘strong and practical’ terms. She is more acutely aware of the risks to his safety than he is and, in spite of her own pressing feelings, counsels caution with a monosyllabic directness: ‘I would not for the world they saw thee here. ’ It suggests that it is precisely because of these feelings that she is cautious. She is equally enraptured with Romeo and fears that he may consider her too forward so she volunteers to play the accepted part of a coy mistress until social convention has been satisfied. Juliet has a more conservative streak in her nature: for instance, she is alarmed when Romeo swears his love by the‘inconstant moon’ and even expresses reservations about the sudden flare-up of their passion: ‘It is too rash, too unadvised, too sudden’. She is on her guard against ‘rashness’ and extremely wary of their lightning romance. The lightning simile demonstrates how Juliet wonders about Romeo's impulsive passion. She hopes his love is not temporary, like lightning: electric and forceful but only for an instant before dissipating away. Romeo and Juliet continue to copulate their love rhetorically: to Romeo’s adjective ‘unsatisfied’, Juliet’s noun ‘satisfaction’ adds a sexual dimension. Furthermore, her expression of her passion – ‘My bounty is as boundless as the sea, My love as deep’ – is equally rhapsodic and places her love on a cosmic scale; she too believes in everlasting love, ‘for’ – like the sea – her love for him is ‘infinite’.

JULIET KEY QUOTES Act 2 Scene 2: ‘O, swear not by the moon, th’inconstant moon’ ‘This bud of love, by summer’s ripening breath, May prove a beauteous flower’. ‘Parting is such sweet sorrow’ Although Romeo has matured in the brief time since the beginning of the play, he remains somewhat immature when compared with Juliet — a pattern that recurs throughout their relationship. Although Juliet is only 13, she considers the world with striking maturity. As later acts reveal, her parents do not provide an emotionally rich and stable environment, possibly forcing Juliet to mature beyond her years. Juliet shows the beginnings of increasing self-possession and confidence that ultimately lead her to seek her own fate rather than a destiny imposed upon her by her parents. Juliet introduces the idea of marriage to Romeo. She makes the practical arrangements for sending a messenger to Romeo the next day. Juliet stops Romeo from swearing his love on the moon as it is too ‘inconstant’ and ‘variable. ’ She stops him from using traditional, colloquial poetic forms in expressing his affection. She encourages him to be genuine and to invest himself in a less traditional, more spiritual concept of love. Shakespeare often contrasts Juliet’s rationality with Romeo’s impulsiveness when Juliet challenges Romeo’s devotion, ‘O swear not by the moon, th’inconstant moon’. Just as passionate as Romeo, Shakespeare suggests that Juliet is also cautious of Romeo’s commitment and implores Romeo to offer more strength and conviction in his declarations of love. Shakespeare reinforces this idea when Juliet worries that their love is‘too rash…too like lightning’ the imagery highlighting her awareness of the speed and acceleration of their relationship which might vanish and‘cease to be’ as quickly as it ‘lightens’ the night sky. Ironically, Shakespeare also presents Juliet’s self-awareness and wisdom by foreshadowing her own death. The fatal flaw in the relationship between Romeo and Juliet: that 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: built into this unsatisfactory arrangement, as into a game of Chinese Whispers, are time-lags that can and will cause tragic havoc. Her famous farewell – ‘Parting is such sweet sorrow’– illustrates the oxymoronic nature of Romeo and Juliet’s love-affair. It is bitter for them to part, but ‘sweet’ that they can do so in such loving terms; it is ‘sweet’ that they love each other, but bitter that their affair is fraught with such serious difficulties.

JULIET KEY QUOTES Act 3 Scene 2: ‘Gallop apace, you fiery-footed steeds’ ‘. . if love be blind, / It best agrees with night’ ‘Come, night. Come, Romeo. Come, thou day in night, For thou wilt lie upon the wings of night Whiter than new snow upon a raven’s back. ’ Take him and cut him out in little stars, / That all the world will be in love with night…pay no worship to the garish sun’ At the start of this scene, Juliet delivers a soliloquy in which she once more expresses her adolescent impatience. Although she speaks an impassioned verse, her thirty-line soliloquy underlines what a level-headed character/what a sensible girl she is. Emotional though this speech is, it exhibits her rational selfawareness: namely, that her impatience for the night on which she will consummate her marriage is perverse. The most frequently used literary device in Juliet's soliloquy by Shakespeare in Act 3, Scene 2 is personification. Personification is found in theopening lines with Shakespeare’s allusion to Greek mythology to personify the sun. When Juliet says, ‘Gallap apace, you fiery-footed steeds’ she is referring to the sun as Phaeton's horses and chariot. Phaeton, according to the myth, unskillfully drove the chariot, the sun, too close to the surface of the Earth and was about to set the world on fire; his boldness was punished by Zeus, who killed him with a thunderbolt. The dramatic irony of the allusion is intense. Juliet invokes Phaeton because she thinks that he could quicken the pace of the sun and thus hurry time on to love-performing night. The irony is that in willing on the night, she is willing on the tragedy, the moment of separation, Romeo’s exile, and ultimately the confusion and mistiming which brings the death of both lovers. The audience sees, as the character does not, that to put Phoebus in charge is to precipitate the catastrophe. A form of parallelism called asyndeton is found in the line, ‘Come, night. Come, Romeo. Come, thou day in night. ’ Asyndeton eliminates the use of conjunctions to create a simple and strong effect, which quickens the pace of her soliloquy, suggesting that she’s summoning Romeo in haste. A form of repetition called symploce is seen with the repetition of the word come at the beginning of many phrases, such as‘Come, night. Come Romeo. ’

JULIET KEY QUOTES Act 3 Scene 2: ‘Gallop apace, you fiery-footed steeds’ ‘. . if love be blind, / It best agrees with night’ ‘Come, night. Come, Romeo. Come, thou day in night, For thou wilt lie upon the wings of night Whiter than new snow upon a raven’s back. ’ Take him and cut him out in little stars, / That all the world will be in love with night…pay no worship to the garish sun’ Light and dark imagery again play important roles in creating mood, foreshadowing action, and giving fate a vehicle by which to visit itself upon the characters in the play. Juliet beckons the darkness because it has been a sanctuary for the couple, ‘if love be blind, / It best agrees with night. ’ She and Romeo met under the cover of night; they agreed to marry as they were shrouded in darkness and were forced to part as dawn broke; they consummate their marriage at night; and they ultimately die together under the cover of night. Their affinity for the darkness illustrates their separation from the temporal, feuding world. Although external light (the ‘garish sun’) has become their enemy, the lovers have often provided light for each other. Juliet's eyes were like the stars in Act II, Scene 2, in Act I, Scene 5, she ‘doth teach the torches to burn bright!’ and Juliet was Romeo's sun in the balcony scene. Juliet begs fate to ‘cut Romeo out in little stars’ so that ‘all the world be in love with night. ’ These stars represent both the timeless quality of the couple's love and their fate as ‘star-cross'd lovers’ who will only truly be united in death. In this scene, Juliet’s use of imperatives to summon night-time, ‘Gallop apace’, ‘bring in cloudy night’, ‘come, Night, come’ captures her growing impatience to be with Romeo and her readiness to be sexually intimate with him, which she alludes to when she states ‘though I am sold, Not yet enjoy’d’. Although we recognise Juliet’s increasing desire as a reflection of her maturity into adulthood, an Elizabethan audience may be shocked at Shakespeare’s presentation of an aroused, sexually excited young woman, who expresses this in the confinements of her bedroom in this revealing soliloquy. Juliet’s character is in stark contrast to the innocent young woman embarrassed by her Nurse’s sexual, ‘fall backward’ pun.

JULIET KEY QUOTES Act 3 Scene 2: ‘Beautiful tyrant, fiend angelical. ’ ‘O’ serpent heart hid with a flowering face! Dove-feathered raven, wolvish ravening lamb!’ Juliet feels conflicted because her love for Romeo clashes with her love and sense of duty to Tybalt, her cousin. Juliet expresses her conflicting emotions for Romeo using oxymoronic language: ‘Beautiful tyrant, fiend angelical. ’ It is to this ‘storm’ of confusion that her epithets – ‘Beautiful tyrant! Fiend angelical!’ – refer when she does finally understand what has happened. In the heat this moment, Juliet’s series of oxymorons illustrates vividly how divided her loyalties are. Romeo (her husband) has killed Tybalt (her cousin); in theory, she i torn between two violent extremes. Juliet's use of oxymoron here gives expression to her turmoil. This passage is also full of paradoxes, longer statements th contradict themselves and nonetheless seem true—like Juliet’s exclamatory remark ‘O’ serpent heart hid with a flowering face!’ The point is that these oxymora and paradoxes work with the major paradox at the center of the play, expressed in Juliet's cry, ‘my only love sprung from my only hate’. By using oxymora and paradox through the play, Shakespeare manages to make the form (how it's being said) match up with the content (what's being said). Act 3 Scene 5: ‘Indeed, I never shall be satisfied With Romeo, till I behold him—dead—Is my poor heart for a kinsman vexed. ’ ‘Good father, I beseech you on my knees, Hear me with patience but to speak a word. [She kneels down]’ Shakespeare presents Juliet as very mischievous and witty through his use of verbal irony ‘Indeed, I never shall be satisfied With Romeo, till I behold him’ an then she subtly directs her speech towards Tybalt ‘—dead—Is my poor heart for a kinsman vexed’. Through Shakespeare’s use of double entendre Juliet’s rebellious nature is highlighted here. This is a double meaning because she doesn’t want to tell her mum about her love for Romeo; however she doesn’t wa to lie. To her mother it sounds like she is saying ‘I never shall be satisfied With Romeo, till I behold him dead’; however she really means ‘I never shal be satisfied with Romeo till I behold him–dead is my poor heart. ’ There also is a third meaning here, for us, the audience: the situational irony is that Juliet will never in fact see Romeo again until she wakes and finds him dead beside her. Shakespeare uses the stage directions ‘[she kneels down]’ to display the authority that Capulet has over his daughter. The level of power demonstrated as Capulet is pedestaled above Juliet and one could say Juliet mimics a typical girl of her society; subservient and obedient. However, this is a dramatic device as Juliet is merely pretending to submit to her father, when in actuality the audience are fully aware of her disobedient and deceptive nature, marrying Rome her preordained ‘foe’, against her parent’s will.

JULIET KEY QUOTES Act 4 Scene 3: Shall I not, then, be stifled in the vault To whose foul mouth no healthsome air breathes in, And there die strangled ere my Romeo comes? ’ Juliet asserts her independence in this scene by asking her betrayers, the Nurse and Lady Capulet, to leave her alone. By this action, she both physically separates herself from her family and proactively takes a step toward the fruition of her plan to be with Romeo. This direct request marks a turning point for Juliet. Previously, she often reacted to her surroundings rather than making her own decisions. For example, she waited for instruction from Romeo as to when they would wed; she allowed her father to order a marriage to someone else; and she depended on the Friar to provide her with a plan to avoid a union with Paris. As the play has progressed, however, she has grown more mature and independent. She now steps forward to confront her greatest fears and reach toward her ultimate goal — to be with Romeo. When Juliet is left alone, she is struck by the horror of her situation. She imagines the gruesome, grisly, nightmarish horrors one would expect of a 13 -year-old facing her own mortality: being buried alive in the airless tomb and facing Tybalt's corpse ‘festering in his shroud. ’ At that moment, she is tempted to call for her nurse. However, at the instant of her greatest fear, Juliet realizes that she must act independently. She displays mature courage and determination as she prepares to take the final step in her defiance of both her parents and fate itself. Juliet accepts that she must now trust the Friar's potion, and if the plan fails, be prepared to take her own life with the dagger at her bedside. Once again, the play draws upon themes of birth and death to emphasize the way in which Juliet must die and be placed in the tomb in order to be reborn to begin her new life with Romeo. She is resolute in her decisions. Her maturity has blossomed. She is no longer a young teenager; she is a woman and a wife who commands her own fortune. To this end, she places a dagger by her side — a resonant statement of her independence.

JULIET KEY QUOTES Act 5 Scene 3: ‘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 final scene of the play brings both the transcendent reunion of Romeo and Juliet and the reconciliation of the feuding families. The family tomb becomes a symbol of both birth and death. It is, on the one hand, the womb from which Juliet should emerge alive — and hope be born anew. However, the tomb is also a dark and fateful vortex that consumes life, light, and hope. Romeo pledges in Act V, Scene 1, that he will defy fate and lie with Juliet that night. In his final act, he falls by her side and lies with her in perpetuity. Like Romeo, Juliet dies with immense dignity and not before she has made a romantic gesture wholly commensurate with his: ‘I will kiss thy lips. ’ Indeed, Juliet’s oxymoronic epithet (‘O happy dagger’) underlines this point: even though there is no poison left, she is in no way deflected from her purpose. She pursues her destiny; she stabs herself with Romeo’s dagger with a sense of poetic justice. Here, then, is an ultimate demonstration in dramatic terms that ‘violent delights have violent ends’.

CAPULET KEY QUOTES Act 1 Scene 2: ‘Let two more summers wither in their pride, Ere we may think her ripe to be a bride. ’ Shakespeare uses the semantic field of nature with the nouns ‘summers’, ‘wither’ and ‘ripe’. Through this metaphor, Shakespeare effectively objectifies Juliet to the proportions of fruit. So although one could argue that Capulet’s nourishing and tender nature is highlighted here by rejecting the marriage at such a young age, it could be argued that he perceives Juliet as an object for his business transaction. The season‘summer’ often connotes harvesting and is when nature flourishes and by two summers Juliet will be ‘ripe’ enough to be chosen. Paris and Capulet's discussion of Juliet's age in the beginning of this scene continues another of the play's resounding themes: youth versus old age. In the world of the feud, the older generation's conflicts and bids for power control the destinies of their children without much apparent thought for their children's ultimate welfare. Thus the flaws in this patriarchal system make Romeo and Juliet's waywardness in love seem all the more innocent. Capulet worries that Juliet, at 13, is too young to be married. He cautiously advises Paris: "Let two more summers wither in their pride / Ere we may think her ripe to be a bride. " Shakespeare's emphasis on Juliet as a teenage girl poised between childhood and adulthood highlights that Juliet is a very young tragic heroine who is forced to mature extremely quickly during the course of the play. Although Juliet's parents, like Romeo's, seem to look out for their child's best interests, Juliet's position is clearly subordinate to her father's political concerns. In the discussion of her marriage, Juliet is primarily a commodity. Paris wants her mainly because of her social status and beauty. Capulet may even be using her youth and innocence as "selling points" to Paris rather than expressing genuine fatherly concern for protecting her from the corruption of the big wide world. No sooner does he insist that Paris win Juliet's consent than he arranges the feast where Paris may woo her more easily. Her father's half-hearted nod to gaining her consent is the last evidence of Juliet being empowered by her family. Hereafter, fate and her family control the marionette strings. Her actions (although not her words) are contrary to the powers that try to control her. Although her defiance doesn't become manifest until she refuses to marry Paris, this passage is both the twilight of her permissive independence and a harbinger of her defiant independence.

CAPULET KEY QUOTES Act 3 Scene 5: ‘Hang thee, young baggage! Disobedient wretch!. . . Speak not. Reply not. Do not answer me. . . My fingers itch. ’ When Capulet refused, in Act I, Scene 2, to consent to his daughter's marriage to Paris unless she also was willing, he seemed concerned for Juliet's welfare. Such parental concern altogether evaporates into authoritarian, patriarchal ranting as Capulet shouts epithets, calling Juliet"baggage" and "carrion" for refusing his order. Capulet now uses Juliet's youth to mock her reluctance to marry, calling her a crying child and whining puppet. Capulet has degraded his daughter to chattel — an item to be brokered for value. In his fury, Capulet threatens Juliet with violence and disinheritance if she continues to disobey him, "hang! Beg! Starve! Die in the streets! / For by my soul I'll ne'er acknowledge thee. " Capulet's sudden transformation from seemingly concerned parent to vengeful adversary illustrates his tendency toward impulsive, cruel, and reckless behavior. Act 4 Scene 3: ‘Death lies on her like an untimely frost upon the sweetest flower of all the field. ’ Capulet, who earlier referred to his daughter as carrion, speaks his most eloquent lines in the play, "Death lies on her like untimely frost / Upon the sweetest flower of all the field. " Recall 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.