quotes

• In Romeo and Juliet, love underpins most of the plot, exploring both positive aspects and difficulties when relationships are incompatible
• The older and younger generations approach love differently in the play
• Romeo and Juliet have an all-encompassing love for each other, willing to give up everything for it, while the older generation, particularly Capulet, try to control romantic love
• Shakespeare shows the power of traditional romantic love to shape Romeo and Juliet’s lives and lead to tragedy, as well as the healing power of love ending hostilities between Montague and Capulet
• Shakespeare also presents other types of love in the play: friendship between Romeo and Mercutio, family ties, and caring relationships like Romeo with the Friar and Juliet with the Nurse
• In Shakespearean times, people tended to get married at a much younger age than today, making it difficult for Romeo and Juliet to choose who they want to marry, especially from enemy families
• Key Quotations on Love:

  • Romeo: ‘Here’s much to do with hate, but more with love. Why, then, O brawling love! O loving hate!’
  • Juliet: ‘What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet’
  • Prince: ‘For never was a story of more woe that this of Juliet and her Romeo’
• Fate plays a significant role in Romeo and Juliet, with various characters referring to fate guiding their lives
• The prologue sets the tone, indicating that Romeo and Juliet’s love is ill-fated and doomed from the start
• In the 16th and 17th centuries, people believed in astrology influencing their lives, adding to the idea of fate in the play
• The prologue creates dramatic irony, where the audience knows more than the characters, enhancing the sense of fate throughout the play
• Key Quotations on Fate:

  • Chorus: ‘A pair of star-crossed lovers take their lives’
  • Romeo: ‘O, I am fortune’s fool!’
  • Friar Laurence: ‘A greater power than we can contradict hath thwarted our intents’
• Conflict is central to Romeo and Juliet, with the feuding families providing a dramatic background to the tale
• Shakespeare portrays conflict through street fights, personal inner conflicts like Juliet's, and family conflicts like Capulet pressuring Juliet to marry Paris
• The play shows the potential price of conflict in defense of honor, with multiple deaths before love somewhat overcomes conflict in the end
• Key Quotations on Conflict:

  • Tybalt: ‘What, drawn, and talk of peace! I hate the word, as I hate hell, all Montagues, and thee’
  • Friar Laurence: ‘These violent delights have violent ends and in their triumph die’
  • Mercutio: ‘A plague o’ both your houses!’
• Shakespeare explores the complex nature of family relationships in Romeo and Juliet, showing the strong connection of family as well as the alienation caused by going against a strong family
• The Montagues and Capulets, high status wealthy families in Verona, have a feud that extends beyond their immediate families, involving many people who owe allegiance to them and wear their livery
• Romeo and Juliet, both very young and immature characters, face alienation from their families and ultimately tragedy, with their families only reconciled after the death of their children
• Individual vs Society theme in Romeo and Juliet: Romeo and Juliet are portrayed as strong individuals going against their oppressive society's demands for allegiance to law, religion, family, and social order
• Juliet, in particular, shows her strong individual character by standing up to her father's wish for her to marry Paris in the patriarchal society portrayed by Shakespeare
• Romeo and Juliet's suicide is their final act of individual defiance against a society that won't let them be together, going against religion and societal norms in their tragic deaths
• Death theme in Romeo and Juliet: Death overshadows the play, with the audience knowing from the prologue that Romeo and Juliet have to die to end the feud between their families
• The play sees a rising death toll, with Mercutio, Tybalt, Paris, Romeo, and Juliet all meeting their demise due to the family feud and the complexity of Romeo and Juliet's love
• Shakespeare presents death as a shadow over the play, with Romeo and Juliet acutely aware of the risks they are taking in their love for each other