R+J Character Quotes and Context

• Romeo

  • "Ah me, sad hours seem long" - A1S1
  • "O brawling love, o loving hate" - A1S1
  • "Here's much to do with hate but more with love" - A1S1
  • "Heavy lightness", "misshapen chaos of well-seeming forms", "feather of lead", "bright smoke", "cold fire", " sick health", "still-waking sleep" - A1S1
  • "The devout religion" - (his love) A1S2
  • "Under love's heavy burden do I sink" - A1S4
  • "Heavy is a soul of lead" - A1S4
  • "Did my heart love till now?" - A1S5
  • "I ne'er saw true beauty till this night" - A1S5
  • "Teach the torches to burn bright" - A1S5
  • "Too rich to use" - A1S5
  • "Snowy dove trooping with crows" - A1S5
  • "Juliet is the sun" - A2S2
  • "Bright angel" - A2S2
  • "I'll be new baptised" - A2S2 →he will change his name for her
  • "Love's light wings" - A2S2
  • "Stony limits cannot hold love out" - A2S2
  • "Love-devouring death do what he care" - A2S6
  • "O sweet Juliet, thy beauty have made me effeminate"` - A3S1
• Juliet

  • "What is your will?" - A1S3 → she is obedient
  • "It is an honour I dream not of" - (marriage) A1S3
  • "I'll look to like, if looking liking move" - A1S3 →doesn't care about marriage
  • "My only love, sprung from my only hate!" - A1S5
  • "I'll no longer be a Capulet" - (Juliet) A2S2
  • "What's in a name?" - A2S2
  • "Not yet drunk a hundred words" - A2S2 →doesn't know him for very long
  • "Too like the lightning" - A2S2
  • "Defy thy father and refuse thy name"
  • "Art thou a Montague?"
  • "I have bought the mansion of love but not possessed it" - A5S2
• Friar Lawrence

  • "Young men's love lies not truly in their heart, but in their eyes" - A2S3
  • "Women may fall when there's no strength in men" - A2S3
  • "Thy love did read by rote, that could not spell" - A2S3
  • "Turn your household's rancour to pure love" - A2S3
  • "They stumble that run fast" - A2S3
  • "These violent delights have violent ends" - A2S6
  • "I'll dispose of thee"
• Nurse

  • "Lamb", "Ladybird" - (to Juliet) A1S3 → shows her closeness
  • "Seek happy nights to happy days" - A1S3
  • "I might live to see thee married once" - A1S3 →she wants to see Juliet married
  • "I can tell her age unto an hour" - A1S3
  • "like an honest gentleman" - A2S5
• Lord Capulet

  • "Tis not so hard, I think, for men so old as we to keep the peace" - (fight is with the younger members) A1S2
  • "Too soon marred are those so early made" - A1S2
  • "She is the hopeful lady of my earth" - A1S2
  • "My child is yet a stranger in the world" - A1S2
  • "My will to her consent is but a part" - A1S2
  • "Ripe to be a bride" - A1S2
  • "Verona brags of him" - (about Romeo) A1S5 →he likes Romeo
  • "Hang, beg, starve, die in the streets, disobedient wretch!" - A3S5
  • "My fingers itch" "Out green-sickness carrion"
  • "Hang thee young baggage, disobedient wretch!" - A3S5
• Mercutio

  • "If love be rough with you, be rough with love" - A1S4
  • "Hath stolen him home to bed" - A2S1 →bawdy humour, Romeo slept with Rosaline
  • "If love be blind, love cannot hit the mark" - A2S1
  • "Without his roe" - A2S4 → bawdy humour
  • "Calm dishonourable, vile submission!" - A3S1
  • "True I talk of dreams"
  • "A plague o both your houses!" - A3S1
  • "You shall find me a grave man" - A3S1
  • "Why the devil you came between us?" - A3S1
  • "They have made worms meat out of me" - A3S1
  • "Ay, ay a scratch, a scratch!"
  • "Here's my fiddlestick"
  • "Dost thou make us minstrels?"
• Tybalt

  • "Look upon thy death" - A1S1
  • "Peace? I hate the word, as I hate hell, all Montagues and thee" - A1S1
  • "Fiery Tybalt" - (Benvolio) A1S1
  • "Strike him dead" - A1S5 when he sees Romeo
  • "Honour of my kin" - A1S5 + verse is used for emphasis
  • "Thou art a villain" - A3S1
• Benvolio

  • "Part fools" - A1S1
  • "I do but keep the peace" - A1S1
  • "Thou wilt quarrel with a man for cracking nuts" - (Mercutio) A3S1 →he is quick to anger
  • "Withdraw unto some private place" - A3S1
  • "Farewell my coz"
• The Prince

  "If you ever disturb our streets again, your lives shall pay the forfeit of the peace" - A1S1

  "There never was a story more of woe; then this of that of Juliet and Romeo." - A5S3
• Paris

  • "Of honourable reckoning" - (to Capulet) A1S2 → he's a suck up
  • "Happy mothers made" - A1S2 → he cares for Juliet
  • "He's a man of wax" - (Nurse) A1S3
  • "Delight writ there with beauty's pen" - (Lady C) A1S3
• Lady Capulet

  • "I was your mother much upon these years" - A1S3 → she was a young mum
  • "Golden story" - A1S3 →marry for money
  • "By having him making yourself no less" - A1S3 → Juliet will gain and should marry him
  • "Blood of ours shed the blood of Montague"
• Rosaline

  • "She hath Dian's wit" - (Romeo) A1S1 →she will live a virgin
  • "She will still live chaste" - (Benvolio) A1S1
  • "Huge waste" - (Romeo) A1S1
  • "Rank poison of the old will die" - (Benvolio) A1S2 → Romeo needs to get over her
  • "The all-seeing sun ne'er saw her match" - (Romeo) A1S2
  • "Forgot that name, and that name's woe" - (Friar L) A2S3
  • "For doting" - (Friar L) A2S3
• Setting → Verona, Italy → geographical difference as well as set ~200 years before it was first performed
• Shakespeare was writing during the Renaissance, regarded as a time of greater creative expression
• Patriarchy → men viewed as strictly superior → fathers owned daughters until marriage(seen as possessions) + men had certain desires, women did not
• Performed to a cross-class audience as tickets of various prices were offered → appeal to the lower class through sexual jokes and innuendos
• Tragedy → use of Aristotle's Catharsis and Hamartia
• Religion → Britain at this point Protestant, setting in Catholic Italy → viewed negatively, considered corrupt and excessively displaying their wealth(aka hated for being too posh)
• Fate → central concept in society → majority believed in predestination → courses were initially predetermined with no way to change them
• Honour → split into masculine and familial → by masculine honour, challenges to one's stature need to be accepted and fought out with violence; by familial honour, children of nobles were supposed to regard their family as the utmost priority in their lives → otherwise disowned
• 'For never was a story of more woe than this of Juliet and her Romeo.' - Prince Escalus
• 'A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life' - Prologue
• 'O happy dagger! This is thy sheath; there rust, and let me die.' - Juliet
• 'My love is as boundless as the sea,' - Juliet
• 'O happy dagger! This is thy sheath; there rust, and let me die!' - Juliet