Romeo

Question 1

‘this day’s black fate on more days doth depend’ - romeo, act 3 scene 1

Answer 1

• Romeo recognises the long lasting significance of the death of Mercutio

Question 2

‘staying for thine to keep him company. either thou, or i, or both, must go with him’ -
romeo, act 3 scene 1

Answer 2

• Romeo now takes his revenge - he tells Tybalt that Mercutio is dead.
• Here, Romeo seems to completely devalue his own life, reflecting his irrational passion + his intense rage
• This is the same attitude that Romeo takes on later in the play when he finds out about Juliet’s death.
• This shows Romeo’s depth for love and how throughout the whole play he only ever lives in extremes whether that be extreme sadness or in this case extreme anger.

Question 3

‘here’s much to do with hate, but more with love […] o brawling love, o loving hate’ - romeo, act 1 scene 1

Answer 3

• Romeo understands the dangers of love - it can lead to violence + death.
• He furthers his point using the pair of oxymorons + ecphonesis

Question 4

‘love is a smoke made of the fume of sighs’ - romeo, act 1 scene 1

Answer 4

• Romeo sees love as at once insubstantial + suffocating, intoxicating + dangerous

Question 5

‘the all-seeing sun ne’er saw her match since first the world begun’ - romeo, act 1 scene 2

Answer 5

• Romeo hyperbolically claims that Rosaline is the most beautiful woman in history via light imagery.
• However, this also highlights his impetuousness (his hamartia) + how quickly he swaps his adoration to juliet

Question 6

‘being but heavy, i will bear the light.’ - romeo, act 1 scene 4

Answer 6

• Although Romeo claims to be depressed, he keeps making puns in this scene (another pun: ‘with nimble soles, i have a soul of lead’) .
• Light + heavy contrast which reiterates again that he’s sad

Question 7

‘is love a tender thing? it is too rough, too rude, too boisterous, and it pricks like thorn’ - romeo, act 1 scene 4

Answer 7

• Another negative view of love from Romeo
• He uses repetition, a tricolon + a simile to display his hatred for love
• Romeo asks this question about love - can be argued that this is uncharacteristic of him, as he strikes the reader as someone who loves love.
• This also illustrates how hurt Romeo is by Rosaline: she has changed the character of Romeo.
• The use of asyndetic listing creates tension in which the climax is the simile at the end. * The simile “pricks like a thorn” has a double meaning as while the obvious meaning is that love is painful Romeo is also saying that love is also a rose and beautiful.
• This quote is mirrored by Juliet in Act 2 when she says that their exchange is “too rash, too unadvised, too sudden, Too like the lightning,”.

Question 8

‘my mind misgives some consequence yet hanging in the stars shall bitterly begin… by some vile forfeit of untimely death’ - romeo, act 1 scene 4

Answer 8

• Romeo has a premonition that the party will lead to a fatal consequence
• He uses sibilance which slows the pace + plosive alliteration which highlights his anger + how he can’t change fate.
• The noun ‘stars’ to remind the audience that he’s ‘star-cross’d’
• “untimely death” - this is extreme foreshadowing by Shakespeare and also dramatic irony -Romeo believes that he may die soon due to meeting Juliet at the party and at the same time the audience knows that he will die.
• It then makes it ironic that Mercutio approaches the situation as though it means nothing, not realising the gravity and reality of what is to come.

Question 9

‘but he that hath the steerage of my course direct my sail!’ - romeo, act 1 scene 4

Answer 9

• Romeo refuses to take responsibility for his own actions
• He is going to let fate + god (religious imagery) lead him wherever it wants. he also uses navigation imagery again

Question 10

‘o, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!’ - romeo, act 1 scene 5

Answer 10

• Romeo’s first sight of juliet where he’s blown away by her beauty, this is proven by the use of ecphonesis + the exclamation

Question 11

“Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight For I ne’er saw true beauty till this night.” - romeo, act 1 scene 5

Answer 11

• Romeo renounces all his previous words about Rosaline which underlines his hamartia again where he’s marked by his impulsive vehemence + passion
• This characterises Romeo as a very fickle character as in the scene before he was still hung up on Rosaline who he was ‘love sick’ over.
• The rhetorical question used is ironic - if anyone had asked Romeo this a few moments before he would have said with complete assurance that he was in love with Rosaline.
• Previously in scenes, Romeo had talked about Rosaline’s beauty saying that she is “too fair, too wise, wisely too fair,” but now that he sees Juliet he disregards all that he has said, making him appear unreliable to the audience.

Question 12

‘for saints have hands that pilgrims’ hands do touch, and palm to palm is holy palmers’ kiss’ romeo, act 1 scene 5

Answer 12

• In Romeo + Juliet’s first conversation, the first 14 lines are a sonnet (a form used for love poetry) + it’s an extended christian metaphor.
• The use of the same imagery highlights that their is a connection of mind, body + soul + how their relationship holds the same importance as religion

Question 13

‘o dear account! my life is my foe’s debt’ - romeo, act 1 scene 5

Answer 13

• After meeting Juliet, Romeo now owes his life to the capulets which he’s shocked, upset + dismayed about, represented by the ecphonesis + exclamation

Question 14

it is the east, and juliet is the sun’ - romeo, act 2 scene 2

Answer 14

• Typical hyperbole from Romeo - Juliet is the centre of his universe + the light of his world

Question 15

‘with love’s light wings did i o’erperch these walls’ - romeo, act 2 scene 2

Answer 15

• For Romeo, love can achieve anything because it is so strong + powerful - even climb walls!

Question 16

‘o let us hence; i stand on sudden haste’ romeo, act 2 scene 3

Answer 16

• Romeo is in a desperate hurry to marry Juliet underlining his passion + impatience

Question 17

‘i love thee better than thou canst devise’ - romeo, act 3 scene 1

Answer 17

• Romeo appeals to Tybalt which angers him - by claiming to love him.
• This is ironic as his attempt at peace brought violence instead

Question 18

‘i thought all for the best’ - romeo, act 3 scene 1

Answer 18

• By trying to stop the fight, Romeo causes Mercutio’s death - just as he ultimately causes the death of Juliet + himself.
• Sounds extremely guilty as all he was trying to do was help

Question 19

‘o sweet juliet, thy beauty hath made me effeminate, and in my temper softened valour’s steel’ - romeo, act 3 scene 1

Answer 19

• Romeo blames Juliet for weakening his masculinity highlighting toxic masculinity. * Context: Elizabethan times, men who loved too much were considered weak
• This is the moment that Romeo realises the ‘error’ of his ways - he blames it all on Juliet as he believes that the love that he has for her has made him like a woman and weak.
• Shakespeare uses a metaphor to describe what Romeo believes has taken place. Romeo believes himself to be a man of “steel” and “valor” which means courage

Question 20

‘o, i am fortune’s fool!’ - romeo, act 3 scene 1

Answer 20

• Romeo believes that he is a plaything of fate.
• He is subject to the whims of fate linking back to the prologue, ‘star-cross’d’

Question 21

‘heaven is here, where juliet lives’ - romeo, act 3 scene 3

Answer 21

• Romeo sees his banishment as being cut off from heaven.
• This is another example where Juliet is elevated to a heavenly + holy status thus displaying Romeo’s strong love for Juliet

Question 22

‘i must be gone and live, or stay and die’ - romeo, act 3 scene 5

Answer 22

• Romeo states the awful paradox of his situation at the end of act 3 - either death or banishment must separate the lovers

Question 23

‘more light and light, more dark and dark our woes!’ - romeo, act 3 scene 5

Answer 23

• Another paradox from Romeo - the lighter the sky gets, the darker the situation becomes.
• Light + dark imagery. the ‘dark’ represents sadness
• Romeo is basically saying here that the more light that comes in, the more they can see their troubles.
• This is because after the night that they had together the morning means that Romeo has to run away to Mantua.
• There is also a dramatic irony here as the lovers don’t even know how many more troubles are coming (for example the fact that Juliet will be forced to marry Paris).

Question 24

‘my dreams presage some joyful news at hand’ - romeo, act 5 scene 1

Answer 24

• A very ironic line - Romeo believes that he is about to receive good news!

Question 25

‘is it e’en so? then i defy you, stars!’ - romeo, act 5 scene 1

Answer 25

• Romeo vows to challenge fate and no longer accept it passively - contrasting with his words at the end of act 1 scene 4 + act 3 scene 1 (‘o i am fortune’s fool!’.
• Also links back to the prologue, ‘star-cross’d’

Question 26

‘by heaven, i will tear thee joint by joint and strew this hungry churchyard with thy limbs’ - romeo, act 5 scene 3

Answer 26

• Romeo threatens balthasar, showing how out of control he is.
• Very violent + aggressive over juliet’s death

Question 27

‘thou detestable maw, thou womb of death’ - romeo, act 5 scene 3

Answer 27

• Romeo addresses Juliet’s tomb
• Uses a metaphorical phrase which equates the tomb to a deathly womb + the jaws of a petrifying beast
• Romeo is implying that a tomb is a place that merely harbours destruction, decay + death

Question 28

‘by heaven, i love thee better than myself’ - romeo, act 5 scene 3

Answer 28

• Romeo’s words to Paris echo his words to Tybalt in act 3 scene 1.
• Romeo knows he can’t control himself indicating his really strong emotions

Question 29

‘thou art not conquered, beauty’s ensign yet is crimson in thy lips and in thy cheeks’ - romeo, act 5 scene 3

Answer 29

• Although she is dead, Juliet is still beautiful.
• It also hints that she’s actually not dead but Romeo doesn’t notice because he’s too infatuated with her beauty

Question 30

‘here will i set up my everlasting rest, and shake the yoke of inauspicious stars from this world-wearied flesh’ - romeo, act 5 scene 3

Answer 30

• By killing himself, Romeo is finally going to break free of the burden of fate.
• Develops the central idea of fate by showing that Romeo believes he can only escape the burden of his fate through death

Question 31

‘thou desperate pilot, now at last run on the dashing rocks thy seasick weary bark!’ - romeo, act 5 scene 3

Answer 31

• Romeo sees himself as a boat (like he did at the end of act 1 scene 4) and the poison as the captain
• He uses navigation imagery (is a motif for Romeo)

Question 32

‘tut, I have lost myself. I am not here. this is not Romeo. he’s some other where’ - Romeo, act 1 scene 1

Answer 32

• Romeo saying here that he is not himself because of his unrequited love.
• Shakespeare was writing in the Renaissance, which was a time of higher enlightenment in many sectors but especially philosophical thought.
• The Elizabethans believed that humans were made of three parts the mind, body and soul while all three are separate they are one and the same.
• Based on this it is possible to argue that due to Romeo’s heartbreak the three parts of him have been separated and so he is not the normal Romeo or Romeo at all because his heart (soul) has been broken

Question 33

‘I’ll go along, no such sight to be shown, not to see whom you show But to rejoice in splendour of mine own’ - Romeo, act 1 scene 2

Answer 33

• Romeo saying that he will go to the feast not to see other women but so that he can see Rosaline.
• Romeo equates seeing his unrequited love to rejoicing in splendour, this suggests that Rosaline has a kind of spell over Romeo.
• Seeing her suggests a celebration which juxtaposes his previously described depressed state.

Question 34

‘I have a soul of lead. so stakes me to the ground I cannot move” - Romeo, act 1 scene 4

Answer 34

• Another description of Romeo’s depressed state due to his unrequited love.
• Extended metaphor to describe why he cannot dance. * Describing his soul as made of “lead” expresses how he is feeling heavy.
  *The “lead” “stakes” him to the ground - suggests that he is feeling this way against his will. * He does not choose to feel the way he does but instead love has made him like this

Question 35

‘can I go forward when my heart is here? / turn back, dull earth, and find thy centre out.’ - Romeo, act 2 scene 1

Answer 35

• Foregrounds Romeo’s position as a Petrarchan lover, though now the object of her affection is Juliet, not Rosaline. * Rhetorical question highlights his solitude + self-questioning, (characteristics of Petrarchan lover).
• Romeo’s physical solitude on stage also highlights his self-perceived position as an unrequited lover. - he thinks he is alone in his love, and this is physically realised on stage.
• In addition, his physical entrance into the Capulet’s orchard represents his attempts to enter Juliet’s affections.

Question 36

‘it is my lady; o, it is my love!’ - Romeo, act 2 scene 2

Answer 36

• Medial caesura represents fractiousness of Romeo’s love-smitten mind – his sentences breaks as he struggles to find the appropriate word to express his love.
• This search for the appropriate word (“lady […] love” – his noun choice increases in intensity) is foregrounded by the repetition of “it is my […] it is my.”
• This creates the sense that Romeo is going over the same ideas again and again in his mind.

Question 37

‘wert thou as far/ as that vast shore wash’d with the farthest sea./ I should adventure for such merchandise’ - Romeo, act 2 scene 2

Answer 37

• Metaphor is superficially a romantic comment on Romeo’s love - that he will seek Juliet out as a voyager would, no matter the obstacle.
• However, the use of the mercantile noun “merchandise” undermines this romantic sentiment by objectifying Juliet, thus adhering to stereotypes of Elizabethan male-female power dynamics
• This image also places Romeo as the active lover (seeking out Romeo) and Juliet as passive (waiting to be sought out), further adhering to such stereotypes.

Question 38

‘he jests at scars that never felt a wound’ - Romeo, act 2 scene 2

Answer 38

• Here, Romeo points out the ease with which Benvolio and Mercutio, make fun of his love, even though they have never loved
• This highlights the opposition between lovers and non-lovers in the play and, furthermore, the different kinds of love – erotic and selfless – that different characters epitomise.
• May also be understood as Romeo’s youthful naivety - he perceives himself to be the only one to have ever loved in this fashion – indeed, Mercutio and Benvolio may in fact be more experienced than him in these matters.

Question 39

‘the sweeter rest was mine’ - Romeo, act 2 scene 3

Answer 39

• Romeo’s claim that his sleeplessness due to love is “sweeter” than sleep itself augments his characterisation as the Petrarchan lover, with all his normal human faculties being disrupted by his love for Juliet.
• His positivity in this scene is in contrast to his melancholy in 2.1 and early in 2.2 (when he was speaking largely in prose, whereas now he speaks in verse), - highlighting how his meeting with Juliet has improved his emotional state, thus highlighting the purity and intensity of their love.

Question 40

‘villain I am none’ - Romeo, act 3 scene 1

Answer 40

• Romeo tries to make peace here and the audience may think that he is about to confess to the marriage
• He repeats back to Tybalt the word “villain” but negates it by telling him “I am none”.

Question 41

‘ha, banishment! be merciful, say ‘death’ for exile hath more terror in his look, Much more than death. Do not say ‘banishment’’ ‘there is no world without Verona walls but purgatory, torture, hell itself,’ - Romeo, act 3 scene3

Answer 41

• Romeo believes banishment to be worse than death -means that he cannot see his love, Juliet.
• To the Elizabethan audience, the only thing worse than death would have been purgatory which was a medieval Catholic doctrine in a sort of limbo after death, where people are meant to atone as last way to reach Heaven, this was supposed to be “torture”.

Question 42

‘in what vile part of this anatomy Doth my name lodge? tell me, that I may sake the hateful mansion (draws his dagger)’ - Romeo, act 3 scene 3

Answer 42

• Mirrors Act 1 Scene 5 when Juliet is asking herself “Wherefore art thou Romeo”asking herself the importance of a name saying “What’s Montague? It is nor hand, nor foot, Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part Belonging to a man.”
• Juliet concludes that the name is not in any part of the body, however, Romeo again goes through this even ready to cut the part out of him.
• The fact that this idea is repeated suggests that the lovers have not grown throughout the course of the play.
• The fact that Romeo “draws his dagger” foreshadows the deaths to come in the play

Question 43

‘let me be taken. let me be put to death. I am content, so thou wilt have it so. I’ll say yon grey is not the morning’s eye’ - Romeo, act 3 scene 5

Answer 43

• Shows the amount of Romeo’s infatuation with Juliet - he is ready to deny laws of the earth and to even die for her to prove his love for her.
• Foreshadowing Romeo’s death as it commits the greatest act of love.
• Phrase “let me” suggests Romeo is completely surrendering - he is no longer trying to put up a fight he is in complete submission to Juliet. * Uncommon behaviour for men as traditionally it was the woman’s role to be submissive in the Elizabethan era

Question 44

‘for nothing can be ill if she [Juliet] be well’ / ‘then she is well, and nothing can be ill’ - Romeo, act 5 scene 1

Answer 44

• Exchange between Romeo and Balthasar represents the dramatic change in tone from Romeo’s happiness to his grief. * Chiastic nature of the two lines represents how Balthasar takes Romeo’s sentiment and inverts it, just as Romeo’s emotions are soon to be inverted from joy to sadness. ○ * Balthasar’s line fragmented by a medial caesura whereas Romeo’s line is not, demonstrating the former’s uncertainty and the fragmentation that will soon be transferred to Romeo (i.e. his torn emotional state on discovering Juliet’s fate)

Question 45

‘well, Juliet, I will lie with thee-to-night’ - Romeo, act 5 scene 1

Answer 45

• Short line epitomises the great depths of his grief - as soon as he has heard the news of Juliet’s death, he is certainly on his plan to commit suicide. * Parataxic nature of the line (and of the soliloquy as a whole) represents this certainty.
• Line also poses a perverse inversion of their relationship via the pun on “lie”, meaning “lie in death” but also alluding to the sexual act (“to lie with someone”)
• This amalgamation of the death bed and the marriage bed represents the unnatural and swift turn from joy to tragedy that their relationship has taken

Question 46

‘meagre were his looks; / sharp misery had worn him to the bones’ - Romeo, act 5 scene 1

Answer 46

• Romeo’s description of the apothecary contains a plethora of macabre words (“meagre […] misery […] bones”) which is not the only representative of his own depressed mental state but is proleptic of his death (“bones”).
• The apothecary, as the representation of all of Romeo’s negative emotions, is thus the natural place for him to visit.

Question 47

‘stay not, be gone; live, and hereafter say / a madman’s mercy bid thee run away’ - Romeo act 5 scene 3

Answer 47

• The fragmented and repetitious nature of Romeo’s sentences represents his self-proclaimed madness.
• The repetitious nature (“stay not, be gone”) of the lines also highlights Romeo’s desperation - he does not want to kill Paris, but will equally risk all for Juliet.

Question 48

‘shall I believe/ that unsubstantial death is amorous / and that the lean abhorred monster keeps / thee here in dark to be his paramour?’ - Romeo, act 5 scene 3

Answer 48

• Juxtaposition between the lexical sets of morbid words “Death […] lean […] abhorred monster” and that of love “amorous […] paramour” highlights Romeo’s confusion - he both loves Juliet and despairs of his love.
• Personification of Death perhaps is a projection of his own desire to die.
• This conflict is continued in Romeo’s final death “Thus with a kiss I die”.
• This also represents how Romeo and Juliet’s ostensibly innocent love is ultimately fatal.