Romeo and Juliet

1. Romeo and Juliet Love & Passion Conflict Imagery (technique not a theme) Act 1 questions Acts 1.5 to 2.3

2. Love & Passion • Act 1, Scene 5. • Romeo sees Juliet at the banquet. Tybalt threatens to attack Romeo. Romeo and Juliet begin to fall in love and are dismayed when they discover their families are rivals. • When Romeo first meets Juliet he is stunned by her beauty. Shakespeare – again – uses the light and darkness imagery here. Romeo associates her with glowing light, says she shines like a rich jewel, compares her to a snowy dove amongst crows and says she is ‘blessed’. He now sees other women as crows. • Romeo often now speaks about Juliet in terms of shining light, whiteness and purity, and as having holy qualities. • LANGUAGE • Romeo & Juliet’s speeches to one another are full of religious overtones, although the bulk of what they say concerns the human body. Although they talk of lips and hands kissing and touching – as well as actually kissing each other – they also talk about holy shrines, gentle sins, pilgrims, devotion, saints and prayers. This formal use of language is rather dignified and stresses the purity and sincerity of their love for one another.

3. Love & Passion • Act 1, Scene 5. • We also see Juliet noticing Romeo’s speeches are still somewhat exaggerated and slightly pre-rehearsed: She notes that “You kiss by the book” (1.5.109) • What does this suggest about Romeo? • Romeo finds out Juliet’s true identity - that she is a Capulet – and is shocked to do so. • Juliet also tells the nurse that is she cannot marry Romeo she will die – “If he be married / My grave is like to be my wedding-bed” (1.5.133-134). This is another example of dramatic irony as this is another premonition about the connectedness of their love and their death. • 

4. Love & Passion • Act 2, Scene 1 • Romeo hides from his friends so that they go home from the feast without him. • We – again – see Mercutio’s opinion of love being a physical connection. He does not know that Romeo has met Juliet and believes that he is still longing after Rosaline. He refers to Rosaline’s ‘scarlet lip’ and ‘trembling thigh’. • Love for Mercutio is the same as physical lust. He and many other characters in the play cannot understand that love can be pure and passionate. The lovers are isolated in the play because others do not understand their love.

5. Love & Passion • Act 2, Scene 2. • Shakespeare sets his love scenes between the lovers in different ways. For example, this scene is set in a moonlit garden – connection with nature. The lovers exist outside of the houses and streets with their feuding and quarrelling. • Why has Shakespeare done this? • Romeo – again – foretells his own death. He talks about how he would rather have his life ended quickly by being discovered by Juliet’s kinsmen (Tybalt etc) - “ended by their hate” (2.2.77). This is another piece of dramatic irony as the audience – through the use of the prologue – already know about their fate. • Dramatic Irony is when what it said is different – usually the opposite – from what is meant, or from what is understood by the audience. • It is used again when Juliet says that is Romeo were a bird, she would kill him ‘with much cherishing’.

6. Love & Passion • Act 2, Scene 3. • Romeo meets Friar Lawrence and he agrees to help Romeo marry Juliet. • In this scene, we meet Friar Lawrence. When Romeo explains that he is fallen in love with Juliet, the Friar is amazed that he has managed to be in love with Rosaline, fall out of love with her and fall in love with Juliet. • He notes that young men’s love lies in their eyes. He notes that Romeo’s love for Rosaline was pure infatuation and that she also knew this. There is also imagery of ‘burying’ love in a grave – another omen for the lovers’ love. • The Friar agrees to marry them – it is his belief that through their marriage, the feud between their families will end. •  Why do you think he decided this? Do you agree? 

7. Conflict • Act 1, Scene 5. • When Tybalt realises it is Romeo behind the mask (he recognises his voice) he becomes livid that a Montague has crashed the Capulet’s ball. He wants to kill Romeo for such an offence. • What does this tell us about Tybalt? • Capulet becomes furious with Tybalt when he does not listen to him and persists in wanting to fight Romeo. We see this again when Juliet threatens to disobey him later in the play. • What does this tell us about Capulet? • It is dramatic irony that Capulet rebukes Tybalt for his unruly behaviour before displaying the same traits himself. 

8. Imagery (Technique, not theme) • Many of the play’s images emphasise the pleasures of growth and growing, sleep, food, exercise, lust, love, the promise of buds, the brief glory of flowers, the passing seasons and the sad inevitability of death. • Act 2, Scene 2 • Juliet appears at a window abover her garden and declares her love for Romeo. He reveals his presence to her and they exchange vows of love. • We already know Romeo’s love for Juliet is often referred to in terms of light and darkness (towards Juliet, his love is usually associated with light shining in darkness). Light imagery reaches its climax in this scene (though not the climax of the play) when Romeo says:“But , soft! What light through yonder window breaks? / It is the east, and Juliet is the sun!” •  Why does he say this and what are the connotations of him referring to her as the sun?

9. Imagery (Technique, not theme) • Romeo then goes on to compare the pale moonlight with sickness and grief and says that only fools have anything to do with it. • How does this connect with him walking through the Sycamore Trees? • He goes on to say that the moon is ‘envious’ of the light of the sun and is ‘sick and green’. • This comment is also a clever play on words as court jesters wore a chequered costume of ‘pale’ and green. Why is this clever? • His speech in praise of Juliet describes the beauty of the light of the sun and other stars. He later refers to her as a ‘bright angel’, who as a ‘winged messenger of love’ is far above ordinary mortals on earth. • We see him use several religious images when speaking about Juliet. He does so to emphasise the kind of love he feels for her. • 

10. Imagery (Technique, not theme) • Juliet – again – uses images of growth and nature to describe their love. She hopes that their ‘bud of love’ may become a ‘beauteous flower’ when they next meet. • What does this referencing of nature in regards to their love suggest? Why is such flower imagery appropriate? • Note that their love is yet to fully flower – this will be prevented by the ending of the play. 

11. Act 1 questions • Find two or more examples of fate in the play so far. • How important is the theme of fate to the play? • What do the following images describe and what are the connotations of them? • 1. ‘the bud bit with the envious worm’ (1.1.149) • 2. ‘a snowy dove trooping with crows’ (1.5.47) • 3. ‘earth-treading stars that make dark heaven light’ (1.2.25) • 4. ‘a smoke rais’d with the fume of sighs’. (1.1.188) • Find them in the text and use the context and footnotes to help you. • Compare Romeo’s talk of love with Juliet to how me mused about Rosaline atht he beginning of the play. What similarities/differences do you spot? • What is the purpose of the Prologue at the beginning of act 2? Why has Shakespeare used this device? Is there anything about the form of the language that you notice? 