English Literature Romeo + Juliet

• Love: Romeo Montague: 'Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight! For i ne'er saw true beauty till this night'
• Romeo's view on love

  When Romeo sees Juliet at the masked Capulet ball he believes her to be the most beautiful girl he's seen

  He suggests any previous love like for rosaline was not true love
• Romeo

  • Shakespeare shows romeo as a character obsessed with courtly love

  Audiences have just seen romeo profess a broken heart over rosaline's unrequited love and will judge him for his sudden change of heart

  Shakespeare presents romeo's fatal flaw, his impulsiveness
• Romeo's actions

  Friar lawrence and juliet both criticise romeo for his inconstant and rash actions which lead to his and juliet's downfall
• Love: Shakespeare suggests that courtly love was superficial and fleeting
• Love: Shakespeare comments here on pure love being constant love
• Love: Juliet Capulet: 'O, swear not by the moon, th' inconstant moon'
• Juliet's view on love

  Juliet replies to romeo's sudden declarations of love in the capulet garden, asking him to be constant and committed to his love

  Shakespeare uses celestial imagery here and throughout the play when juliet refers to romeo

  Her request that romeo swears his love by something more constant suggests the changing nature of the stars and planets

  Juliet is presented as rational and sensible not leaving her fate to the stars and planets
• Conflict: The chorus: 'Whose misadventured piteous overthrows do with their death bury their parent's strife'
• The chorus

  The chorus tells audience that romeo and juliet will rebel attempting to overthrow the authority and that their deaths will end their parents ''strife''/war

  Chorus is a device used in greek tragedy, often to narrate key ideas to audiences

  Prologue provides the audience with information abt plays themes, the themes here are rebellion death and war

  The chorus tells the audience the outcome of events to build dramatic irony and create tension

  Dramatic irony allows audiences to watch events unfold with the ending in mind

  Warns audiences that the young lovers will defy the status quo (social issues)

  The adjective describing this rebellion suggests it will fail and the audience will feel pity for the young lovers

  It lets audiences know that their sacrifice will bury their parents' feud. 'Bury' also foreshadows their death.
• Conflict: Juliet Capulet: 'My only love sprung from my only hate'
• Juliet's view on love and conflict

  Juliet says this at the capulet ball when she is told by her nurse that romeo is a montague

  Realises she is bound by her family to hate the only person she loves

  Oxymoron reflected in other lines that liken her marriage to a grave suggests an awareness of the danger of loving her enemy (my grave is like to be my wedding bed)

  Juliets dialogue presents the close relationship between love and hate foreshadowing the impact the feud will have on their future

  Audiences aware of the tragedy to come are challenged to watch how conflict affects love

  Verb ''sprung'' suggests her love originates from hate springing from family conflict

  Repetition of ''only'' emphasises the huge significance the feud has in her life in the midst of religious civil war in elizabethan england this line reflects the impact of division on innocent citizens in particular young people
• Conflict: The chorus: 'From ancient grudge break to new mutiny, Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean'
• The chorus on conflict and honour


  Chorus tells audience in prologue before play begins that there will be conflict

  Chorus reveals that something the town is holding on to from the past will lead to blood spill

  Prologue is a sonnet which introduces the plays theme of honour subverting the tradtion of sonnets as italian poems about courtly love

  By using the sonnet form traditionally a love poem to introduce the feuding families shakespeare shows a close connection between conflict honour and love

  The ''ancient grudge'' remains unknown throughout the play suggesting the families do not know the real reason for their feud

  This challenges elizabethan perspectives on family honour related to the religious battles at the time and the patriarchal hierarchy

  Here the contrast of ''ancient'' and ''new'' represents old and young meaning the young will attempt a mutiny on the old

  Metaphor ''civil blood'' refers to the violence between the towns civilians

  The ambiguous meaning of ''unclean'' suggests to audiences that the violence is impure

  Shakespeare often uses the metaphor of blood on hands to symbolise guilt
• Honour: Tybalt Capulet: 'What, drawn and talk of peace? I hate the word, as I hate hell, all Montagues, and thee'
• Honour: Tybalt Capulet: 'By the stock and honour of my kin, to strike him dead I hold it not a sin'
• Tybalt's view on honour


  Tybalt asks benvolio why he would talk about peace instead of fighting for his family name

  Later tybalt is offended by romeos attendance at the capulet ball

  He asks his servant for a sword claiming that murder is not a sin if you do it for family honour

  The opening scene shows the constant threat of fighting between the two families

  Tybalts character is introduced as fiercely passionate about avenging his families honour

  Tybalts dialogue is dramatic using rhetorical question to show his shock and offence at the suggestion of peace

  Shakespeares use of a list of three emphasises his hatred, links to religion and violence and stresses that these ideas are opposed to peace

  In act I scene V tybalt foreshadows further conflict by showing his bitterness towards romeo his enemy

  His rhyming couplet ''kin/sin'' stresses the connection between sin and family honour

  The verb ''strike'' suggests the violence inherent in tybalt

  His dialogue is dramatic and intense to represent the intensity of the hatred in the feud
• Fate: Romeo Montague: 'He who hath steerage of course, Direct my sail'
• Fate: Romeo Montague: 'O I am Fortune's Fool!'
• Fate: Romeo Montague: 'Then I defy you, Stars!'
• Romeo's view on fate


  In act I romeos fateful journey begins with a premonition of the consequences of his night at the capulet ball, he addresses fate asking whoever it is who decides his future to lead the way

  By act III romeo has killed tybalt and lost his friend and acknowledges he has become a fool to fate/fortune

  By act V romeo learns mistakenly that juliet is dead and he turns against fate

  At first shakespeare shows romeo giving in to fate a dominant ideology of the time

  Romeos direct address speaks directly to fate personifying it as if it is a person who decides his future

  Audiences have been shown romeo as an impulsive and fickle boy as he begins his fateful journey and here again as he ignores a premonition and leaves his future in the hands of fate

  The imperative verbs ''direct'' suggests reckless confidence in his tone

  The metaphor of being on a boat and allowing nature to direct his way symbolises a fatalistic attitude which audiences know will be punished

  In act III romeo addresses fate once again after the deaths of mercutio + tybalt

  This time he shouts his frustration at fates decision to make him ''fortunes fool'' again implying he has little autonomy over his life

  The Elizabethans believed that the stars, planets and gods were powerful over human lives, and this line begins to question the influence of fate in the violence

  By Act V, Romeo turns his back on the decisions the stars and fate have made for him

  In grief, Romeo angrily addresses the stars and exclaims his defiance

  This line emphasises the desperation Romeo feels about his circumstances, and his decision to create some autonomy by returning to die with Juliet
• Fate: Juliet Capulet: 'Methinks I see thee now, thou art so low As one dead in the bottom of a tomb'
• Juliet's premonition


  In this scene, Juliet has a premonition about Romeo's future

  She sees him dead, sunk low down at the bottom of a tomb

  Here, Juliet foreshadows the death of Romeo, suggesting his fate is sealed

  The explicit message is a stark message about Romeo's dark future

  Juliet's dialogue often refers to death. Earlier in Act II, she likens her marriage to a grave

  Juliet's premonitions build tension through the dramatic irony created in the Prologue

  Shakespeare challenges the audience's perceptions about fate and free will by showing both Romeo and Juliet instinctively knowing their doomed future