Romeo and Juliet

• "violent delights have violent ends"-Friar Lawrence ACT 2 SCENE 6

  • Friar warns Romeo about the paradoxical themes of love & violence to their clandestine marriage which ultimately leads to their deaths
  • violent delights'- oxymoron. Sums up on their impetuous love together on how they fell in love.
  • 'violent'- adjective. represents how fast they met and their impulsive, emotional desires to be together but ignore the consequences of being together
  • 'ends'- noun. connotes to death, destruction. foreshadows the end of their love by their deaths. Shows how they were bound to die and ill fated.
• "star-crossed lovers take their lives" prologue

  • metaphor- describes their fatal, doomed relationship and how the stars controlled their fate of being together as they were never meant to be. Foreshadows their tragic deaths at the end of the play
  • 'star crossed'- pre-determinism: Elizabethans believed that astrology controlled your fate and human destiny. Goes against religion bc contradicts free will God given us
  • 'crossed'- symbolise their relationship of starting afar from both feuding families to meeting and falling in love but to be separated and forced apart by fate
• "Juliet is the sun"-Romeo ACT 2 SCENE 2

  • metaphor- Romeo admires Juliet bc she brings him light, hope into his world. He cant live without her. He elevates her and brings her to a pedastal- worshipping her.
  • 'sun'- vital and gives life but can blind and burn you if too much. Motif of light. Goddess Aurora- emphasises her beauty and brightness.
  • Contrasts with the unrequited love he had for Rosaline as he changed from a Petrachan lover to a Shakespearan lover by the sonnets used in his soliloquy
• "a plague on both your houses"- Mercutio ACT 3 SCENE 1

  • Demonstrates his unfiltered nature and how he was entangled by the conflict that was tarnished with death and destruction
  • metaphor- he curses both of the families and he blames both families equally. Implies his death represented the consequences of their feud and leads to more violence further
  • 'plague'- noun. The fight poisoned the life of Verona and Mercutio is sick and tired of this. He asks for fate to ruin both families and wishes for their deaths. Foreshadows to the end of the play
• "If he be married, my grave is like to be my wedding bed"- Juliet ACT 1 SCENE 5

  • Shows the intensity of her true deep love for Romeo as she would rather die if she doesnt marry him. Foreshadows her death as she dies the night before her arranged marriage with Paris
  • Simile- shows her devotion to Romeo but knows that she will spike hostility to her family if they find out.
  • Catalyses to her clandestine marriage in secret
• "my lips, two blushing pilgrims"- Romeo ACT 1 SCENE 5

  • religious imagery of 'pilgrims'- symbolise they are both innocent, pure and their love was spiritual and sacred. Verona was a religious city so many were religious. noun- Juliet is a deity or a saint towards Romeo
  • metaphor- juxtaposes to love and lust as they describe their lips as pilgrims but its used for pleasure and intimate desires.
• "Deny thy father and refuse thy name"- Juliet ACT 2 SCENE 2

  • 'deny'- illustrates her rebellion against the constraints of the family feud and her commitment to her blind love. She is not only willing to give up her last name but to be disassociated from her family in order to be with Romeo
  • Declares her true love that transcends her social and family boundaries, even means rejecting her blood
  • Patriarchal society- reinforces the great chain of being which leads to her demise
• "my only love sprung from my own hate"-Juliet ACT 1 SCENE 5

  • juxtaposition-'love' and 'hate' encapsulates the conflict between the two themes of the play. Realises she fell in love too late without knowing her lover was her enemy. She was blinded by love and ignorant of the dangers of prohibited love
  • foreshadows the intertwined nature of passion and violence that would catalyse the tragedy further
  • 'my'- personal pronoun. suggest her prioritisation of her own love over her social and familial expectations.
• "I defy you, stars!" Romeo Act 5 Scene 1

  • exclamative statement- emphasises his despair and anger that prohibits his love for juliet. acknowledges and recognises the fatal tradegy that holds for them
  • 'defy'- futile to go against the familial religious boundaries
  • apostrophe- illustrates the great power of celestial bodies have and controlled people. romeo directly talks to the stars. condemns the stars for his fate