Characters Flashcards
Romeo
The protagonist, Romeo introduced as a quixotic, fickle-hearted ardent lover possessing Petrarchan love for Rosaline at the beginning of the play. His extreme love towards Juliet is surrounded by a semantic field of purity and holiness, implying he views her as more than human. He is very emotional, as seen when he extracts revenge on Tybalt for killing Mercutio. He is “blinded” by love, which proves to be his hamartia. The tragic end of both his and Juliet’s lives prove to be the catalyst for the two households to reconcile. Despite Romeo being the elder of the two, it appears it is he who is more callow, as Juliet shrewdly criticises his conventional ardent lover rhetoric (see balcony scene)
Juliet
Juliet is introduced as a heroine: an intelligent character who says marriage is “an honour that I dream not of”. She requites Romeo’s love and is surrounded by a theme of purity. She shrewdly criticises Romeo’s ardent lover rhetoric which emphasises her independence and wise nature, not falling for Romeo’s schemes. She often acts as a heterodoxy, often when she disobeys her father, the patriarch, about marrying Paris. She is often conflicted with her intense love for Romeo but also with the family feud, with her internal conflict being represented via the lexical choice of oxymorons. Her emotional side can be seen when she speaks in exclamative sentences, and she has a distant maternal bond with her mother but closer with her nurse. Her maturity contrasts Romeo’s callow nature, as he speaks of her with blazons and hyperbolic language to which she responds often with mature and realistic statements.
