Romeo and Juliet

• "death marked love"

  • marked = tainted, ruined, changed (defies fate)
  • amorphous aspects (love, fate etc) control action and decisions more than characters do - fate highly regarded
  • used in prologue - warns audience, foreshadows
• "O brawling love O loving hate"

  • oxymoron - stereotypical love is opposed
  • Romeo's metaphors contrast typical Petrarchan lover (uses paradoxical phrases to emphasise frustration)
  • highlights his naivety, strong throes of passion
• "Parting is such sweet sorrow"

  • sibilance represents Romeo's bitterness, oxymoron contradictory of love
  • foreshadows fatal parting - dramatic irony that greater situations follow
  • sorrow = sadness, highlights the play' wider themes - tension between sorrow and sweetness, an enormous emotion for the vulnerable titular characters
• "Thy drugs are quick - thus with a kiss I die"

  • monosyllabic and blunt - sense of shortness in length soliloquy - emphasises conviction of situation
  • Romeo escapes pain of life without love, instead of facing it - shows his weakness
  • love causes delusion and weakness - recurring theme throughout play and lack of maturity
• "O happy dagger" - Juliet

  • dramatic irony of misunderstanding of tragedy - rashness of thinking links Romeo and Juliet together even when physically separated
  • act of violence unites them in love
• "For never was a story of more woe than this of Juliet and her Romeo"

  • Prince Escalus ends play - acknowledges pointless feud + fatal consequences of love - intimate association with one another
  • indicates fine line between love and violence
  • Prince Escalus highlights that like Verona (microcosm), societies neglect needs of most vulnerable
• "Did my heart love till now? ... For I ne'er saw true beauty till this night"

  • dramatic irony - quickly changed his mind, hyperbolic language
  • fate brought Juliet to Romeo, shows naivety - Romeo's fatal flaw of irrationality highlighted (typical tragedy )
  • Haste shown - fate shows importance of timing
• "O I am fortune's fool"

  • After death of mercutio and Tybalt - alliteration conveys scorn
  • irony - Romeo is to blame, killed Tybalt himself, uses fate to remove responsibility and feeling of guilt
  • inspires uncertainty - whether he is "fortunes fool" or cooperates with fortune of free will - defies fate (proven later on - shows incomprehension of fate)
• "Then I defy you stars"

  • Romeo hears Juliet is dead - fate has brought Romeo to hear the news, which will soon lead to her actual death - paradoxical
  • Romeo strives to defy against strong amorphous force which opposes him - travels to Verona etc, willing to contradict the stars for Juliet
  • Patriarchal love + devotion - flamboyant gestures, but Shakespeare highlights irrationality (its impossible to actually do)
• "These violent delights have violent ends"

  • diacope of violent - friar attempts to act as safety and moral compass (man of church) - warns those who don't obey religion
  • friar foreshadows end of play - ending constantly reminded throughout, typical Elizabethan tragedy not meant to have surprises
  • Elizabethan audience very superstitious - idea of fate intriguing
• "Thou wilt fall backward when thou hast more wit"

  • sexual innuendo
  • Nurse remembers Juliet as a child (falling on her face), now suggests she is soon to be sexually mature
  • Nurse = lower class female - Shakespeare uses euphemisms to bridge gap
  • used as a form of rebellion against class system - more relatable character to Juliet
• "Draw thy tool" "I do bite my thumb sir"

  • Sampson and Gregory - two Capulet serving men
  • 'bite my thumb' - Elizabethan profanity
  • language used as tool of rebellion and force of equality in places of unfairly stratified social order
  • theme of immaturity of men throughout play, but still keep within legality - 'no' - Shakespeare still had to conform in society's expectations
• Double entendre/homonyms


  rebel against formality and honour - human equaliser as all classes use it - wealthy, servants, musicians, tertiary class

  shows social currency's prominence over physical currency

  used as a means of creating joy and levity in times of darkness
• "Come Lammas Eve at night, shall she be fourteen. Susan and she [...] were of an age"

  • Nurse counting days until Juliet's birthday - uses Juliet as substitute for own daughter Susan (died prematurely)
  • 'she' - Nurse comfortable making direct comparisons between two daughters
  • Shakespeare highlights nurture is key for development of young people - otherwise they fail
• "What, lamb! What, ladybird!"

  • terms of endearment - lamb = youth vulnerable, but also commonly used with high regard, religious connotations (Juliet must make sacrafice of marrying Paris similar that Jesus did to resolve family feud)
  • Nurse uses religious semantic field to show devotion to Juliet and her happiness - unlike maternal figure
• "Thou wast the prettiest babe e'er I nursed"

  • superlative - prettiest highlights societal convention that prettiness = worth and status, showing Nurses pride for Juliet
  • physical bond of nursing shows Nurse's further devotion for Juliet, unlike Lady capulet
• Nurse + Friar


  Passive characters, but both act as sources of wisdom, guidance and reassurance to titular characters - further juxtaposes ultimate lack of care from biological parents
• the Friar "chidst [him] oft for loving Rosaline"

  • time marker - oft - shows repeated repremanding and devotion Friar has for Romeo
  • discipline only commonly carried out by those who possess power over the other, like stereotypical parental relations
• "For doting, not loving, pupil mine"

  • possessive pronoun "mine" - takes authority of Romeo, unafraid to correct him on his mistakes, such as a fatherly figure would do
  • Friar shows his care through wisdom and advice - Shakespeare highlights importance of nurture
• "give thee armor to keep off that work - adversity's sweet milk - philosophy"

  • armor - commonly used as physical protection in battle, although armor will not help prevent the banishment of Romeo, displays Friar's concern and eagerness for solution
  • oxymoron "adversity's sweet milk" - Friar aware of Romeo's discomfort and attempts to help, unlike Lord and Lady Mont
  • 'sweet milk' - familiarity and warmth, 'adversity' - great tumoil - Friar offers 'philosophy' to remedy this - devoted to Romeo's happiness
• "Out you green carrion! You tallow face! Out, you baggage!"

  • Lord Capulet sends Juliet away for refusing to marry Paris
  • Dramatic irony of semantic field of death 'carrion' and 'tallow' foreshadow Juliet's death (as a result of her father's unsympathetic actions)
  • Triad - emphasises his disgust and his lack of understanding (he believes he has fufilled role as a father, and she is being ungrateful)
  • 'green' - disgust, shows lack of sympathy and nurture by insulting her - vs Nurse 'prettiest'
• "my only love sprung from my only hate, too early seen unknown, and known too late"

  • Juliet meets emotional contradiction seen throughout play
  • only - creates sympathy and shows Juliet's innocence
  • paradoxical as she blames fate, theme of haste throughout and things happening too early (fate controls timing), Juliet is made to marry before she is ready, dies too young etc
• "O Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou Romeo"

  • confused why her love is a family enemy
  • family name regarded so highly, she realises severity
• Love


  not pretty or idealised, often confused and 'marked' with violence, and love connects one another but only through actions of violence - 'star crossed lovers take their lives' - love isn't sweet and decadent, actions are made dramatic to emphasise this
• Violence


  Only ways that characters can express love for one another is through violence (shows complexity) - 'rough' 'pricks'

  physical expressions carry violent connotations - first kiss = 'sin', sensuality v violence