QUOTES word-level analysis 1

"From forth the fatal loins of these two foes A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life"

Chorus, fricative alliteration creates foreboding, "fatal" suggests fate and death, "star-cross'd" implies destiny controls the lovers, foreshadows suicide

"If love be rough with you, be rough with love; Prick love for pricking, and you beat love down."

Mercutio, near chiasmus reverses Romeo's suffering, pun on "prick" creates sexual innuendo, fencing imagery, foreshadows Mercutio's violent death

"Love is a smoke made with the fume of sighs"

Romeo, metaphor presents love as intoxicating and dangerous, "sighs" suggest pleasure and pain, smoke imagery implies confusion and blindness

"My only love sprung from my only hate"

Juliet, paradox highlights conflict between love and family loyalty, "sprung" suggests uncontrollable and natural emotions

"My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss."

Romeo, religious imagery presents love as sacred, "blushing" combines innocence with sensual passion

"Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon, Who is already sick and pale with grief."

Romeo, celestial imagery idealises Juliet, sun symbolises passion and life, moon represents Rosaline and unrequited love

"My bounty is as boundless as the sea, My love as deep; the more I give to thee, The more I have, for both are infinite"

Juliet, sea metaphor conveys limitless love, plosive alliteration emphasises emotional intensity

"I have no joy of this contract to-night: It is too rash, too unadvis'd, too sudden; Too like the lightning, which doth cease to be Ere one can say 'It lightens.'"

Juliet, repetition and tricolon show caution, lightning simile conveys beauty and danger, foreshadows tragedy

"Parting is such sweet sorrow."

Juliet, oxymoron combines joy and sadness, reflects the complexity of love

"The earth that's nature's mother is her tomb; What is her burying grave that is her womb."

Friar Laurence, antithesis links life and death, nature contains opposing forces