GCSE: Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet

The prologue is written in the form of a sonnet, a poem typically about love. However, the content of the sonnet refers to a love which causes death, and violence. The content is therefore in contrast to the form.

‘Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean’

• Repetition and wordplay (civil has two meanings here – civilians and civilized)

Family Violence Death

‘A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life’

• Astronomical imagery

Death Violence Love Fate

Sampson: ‘A dog of the house of Montague moves me’ (moves me means makes me angry)

• Describes people of the Montague family as dogs. This is an insult. It also suggests that they are weak and worthless, like a stay dog.

Violence Power

Prince: ‘Neighbour stained steel’ (swords stained by the blood of neighbours)

• Alliteration draws attention to his speech, shows his authority. The repetition of ‘S’ sounds resembles the sound of swords clashing

Violence Death Power

Montague: ‘Adding to clouds more clouds with his deep sighs’

• Pathetic fallacy. Romeo’s love for Rosaline at the beginning of the play is unrequited (meaning that she doesn’t love him back). His low mood is therefore reflected in the weather.

Love

Romeo: ‘O loving hate’

• Juxtaposition. Love and hate are opposites. By describing love as hateful, Shakespeare emphasis the negative impact love has on Romeo. This foreshadows his death at the end of the play.

Love Death

Romeo: ‘She’ll not be hit with Cupid’s arrow’

• Reference to mythology. Shows that Romeo and Rosalind’s love was not meant to be.

Love Fate

Capulet: ‘My child is yet a stranger in the world’

• Metaphor. Capulet described Juliet as a ‘stranger’ so emphasise how young she is. He is protective of her, and does not want her to marry Paris.

Love Family Power

Lady Capulet: ‘Verona’s summer hath not such a flower’, Nurse: ‘Nay, he’s a flower’

For this quote, just remember the word ‘flower

• Both Lady Capulet and the Nurse have a maternal (motherly) love towards Juliet. They want what is best for her. Here, they both describe Paris as a ‘flower’, emphasising his beauty!

Love family

Mercutio: ‘hag’ (Queen Mab)

• Mercutio is superstitious, and complains of Queen Mab, the midwife of the fairies. Queen Mab is described to be mischievous, and also the person who teaches women about love and sex. By referring to Queen Mab, Mercutio suggests that humans are not in control of their feelings of love

Love fate

Tybalt: ‘Makes my flesh tremble’

• Dramatic language. Shakespeare is emphasising Tybalt’s anger when Romeo comes to their party.

Violence Family

Romeo: ‘My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand’

• Metaphor. When Romeo first meets Juliet, he describes his lips as ‘blushing pilgrims’ to emphasise how much he wants to kiss her, alongside how wrong it would be to do so. At first he does not love her, he just experiences lust.

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Juliet: ‘You kiss by th’ book’ (you kiss like you have studied how to kiss)

• Juliet enjoys their kiss, and uses the language of studying to show this. This shows how well suited they are

Love

Juliet: ‘My grave is like to be my wedding bed’

• Foreshadowing her death at the end of the play. This builds dramatic tension. Also, this emphasises Juliet’s feelings for Romeo. She is saying that she would rather die than marry anybody else.

Love Death fate

Romeo: ‘Juliet is the sun’

• Metaphor. Romeo emphasises how beautiful she thinks Juliet is.

Love

Juliet: ‘I’ll no longer be a Capulet’

• Emphasises Juliet’s feelings for Romeo. She is happy to completely deny her family name to be with Romeo.

Love Family Power

Friar Lawrence: ‘The earth, that’s nature’s mother, is her tomb. What is her burying, grave that is her womb.’

• Juxtaposition of birth and death. Tomb and Womb. Mother and Death. Friar Lawrence’s speech builds tension in the audience for the deaths that soon follow. He draws comparisons between family and death.

Death family violence power

Friar Lawrence: ‘Young men’s love then lies/ Not truly in their hearts, but in their eyes.’

• Friar Lawrence is criticizing Romeo’s change in heart. Romeo no longer loves Rosalind, but loves Juliet instead! The friar is emphasising that Romeo’s love isn’t true love. He likes Juliet because she is beautiful.

Mercutio: ‘I will bite thee by the ear for that jest’

• Shakespeare uses violent language in Mercutio’s speech. Physical violence is used to resolve verbal violence.

Violence Death

Nurse: ‘gentlemanlike’

• The nurse describes Romeo as ‘gentlemanlike’, meaning that she approves of him and thinks that he would be a good husband to Juliet. As a ‘gentleman’, Romeo is respectful, honest, and powerful. The nurse is deceiving the Capulet family by helping Romeo and Juliet in their marriage.

Maternal Love family love

Friar Lawrence: ‘Here comes the lady. Oh, so light a foot’

• This means that Juliet is fast and quiet when she moves. This implies that Juliet is delicate and innocent.

Mercutio: ‘A plague o' both your houses!’

• When Mercutio is injured, he shouts, ‘a plague o’ both your houses!’ Shakespeare is describing the Montague and Capulet feud as a ‘plague’, emphasising the devastating effect it has on both families. Like a plague, the feud will eventually wipe both families out.

Death Violence Fate

Lady Capulet: ‘Tybalt, my cousin! O my brother’s child! O Prince! O cousin! Husband! Oh, the blood is spilled’

• Repetition of the O sound emphasises how distressed Lady Capulet is because of Tybalt’s death. O is onomatopoeic, recreating the sound of weeping for the audience.

Death Violence Family Love

Prince: ‘Mercy but murders, pardoning those that kill.’

• Juxtaposition. Mercy murder have contrasting meanings. The Prince suggests that pardoning Romeo for the murder will only lead to more murders. Romeo is therefore exiled as an example of bad behaviour.

Death Violence Power

Nurse: ‘He’s dead, he’s dead, he’s dead!’

• Repetition, demonstrating the Nurse’s horror and distress of the death of Tybalt.

Death Violence

Juliet: ‘What devil art thou that dost torment me thus?’

• Rhetorical question. Accuses the Nurse of having devilish qualities for bringing such distressing news. Emphasises her sadness.

Death Love Violence

Juliet: ‘Beautiful tyrant! Fiend angelical!’

• Juxtapositions. When Juliet finds out that Romeo killed Tybalt, she has lots of confusing emotions, and described Romeo in contrasting ways. Though she loves Romeo, she also loved Tybalt because he was a member of her family. Here, romantic love and family love are in conflict.

Death Love Family Violence

Juliet: ‘That “banishèd,” that one word “banishèd”/ Hath slain ten thousand Tybalts’ (Finding out that Romeo has been banished is the same as finding out that Tybalt was killed ten thousand times)

• Exaggeration. Shakespeare emphasises the emotional pain Juliet is in when she winds out that Romeo has been banished.

Love Family Death

Capulet: ’we were born to die’

• Exaggeration and contrasts. Emphasises Capulet’s misery at the death of Tybalt. He emphasises that our only known fate in life is death. This foreshadows Romeo and Juliet’s deaths.

Love Death Fate

Romeo: ‘more dark and dark our woes’

• Repetition. Shakespeare uses light imagery to show how negative Romeo and Juliet’s situation has become. Darkness suggests that there will be no positive resolution. They cannot see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Love Fate Death

Capulet: ‘The winds thy sighs’

• Personification. In Capulet’s speech, Sheakespeare personifies the wind, comparing the sound and power of the wind to Juliet’s sighs of sadness. Here, he is suggesting that she is being over-dramatic.

Family Power

Capulet: ‘Hang thee, young baggage! Disobedient wretch!’

• Capulet uses aggressive language, attempting to force her into a marriage with Paris. He attempts to hold the power.

Family Power

Nurse: ‘Alas, alas! Help, help! My lady’s dead!–‘

• The nurse repeats language in distress when she finds the seemingly dead Juliet. The Exclamation marks emphasise how loud she is shouting and how sad she is. The nurse had a maternal (motherly) love for Juliet

Family Love Death

Lady Capulet: ‘She’s dead, she’s dead, she’s dead!’

• Repetition. Lady Capulet is trying to convince herself of Juliet’s death – it is as if she cant believe it. The repetition emphasises her distress.

Family Love Death

Romeo: ‘I dreamt my lady came and found me dead –

• Shakespeare foreshadows the end of the play. Romeo’s dream soon becomes reality, so it functions as a prophesy.

Fate Death Love

Juliet: ‘O happy dagger’

• Shakespeare uses juxtaposition to make sense of Juliet’s actions. Though daggers are usually a negative object, as they inflict harm, Juliet says that the dagger is ‘happy’ because it is giving her the relief of death. With Romeo gone, Juliet believes she no longer has anything to live for.

Love Death

Capulet: ’O brother Montague, give me thy hand’

• After the death of Romeo and Juliet, Capulet refers to Montague as his ‘brother’. It appears that the death has brought the families together, and taught them not to live in hatred towards one another.

Death Family