Romeo Flashcards
Love is blinding, confusing
“Love is a smoke made with the fume of sighs, Being purged a fire sparkling in lovers’ eyes, Being vexed, a sea nourished with moving tears”, “Love, who’s view is muffled still” - A1S1
Love is blinding, acts a smokescreen; he feels misled by unrequited love
Love vs hate; conflicted mind
“O brawling love, O loving hate”, “Here’s much to do with hate, but more with love”; “O heavy lightness, oh serious vanity”, “feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health”; “I have lost myself” - A1S1
Oxymorons show how his mind is conflicted; love and hate intertwined, without one the other cannot exist
Heavy heart
“I have a soul of lead”, “under love’s heavy burden do I sink” - A1S4
Heavy heart weighs him down, he is unable to “dance”, or “soar”
Connotations to Cupid
“I am too sore enpierced with [Cupid’s] shaft” - A1S4
Consequences of going to Capulet ball
“I fear too early, for my mind misgives, Some consequence yet hanging in the stars, Shall bitterly begin”, “vile forfeit of untimely death” - A1S4
His mind warns him of the repercussions; connotations to prologue (“star-crossed lovers take their life”), predicts the rest of the story, untimely death of lovers
Romeo first sees Juliet
“O she doth teach the torches to burn bright”, “As a rich jewel”, “Beauty too rich for use, for Earth too dear”, “Snowy dove tripping with crows”, “lady over her fellows shows”, “blessed my rude hand”, “I never saw true beauty until this night”; “It is the east, and Juliet is the Sun” - A1S5
- Compares her to light (“torched”, “bright”) - connotes happiness, ‘fair’ beauty
- Like a jewel - precious and rare; objectification of Juliet
- Beauty is out of this world; too rare, Romeo unworthy for loving her
- Stands out like dove among crows, stand out over her fellows
- He is unworthy of loving her, with his “rude hand”
- Love at first sight - her beauty is never before seen, true beauty
Comparing Juliet to light
“Teaches the torches to burn bright”, “It is the east, and Juliet is the Sun”, “brightness of her cheek”, “daylight doth a lamp”, “bright angel” - A2S2
Compares her to light, shows happiness and beauty - fair beauty, brightens everything around her
Ready to denounce name
“Ill be new baptised, I never will be Romeo”, “Because it is an enemy to thee” - A2S2
He is impulsive, immature, irrational, ready to disown family just to be with Juliet
Love over life
“There lies more peril in thine eye, than 20 of their swords”, “My life were better ended by their hate, than death prorogued, wanting of thy love” - A2S2
He would be more hurt by Juliet not noticing/looking at him, rather than their swords; he’d rather die killed by them, than die without her love
Pain of Rosaline
“I have forgotten that name, and that name’s woe” - A2S3
Pain of unrequited love has been replaced with the love of Juliet
Love has weakened him
“Juliet, thy beauty hath made me effeminate and in my temper softened valour’s steel” - A3S1
Love has weakened Romeo, softened him and so he was unable to fight to save Mercutio
Refuses to leave Verona
“Ha ‘banishment’, be merciful, say ‘death’”, “exile hath more terror…than death”, “no world without Verona but purgatory, torture, hell itself”, “tis torture, and not mercy” - A3S3
Juliet, his love, his life is in Verona, without J he cannot live, would much rather die than be without her
Romeo’s dream of death
“If I may trust the flattering truth of sleep”, “I dreamt my lady came and found me dead”, “And breathed such life with kisses in my lips”- A5S1
Premonition of the future, flattering truth comes true
Juliet is everything to Romeo
“How doth my Juliet? That I ask again, For nothing can be ill if she be well” - A5S1
Significance in life, all he needs to be well
