romeo and juliet

"good father i beseech you on my knees"-juliet

• means biological father but also religious "holy" father who is God

• stage direction of "kneeling" makes actions religious like praying

• indicates capulet is in charge and dominates the family while Juliet must be subservient

"if they see thee, they will murder thee"

• use of dominant monosyllabic wording shows realism and steadfast nature to charachter

• only word that is not monosyllabic is "murder", indicating importance in the line, prescence of violence drives this line and unlike love it is not poetic but realand definite like the simple syntax of the line

• Shakespeare establishes Juliets charachter as a reasoned and realistic person

• transition to 1 liners to emphasise concious thinking

"my dearest cousin, and my dearer lord?...dreadfull trumpet... general doom"

• superlative "dearest cousin" is negated by the comparative "dearer lord", highlighting Romeo means more to juliet

• shakespeare uses apoclyptic images to describe their death

• death signals end of the world(romantic and famillial)

• 2 charachters allude to the dichotomy between famillial & romantic love

can heaven be so envious"

• shows how physical matters have no effect on love, but only spiritual alluded by 'heaven'

• 'heaven'- echoes the ideas of how macrocosm effects and impacts the microcosm

• the heavens dictate the events on earth

• rhetorical question conveys dichitomy between fate and the indivindual

"she is rich in beauty, only poor ... that when she dies with beauty dies her store"

• implies women are commodities measures by beauty and fertility

"why then o Brawling love, o loving hate, to anything of nothing first create"

• oxymorons highlight ineffible quality of love: it is full of contradictions and does not make sense

• irregular rhyming couplets indicate unpredictable nature of love, highlights Romeos role as the petrarchan lover, who suffers from unrequited love

• 13 lines, imperfect sonnet- Romeos experience with love is incomplete and flawed

"transparent heretics, be burnt for liars ... one fairer than my love... the all seeing sun"

• if his eyes should stray and become "heretics", he demands biblical punishment( being burnt)

• rosaline is God, and Romeo is a follower

• could be foreshadowing as he falls in love with juliet and dies for her

"it is the east and juliet is the sun"

• "sun"- illustrates Romeos growing obssession and infatuation as the sun is the source of life and when he believes juliet is dead, his life ens

• "sun" - juliet vecomes the centre of Romeos world

• "sun"- sun can burn you, their love causes both to die

'sweet juliet, thy beauty has made me effeminate, and in my temper soften'd walours steel'

• "effeminate"-juliet has caused romeo to change, inability to conform to violent behaviour is considered feminine

• romeo is presented as a blunt sword, which symbolsises him becoming feminine

• alliteration “t” sounds heightens tension

'with loves light wings did i o'eperch these walls...for stony limits cannot hold love out"

• dichotomoy between abstract noun 'love' with concrete nouns 'walls' and 'stony limits'

• alliteration draws attention to word 'love;

• 'wings'-highlights love transcends borders

"i must be gone and live, or stay and die"

• monosyllanbic phrasing which is not for romeo

• shows charachter development, signifies new maturity and understanding unlike oxymoranic turmoil

• compound patterning emphasise the conflict that romeo is faced with

• internal rhyme between first person pronoun “I” and “die” foreshadows romeos death

• inextricably linked to death

• imabic pentameter effectively stresses the key words of the line

"from ancient grudge break to new mutiny"

• juxtaposition meaning new violence, foreshadows intensity brought through young lovers

• adjective has connatations of something old, sacred, untouched, from beginning of time , can't be breaked

"two households both alike in dignity"

• families are similar so feud is ironic

• elizabethan era: social standing dictated way of life

"doth with their deaths bury their parents strife"

• play on words emphasies importance of lovers death

• their death didnt just show eternal love for each other it ended "parents strife"

"peace, i hate the word as i hate hell, all montagues, and thee"

• rule of 3 emphasiss Tybalts hate to all montagues

• reply juxtaposes what benvolia says

• illustrates extent of bad blood to audience

"prick love for pricking, and you beat love down"

• "beat"- violent verbs create phallic imagery, shows audience he views love as just sexual

• depicts dominance men were supposed to have

• plosive lexis reinforces his harsh and raw perception of love because it suggests he views love as a violent action

"thou art a villian"

• romeo is enemy because he is from another family

• ironic because they have joined familys. tybalt believes he is defending his familys honour- from the same family now

"a plague on both your houses.they have made worms meat of me"

• repeated twice, repetition emphasises idea that he disregards fate, instils opinion that its the futile feud that caused it

• turning point of play

• "worms meat"- describes it in euphamistic terms as he doesnt say tybalt murdered him

"O calm dishonourable vile submission: Alla stoccata carries it away. Tybal you ratcatcher will you walk?"

• "vile"- serves as voive for societty, believes peace making attitude is vile, goes against nature

• "alla stoccata"- move used in fencing suggests romeo not fighting is a disease nd only cure is to be a real man and fight

• tricolon creates lexicon of fragility, emphasises romeos inability to fight, whilst exaggerating mercutios male aggressive behaviour

Friar

"these violent delights, have violent ends"

• foreshadows end of play- proves fate exists

• Alternatively, Romeo and Juliet were given warning but still chose to follow own desires, could be argues its not fate but free will

Friar

"thy tears are womanish, Thy wild acts denote...the unreasonable fury of a beast"

• coveys patriarchal society, exposes Romeos loss of self as "womanish", describing actions as "wild", implying a level of dehumanisation

• metaphor used to describe Romeos irrational nature

Capulet

“hang thee, young baggage, disobdeidiant wretch”

• ironic, only time relationship resembles a normal family-when juliet is chastised

• broken syntax emphasises capulets fury

• asyndetic list pejorative epithets “young baggage” “disobediant wretch”creates effect of the terrent of insults

Juliet

• “oh happy dagger this is thy sheeth

• inverted metaphors; dagger is personified as “happy”, her body becomes its “sheath”-shows love and death are inextricably linked

• roman tradition, stabbing was most honourable and noble form of suicjde. Shakespeare presents juliet as a tragic hero. her only act of violence in play, plays final act of violence. Juliets action exerts a change in society.

• shakespeare promoting idea that action is necessart to bring about a new order

• he lexically cohesively phrases Juliets dialogue with monosyllabkes, which highlights he affirmative and assertive quality

Juliet

“beautiful tyrant, fiend angelical…dove-feathered raven”

• sequential use of oxymorons, conveys conflict that plagues juliet

• broken syntac evokes violence of this turmoil makes dialogue more potent/ expresses anger

• shows her profficiency in language that educated men have. In order to allegedly hurt Romeo, she uses his language against him

• echoes Romeos petrarchan suffering; Juliet laments family and love

• able to use language tro invert Romeos imagery

Capulet

“my child is yet a stranger in the world2

• shakespeare emphasises how juliet is stuck in a period between childhood and adulthood

• alludes to how juliet is constantly caught inbetween oppressing forces

Nurse

“thou wilt fall backwards when thou hast more wit/ wilt thou not jule”

• rhetortical question is ironic as she doesnt have a choice

• cements inevetibility of juliets circumstances

• Shakespeare illustrates how patriarchal verona is, as the nurse and her husband had discussed Juliet reaching sexual maturity even when she was a child

• highlights how juliet has always been seen as an objecr to be married off

Juliet

“swear not by the moon, the inconstant moon”

• Juliet is realistic and wants to know Romeo really loves her

• Shakespeare presents juliet as favouring actions as she rejects the idea of traditional fake love and encourages romeo to follow a love more spontaneous and unrehearsed

Juliet

“i’ll look to like, if looking like move… but no more deep will i endart mine eye… your consent gives strength to make it fly”

• active verb with prominent first person pronoun conveys assertion of agency

• makes her own decision, thus opposing forces of oppresson

• atypical for time, women conditioned into subjugation and submission

• dialogue indicates emotional maturity and headstrong nature, she rejects ideals that society propagates

• half-rhyme illustrates juliets dissidence, foreshadows juliets future rebelliong against family and society

Romeo

“o she doth teache the torches to burn bright…as a rich jewel in an ethiops ear”

• portrayed as transcedental and beauty is “too rich for this earth”

• rhyming couplets emphasise feelings of love

• couplets-they are 2 lines fit together as a singular unit- suggests Juliet is able to recipricate romeos feeling

• shakespeare establishes lexically cohesive conflict between light and dark in this extract alludes to the “superficial night” in scene 1. emphasises the weight of juliets prescnee in the charachters narrative are

• regular rhyming coulets add energy to dialogue, reinforcing exceitement and intense emotions of romeo

Juliet

“deny thy father and refuse thy name”

• by asking him it indicates a youthful sense of idealism and naeivity

• highlights two sides of charachter, her wisdom and youthfullness- intelligent but naive

• imperatives suggest a conflict with fate; she wants romeo to take action

Juliet

“my grave is like to be my wedding bed”

• shakespeare showcases a meta theatrical foreshadowing of the plays events

• he allegorically links the wedding bed a symbol of intimacy and loveto a grave which is associated with death and decay

• demostrates ghow oppositions are intertwined in the play

Romeo

“if i profane with my unworthiest hand. This holyt shrine… my lips two blushing pilgrims”

• religious imagery and religion allusion are used which typifies Romeo and Juliet love as something sacred

• Christiand in elizabethan time went on pilgrimage to israel

• Shakespeare uses an extended metaphor of pilgrims to suggest juliet is the holy land and Romeo is pilgrim trying to pursue juliet

nurse

“i think you are happy in this second match, for it excells your first”

• nurse wants best for juliet because she is a maternal figure

• her encouragemnt to do something wrong shows he helpess she is in her ability to help juliet

• when relationship begins to break because both want different things

nurse

“thou wast the prettiest babe that i e’er nursed… toseethee married once, i have my wish”

• shows nurse love for juliet

• highloghts connection

• nurse wihses to see her married, illustrates maternalloce for juliet

friar lawerence

“wisely and slow, they stumble that run fast”

• advising romeo-aware of what could happen

• shows how close there relationship is

• dramatic irony- audience knows romeo will “stumble” and it will have tragic cosequences

lady capulet

“talk not to me, for i’ll not speak a word”

• selfish and unoreoared to listen to juliet as she cares more about her own safety and relationship

• response purposely short to illustrate lack of emotion

• illustrates her selfishness and emotional disconnection from Juliet, prioritizing her own interests over her daughter's feelings. This lack of communication reflects the strained mother-daughter relationship.

“therefore love moderately; long love doth so;…too swift arrives as tardy as too slow”

• fragmented sentence structureslows down friars speech which reflects the lesson he is trying to teach the young lovers. the repeated semicolons make his words just as slow at the love he idealises

• the consonance of the “o” sounds add to this sloe paced dialogue

“upon his brow shame is afraid to sit, for tis a throne where honour may be crowned”

• juliet is telling the nurse that she is supporting her husband because there is nothing that can shame him.

• juliet calls his “brow a throne” which means she equates romeo to royalty despite his sins

• shows juliets unconditional love

• alternatively it proves romeo and juliets love is unrealistic and just infatuations

“i set up my everlasting rest…and shake the yoke of inauspicious stars...from this world- wearied flesh”

• enjambment of this quotation hints at the speed of romeos thought, which is arguable rash and irrational.

• suggests inevitablity of ending which finishes with romeos death

“there is no world without vernoas walls/ but purgatory, torture, hell itself”

• shakespeare shows romeos hyperbolic manner of though and over exaggerated view of the world

• “purgatory, toruture, hell”- is an auxesis as words ascend in intensity

• religious semantic field illustrates how romeo views external world as biblical damnation

• auxesis implies that banishement does not mean atonement but rather eternal punishment

romeo

“i am fortunes fool”

• simple sentence underlines romeos subjugation to “fortune”

• romeos language has been diminished to an unimpressive syntax

• makes himself the object communicating his passive stance on life and his inablity to accept responsibility for actions

“is it so.. then i defy you stars”

• indicates assertion of agency and self autonomy,in order to defy heavens

• creates conflict between individual and fate

• broken syntax elcidates internal turmoil