Theme 9: Time Flashcards
- Capulet on Juliet’s youth (A1S2)
“Let two more summers wither in their pride / Ere we may think her ripe to be a bride.”
What: Suggests Juliet is too young to marry
• How:
• **Natural metaphor “summers…wither” = time as organic, seasonal
• **Juxtaposition “pride” / “wither” = beauty fades quickly
• **Lexical choice “ripe” = commodifies Juliet through fertility
• Why: Time framed as essential to growth, but later ignored in favour of speed
• Character: Lord Capulet
• Themes: time, generational divide, gender
- Juliet describes love’s pace (A2S2)
“It is too rash, too unadvised, too sudden; / Too like the lightning.”
• What: Fears love is moving too quickly
• How:
• **Anaphora “too” = tumbling pace mimics emotional speed
• **Simile “like the lightning” = intensity + danger compressed in time
• **Foreshadowing → fast love leads to fast end
• Why: Youthful passion clashes with temporal caution → love outside time’s rhythm
• Character: Juliet
• Themes: time, youth, love/relationships
- Friar Laurence warns Romeo (A2S6)
“They stumble that run fast.”
• What: Advises Romeo against rushing into marriage
• How:
• **Proverbial tone = timeless wisdom
• **Metaphor “stumble” = consequences of haste
• **Juxtaposition of motion vs fall = fragile path of love
• Why: Time’s pace matters → tragedy stems from imbalance
• Character: Friar Laurence
• Themes: time, fate, impulsiveness
- Capulet speeds up Juliet’s marriage (A3S4)
“Thursday is near; lay hand on heart, advise.”
• What: Urges Paris to marry Juliet within days
• How:
• **Imperative tone “advise” = control over pace of events
• **Dramatic irony → audience knows Juliet is already married
• **Juxtaposition of quick time with serious decision
• Why: Adults manipulate time → force emotional change into rigid deadlines
• Character: Capulet
• Themes: time, generational divide, appearance vs reality
- Juliet after Romeo’s departure (A3S5)
“O God, I have an ill-divining soul! / Methinks I see thee… / As one dead in the bottom of a tomb.”
• What: Sees Romeo in a vision of death
• How:
• **Foreshadowing → prophetic link between love + death
• **Visceral imagery “bottom of a tomb” = death as final stillness
• **Enjambment → emotional time outpaces logic
• Why: Emotional intensity collapses linear time → future intrudes into present
• Character: Juliet
• Themes: time, fate, love/relationships
- Friar’s rushed plan for Juliet (A4S1)
“Take thou this vial, being then in bed, / And this distilling liquor drink thou off.”
• What: Gives potion for Juliet to fake her death
• How:
• **Ritualistic structure = echoes religious sacrament
• **Compressed instructions = speed, danger
• **Tone = urgency cloaked in calm
• Why: Time bent to deceive → artificial control leads to real collapse
• Character: Friar Laurence
• Themes: time, appearance vs reality, fate
- Juliet wakes and sees Romeo dead (A5S3)
“O churl! Drunk all, and left no friendly drop / To help me after?”
• What: Blames Romeo for dying too soon
• How:
• **Irony → death too quick for reunion
• **Tone = bitter grief masked as scolding
• **“Friendly drop” = death as mercy, lover’s pact
• Why: Their timing never aligns → love + time forever mismatched
• Character: Juliet
• Themes: time, death, love/relationships
- Juliet’s final line (A5S3)
“O happy dagger! / This is thy sheath: there rust, and let me die.”
• What: Kills herself after Romeo’s death
• How:
• **Oxymoron “happy dagger” = time suspended in tragic irony
• **Metaphor “sheath” = sexual + fatal connotation
• **Finality in “rust” = time stops permanently
• Why: Time ends in stasis → death halts chaos, but too late
• Character: Juliet
• Themes: time, death, love/relationships
- Prince’s final judgement (A5S3)
“For never was a story of more woe / Than this of Juliet and her Romeo.”
• What: Concludes the tragedy
• How:
• **Rhyming couplet = structural closure
• **Reverse order of names → Juliet’s journey foregrounded
• **Past tense “was” = time seals their fate as legend
• Why: Time reclaims control → lovers immortalised but silenced
• Character: Prince
• Themes: time, fate, death
