Juliet Flashcards
Madam…what is your will?
Immature
Illustrates Juliet’s willing anticipation of being summoned to conform to another one of her mother’s requests, thus insinuation her lack of assertiveness and dominance.
Formal noun - madam - indicates her awareness of her own mother’s social superiority and suggests emotional detachment between the individuals
I’ll look to like, if looking liking move
Obedience towards mother, regarding marriage despite her objections
Alliterative ‘i’ + natural flow of iambic pentameter = childish tone - immature
Also interpreted; ambiguous nature , suggests her awareness that there must be something beyond the concept of marriage that just reinforces female social subordination
What in a name?
immediately applies sharp intellect to her anguish and differentiates between reality and its perception
Claims name doesn’t equal character
READY TO DEFY HER FAMILY - DISTANT RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN HER AND LADY CAPULET
Shakespeare - challenging law of identity - interrogating value of surname as something that has been passed down, shaped by patriarchy
Shows maturity - in contrast to older generations
A rose by any other name would smell as sweet
Analogy - logical/ mature - focusing on importance of semantics
Defying science of onomastics
Declares a ‘rose’ by any other name would always retain beauty/ integrity
Also interpreted - manipulative persuading Romeo to ‘defy’ his entire family
Swear not by the inconstant moon
Swear not - commanding/ authoritative
Stops Romeo from using traditional, colloquial forms in expressing his passion, instead encouraging to invest himself in a more genuine, spiritual view of love
Contrast between Romeo’s impulsiveness and Juliet’s rationality
Moon - Diana god of Chasity/ celestial light - Romeo’s carnal desire to take Juliet’s in innocence
too rash, too unadvised, too sudden, too like the lightning
Anaphoric tetri-colon
proclaiming her ascendancy and authority in confidently expressing practical concerns, in which highlight her maturity.
Repetition of too + monosyllabic phrase = contrast to Romeo’s lyrics, language - intensifying assertiveness/ dominance
Simile - Juliet’s worries regarding the rapid pace they are undertaking
Lightening - ephemeral, electric and forceful but only for an instant before dissipating, giving rise to substantial collateral damage - their case relates to their eventual demise
Lightning - Ancient Greek mythology - Zeus God of destruction - foreboding conflict
love performing Night
- Reference to ‘Phoebus Apollo’ from Greek mythology, the god of the sun.
- Juliet calls for the sun to set so the “love-performing night” can arrive, as she wishes to consummate the marriage in order to validate it
— perhaps the audience may be concerned at the lustily desires of a 13 year old girl - Previously, Juliet has been referenced as a sun, in Romeo’s analogy of “arise fair sun” — therefore, setting of the sun could portentously forebode her own death
- Night” capitalised and so personified — represents the Taboo and sacrilegious nature of their relationship
Come night come Romeo
- Repeated use of imperatives as she calls for ‘Night’, but unwillingly death
- as Romeo is associated with the night, he metaphorically becomes death incarnate
- depicted as a grim-reaper-like figure
Take him and cut him out in little stars
- Celestial imageries = a symbol of fate AND stars are a nautical image and therefore a symbol of guidance
- Parallel to Romeo’s soliloquy , but now it is Romeo who is transmuted into stars
- Literally, “heaven” refers to the sky BUT DOUBLE ENTENDRE, as idea that Romeo’s fate is to spend eternity in heaven, as he is sacrificed for a greater good — forebodes his death ending the feud
Dove-feather’d raven, wolfish-ravening lamb
- Emotional conflict creates a parallel to the introduction of Romeo,
- represents Juliets emotional conflict between love for Romeo and affinity to her family
- It appears that Romeo’s beauty and courteousness were a facade for his evil
that one word ‘banished’, Hath slain ten thousand Tybalts
- Immaturity — Juliet consumed + blinded in love
- Disloyalty to her family as she does not grieve death of Tybalt
