Quotes Flashcards
Romeo speaks these words soon after he has jumped over the wall of the Capulet’s garden. He wishes to see Juliet again for he is completely infatuated with her. Romeo is standing in the garden when Juliet appears at a window above.
'’But, soft, what light through yonder window breaks?
It is the east, and Juliet is the sun’’ (Act 2 Scene 2)
Juliet has met Romeo at her father’s party and thinks he has gone home, but he is lingering in her garden, watching the balcony of her bedroom. She comes out and he overhears her speaking. It’s then that he shows himself to her and the action between them begins, leading to their secret marriage and their deaths.
'’That which we call a rose
By any other word would smell as sweet.’’
(Act 2 Scene 2)
Friar Laurence agrees to marry Romeo and Juliet, and these lines explain his motive. He hopes that the lovers’ marriage will put an end to the feud between their families. However, these lines also serve to remind the audience that according to the Prologue it is not the lovers’ “alliance” but their deaths that will “end their parents’ strife.”
'’For this alliance may so happy prove,
To turn your households’ rancour to pure love’’ (Act 2 Scene 2)
Both teenagers, they do not have the experience to handle what has happened to them. Their situation is particularly aggravated by their being members of the two opposing families in an ancient Veronian feud. Even just to be found talking to each other would be dangerous. They do talk though, and foolishly agree to be married in secret the next day, if the local clergyman, Friar Lawrence, will agree to it.
He does, and while they are waiting for the fourteen year-old Juliet to arrive at Friar Lawrence’s cell, the friar says he hopes they are not going to regret this later. Romeo says it doesn’t matter – if anything bad happens it won’t cancel out the joy he gets just from one moment of seeing her.
Friar Lawrence shakes his head and says ‘These violent delights have violent ends’, which means such extreme emotions about that kind of pleasure often end in disaster. He goes on to warn him that even the taste of honey can become sickly, precisely because it’s so sweet, so that eventually you go right off it. So take it easy. If you go too fast there’s even more chance of failure than if you go too slowly.
'’These violent delights have violent ends’’ (Act 2 Scene 6 )
Romeo’s friend, Mercutio, dies in the town square after an accident while play-fighting with Juliet’s cousin Tybalt. He looks around at his friends and utters his last words: “A plague on both your houses.” Although he is a close friend of Romeo he has not been on either side in the feud and has become sick and tired of this ancient grudge that has poisoned the life of Verona and all its citizens, and has now killed him. “A Plague on both your houses” is an idiom meaning “I’m not going to take sides: you’re both at fault and I will have nothing to do with it.”
’’ A plague o’both your houses!” (Act 3 Scene 1) [Foreshadowing]
Lord Capulet’s changes his views towards the marriage and the sudden rejection from Juliet causes an outburst from him
'’Hang thee, young baggage, disobedient wretch!
I tell thee what: get thee to church o’Thursday ,
Or never after look me in the face’’ (Act 3 Scene 5)
This quote from Romeo and Juliet speaks to the complexity of love. Love is not what it appears to be, rather it is something that cannot fully be described or understood – it must be experienced and felt. This quote from Romeo and Juliet serves as a reminder of the mysterious nature of love and its ability to bring out both the best and worst of people. Also shows the different attitudes that appear in different characters with selfless love or selfish interests
'’Love is heavy and light, bright and dark, hot
and cold, sick and healthy, asleep and awake-
its everything except what it is!’’ (Act 1 Scene 1)
Romeo says this quote after seeing Juliet dead in the tomb. He is saying that he is going to defy fate, sometimes referred to as “the stars,” for trying to keep them apart by killing himself to be with her.
'’I defy you stars’’ (Act 5 Scene 1)
With this quote the audience knew then that they were in for a good time, watching a series of disasters brought about by preordained bad luck. That the lovers’ stars crossed meant that the tragedy was inevitable because, as they saw it, the stars controlled human destiny.
'’Star-crossed lovers’’ (Prologue) [Foreshadow]
How quickly Romeo and Juliet are willing to leave their families for love but may allude to the fact they themselves will leave each other just as quick since its mostly done on impulse
'’Deny thy father and refuse thy name’’ (Act 2 Scene 2)
'’Love is … everything except what it is’’ ()
The hamartia is the character’s hubris
'’Some consequence yet hanging in the stars
Shall bitterly begin’’ (Romeo/)
Romeo’s first time meeting with Juliet
Juliet is an exotic character
'’teach the torches to burn bright!’’
‘‘As a rich jewel in an Ethiop’s ear’’
‘‘for earth too dear!’’
‘‘a snowy dove trooping with crows’’
Romeo says this words after Mercutio has been killed and is ready to get his revenge on Tybalt
Romeo blames Juliet for Mercutio’s death
'’Thy beauty hath made me effeminate’’
‘‘soften’d valour’s steel’’
Part of a sonnet that happened when both Romeo and Juliet meet
She is taking control of the seduction’’
'’Saints do not move through grant for prayer’s sake’’
