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Romeo and Juliet

Quotes

The 23 passages that decide the work, each with who speaks, the linked themes and characters, and an explanation.

Act I: The brawl and the ball

A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life
Speaker
the Chorus
Characters
Romeo, Juliet
Themes
Fate and Free WillLoveDeathFamily
Symbols
Light and night
Devices
Foreshadowing, Metaphor

Explanation and analysis

Before any character enters, the Chorus tells the audience how the play ends. He presents two families of equal nobility in Verona, whose old enmity stains the hands of the citizens with blood again, and announces that from these houses a pair of lovers born under a contrary star will come, whose death will put an end to the discord of their parents. Those who watch will not come to learn what happens, but to see how it happens.

The sentence places the play under the sign of fate. "Contrary star" suggests a hostile star to both, as if the ending were already written in the sky, and the image returns later: Romeo senses, on the way to the ball, a consequence still hanging in the stars, and in Act V he defies the stars on learning of Juliet's death. The English verb of the line, "take," can also be heard as taking one's own life, in addition to receiving life, that is, being born. One may read in it a birth and a death announced at once, although the translation above keeps the sense of being born.

The verse also says where the lovers come from: they are born of the feud, and their death is what ends it. Everything seen afterward can be read with this question in mind, which the Prologue leaves open: what there is the work of heaven, and what the work of the adults who feed the hatred?

O brawling love, O loving hate!
Speaker
Romeo
Characters
Romeo, Benvolio
Themes
LovePassionViolence
Devices
Oxymoron, Apostrophe

Explanation and analysis

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Woo her, gentle Paris, get her heart; / My will to her consent is but a part
Speaker
Capulet
Characters
Capulet, Paris, Juliet
Themes
FamilyLove

Explanation and analysis

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I'll look to like, if looking liking move
Speaker
Juliet
Characters
Juliet, Paris, The Nurse
Themes
FamilyLove

Explanation and analysis

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my mind misgives / Some consequence yet hanging in the stars
Speaker
Romeo
Characters
Romeo, Mercutio
Themes
Fate and Free WillDeath
Symbols
Light and night
Devices
Foreshadowing, Metaphor

Explanation and analysis

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My only love sprung from my only hate!
Speaker
Juliet
Characters
Juliet, Romeo, The Nurse
Themes
LoveFamilyPassion
Devices
Paradox, Repetition

Explanation and analysis

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Act II: The garden and the wedding

Now old desire doth in his deathbed lie, / And young affection gapes to be his heir
Speaker
the Chorus
Characters
Romeo, Juliet
Themes
LovePassion
Devices
Metaphor, Personification

Explanation and analysis

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What's in a name? That which we call a rose / By any other word would smell as sweet
Speaker
Juliet
Characters
Juliet, Romeo
Themes
FamilyLove
Devices
Rhetorical question

Explanation and analysis

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Wisely and slow; they stumble that run fast
Speaker
Friar Laurence
Characters
Friar Laurence, Romeo
Themes
PassionLoveFate and Free Will
Devices
Antithesis, Foreshadowing

Explanation and analysis

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Love's heralds should be thoughts, / Which ten times faster glide than the sun's beams
Speaker
Juliet
Characters
Juliet, The Nurse, Romeo
Themes
PassionLove
Symbols
Light and night
Devices
Hyperbole, Comparison

Explanation and analysis

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These violent delights have violent ends / And in their triumph die
Speaker
Friar Laurence
Characters
Friar Laurence, Romeo, Juliet
Themes
PassionViolenceDeathLove
Devices
Foreshadowing, Repetition

Explanation and analysis

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Act III: Mercutio, Tybalt, and the banishment

A plague o' both your houses!
Speaker
Mercutio
Characters
Mercutio, Romeo, Tybalt, Benvolio
Themes
ViolenceFamilyDeathFate and Free Will
Devices
Metonymy, Foreshadowing

Explanation and analysis

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O serpent heart, hid with a flowering face!
Speaker
Juliet
Characters
Juliet, Romeo, The Nurse, Tybalt
Themes
LoveViolenceFamily
Devices
Metaphor, Antithesis, Apostrophe

Explanation and analysis

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That 'banished,' that one word 'banished,' / Hath slain ten thousand Tybalts
Speaker
Juliet
Characters
Juliet, Romeo, Tybalt, The Nurse
Themes
LoveDeathPassion
Devices
Hyperbole, Repetition

Explanation and analysis

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There is no world without Verona walls, / But purgatory, torture, hell itself
Speaker
Romeo
Characters
Romeo, Friar Laurence
Themes
DeathLovePassion
Devices
Hyperbole

Explanation and analysis

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It was the nightingale, and not the lark
Speaker
Juliet
Characters
Juliet, Romeo
Themes
LoveDeath
Symbols
Light and night

Explanation and analysis

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Act IV: The potion of apparent death

Be not so long to speak. I long to die / If what thou speak'st speak not of remedy
Speaker
Juliet
Characters
Juliet, Friar Laurence, Paris
Themes
DeathLoveFamily
Symbols
Friar Laurence's potion

Explanation and analysis

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My heart is wondrous light / Since this same wayward girl is so reclaimed
Speaker
Capulet
Characters
Capulet, Juliet, The Nurse
Themes
FamilyLove
Devices
Dramatic irony

Explanation and analysis

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Romeo, Romeo, Romeo! Here's drink. I drink to thee.
Speaker
Juliet
Characters
Juliet, Romeo, Tybalt, The Nurse
Themes
LoveDeathPassion
Symbols
Friar Laurence's potion, The Capulet tomb
Devices
Soliloquy, Apostrophe, Repetition

Explanation and analysis

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Death is my son-in-law, Death is my heir.
Speaker
Capulet
Characters
Capulet, Juliet, Paris, Friar Laurence
Themes
DeathFamily
Devices
Personification, Parallelism, Dramatic irony

Explanation and analysis

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Act V: The tomb and the reconciliation

Is it e'en so? Then I defy you, stars!
Speaker
Romeo
Characters
Romeo, Juliet
Themes
Fate and Free WillDeathLove
Symbols
Light and night
Devices
Apostrophe, Leitmotiv

Explanation and analysis

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Poor living corse, closed in a dead man's tomb!
Speaker
Friar Laurence
Characters
Friar Laurence, Juliet
Themes
DeathFate and Free Will
Symbols
The Capulet tomb, Friar Laurence's potion
Devices
Oxymoron

Explanation and analysis

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See what a scourge is laid upon your hate, / That heaven finds means to kill your joys with love.
Speaker
the Prince
Characters
Capulet, Romeo, Juliet, Paris
Themes
FamilyViolenceDeathLoveFate and Free Will
Symbols
The Capulet tomb
Devices
Metaphor, Situational irony

Explanation and analysis

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