Prince Escalus

• "Rebellious subjects" "Enemies to peace"-The Prince, Act 1:1


  Shows how the Prince feels the Capulet and Montague feud is tearing up Verona and despite wanting peace, he can't restrain their violence. The Prince also metaphorically represents the law which is powerless against the feud and therefore powerless against the passions of hatred and love
• "you beasts"- The Prince, Act 1:1


  Shows that the Prince does not think the fighting makes them men, as they try to uphold their masculine honour that many felt important in Elizabethan society but instead they are like animals
• "Throw your mistempered weapons to the ground"-The Prince, Act 1:1


  The Prince gains confidence here is his short , demanding statement by use of the imperative "throw". He also stops hesitating which we can see from the pause points that indicate his lack of confidence beforehand
• "If ever you disturb our streets again, your lives shall pay the forfeit of the peace"-The Prince, Act 1:1


  Shows the Prince's inner conflict between law and mercy. Such an extreme punishment here will actually result in no good
• "My blood for your rude brawls doth lie a-bleeding"-The Prince, Act 3:1


  He finds his cousin Mercutio dead and this personal interest shows the undeniable affect of the feud on Verona's society.
• "you shall all repent the loss of mine"- The Prince, Act 3:1


  The Prince struggles even more so with his inner conflict of law and mercy as now the feud has taken a personal toll on his life and yet he is still having to take charge of the situation
• "Immediately we do exile him hence"- The Prince, Act 3:1

  The Prince does choose to show mercy here as the punishment he had claimed before had been death , but in light of the fact that it was Tybalt who began the brawl, he banishes Romeo instead. You could argue this is the hand of fate, because had Romeo not been banished, the Friar would not have to send a letter that gets lost and perhaps the couple would not have died
• "What fear is this that startles our ears?"- The Prince, Act 5:3


  In his last appearance the Prince seems even more conflicted as ever which we can see by his repeated questioning. He acts as the missing conscience of the Capulet and Montague parents throughout the play and here he almost hands it back to them metaphorically
• "Capulet! Montague! See what a scourge is laid upon your hate"- The Prince, Act 5:3


  The Prince almost echoes the prologue here as he gives the feuding parents the most raw and hurtful result that their feud has created- the death of their children
• "heaven finds means to kill your joys with love"- The Prince, Act 5:3


  As if the Prince acknowledges here that he never has the upper hand all along but God or arguably fate knew that the way to end the feud was to kill the future of the feuding families and in a way that contrasts obscenely to their passionate hatred- Romeo and Juliet's passionate love
• "the sun, for sorrow, will not show his head"- The Prince, Act 5:3


  The personification of the sun shows that even the world cannot proceed as normal due to the great loss of Romeo and Juliet, as if the sun is ashamed to shine on such a world that allows a feud to kill such innocent young lovers
• "some shall be pardoned and some will be punished"- The Prince, Act 5:3


  The Prince suggests that the Friar will be amongst the pardoned but in terms of the other characters Shakespeare leaves us in the dark. We see perhaps that the Prince has learnt little from the tragedy despite losing two kinsmen as he still believes, as he did at the,start, that law and mercy can go hand in hand
• " all are punished"- The Prince


  The Prince acknowledges that the weight of burden due to the deaths of Romeo and Juliet is enough to mean all will be punished in some way or another
• "for winking at your discords I too have lost a brace of kinsmen"- The Prince, Act 5:3


  Shows that there is no solution to the conflict between mercy and law that burdens his conscience as even two of his relatives, Paris and Mercutio have died at mercy rather than his explicit law of death. It is Shakespeare's ultimate irony that the Prince seems t learn little from this
• "For never was there a story of more woe, than this of Juliet and her Romeo"- The Prince, Act 5:3


  Links back to the prologue and the use of a rhyming couplet makes the ending final and the iambic pentameter gives a sense of closure to the play