Analysis

• O sweet Juliet, thy beauty hath made me effeminate

  Romeo blames Juliet for him killing Tybalt as she has made him effeminate, links to Eve manipulating Adam into eating from the tree of Good and Evil, which leads to their banishment from the garden, which mirrors Romeo's banishment from the city and eventually the death of Romeo and Juliet
• It is an honour I dream not of - Juliet

  • Hasn't dreamed of the possibility being married
  • We know she is lying as it is something she deeply fears because it is a patriarchal society which her father will choose the person she's going to marry
  • She knows this because her mother was already married and had already had Juliet when she was Juliet's age
  • She wants to be able to escape this patriarchal arrangement we know this as when she first meets Romeo she tells him to work out a plan to get them married
• Juliet- Saints do not move, through grant for prayers sake

  Romeo- then move not while my prayer's effect I take

  • Written in sonnet which is a form of a love poem, indicating these two people are falling in love at first sight
  • Language they use to explore their sexual passion and attraction is religious- blasphemous, it's dangerous taking something that's suppose to be holy and using it to describe their lust
  • Volta- she's the one that tells Romeo to kiss her
• Original sin- Shakespearean society see women naturally more manipulative more sinful than men. As Eve received harsher punishment from god period pains and childbirth because she ate the forbidden fruit first.

  • However Shakespeare shows audience what a terrible father Capulet is
  • Wants audience to understand why Juliet would want to break society's rules, meeting Romeo means she's suddenly got power of choice
  • Shakespeare suggesting women are being forced to be manipulative and cunning in order to survive in this oppressive society where they don't have freedoms of men
• Hist, Romeo, hist! O for a falconers' voice/ To lure this tassel-gentle back again

  • Shows Juliet is in control as she is in charge of the falcon therefore taking on the masculine role, just like eve controlling Adam - to Elizabethan society this would be seen as original sin
  • Women were obedient to men yet Juliet imagines herself taking the lead
• I'm going to marry the daughter of rich Capulet - Romeo to Friar Lawrence

  • Romeo isn't just thinking about love but money also
  • In Elizabethan society the bride's father has to give the groom some of his material wealth 'all my fortunes at thy foot ill lay' - Juliet is basically negotiating with him
  • Juliet is no fool she knows to get a man in this patriarchal society your going to have to pay
• I'll to my wedding bed. And death, not Romeo, take my maidenhead!

  • Imagines death as a lover coming to her bed and taking her maidenhead
  • obsessed with idea of having sex with Romeo, this marriage is not all about love it's about not having the freedom to express sexual desire, something this society prohibits
  • Juliet never goes out alone always with nurse which is to guard her virginity
  • Their virginity is money in the bank
  • Capulet can marry Juliet to another rich family providing she's still a virgin
  • Shakespeare rejects idea of saving virginity / patriarchal arrangements, Did not save sex
• Romeo banished. To speak that word is father, mother, Tybalt, Romeo, Juliet all slain, all dead

  • She would rather hear Tybalt and her mother and her father are dead then Romeo banished - extreme point of view
• Good father, i beseech you on my knees

  Hear me with patience but to speak a word

  • Has to show complete obedience and then has to be incredibly polite to him
  • Society silences women and their desires
• O happy dagger. This is my sheath

  • She kills herself not with poison which is the female way to kill herself, she's killing herself with the dagger a male instrument
  • Displaying male courage in rebelling against society
  • Dagger represent masculinity and Romeo also suggests her death is caused by masculinity and Romeo