Friar Flashcards
- Speaking about medicinal herbs (A2S3)
“Within the infant rind of this weak flower / Poison hath residence, and medicine power.”
• What: Explains duality of nature – good and evil coexist
• How:
• Metaphor of flower → nature as morally neutral force
• Juxtaposition (“poison” vs “medicine”) = duality theme
• Foreshadowing → love = healing or fatal
• Lexical field of innocence vs danger → warning hidden in beauty
• Why: Sets up the motif of things appearing harmless but being deadly (e.g. love, potion, plans)
• Themes: appearance vs reality, fate, love vs hate, individuals vs society
- Shocked by Romeo’s sudden shift from Rosaline to Juliet (A2S3)
“Young men’s love then lies / Not truly in their hearts, but in their eyes.”
• What: Accuses Romeo of lust, not love
• How:
• Antithesis (“hearts” vs “eyes”) = love vs lust
• Monosyllabic phrasing → sharp, cutting judgement
• Generalisation → reflects societal view of youth
• Irony → Friar still agrees to marry them
• Why: Challenges sincerity of Romeo’s love → foreshadows love’s fragility
• Themes: love/relationships, appearance vs reality, youth, impulsiveness
- Agreeing to marry Romeo & Juliet (A2S3)
“For this alliance may so happy prove / To turn your households’ rancour to pure love.”
• What: Hopes the marriage ends the feud
• How:
• Irony → “happy” alliance leads to death
• Juxtaposition (“rancour” / “love”) = idealistic hope vs harsh reality
• Alliteration of ‘h’/‘p’ = hopeful, harmonious tone
• Proleptic irony → foreshadows reversal of expectations
• Why: Shows flawed logic → good intentions built on naivety
• Themes: fate, individuals vs society, love/relationships, appearance vs reality
- Warning Romeo to slow down (A2S6)
“These violent delights have violent ends.”
• What: Predicts that intense passion leads to destruction
• How:
• Epigrammatic tone → moral proverb
• Mirrored structure → cyclical nature of fate
• Paradox → joy contains the seed of destruction
• Alliterative violence → prophecy disguised as advice
• Why: Foreshadows tragedy → Romeo and Juliet’s love is unsustainable
• Themes: fate, love/relationships, impulsiveness, time
- Consoling Romeo after banishment (A3S3)
“Thy tears are womanish; thy wild acts denote / The unreasonable fury of a beast.”
• What: Shames Romeo for his emotional reaction
• How:
• Zoomorphism → Romeo = beast-like, uncivilised
• Gender stereotyping → equates emotion with femininity
• Harsh consonants (“wild…womanish”) = sharp critique
• Juxtaposition of man/beast/woman → attack on identity
• Why: Reflects societal pressure on men to suppress emotion → leads to toxic decisions
• Themes: gender, youth, impulsiveness, love/relationships
- Trying to stabilise Romeo after Tybalt’s death (A3S3)
“A pack of blessings light upon thy back.”
• What: Reminds Romeo of what he still has
• How:
• Metaphor of “pack” = burden of fortune
• Personification of blessings → fate as nurturing, not punishing
• Religious undertone → guilt + grace
• Light imagery → contrasted with Romeo’s darkness
• Why: Attempts to reframe tragedy as survival → missed by Romeo
• Themes: fate, love/relationships, youth, death
- Before Juliet drinks potion (A4S1)
“Take thou this vial, being then in bed, / And this distilled liquor drink thou off.”
• What: Gives Juliet the sleeping potion
• How:
• Imperative structure → Friar takes full control
• Use of clinical/chemical diction (“distilled liquor”) = modernity vs nature
• False sense of control → potion = fate disguised as science
• Religious subtext → sacred trust in flawed human plan
• Why: Tragedy now relies on deception → morality sacrificed for love
• Themes: fate, time, love vs hate, appearance vs reality
- Explaining potion’s effects (A4S1)
“No warmth, no breath shall testify thou livest.”
• What: Tells Juliet the potion will mimic death
• How:
• Triadic structure → builds cold, lifeless image
• Absence-based imagery → death as negation
• Blunt physicality contrasts Juliet’s inner emotion
• Ironic foreshadowing → actual death will resemble this
• Why: Shows danger of blurring illusion & reality → death now indistinguishable from life
• Themes: appearance vs reality, death, time, fate
- After Juliet is found “dead” (A4S5)
“Come, is the bride ready to go to church?”
• What: Arrives expecting wedding, walks into mourning
• How:
• Dramatic irony → unaware of chaos until this moment
• Juxtaposition of “bride” and “church” = wedding/death confusion
• Symbolism of church → place of both unity and burial
• Tone shift → comic misstep to tragic horror
• Why: Illustrates how love and death become entangled through his schemes
• Themes: love/relationships, death, time, fate
- After discovering Romeo dead and Juliet waking (A5S3)
“A greater power than we can contradict / Hath thwarted our intents.”
• What: Admits defeat to fate
• How:
• Allusion to divine force → fate = ultimate author
• “Thwarted” → sharp, abrupt word = sudden collapse of hope
• Inclusive pronoun “we” → shared failure
• Irony → Friar trusted own wisdom over higher order
• Why: Human plans fail against larger forces → Shakespeare questions agency
• Themes: fate, time, love/relationships, individuals vs society
- Urging Juliet to flee the tomb (A5S3)
“Come, come away. Thy husband in thy bosom there lies dead.”
• What: Urges Juliet to escape with him
• How:
• Repetition “come, come” → urgency + panic
• Euphemism → “lies” = death cloaked in gentleness
• Juxtaposition of intimacy & death (“bosom” / “dead”)
• Contrast with Juliet’s stillness → foreshadows her choice
• Why: Offers life, but Juliet chooses love through death → Friar’s failure complete
• Themes: death, love/relationships, fate, individuals vs society
- Explaining everything to the Prince (A5S3)
“And if aught in this miscarried by my fault, / Let my old life be sacrificed.”
• What: Confesses, offers to die for mistakes
• How:
• Formal, sacrificial diction = echoes religious tone
• “Old life” → age as burden = contrasts youth’s death
• Irony → he survives while lovers die
• Syntax of submission → acknowledges moral responsibility
• Why: Represents failure of adult wisdom, plans, and intervention
• Themes: fate, honour, generational divide, love/relationships
