Romeo Flashcards
Our first meeting of Romeo establishes him as a…?
Melancholy character, unhappily in love and a stereotypical courtly lover
How does Shakespeare establish Romeo as a melancholic, courtly lover?
Through symbolic locations and actions (wandering in the sycamore (sickamour) grove; through Montague’s descriptions of him as a ‘heavy son’, avoiding the light
Romeo’s first words are full of exclamations but also slightly cryptic puns, oxymorons and antithesis, such as…?
‘O brawling love, O loving hate/O heavy lightness, serious vanity’
What do Romeo’s antitheses and oxymorons suggest about him?
He is conflicted; partly because he is unhappy and unrequitedly in love
What is a line that sums up Romeo’s attitude to the feud?
‘What fray was here? Tell me not for I have heard it all’ - he is uninterested
What does Benvolio suggest that Romeo gives ‘liberty’ to?
His eyes: ‘examine other beauties’
When Romeo sees Juliet his language shifts dramatically - how?
Instead of using contradictory language (oxymorons and antitheses), he uses richly poetic and hyperbolic elevating language to describe Juliet
Romeo’s language about Juliet keeps returning to a key trope - what is it?
Light - Juliet teaches the torches to ‘burn bright’ and is compared in the balcony scene to a series of radiant things (the moon, the stars)
When Romeo and Juliet meet, they spontaneously share what?
A sonnet (that ends with a kiss)
The sonnet that R and J share contrasts strongly with the earthy and material language used about love by Sampson and Gregory and which two other characters?
The Nurse and Mercutio
In a key plot moment, Tybalt identifies R as a gatecrasher and wants to fight him, calling him a ‘villain’: how does this set up the action at the climax?
When Capulet stops Tybalt fighting Romeo, he merely waits and challenges him, coming to find him on the streets in 3.1
For Romeo love proves stronger than the honour code in which phase of action?
The rising action
Why does Shakespeare use religious imagery for Romeo and Juliet in the pilgrim/shrine sonnet?
In order to elevate their love above the other language used about relationships
Mercutio tries to stop Romeo from heading to Capulet’s orchard by what method?
Teasing him with crude sexual jokes about conjuring up Rosaline’s ‘quivering thigh’ to tempt him back
In the balcony scene all of the imagery (and even Romeo’s eyes) are focused…?
Upwards - the implied proxemics of the scene are all turned towards the night sky - with Juliet as the brighter light
How does the language of Romeo and Juliet contrast in the balcony scene?
He is very poetic and hyperbolic - he is reckless and single-minded; she is cautious and wary
In what ways are Romeo and Juliet similar in the balcony scene?
They both offer to give up their name and deny their fathers etc - showing Shakespeare presents their love as something that takes them out of society
Juliet asks Romeo very directly, ‘How camest thou hither…?’ But he answers…
Poetically: ‘with love’s light wings did I o’erperch these walls’
Towards the end of the balcony scene, the idea of time and the dangers of rushed love are raised by Juliet, who says:…?
‘I have no joy of this contract tonight/It is too rash, too unadvised, too sudden’
In 2.3 Romeo makes a witty reference to his mutual love when he tells FL…?
‘On a sudden one hath wounded me/That’s by me wounded’ (a reference to Cupid and his arrow, with the balancing phrasing reinforcing that this is mutual love
FL says to Romeo…’women may fall when there’s no strength in men’ when he finds out about Juliet, which means
He thinks Romeo is changeable and fickle
Romeo stands ‘on sudden haste’ but FL reminds him that…
‘they stumble that run fast’ - yet another reference to time that warns the young lover(s) of the dangers of too sudden love
Mercutio mocks Romeo with references to Petrarch and tragic heroines because…
He is cross that Romeo left them after the party
When the Nurse appears, Mercutio draws Romeo in crude sexual banter, calling her…?
A pimp or an old prostitute
They also mock the Nurse for her size/shape, calling out…?
‘a sail, a sail’ and saying ‘her fan’s the fairer face’
When the young men meet the Nurse in the street Shakespeare presents them in an unattractive way, yet…
it is mainly Mercutio that leads this crude sexual banter
When Romeo and the Nurse are planning the wedding night, she nearly tells Romeo what story
The one about Juliet falling…She is also tactless in her references to Paris being ‘the properer man’ in a largely comic ending to the scene
When FL marries R and J his language echoes that of who when he first sees Juliet?
Romeo - FL uses hyperbolic language to describe Juliet as having ‘so light a foot’ that will ‘ne’er wear out the everlasting flint
FL’s marriage homily warns R and J about the dangers of too sudden love…eg
‘These violent delights have violent ends’, also comparing them to fire and powder
In 3.1 Romeo is determined not to fight Tybalt and endures his insults like ‘villain’. Mercutio calls this…?
A ‘calm dishonourable, vile submission’ showing the profound influence of the honour code on him
Romeo and Benvolio try to stop the fight, reminding T and M of the Prince’s threat but M is hurt…?
Under R’s arm (ironically)
On Mercutio’s death, the forces of love and honour (and the instinct for revenge) come together for Romeo in which lines…?
‘O sweet Juliet/Thy beauty hath made me effeminate and…softened valor’s steel’
Romeo as revenger quote?
‘Mercutio’s soul [is over our heads]/Either thou or I or both must go with him’
When R kills Tybalt he makes the first of many references to fate, saying…
‘Oh I am fortune’s fool’
Juliet uses antitheses to describe Romeo when she learns of Tybalt’s death, such as…
‘Serpent heart hid with a flowering face’
3.3 is a scene which shows just how similar Romeo and Juliet have become…how?
Parallel to J’s scene with the Nurse in 3.2 - both weeping and threatening to die - J says ‘death take my maidenhead’, R says, ‘Be merciful say death’ [rather than banishment] when FL comes with the news of the Prince’s (commuted) sentence
3.3 shows a contrast between age and youth…how?
With FL’s measured, even gentle teasing of Romeo’s hysterical and emotional language
Later in 3.3. FL becomes angry with R..saying?
‘’O rude unthankfulness’ followed by his long speech with the refrain (after listing elements of R’s good luck’, ‘there art thou lucky’, and saying he has a ‘a pack of blessings’ upon his back
in 3.3., in another scene which links male emotion to womanliness, FL says…
‘Unseemly woman in a seeming man’
3.5 has the lovers final parting: Shakespeare presents them through…
Antitheses - larks and toads, light vs dark (tonal shift)
5.1 Romeo hears the news of J’s supposed death and immediately goes to buy…?
Poison from the v poor apothecary
In his speech to the apothecary, the theme of money is introduced: it is compared unfavourably with…?
Poison: ‘there is thy gold, worse poison to men’s souls’
Romeo is often portrayed as being on a journey/looking for something - a wanderer initially, a pilgrim: now he is focused on…’
Death and the defiance of fate - ‘I defy you stars’
In the graveyard, Romeo speaks the language of the revenger to B and P: eg?
His threat to B (if he spies on him):’ I will tear thee joint by joint’ and ‘have at thee, boy’ (to Paris)
In his final scene 5.3, Shakespeare once again portrays Juliet as a radiant presence for Romeo..eg?
‘her beauty makes this vault a feasting presence full of light’
In a final quest/journeying image, Romeo links the poison to..?
‘A guide…a desperate pilot’ that will shipwreck (kill) him
FL blames R’s death on ‘chance’, whilst R sees it as…?
Fateful
When the Prince greets Montague he says his son and heir is…
‘Early down’ suggesting the horrible inverse world the feud has created: young die before the old
Capulet offers to raise a ‘rich’ gold statue of Romeo - Shakespeare suggests that even at the end the families are…
Competing after the feud has ended: see Montague’s ‘I can give thee more’ [than the initial handshake of peace that C offers’)
