r+j (quotes) ♡ (incomplete)

• ‘from ancient grudge break to new mutiny‘ - prologue


  ’ancient‘ / ‘new’: establishes theme of time

  ’mutiny’: theme of violence
• ‘civil blood makes civil hands unclean’ - prologue


  repetition ‘civil’: stresses dignity of families, highlights how unnecessary the conflict is
• ‘from the fatal loins of these two foes’ - prologue


  fricative phonology (‘f‘ sounds): stresses importance - r+j were victims of the conflict, they just happened to be related to the warring families
• ‘a pair of star crossed lovers take their life’ - prologue


  ‘star crossed’: establishes theme of fate (very important since the play is a tragedy - characters have no agency, their fate was established since the beginning)
• ‘death marked love’ - prologue

  ‘death marked love’: oxymoron - makes love synonymous with death, also has connotations of fate
• ’two households, both alike in dignity’ - prologue


  ’households’: establishes important theme of family

  ’alike in dignity’: stresses how unnecessary the conflict is (they’re supposed to be dignified)
• ‘my naked weapon is out’ - sampson / act 1 scene 1


  ‘naked weapon’: phallic imagery 😔 emphasises that the conflict of the play is very masculine

  creates an antagonistic atmosphere
• ‘i will bite my thumb at thee, sir’ - sampson / act 1 scene 1


  treating violence as fun/sport

  taunting the montagues
• ‘part, fools’ - benvolio / act 1 scene 1


  ‘fools’: generally refers to both capulets and montagues
• ‘put up your swords, you know not what you do’ - benvolio / act 1 scene 1


  ‘put’: imperative

  benvolio is a peacemaker - he considers the consequences - he has foresight
• ‘heartless hinds’ - tybalt / act 1 scene 1


  (in reference to the montagues)

  he is emasculating the montagues

  tybalt immediately aggressively + tends to use lots of imperatives
• ‘peace? i hate the word / as i hate hell, all montagues, and thee’ - tybalt / act 1 scene 1


  tybalt uses simplistic language / very action based

  emphasises severity of house feud
• ‘what noise is this? give me my long sword’ - capulet / act 1 scene 1


  violence in the play is all-encompassing, every class gets involved - even nobility

  capulet’s reputation is at stake, therefore he feels it’s necessary to join in
• ‘you men, you beasts’ - prince / act 1 scene 1


  ‘beasts’: insulting/dehumanising - implies that their behaviour is feral/out of control
• ‘canker’d hate’ - prince / act 1 scene 1


  ‘canker’d’: implying both an uncontrollable rage, and that the conflict is a cancerous disease - foreshadowing mercutio act 3 scene 1 ‘a plague on both your houses’
• ‘your lives shall pay the forfeit of your peace’ - prince / act 1 scene 1


  foreshadowing the deaths that will come from the conflict
• ‘shuts up his windows, locks fair daylight out, and makes himself an artificial night‘ - montague / act 1 scene 1


  ‘fair daylight‘ + ‘artificial night’: light imagery + pathetic fallacy reflects romeo’s mood with a contrast of light + dark images - contrasts romeo act 2 scene 2 ‘what light through yonder window breaks? / it is the east, and juliet is the sun’
• ‘love, whose view is muffled still, / should, without eyes, see pathways to his will’ - romeo / act 1 scene 1


  ‘love’: personification of love or a god of love - portraying love as ruthless

  ’view is muffled’ + ’should, without eyes, see’: juxtaposition
• ‘o brawling love, o loving hate’ - romeo / act 1 scene 1


  ‘o’: exclamato signifies an outpour of ineffable emotions

  oxymoron accentuates his internal/psychological conflict
• ‘feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health‘ - romeo / act 1 scene 1


  romeo really loves oxymorons 😔 it’s a syndetic list

  a lot of sibilance in the speech (‘s’): soft words that reflect his character - the sibilance is mellifluous

  ’sick health’: suffering - shows irrationality of extreme emotions
• ’being purged, a fire sparkling in lovers‘ eyes’ - romeo / act 1 scene 1


  ‘eyes’: ocular imagery

  in general, romeo’s perfect rhyming couplets and iambic pentameter in this scene signify that his suffering is superficial and practiced
• ‘earth swallowed all my hopes but she; / she’s the hopeful lady of my earth’ - capulet / act 1 scene 2


  (speaking about juliet)

  context: high rates of child mortality in this time period

  ’hopeful lady of my earth’: she is his most treasured possession
• ‘fresh fennel buds’ - capulet / act 1 scene 2


  (speaking about women at the party)

  capulet offers a very sexualised ideal of women: accentuates main conflict of the play being masculine/patriarchal
• ‘now by my maidenhead at twelve year old’ - nurse / act 1 scene 3


  the nurse’s first line in the play is about loss of virginity: establishes her as a comic relief character, a lot of what she says is sexualised
• ‘what, lamb! what, ladybird!’ - nurse / act 1 scene 3


  (about juliet)

  ‘lamb’ + ’ladybird’: signify juliet’s youth

  nurse uses affectionate nicknames for juliet: establishes their close relationship
• ‘he’s a man of wax’ - lady capulet / act 1 scene 3


  (about paris)

  exemplifies that she’s very focused on physical appearances

  context about the name ‘paris’: a classical character known for being the most beautiful man in the world
• ‘so shall you share all that he doth possess’ - lady capulet / act 1 scene 3


  for lady capulet, love is also about material wealth: showing she is protective over juliet and cares about her future
• ‘speak briefly‘ - lady capulet / act 1 scene 3


  (addressing juliet)

  she is controlling of her daughter and doesn’t allow her to speak often in the scene
• ‘i’ll look to like, if looking liking move’ - juliet / act 1 scene 3


  juliet is confusing on purpose: she asserts herself a little
• ’if love be rough with you, be rough with love / prick love for pricking, and you beat love down’ - mercutio / act 1 scene 4


  ‘prick love for pricking’: a double entendre - phallic imagery, has a comedic effect

  establishes mercutio as a dynamic, spontaneous and aggressive character - as his name suggests, he is mercurial
• ‘i fear too early, for my mind misgives / some consequence yet hanging in the stars’ - romeo / act 1 scene 4


  prophetic/foreshadowing/a premonition

  ’stars’: fate/fortune
• ‘of a despised life closed in my breast / by some vile forfeit of untimely death’ - romeo / act 1 scene 4


  semantic of death: proleptic irony
• ‘but he that hath the steerage of my course / direct my sail’ - romeo / act 1 scene 4


  ‘he’: personification of fate

  shows he can’t control his fate/has no agency over his destiny: feature of a tragedy
• ‘o she doth teach the torches to burn bright’ - romeo / act 1 scene 5


  ‘o’: exclamato

  ’burn bright’: alliteration

  a rhyming couplet: stylised/ordered - shows unity
• ‘a rich jewel‘ - romeo / act 1 scene 5


  ’rich jewel’: objectifying juliet as a precious possession

  similar to capulet act 1 scene 2 ‘she’s the hopeful lady of my earth’
• ‘a snowy dove trooping with crows’ - romeo / act 1 scene 5


  ’snowy dove’: purity / avian imagery

  ’dove’ vs ‘crows’: contrast of light and dark imagery - not particularly portraying dark=bad, just exemplifying how juliet stands out
• ‘make blessed my rude hand’ - romeo / act 1 scene 5


  ‘blessed’: religious - idolises juliet as a saint

  romeo: a petrarchan/courtly lover - idealises juliet
• ‘i ne‘er saw true beauty till this night’ - romeo / act 1 scene 5


  ‘true beauty’: shows how fickle romeo is - earlier he was in love with rosaline / also further objectifies juliet, loves her only based off her physical appearance
• ‘what dares the slave‘ - tybalt / act 1 scene 5


  (referring to romeo)

  ’slave’: insulting/lowers romeo’s status
• ‘to strike him dead i hold it not a sin’ - tybalt / act 1 scene 5


  monosyllabic language: simplistic/direct

  tybalt’s fury: juxtaposes celebratory atmosphere + theme of love, foreshadows later conflict / warns the audience about him