English H: Romeo and Juliet Test

Context, speaker, device, meaning of “O mischief, thou art Swift/To enter in the thoughts of desperate men.”

Speaker: Romeo to himself (“mischief”)

Context: Romeo just found out Juliet is dead and wants to kill himself immediately because he thinks it’s true

Device: Apostrophe (he’s talking TO mischief)

Meaning: Mischievous thoughts seem like good options to desperate men (and women) since they’re so desperate

Context, speaker, device, meaning of “There is thy gold, worse poison to men’s souls,/Doing more in murder in this loathsome world/Than these poor compounds that thou mayest no sell./I sell thee poison; thou hast sold me none.”

Speaker: Romeo to the apothecary

Context: Romeo wants to get the poison vile from the apothecary but the apothecary is hesitant to give him it

Device: A metaphor (he’s not LITERALLY giving poison)

Meaning: Gold itself and money causes death to happen because men love it so much that they are easily swayed in their decisions if money is involved because they always want the money. Gold also leads to moral demise.

Context, speaker, device, meaning of “poor living corse, closed in a dead man’s tomb!”

Speaker: Friar Lawrence to himself

Context: Friar Lawrence has just found out that his letters didn’t get to Romeo and he fears Juliet will suffocate in the tomb because there’s no one going to the tomb to rescue her before she wakes up

Device: Oxymoron (because Juliet can’t be a course but be living)

Meaning: It shares the tension Juliet’s “burial alive” has on Friar and the urgency he has to save her. It also causes sympathy in the audience because the audience knows someone, Romeo, is going to visit Juliet, but not save her.

Context, speaker, device, meaning of “Sweet flower, with sweet flowers thy bridal bed I strew/Which with sweet water nightly I will dew.”

Speaker: Paris to Juliet’s (presumably) dead body

Context: Paris is visiting Juliet’s tomb

Device: A metaphor (Juliet isn’t actually a flower)

Meaning: Paris is professing his love to Juliet and he’s showing he loves her (but he doesn’t actually probably loves her just to marry or to have HER as his wife by calling her practically “my sweet flower” like she’s his) and he’s telling her body how he loves her by caring for her tomb nightly

Context, speaker, device, meaning of “Thou detestable maw, thou womb of death,/Gorged with the dearest morsel of the earth,/Thus I enforce these rotten jaws to open,/And in despite I’ll cram thee with more food.”

Speaker: Romeo to himself (the tomb)

Context: Romeo is trying to open the tomb and wants to see Juliet one last time before dying, to lie beside her in death (fulfill his wish of love), and to defy fate

Device: Apostrophe

Meaning: Romeo really loves Juliet that before he dies, he wants to visit her and he wants the tomb to just open so he can die and “cram it with more food",” which is HIM (and Paris eventually). Romeo also regards the tomb as a monster (because he hates death took Juliet) and wants to challenge it, but ultimately die in it.

Context, speaker, device, meaning of “Capulet, Montague,/See what a scourge is laid upon your hate,/That heaven finds means to kill our joys with love.”

Speaker: The Prince to Capulet and Montague

Context: Juliet and Romeo just died and the Capulets and Montague (Lady Montague died) are seeing the recent deaths.

Device: A metaphor (a SCOURGE is a whip used to punish)

Meaning: The Prince shows that the Capulets’ and Montagues’ unnecessary drama has had such horrific consequences because they decided to not make up. Through their love that the two families thought wasn’t proper due to an ancient grudge, they are now mourning because both sides have lost a wonderful, young person. Hatred leads to destruction.

Context, speaker, device, meaning of “Tempt not a desperate man.”

Speaker: Romeo to Paris

Context: Romeo has come to Juliet’s tomb to die next to her, but Paris is at the tomb too and doesn’t want Romeo going near Juliet because it is believed she died because of grief about Tybalt whom Romeo killed.

Device: Foreshadowing

Meaning: Romeo warns Paris not to provoke him because he will probably die by Romeo, especially since Romeo is in a desperate and emotional state for Juliet. A couple minutes later, Romeo does end up killing Paris which fulfills the foreshadowing.

Context, speaker, device, meaning of “Death is my son-in-law,/Death is my heir;My/Daughter he hath wedded. I will die/And leave him all. Life, living in all/Death’s.”

Speaker: Capulet to Friar Lawrence (himself a little)

Context: Capulet has just found out Juliet has died and Friar Lawrence, Paris and the musicians have asked him if Juliet is ready for the wedding (they don’t know she’s “dead” yet).

Device: A metaphor (Death isn’t LITERALLY his son-in-law)

Meaning: Capulet is distraught over Juliet’s death, “Death” has stolen his family and future, and he also feels “Death” has stolen Juliet from Paris as she’s “married” “Death” over Paris.

Context, speaker, device, meaning of “How, if, when I am laid inside the tomb,/I wake before the time that Romeo/Come to redeem me?…/Shall I not then be stifled in the vault?…/And there die strangled ere my Romeo comes?”

Speaker: Juliet to herself

Context: Juliet is by herself and is about to drink the vile but is having second thoughts and “womanish fears” (as Friar calls them) about the plan.

Devices: Imagery and foreshadowing

Meaning: Juliet shows imagery through her descriptiveness of what she thinks could happen to her in the vault and she foreshadows her waking up in the tomb before Romoe can save her (because Romeo dies before he can save her) and it foreshadows her dying in the vault because she truly dies in the vault (after killing herself).

Context, speaker, device, meaning of “Eyes, look your last/Arms, take your last embrace./And lips,/O, you/The doors of breath, seal with a righteous kiss/A dateless bargain with engrossing death.”

Speaker: Romeo to himself

Context: Romeo just killed Paris and had placed him in the family tomb because he was friends with Mercutio. He’s not preparing to drink the vile and die.

Device: Apostrophe

Meaning: These are Romeo’s last words and he’s trying to say goodbye to this world in order to join Juliet whom he’s so desperate to join. He wants his eyes to take a last look at Juliet, his arms to hug her their last, and his last kiss will be drinking the poison which will kill him and have him join/marry “Death”.

Context, speaker, device, meaning of “I defy you stars.”

Speaker: Romeo to Balthasar (fate)

Context: Romeo has just found out about Juliet’s death by Balthasar and is secretly destroyed

Device: Apostrophe

Meaning: Because of Juliet’s death and the fact that he’s emotional and distraught, Romeo isn’t going to “trust in fate” like he did in the beginning of the play, but challenge it and take his fate into his own hands by killing himself to be with Juliet. He loves her that much.

Context, speaker, device, meaning of “By Holy Lawrence to fall prostrate here/To beg your pardon./Pardon, I beseech you/Henceforward I am ever ruled by you.”

Speaker: Juliet to Capulet

Context: Juliet has just spoken to Friar about the plan and is know following through by telling her parents she has come back from “confession” and wants to marry Paris.

Device: Irony (DRAMATIC IRONY)

Meaning: Juliet is pretending to want to marry Paris to deceive her parents , but it’s dramatic irony because the audience knows she doesn’t actually want to marry Paris. They also know this is one of the main things that causes her death.

Context, speaker, device, meaning of “If thy wisdom thou canst give no help,/Do thou but call my resolution wise, and with this knife I’ll help it presently.”

Speaker: Juliet to Friar

Context: Friar has learned by Paris and Juliet visiting him that Paris wants to marry Juliet on Thursday. Juliet basically tells him that if he can’t do anything about it, she’ll kill herself with the knife.

Device: Foreshadowing and verbal irony

Meaning: This foreshadows Juliet’s death because she does in fact die by her own hand. It’s also verbal irony, because Juliet thinks it wise to kill herself, which suicide isn’t wise. Juliet also tells this to Friar because she really doesn’t want to marry Paris.

Context, speaker, device, meaning of “Death lies on her like an untimely frost/Upon the sweetest flower of all the field.”

Speaker: Capulet to the Nurse, Lady Capulet, etc.

Context: Capulet has just found out that Juliet is dead and he’s distraught that he can’t even comprehend what has happened.

Device: Simile

Meaning: Capulet values Juliet so much and she is so much like the “best flower of the field” to him since he loves her so much. Death has killed her like how frost kills a flower, but even though it’s killed, the flower and its beauty are preserved underneath the frost (death), just as Juliet’s beauty is preserved. This death he also mentions IS untimely, especially with the marriage.

Context, speaker, device, meaning of “My heart is wondrous light/Since this same wayward girl is so reclaimed.”

Speaker: Capulet to Lady Capulet

Context: Juliet has just told her father he she wants to marry Paris and she’s sorry for her disrespect toward her father’s wish for her to marry Paris. Capulet is delighted about this.

Device: A metaphor (his heart ISN’T literally wondrous night)

Meaning: Capulet is overjoyed that Juliet wants to marry Paris again, and that she’s a people-pleaser that has succumbed to his wishes for his family, but Capulet doesn’t know Juliet is lying to him.

Context, speaker, device, meaning of “The heavens do lour upon you for some ill/Move them no more by crossing their high will.”

Speaker: Friar Lawrence to Lady Capulet, Capulet, and Paris, etc.

Context: Friar and the other have found of Juliet is “dead,” and Friar wants to get this show on the road immediately by burying Juliet.

Device: Personification

Meaning: It’s personification because inanimate heavens “lour” (frown) on the Capulets because of their feud between the Montagues. He suggests to not make the heavens angrier by burying Juliet and giving her a proper burial (pleases the heavens).

Context, speaker, device, meaning of “All things we ordained festival/Turn from their office to black funeral.”

Speaker: Capulet to mostly Friar Lawrence, Lady Capulet, etc. (mostly himself though)

Context: Capulet has discovered Juliet has died and Friar is trying to tell Capulet that she’s in a better place.

Devices: Symbolism and dramatic irony

Meaning: It shows symbolism because the “ordained festival” things are the joy had about Juliet’s life, and the “black funeral” represents the mourning of Juliet’s body because of her death. This is also dramatic irony because the audience knows Juliet’s not dead yet.

Gorged

Collar that something has around its neck

Scourge

A whip for punishment

Prostrate

Lie flat down

Beseech

Beg

Lour

Frown upon