romeo Flashcards
Romeo makes his first appearance a few moments after the Prince has ended a fight between Montagues and Capulets. These lines establish that Romeo is tired of the feud between the two families. He compares the families’ hatred to his own love for Rosaline, which establishes the close connection between love and violence running throughout the play.
O me, what fray was here?
Yet tell me not, for I have heard it all.
Here’s much to do with hate, but more with love.
Romeo agrees to attend the Capulets’ ball, but he fears his decision may set off a chain of events that will end in tragedy. Throughout the play we get a strong sense that Romeo and Juliet cannot escape their fates. When Romeo says that the consequences of his decision are “hanging in the stars,” he reminds the audience that the “star-crossed” lovers of the Prologue are doomed to die.
I fear too early, for my mind misgives;
Some consequence, yet hanging in the stars,
Shall bitterly begin.
These lines express Romeo’s first impression of Juliet. In discussing his love for Rosaline, Romeo uses stale clichés drawn from the Petrarchan love poetry that was popular in Shakespeare’s day. As soon as he sees Juliet, Romeo’s language takes on a striking and original quality, which suggests that his passion for her is authentic.
O she doth teach the torches to burn bright.
It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night
As a rich jewel in an Ethiope’s ear.
As Romeo approaches Juliet’s bedroom, he describes her in language drawn from astrology, such as suns, moons, and stars. This grandiose imagery suggests that Romeo believes his love for Juliet is not earthbound, but transcendent. Juliet herself is a force as powerful as the sun, the literal center of the universe. However, astrological imagery also reminds the audience that Romeo and Juliet are “star-crossed”—in other words, fated to die. The following lines read “arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon,” suggesting that Romeo’s love for Juliet has supplanted his previous, weaker infatuation with Rosaline.
But soft, what light through yonder window breaks?
It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.
Romeo refuses to accept Juliet’s death. He decides to return to Verona, but his attempt to defy the “stars” only succeeds in bringing about his tragic fate, which emphasizes that the lovers’ destiny is inescapable. Because the Prologue references the lovers’ “star-crossed” fate, every subsequent reference to the stars, or to the heavens in general, reminds the audience of the sad fate awaiting the lovers, and their inability to avoid it, try though they might.
I defy you, stars!
