Romeo

• Romeo Montague


  The eponymous character of the play, initially portrayed as an archetypal Petrarchan lover
• Romeo


  • Self-conscious sufferer, driven by his unrequited love for Rosaline
  • Isolates himself from family, relatives and friends
  • Meeting with Juliet Capulet ignites a major shift in the play's trajectory and Romeo's narrative
  • Deemed a "star-crossed lover" as their love is challenged by arbitrary fate
  • His development is an important cursor for the transition from comedy to tragedy
  • His hamartia (fatal flaw) is the inability to think rationally, choosing instead to make quick impulsive decisions which result in his downfall
• Romeo's purpose


  Shakespeare is engaging with the idiosyncrasies of his time through the portrayal of Romeo, though it is debatable whether his purpose was didactic and confrontational, or simply to put forward a mirror reflection of his society.
• Romeo


  • Loving - Encourages the audience to explore different types of love and question its effects. Initially preoccupied by the concept of love, embodied by his infatuation with Rosaline. Juliet causes him to transcend boundaries and societal expectations.
  • Fateful - Ultimately unable to defy the powers of fortune and fate, but signifies a level of self-autonomy and assertion of the individual self.
  • Religious - His dialogue is imbued with religious allusions, echoing the religious society of Shakespeare's time.
  • Isolated - Indicates isolation in various scenes, referring to Petrarchan suffering and detachment from the world and his individual self.
  • Masculine - Navigates the realm of masculinity, contrasted with hyper-masculine characters like Mercutio, and subverts stereotypical masculine characteristics.
  • Violent - Violence is hindered by love, as Romeo refuses Tybalt due to his new maturity brought upon by his relationship with Juliet. After Juliet's purported death, he reverts to typical masculine behaviour.
• Juliet


  The two eponymous characters possess the central relationship of the play, which develops quickly and is incredibly passionate. Juliet is extremely young in comparison to Romeo, and this is likely her first real relationship. Their initial interaction is flirtatious, juxtaposing the terrible tension it goes on to cause, but is also evidently pure and passionate. Their love for each other is potently strong, demonstrated by their mutual suicide.
• Rosaline


  Although never seen in the play, Rosaline serves to show the audience the difference between lust and love, as Romeo acts as a Petrarchan lover due to his infatuation with her.
• Lord Montague


  Romeo's father, who clearly has a lot of love and respect for his son. He is a minor character who further the tension between the Montagues and Capulets, but also resolves this conflict at the end of the play.
• Lady Montague


  Also a minor character, but has a lot of love and affection for her son, and dies from grief upon learning of his death.
• Mercutio


  Romeo's best friend, who is a foil for Romeo as he is a cynical man focused on the physical parts of love. They deeply care for each other, as evidenced by Romeo's murderous rage after Mercutio's death.
• Tybalt


  Romeo's main rival, a Capulet who fights with Romeo in Act 3, resulting in Romeo killing Tybalt in revenge for Mercutio's death.
• The Friar


  Acts as a father figure for Romeo.
• Montague: 'Shuts up his windows, locks fair daylight out,/And makes himself an artificial night:'
• Romeo: 'Why then, O brawling love, O loving hate,/ O any thing of nothing first create!'
• Romeo: 'O, she is rich in beauty, only poor/ That when she dies, with beauty dies her store'
• Romeo: 'Transparent heretics, be burnt for liars./One fairer than my love! The all-seeing sun/ Ne'er saw her match since first the world begun.'
• Irregular rhyming couplets


  Indicates the unpredictable nature of love
• Petrarchan lover


  Suffers from unrequited love
• Poetry personified


  Made more visible, as Romeo is shown writing his dialogue
• Romeo: '"O, she is rich in beauty, only poor/ That when she dies, with beauty dies her store".'
• Caesura


  Interjects the line, much like how death interrupts her "beauty"
• Repetition of "dies"


  Emphasises the indomitable transience of her "beauty" and "store"
• Adjectives concerning wealth "rich" and "poor"


  Implies that women are commodities measured by their beauty and fertility
• Romeo: '"Transparent heretics, be burnt for liars./One fairer than my love! The all-seeing sun/ Ne'er saw her match since first the world began".'
• "Heretics"

  Individuals with unorthodox religious beliefs, who were often burned to death in the Elizabethan era
• Romeo's infatuation


  Analogous to faith and religion: Rosaline is portrayed as the perfect being, like God, and Romeo as a devout follower
• "Sun" and "light"


  Lexically cohesive motif associated with beauty and love
• Romeo: '"Some consequence yet hanging in the stars…But He hath the steerage of my course."'
• "...the stars"

  Indicate the heavens, and the idea that life on earth is dictated by that macrocosm
• Shakespeare allegorically represents Romeo

  As a ship and God as the captain- "...He hath steerage of [Romeo's] course", signifying lack of self-autonomy and the character's passivity to higher power
• Regular rhyming couplets


  Add energy to the dialogue, reinforcing the excitement and intense emotions of Romeo
• Couplets


  Heighten the feeling of love - they are two lines fit together as a singular unit/ anatomy
• Juliet


  Metaphorically portrayed as transcendental
• Lexically cohesive conflict between light and dark

  Alludes to the "artificial night" in scene 1, which emphasises the weight of Juliet's presence in the character's narrative arc
• Metaphor "As a rich jewel in an Ethiop's ear-"


  Portrays the objectification of Juliet
• First 14 lines of dialogue between the two protagonists

  Form a Shakespearan sonnet - indicates romance and love
• Call and response in the sonnet rhyme scheme

  Finished by a rhyming couplet echoes the characters' compatibility; it also implies the reciprocation of love
• Romance


  Expressed as a religious experience, conveyed by the allegory of saints praying
• Romeo: '"But Soft, what light through yonder window breaks?/ It is the east and Juliet is the sun./ Arise fair sun, and kill the envious moon."'
• Juliet being described metaphorically as the "fair sun"


  Illustrates Romeo's growing obsession and infatuation, as the sun is the source of all life; Juliet vitalises Romeo
• Antithesis constructed between the "sun" and "moon"

  The "moon" refers to Diana, the patroness of virgins, which Romeo wishes to "kill", suggesting his carnal desires to have Juliet