juliet quotes

• "My child is yet a stranger in the world, / She hath not seen the change of fourteen years" - Capulet (Act 1, Scene 2)

  • Juliet is only 13; audience feels pity & Shakespeare adds to pathos
  • she is stuck between childhood & adulthood - alludes to how Juliet is always caught between opposing forces
• "Madam, I am here, what is your will?" - Juliet ("Act 1, Scene 3)

  • Juliet doesn't refer to her mother as mother; she calls her "madam" - highlights the respect Juliet has for her mother but also shows the distance between them
  • contrasts to informal "thou" towards nurse
• "Thou wilt fall backwards when hast more wit, / wilt thou not, Jule?" - Nurse (Act 1, Scene 3)

  • highlights patriarchal society of Verona as the Nurse and her husband had discussed Juliet reaching sexual maturity when she was a child
  • shows Juliet has always been seen as an object to be married off
• "To beautify him, only lacks a cover" - Lady Capulet (act 1, Scene 3)

  • metaphor for women; objectification of woman
  • last line of extended metaphor of Paris being a book
• "bigger women grow by men" - nurse (act 1, scene 3)

  • implying women become pregnant after marriage
  • shows how reliant women were on men
• "I'll look to like, if looking liking move" - Juliet (act 3, scene 1)

  • shows her obedience - Shakespeare does this to highlight contrast in Juliet's disobedience in later scenes
  • hints at her rebellious nature - clever & evasive response to her mother -> foreshadows rebellious nature later on
  • alliterative 'l' sound - tongue twisting effect constructing confusion, adding to Juliet's ambiguous response
• "O she doth teach the torches to burn bright!" - Romeo (Act 1, Scene 5)

  "As a rich jewel in an Ethiop's ear" - Romeo (act 1, Scene 5)

  • regular rhyming couplets - suggest Juliet can reciprocate feelings
  • comparison to light pearl against Ethiopian's skin
  • metaphor - objectifies Juliet again
  • conflict between light and dark - emphasising Juliet's presence in character's narrative arc
• "teach the torches", "a snowy dove trooping with crows", "beauty too rich for use, for earth too dear" - Romeo (Act 1, Scene 5)

  • Juliet portrayed as transcendental; "doves" have biblical connotations of good luck, crows have bad luck
• "Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much, which mannerly devotion shows in this; For saints have hands that pilgrims' hands do touch, find palm to palm is holy palmer's kiss" - Juliet (Act 1, Scene 5)

  • one of the 3 ABAB quatrains in perfect Shakespearean sonnet
  • conversation between two people perfectly in sync
  • stichomythia (sharing of lines) shows compatibility between them
  • religious imagery shows their love isn't limited to physical attraction; transcends into realms of agape
• "If he be marrièd, My grave is like to be my wedding bed" - Juliet (Act 1, Scene 5)

  • meta-theatrical foreshadowing of play's events
  • links "wedding bed" (symbol of intimacy, sex, love) to "grave" (death and decay) - shows how oppositions are intertwined in play
• "My only love sprung from my only hate!" - Juliet (Act 1, Scene 5)

  • antithesis & mirrored sentence structure
  • ambiguity of love & connection between love & hate
• "O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo? / Deny thy father and refuse thy name" - Juliet (act 2, Scene 2)

  • youthful sense of idealism and naivety
  • Juliet realises futile & trivial nature of feud as it's just because of a name
  • shows her wise and spiritual understanding of the cogs of Veronian society
• "What's in a name? That which we call a rose / By any other word would smell as sweet" - Juliet (Act 2, Scene 2)

  • questions the importance of words & names
  • Shakespeare portrays Juliet as a girl with a high level of maturity; he suggests that if other characters of the play displayed such maturity, the violence and prejudice between families would subside
• "If they do see thee, they will murder thee" - Juliet (act 2, Scene 2)

  • R&J have very different reactions in this situation
  • shows Juliet's maturity - strong, practical, realistic
  • "murder" being the only word that isn't monosyllabic highlights the importance in the line
• "O swear not by the moon, th'inconstant moon, / That monthly changes in her circled orb" - Juliet (Act 2, Scene 2)

  • passionate but cautious of Romeo's commitment
  • rejects ideas of traditional fake love; encourages Romeo to follow more spontaneous, unrehearsed love
• "I should have been more strange, I must confess" - Juliet (Act 2, Scene 2)

  • regretful as she feels she was too forward; should've been more distant - shows maturity
• "I pray thee speak, good, good Nurse, speak" - Juliet (Act 2, Scene 5)

  • shows her impatience - contrast to her wanting to move slow with relationship as she now wants to marry asap
• "bring in cloudy night immediately" - Juliet (Act 3, Scene 2)

  • imperative - longing, impatience, desperation, lustful
• "I have bought the mansion of a love, / But not possessed it, and though I am sold, / Not yet enjoyed" - Juliet (Act 3, scene 2)

  • half rhyme between "possessed" and "enjoyed" shows her experience is incomplete
  • objectifies herself - "sold" - aware of her commodification
• "My dearest cousin, and my dearer lord?" - Juliet (Act 3, Scene 2)

  • comparatives show Romeo is more important to her
  • conflict between familial & romantic love
• "beautiful tyrant, fiend angelical", "Shall I speak ill of him that is my husband?" - Juliet (Act 3, Scene 2)

  • oxymorons reflect internal conflict Juliet faces
  • broken syntax shows her anger & emphasises conflict
  • Shakespeare does this to show being secretive can be a cause of conflict too
• "O Fortune, Fortune, all men call thee fickle" - Juliet (Act 3, Scene 5)

  • fricatives "Fortune" & "fickle" - emphasis
  • "thee" - informal - "Fortune" personified as female in Elizabethan era
• "I will not marry yet, and when I do, I swear / it shall be Romeo, whom you know I hate" - Juliet (Act 3, Scene 5)

  • Juliet cleverly uses double meanings creating dramatic irony
• "Good father, I beseech you on my knees" - Juliet (Act 3, Scene 5)

  • "father" means biological father & religious holy father; indicates that Capulet is in charge and dominates family
• "She kneels down" - stage direction (Act 3, scene 5)

  • Capulet is pedestaled above Juliet showing her obedience
  • "[kneeling]" makes it religious - like praying
• "Come weep with me, past hope, past cure, past help" - Juliet to Friar (Act 4, scene 1)

  • shows Juliet's desperation
• "this bloody knife / shall play the umpire" - Juliet (Act 4, scene 1)

  • desperation - puts lots of pressure on Friar Lawrence
• "Give me, give me!" - Juliet (Act 4, scene 1)

  • imperative shows desperation - impulsive
• "I pray thee leave to myself tonight" - Juliet (Act 4, scene 3)

  • final detachment from the maternal figures in her life
  • asserts her independence & growth; new level of maturity
• "What if this mixture do not work at all?" - Juliet (Act 4, scene 3)

  • intelligent, contemplative
• "O happy dagger, / This is thy sheath; / there rust, and let me die" - Juliet (act 5, scene 3)

  • antithesis; inverted metaphor "happy dagger" - dagger is personified
  • reiterates idea that love & death are inextricably linked
  • monosyllabic - affirmative & assertive
• "stabs herself" - stage direction (act 5, scene3)

  • in roman tradition, stabbing was the most honourable and noble form of suicide - Juliet is tragic hero
  • this is Juliet's only act of violence but it's also the play's final act violence
  • therefore, Juliet's action exerts a change in society
  • Shakespeare promotes idea that action is necessary to bring about new order
• "All are punished" - Prince Escalus (Act 5, Scene 3)

  • everyone is punished for the sin of feud
  • shows no good comes from senseless hate & cruelty
  • deaths of R&J are ironically the wake-up call their parents needed to put an end to their "ancient grudge"