English: Romeo and Juliet Flashcards
“A pair of star cross’d lovers take their life”
Who said this? Key themes? Analysis?
Narrator in the prologue
🎭 Themes:
- Fate vs. Free Will: “Star-cross’d” suggests the lovers are doomed by destiny, not choice.
- Love and Tragedy: Their deep love leads to a tragic, fatal outcome.
- Family Conflict: Their deaths result from the feud between their families.
🛠️ Techniques:
- Foreshadowing: Reveals the ending upfront—both lovers die.
- Dramatic Irony: The audience knows their fate before the story begins.
- Imagery: “Star-cross’d” evokes the idea of cosmic forces controlling human lives.
- Structure: Part of the Prologue (a Shakespearean sonnet), setting tone and summarizing the plot.
“As I hate hell, all Montagues, and thee”
Who said this? Key themes? Analysis?
Tybalt
🎭 Themes:
- Hatred and Violence: Tybalt compares his hatred for Montagues (and specifically Benvolio here) to his hatred for hell—showing deep, irrational anger.
- Family Loyalty and Feud: This line reflects the blind loyalty to his family (the Capulets) and the intensity of the feud.
- Conflict: It shows how personal identity is defined by aggression and opposition in Verona’s toxic culture.
🛠️ Techniques:
- Simile: “As I hate hell…” draws a powerful comparison to something universally despised, exaggerating Tybalt’s hate.
- Tricolon: Listing “hell, all Montagues, and thee” builds dramatic tension and emphasizes the extent of his hatred.
- Diction: The strong word “hate” reflects intense, emotional language characteristic of Tybalt’s fiery personality.
- Characterisation: This line reveals Tybalt as aggressive, hot-headed, and quick to violence—his role as a catalyst for conflict.
“O brawling love, O loving hate, O heavy lightness”
Who said this? Key themes? Analysis?
Romeo
🎭 Themes:
- Love and Conflict: Romeo’s love is already tied up in pain and contradiction — love isn’t peaceful, it’s “brawling.”
- Emotional Turmoil: Romeo is overwhelmed by the intensity and confusion of his feelings.
- Youth and Impulsiveness: His dramatic response to love reflects the impetuous, exaggerated emotions of youth.
🛠️ Techniques:
- Oxymoron: Pairs like “brawling love” and “loving hate” show the paradoxes and contradictions in love.
- Repetition (“O”): Emphasizes his emotional distress and exaggeration — classic Romeo drama.
- Juxtaposition: Contrasts opposites to show inner conflict and confusion.
- Characterisation: Highlights Romeo as romantic, sensitive, and melodramatic — he feels things deeply and expresses them poetically.
“Bright smoke, cold fire, sick health”
Who said this? Key themes? Analysis?
Romeo
🎭 Themes:
- Love and Confusion: Romeo is describing love as a mix of opposites — beautiful but painful, exciting but destructive.
- Emotional Conflict: He’s torn between joy and suffering, showing how intense and confusing love can be.
- Appearance vs. Reality: These oxymorons suggest that things aren’t what they seem — love looks sweet but hurts.
🛠️ Techniques:
- Oxymoron: Every phrase combines opposites — showing internal conflict and the contradictory nature of love.
- Listing: Rapid-fire contradictions mimic Romeo’s chaotic thoughts and emotional overwhelm.
- Imagery: Vivid, paradoxical images paint love as something surreal and unstable.
- Characterisation: Shows Romeo as deeply poetic, dramatic, and already consumed by idealized love (even though at this point, it’s about Rosaline, not Juliet!).
“My child is yet a stranger in the world”
Who said this? Key themes? Analysis?
Capulet
🎭 Themes:
- Youth and Innocence: Juliet is portrayed as young, inexperienced, and unfamiliar with the world.
- Parental Control: Capulet is protective here, showing concern for Juliet’s age — but it also hints at how much power he has over her choices.
- Marriage and Gender Roles: Reflects societal norms where girls were married young, and fathers decided when and to whom.
🛠️ Techniques:
- Metaphor: “Stranger in the world” paints Juliet as untouched by adult life, especially love and marriage.
- Diction: Words like “child” and “stranger” emphasize her innocence and vulnerability.
- Foreshadowing: The idea that she’s not ready for the world hints at how unprepared she is for what’s coming — love, conflict, and tragedy.
- Characterisation: Capulet is shown as initially caring and cautious — a softer version of him before his later harshness.
“Women grow by men”
Who said this? Key themes? Analysis?
Nurse
🎭 Themes:
- Gender and Power: Suggests that women’s roles and futures depend on men — reflecting patriarchal values of the time.
- Marriage and Sexuality: The line has a double meaning — referring both to pregnancy and to social “growth” through marriage.
- Social Expectations: Implies that a woman’s worth or purpose is tied to becoming a wife and mother.
🛠️ Techniques:
- Double Entendre: It’s both literal (childbearing) and sexual (a cheeky joke about sex).
- Diction: “Grow” subtly links physical development with social advancement.
- Characterisation: Highlights the Nurse’s bawdy, humorous personality — she often reduces love to physical and practical terms, in contrast to Romeo and Juliet’s romantic idealism.
- Irony: Though meant as a joke, it points to real limitations on women’s independence in Verona.
“But he that hath the steerage of my course, direct my sail.”
Who said this? Key themes? Analysis?
Romeo
🎭 Themes:
- Fate and Destiny: Romeo fully surrenders control of his life to fate — he believes a higher power is steering his path.
- Free Will vs. Fatalism: Despite his choices, he believes his future is already written, removing personal agency.
- Foreshadowing: His words hint at the tragic path he’s about to sail down — straight toward love and death.
🛠️ Techniques:
- Metaphor: Life is a ship, and “he that hath the steerage” (fate or God) is the captain — Romeo sees himself as a passive passenger.
- Religious Language: “He” could be a reference to God, giving the moment a spiritual, predestined tone.
- Foreshadowing: He’s unknowingly predicting the chain of events that leads to tragedy.
- Characterisation: Romeo is impulsive, emotional, and ruled by forces he believes are beyond his control — classic Romeo energy.
“I see Queen Mab hath been with you tonight in this state she gallops night by night through lovers’ brains, and then they dream of love”
Who said this? Key themes? Analysis?
Mercutio
🎭 Themes:
- Dreams vs. Reality: Mercutio mocks dreams as meaningless fantasies — love, in his view, is just a dream planted by a trickster fairy.
- Love and Desire: Suggests romantic dreams are just physical urges dressed up as something deeper.
- Fate and Imagination: Challenges the idea that fate (or dreams) should guide life — unlike Romeo, Mercutio sees it all as nonsense.
🛠️ Techniques:
- Allusion: Queen Mab is a figure from folklore — a fairy who influences dreams.
- Imagery: Vivid and bizarre images of Mab riding through people’s minds brings the dream world to life.
- Monologue: This speech is a build-up of chaotic energy, showing Mercutio’s unstable mood and clever wit.
- Irony: Mercutio mocks love as fantasy, yet his words are poetic and dreamlike — showing he’s not immune to emotion, just hiding it.
- Characterisation: Reveals Mercutio as cynical, witty, and complex — skeptical of love but full of passion.
“Oh, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!”
Who said this? Key themes? Analysis?
Romeo
🎭 Themes:
- Love at First Sight: Romeo is instantly captivated by Juliet’s beauty — it’s love (or lust?) in an instant.
- Light and Beauty: Juliet is associated with brightness and purity, becoming a source of light in a dark world.
- Idealised Love: Romeo exaggerates Juliet’s beauty, showing how he idealises love and women.
🛠️ Techniques:
- Metaphor: Juliet is so radiant she makes actual torches look dim — she teaches them how to shine.
- Hyperbole: Massive exaggeration reflects Romeo’s impulsive passion and flair for the dramatic.
- Imagery: Strong visual contrast between light and darkness — Juliet is the light in the room and in Romeo’s world.
- Characterisation: Reinforces Romeo’s emotional, poetic nature — he falls in love quickly and deeply, always expressing it in grand language.
“My grave is like to be my wedding bed”
Who said this? Key themes? Analysis?
Juliet
🎭 Themes:
- Love and Death: Juliet links love and death in a single breath — two opposing forces intertwined throughout the play.
- Fate and Foreshadowing: Suggests from the start that love will lead her to death — fate is already at work.
- Tragic Irony: Juliet says this in jest, but it becomes chillingly true — she dies shortly after her marriage.
🛠️ Techniques:
- Foreshadowing: Her words literally come true — her love for Romeo leads to her death.
- Irony: Dramatic irony hits hard; the audience knows her wedding and death will become tragically linked.
- Juxtaposition: “Grave” vs. “wedding bed” places death and love side by side, emphasizing how tragedy shadows even joyful moments.
- Characterisation: Shows Juliet’s intense, all-or-nothing passion — even before they’ve spoken, she’s saying she’ll die without him.
“Juliet is the sun”
Who said this? Key themes? Analysis?
Romeo
🎭 Themes:
- Love and Idealisation: Romeo elevates Juliet to a divine, life-giving force — she becomes the center of his universe.
- Light and Beauty: Juliet represents light, warmth, and hope in Romeo’s world — she brightens his life, literally and emotionally.
- Romantic Obsession: This line shows how quickly and fully Romeo becomes consumed by love.
🛠️ Techniques:
- Metaphor: Juliet isn’t like the sun — she is the sun. It’s a bold, absolute declaration of love and admiration.
- Hyperbole: Massive exaggeration emphasizes Romeo’s intense feelings and his tendency to idealise Juliet beyond reality.
- Imagery: Vivid, radiant, celestial — paints Juliet as powerful, beautiful, and life-giving.
- Characterisation: Reinforces Romeo as poetic, impulsive, and totally swept up in love — he speaks in grand, cosmic metaphors.
“My bounty is as boundless as the sea”
Who said this? Key themes? Analysis?
Juliet
🎭 Themes:
- Love and Generosity: Juliet’s love is overflowing — she wants to give endlessly without losing anything.
- Infinity and Devotion: She compares her love to something vast and limitless, showing deep emotional commitment.
- Romantic Idealism: Like Romeo, she expresses love in dreamy, idealistic terms — love is infinite, beautiful, pure.
🛠️ Techniques:
- Simile: “As boundless as the sea” compares love to the ocean — deep, vast, and endless.
- Natural Imagery: The sea is powerful and mysterious — her love, like nature, can’t be controlled or measured.
- Hyperbole: She exaggerates the depth of her feelings to show just how much she cares.
- Characterisation: Shows Juliet’s maturity and emotional depth — her love is not just physical, but spiritual and giving.
“Wisely and slow. They stumble that run fast.”
Who said this? Key themes? Analysis?
Friar Lawrence
🎭 Themes:
- Impulsiveness vs. Caution: Warns against rushing into things — especially love and marriage.
- Youth and Wisdom: Highlights the contrast between impulsive young lovers and the older, wiser Friar.
- Fate and Consequence: Suggests that rushing leads to downfall, foreshadowing the tragic ending.
🛠️ Techniques:
- Proverbial Tone: Sounds like a moral lesson or old saying — gives it timeless authority.
- Juxtaposition: “Wisely and slow” vs. “run fast” creates a clear contrast between careful and reckless behavior.
- Foreshadowing: Literally predicts what happens — Romeo and Juliet rush into love and suffer for it.
- Characterisation: The Friar acts as a voice of reason, trying (and failing) to guide Romeo toward patience.
“These violent delights have violent ends”
Who said this? Key themes? Analysis?
Friar Lawrence
🎭 Themes:
- Passion and Destruction: Intense emotions like love can burn too bright and destroy what they touch.
- Fate and Tragedy: Suggests from the start that Romeo and Juliet’s love is doomed to end violently.
- Impulsiveness: Love that happens too quickly, without thought, leads to disaster.
- Duality: Love and violence are closely linked – what brings joy can also bring ruin.
🛠️ Techniques:
- Repetition: “Violent” is repeated to emphasize danger and inevitable tragedy.
- Juxtaposition: “Delights” vs. “ends” – something beautiful leads to something deadly.
- Foreshadowing: Literally predicts the lovers’ deaths due to their intense, rushed romance.
- Metaphor: “Violent delights” is a poetic way of describing passionate but dangerous love.
- Characterisation: Shows the Friar’s wisdom and awareness of how unchecked passion can destroy.
“Hopeful lady of my Earth”
Who said this? Key themes? Analysis?
Capulet
🎭 Themes:
- Patriarchy and Possession: Juliet is referred to as part of Capulet’s “earth” — a possession or property.
- Hope and Legacy: He sees Juliet as the future of his family and legacy.
- Father-Daughter Relationship: Shows initial care and affection from Capulet, though it’s still rooted in control.
- Gender Roles: Reflects how women were tied to land, marriage, and producing heirs.
🛠️ Techniques:
- Metaphor: “Lady of my earth” compares Juliet to land, suggesting ownership and inheritance.
- Possessive Language: “My earth” reveals Capulet’s view of Juliet as something he owns or governs.
- Characterisation: Presents Capulet as proud and caring at this stage, but also hints at deeper control.
- Symbolism: Juliet represents both personal hope and social power in a patriarchal system.
“Disobedient wretch”
Who said this? Key themes? Analysis?
Capulet
🎭 Themes:
- Patriarchy and Control: Juliet is insulted for defying her father’s authority — shows how women were expected to be obedient.
- Family Conflict: Highlights the breakdown in the father-daughter relationship.
- Power and Authority: Capulet asserts dominance through verbal abuse and anger.
- Love vs. Loyalty: Juliet’s personal love clashes with family loyalty and expectations.
🛠️ Techniques:
- Insult/Derogatory Language: “Wretch” is loaded with contempt, used to degrade Juliet.
- Characterisation: Reveals Capulet’s volatile nature — loving one moment, aggressive the next.
- Tone Shift: Contrasts sharply with earlier affection (“hopeful lady”), showing how conditional his love is.
- Dramatic Tension: Intensifies the emotional pressure on Juliet and raises the stakes of her rebellion.
“Ay, ay, a scratch, a scratch”
Who said this? Key themes? Analysis?
Mercutio
🎭 Themes:
- Death and Fate: Mercutio downplays his fatal wound, showing the randomness and inevitability of death.
- Masculinity and Pride: Even while dying, he mocks the idea of weakness, keeping up a brave front.
- Tragedy and Comedy: Blends humour and horror — his wit makes the moment more tragic.
- Friendship and Loyalty: His death sparks Romeo’s revenge, showing the strong bond between them.
🛠️ Techniques:
- Irony: Calls it a “scratch” when it’s actually a mortal wound — dark humour.
- Understatement: Makes his death seem minor to maintain pride and composure.
- Wordplay: Classic Mercutio — even in pain, he uses clever language to entertain and provoke.
- Foreshadowing: His death escalates the feud and sets off a chain of tragic events.
“A plague o’ both your houses!”
Who said this? Key themes? Analysis?
Mercutio
🎭 Themes:
- Fate and Curse: Mercutio blames both families for his death, cursing them and foreshadowing more tragedy.
- Violence and Conflict: Highlights how innocent people get caught in the crossfire of the feud.
- Responsibility and Blame: Neither Montague nor Capulet is spared — both are condemned for their hatred.
- Death and Justice: A cry of injustice — his death feels senseless, and he wants revenge through fate.
🛠️ Techniques:
- Repetition: He says it three times for emphasis — it’s a powerful emotional outburst.
- Foreshadowing: His curse basically predicts the deaths of Romeo, Juliet, and others.
- Symbolism: “Plague” represents destruction, death, and divine punishment.
- Tone: Bitter, angry, desperate — a huge tonal shift from Mercutio’s usual humour.
“Oh, I am fortune’s fool!”
Who said this? Key themes? Analysis?
Romeo
🎭 Themes:
- Fate and Destiny: Romeo believes he’s being toyed with by fate — no control over his actions or outcomes.
- Tragedy: This moment marks the beginning of his downfall after killing Tybalt.
- Powerlessness: Suggests that despite his choices, he’s ultimately at the mercy of forces beyond him.
- Guilt and Regret: He’s aware he’s made a fatal mistake but feels it was out of his hands.
🛠️ Techniques:
- Personification: “Fortune” is portrayed as a controlling force, like a puppeteer.
- Metaphor: “Fool” implies he’s been tricked, used for fate’s entertainment.
- Exclamatory Sentence: Shows intense emotion and despair.
- Tragic Hero Convention: Classic trait — realising too late that your actions have doomed you.
“Gallop apace, you fiery-footed steeds”
Who said this? Key themes? Analysis?
Juliet
🎭 Themes:
- Love and Desire: Juliet is impatiently longing for night so she can be with Romeo.
- Time and Impatience: She wants to speed up time — reflects youthful urgency and emotional intensity.
- Passion vs. Innocence: A shift from Juliet’s earlier innocence to mature, sensual anticipation.
- Fate and Foreshadowing: Her eagerness contrasts with the dark fate awaiting her — dramatic irony.
🛠️ Techniques:
- Personification: She gives horses (and time itself) vivid, human-like energy.
- Imperative Verbs: “Gallop apace” shows Juliet trying to command time, expressing desperation.
- Imagery: Creates a vivid, passionate image of speed, urgency, and longing.
- Contrast: Her excitement is tragic in hindsight, since the night brings Tybalt’s death and heartbreak.
“Beautiful tyrant! Fiend angelical! Dove-feathered raven, wolvish-ravening lamb! A damnèd saint, an honourable villain!”
Who said this? Key themes? Analysis?
Juliet
🎭 Themes:
- Love vs. Hate: Juliet is torn between her love for Romeo and the horror of him killing Tybalt.
- Conflict and Confusion: Reflects her emotional chaos — she can’t reconcile Romeo’s two sides.
- Appearance vs. Reality: Romeo looks pure and good, but his actions are violent and deadly.
- Betrayal: She feels betrayed by the one she trusted most.
🛠️ Techniques:
- Oxymoron: Pairs of opposing ideas like “fiend angelical” and “honorable villain” show her inner turmoil.
- Juxtaposition: Light/dark, love/hate — captures the clashing emotions post-Tybalt’s death.
- Religious Language: “Saint” and “angelical” elevate Romeo, but the context is corrupted — adds to the tension.
- Repetition: The rapid-fire oxymorons build intensity and mirror Juliet’s spiraling thoughts.
- Characterisation: Shows Juliet maturing — she’s no longer just a dreamy lover, but someone facing brutal reality.
“O serpent heart hid with a flowering face!”
Who said this? Key themes? Analysis?
Juliet
🎭 Themes:
- Deception and Betrayal: Juliet feels Romeo’s beautiful appearance hid a dark, violent nature.
- Appearance vs. Reality: Highlights the contrast between Romeo’s looks and his deadly actions.
- Conflict of Love and Hate: She loves him, but now views him as dangerous and deceptive.
- Innocence Lost: Juliet’s romantic view of love is shattered.
🛠️ Techniques:
- Metaphor: “Serpent heart” represents Romeo’s hidden danger — a poisonous core.
- Juxtaposition: “Serpent” vs. “flowering face” captures the shock of beauty masking evil.
- Exclamatory Tone: Shows intense emotional conflict — she’s heartbroken and furious.
- Biblical Allusion: The “serpent” recalls Satan in Eden — Romeo as a fallen figure, corrupting Juliet’s paradise.
- Characterisation: Reveals Juliet’s growing complexity — her ability to love and condemn at once.
“O woe! O woeful, woeful, woeful day!”
Who said this? Key themes? Analysis?
Nurse
🎭 Themes:
- Grief and Loss: Total emotional devastation after Juliet is found “dead.”
- Death and Tragedy: Reflects the overwhelming sorrow that death brings in the play.
- Chaos and Emotion: Captures the unfiltered chaos of grief — no structure, just pain.
- Dramatic Irony: Audience knows Juliet isn’t really dead, which adds tension and sorrow.
🛠️ Techniques:
- Repetition: “Woeful” x3 exaggerates the intensity of her despair.
- Exclamatory Tone: Full of raw emotion — this isn’t controlled grief, it’s total breakdown.
- Hyperbole: The reaction is so dramatic it almost borders on comical — Shakespeare mixing tones.
- Characterisation: Shows how deeply the Nurse loves Juliet, despite her often comic role.
- Structure: Short, fragmented exclamations mirror the mental shock and confusion of loss.
“Poor living corpse, closed in a dead man’s tomb!”
Who said this? Key themes? Analysis?
Friar Lawrence
- Death and Life: Juliet is alive, yet entombed — blurs the line between the living and the dead.
- Fate and Tragedy: Shows how twisted fate has become — she’s trapped in death while still breathing.
- Isolation: Juliet is physically and emotionally alone, cut off from the world.
- Irony and Horror: The moment is tragic, but also disturbing — she’s literally buried alive.
🛠️ Techniques:
- Oxymoron: “Living corpse” creates a chilling paradox, reinforcing Juliet’s unnatural situation.
- Juxtaposition: Contrasts life and death to highlight the tragic absurdity.
- Dramatic Irony: Audience knows she’s alive while others believe she’s dead — heightens tension.
- Metaphor: “Closed in a tomb” symbolises her being trapped by fate, family, and circumstance.
- Characterisation: Reflects Friar Laurence’s horror and helplessness — he’s lost control of his plan.
