Romeo Flashcards
- “O brawling love! O loving hate!”
- Romeo speaks about love after Rosaline rejects him (A1S1)
• What: Chaotic emotional state, confused by love’s contradictions
• How:
• Oxymorons - semantic chaos → reflect inner turbulence
• Antithetical phrasing mimics violent emotional instability
• Asyndetic list of contradictions = overwhelming disarray
• Why: Shows youthful inability to separate love from pain → tragic instability foreshadowed
- “”Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight! For I ne’er saw true beauty till this night.”
- Seeing Juliet for the first time (A1S5)
• What: Instant infatuation, visual love
• How:
• Rhetorical ? - erases past feelings → fickle nature of desire
• Religious diction (“forswear”) = love becomes sacred/religious ritual
• Hyperbole → elevates Juliet to divine ideal
• Irony: ‘true beauty’ = superficial; reflects deeper blindness
• Why: Juxtaposes emotional immaturity with overwhelming passion → sets tragic course
- “With love’s light wings did I o’erperch these walls; for stony limits cannot hold love out.”
- Juliet’s balcony scene – declaration of devotion (A2S2)
• What: Love gives Romeo imagined invincibility
• How:
• Extended metaphor of flight → love = divine elevation
• Contrast between “light wings” & “stony limits” = idealism vs realism
• Enjambment → breathlessness, urgency of emotion
• Illusory bravery → danger masked by idealism
• Why: Romanticises love → but exposes disconnect from real world/social dangers
- “Th’ exchange of thy love’s faithful vow for mine.”
- Romeo and Juliet planning marriage (A2S2)
• What: Binds love with solemnity and permanence
• How:
• Religious diction (“vow”, “faithful”) = love as spiritual covenant
• Monosyllabic rhythm = simplicity, sincerity of emotion
• Chiasmus → mirrors mutual devotion (his vow = hers)
• Semantic field of loyalty → love as binding, not fleeting
• Why: Establishes tragic irony: vow intended to unite → will cause destruction
- “O sweet Juliet, thy beauty hath made me effeminate, and in my temper softened valour’s steel!”
- Romeo after Mercutio’s death (A3S1)
• What: Blames Juliet’s love for his perceived weakness
• How:
• Juxtaposition of “beauty” vs “valour” = inner war of masculine identity
• Metaphor (“softened valour’s steel”) = emasculation through emotion
• plosive sounds = anger + self-loathing
• Internalised patriarchy → love = feminising = shame
• Why: Love seen as threat to masculine honour → leads to overcompensation (violence)
- “O, I am fortune’s fool!”
- After killing Tybalt (A3S1)
• What: Feels manipulated by fate
• How:
• Alliteration (“fortune’s fool”) = mocking tone of destiny
• Personification of “Fortune” = greater-than-human force at play
• Tragic exclamation → realisation of cosmic entrapment
• Dramatic irony → believes it’s fate, but also result of impulse
• Why: Reinforces theme of powerlessness → fate as scapegoat for rash action
7.”More light and light; more dark and dark our woes.”
- Morning after wedding night (A3S5)
• What: Love grows → but so does danger
• How:
• Binary opposition (light/dark) = duality of love/doom
• Anaphora (“more…more…”) = ticking clock, increasing dread
• Symbolism → light = separation, dark = intimacy/tragedy
• Temporal imagery → love trapped in doomed timeline
• Why: Love exists in liminal space → can’t survive daylight/society
- “Then I defy you, stars!”
- Learning of Juliet’s “death” (A5S1)
• What: Rejects fate after hearing of Juliet’s death
• How:
• Apostrophe to “stars” = defiant tone → illusion of control
• Celestial metaphor = fate as unreachable yet controlling
• Irony: attempt to reject fate actually fulfils it
• Monosyllabic aggression → determination masked by fragility
• Why: Human rebellion vs fate → Shakespeare critiques hubris & illusion of agency
- “Here, here will I remain / With worms that are thy chambermaids.”
- At Juliet’s tomb (A5S3)
• What: Embraces death to stay with Juliet
• How:
• Macabre imagery (“worms…chambermaids”) = grotesque parody of marriage
• Domestic metaphor = eternal ‘home’ is grave
• Repetition of “here” = finality, rootedness in death
• Dark inversion of love → permanence found only in decay
• Why: Tragic conclusion → romantic ideals collapse into physical rot
- “Thou art not conquered; beauty’s ensign yet / Is crimson in thy lips and in thy cheeks.”
Preparing to die beside Juliet (A5S3)
• What: Believes Juliet still looks alive → illusion of life
• How:
• Military metaphor (“not conquered”) = love’s last resistance
• Dramatic irony = tragic tension – audience knows she is alive
• Colour imagery (“crimson”) = vitality within death
• Anthropomorphism of beauty = visual deception
• Why: Appearance vs reality at peak → love can’t see truth
- “Come, bitter conduct, come, unsavoury guide!”
- Romeo drinks poison (A5S3)
• What: Calls to death as his guide
• How:
• Oxymoronic epithets → death both saviour & destroyer
• Personification → poison = agent of release
• plosive c & b - anger & finality at his death - acceptance
• Metaphysical tone = death becomes spiritual conductor
• Why: Juxtaposes romantic idealism with grim fatalism → love leads to ruin
- “Thus with a kiss I die.”
- Final words before dying (A5S3)
• What: Ends life with act of love
• How:
• Juxtaposition (“kiss” / “die”) = romantic act vs death
• Simplicity of structure = surrender, peace in tragedy
• Symbolic chiasmus → circular ending to love arc
• Understatement → intense emotion through brevity
• Why: Love and death fully merged → culmination of romantic tragedy
