Romeo and Juliet

• “It is the east, and Juliet is the sun,”


  metaphor - the sun : gives life, necessary for life on earth, energy, power, light, brightness, force, happiness, warmth, passion, (some see it as a god to be worshipped, a higher self) - without Juliet life has no meaning, shows how strong his love for her is
• “Good Capulet, which name I tender as dearly as mine own,”


  Romeo and Juliet are married, he refuses to fight Tybalt as they are now ‘family’. contrast to the central focus of the play (the feud) - the first character to push this aside highlighting his growing maturity
• “Peace! I hate the word, as I hate hell, all Montagues, and thee. Have at thee, coward!”


  aggressive, (at the time - hell would have been the worst thing imaginable [religion AO3]) strong hatred, noun “coward” used to provoke, repeated abstract noun “peace” - meaningless, pointless, use of “I” suggests he only cares about his feelings, not thinking of the consequences of fighting
• “O, happy dagger!”


  adjective “happy” - the dagger will ultimately bring her happiness as she will be reunited with Romeo in the afterlife, she must drive it into her body, where it belongs, to end her own life
• “Did my heart love till now… For I ne’er saw true beauty till this night.”


  disregards Rosaline instantly, recognises what he felt for her wasn’t love - the moment that Romeo experiences love at first sight, no one else can compare to Juliet - hyperbole to comment on Juliet’s beauty, the fact that he has fallen in love due to this shows his immaturity
• doth with their death bury their parents strife,

  the fearful passage of their death marked love,

  and the continuance of their parents rage,

  which, but their children’s end, naught could remove,

  is now the two hours traffic of our stage.

  the which if you with patient ears attend,

  what here shall miss our toil shall strive to mend.
• two households both alike in dignity,

  in fair verona where we lay our scene,

  from ancient grudge break to new mutiny,

  where civil blood makes civil hands unclean,

  from forth the fatal loins of these two foes,

  a pair of star crossed lovers take their life,

  whose misadventured piteous overthrows.