Romeo & Juliet Notes

ACT I

Act 1 Scene 1:

Romeo (Montague) • young, inexperienced, in love with the concept of being in love, potential for deeper love

• emotional turmoil like Verona’s chaos

• oxymoron – “O loving hate” R has extreme emotions; used to shows immaturity

 

Act 1 Scene 2:

• Capulet worried that Juliet (13) is too young (wait 2 years)

J is young tragic heroine

• Paris – nobility - marriage would be politically smart ( increase wealth & social status)

• Capulet plans ball allows Paris to woo J

• Paris is foil to Romeo

Paris is interested in J for beauty & social status

Model suitor, courteous, complies with social traditions

Act 1 Scene 3:

• Nurse – comic character, foil to J because of her coarse outlook on life

Sees marriage as physical relationship • Lady Capulet – distant, cold, expects obedience; thinks J is old enough

social status & money • J response –

“honor I dream not of” clever, evasive, shows her emotional maturity Rejects mother’s view on marriage (materialistic) Nurse’s view: physical and kids

• Attitude: anticipates her rebellion against parents

Act 1 Scene 4:

•Romeo gives speech about pending doom – doom, heavy tone, echoes prologue

•Foreshadowing – “untimely death” line 112- 119

•Destiny – line 113 “some consequence yet hanging in the stars”

•Romeo, Mercutio, Benvolio and other friends on their way to the masquerade.

Act 1 Scene 5: • R & J see each other for the first time

• R speaks in sonnets (shows true love); refers to J as light source (contradictory to later – meeting in secret & darkness)

• Religious imagery – spiritual love (Juliet is “holy shrine”)

        Tybalt – murmurs threat toward Romeo (foreshadowing) line 95• Nurse reveals identities of R & J

• J expresses connections between love & hate; marriage & death - impending tragedy

ACT II

Act 1I Scene 1:

Romeo

• begins a separation from friends – continues throughout play

• inability to reveal love of a Capulet heightens isolation

• By leaping the wall surrounding Capulet orchard – physically separates himself from Mercutio & Benvolio

• Reflects the distance he feels from society, friends & family

Act 1I Scene 2: Juliet suggestion – plan to marry

Shakespeare uses light & dark imageryRomeo:

• compares Juliet to the sun

• asks sun to rise and kill envious moon

• always compared Rosaline to the moon

• love for Juliet outshines the moon

• scene takes place at nighttime their love flourishes at night allusion to forbidden nature of their relationship

Juliet:

• soliloquy examines importance of words and names

• compares Romeo to rose

reasons if rose were another name it would still be a rose in essence

Romeo abandons name he would still be Romeo

Great conflict in play – the protagonists’ family names operate against their love

Juliet’s promise to Romeo to “follow thee my lord throughout the world” is full of dramatic irony and foreshadows the final scene of the play.

Act 2 Scene 3:Friar:

• Speaks about the healing & harming powers of plants

• Foreshadows end of play

• His intentions are good

wishes to end feud in Verona

plan precipitates tragic end of play

Friar acts as father figure to Romeo – only person to whom Romeo can confide secret

Act II Scene 4:

News of Tybalt’s challenge threatens to involve Romeo in the violence of the family feud

•Romeo - well liked in community –peaceable reputation

•Tybalt - proud and vengeful foe

Sense of anticipation increases in this scene through repeated references to time

•Nurse’s delay in finding Romeo •Ceremony will take place at 2 PM

•In less than 24 hours

Act II Scene 5:

Juliet’s soliloquy and exchanges with Nurse show contrast

•Juliet’s youthful energy and enthusiasm

•Nurse – old, decrepit and slow

Unlike other scenes – Juliet acts like a teenager

Nurse & Mercutio share sense of humor and view love as a purely physical relationship

Act II Scene 6:

•Atmosphere of impending doom

•Images of happiness and marriage are repeatedly paired with images of violence and death

•Romeo believes not even death can counteract pleasures he feels in marrying Juliet

•Speech reflects tragic nature of Romeo’s love

•Romeo’s challenge to fate is prophetic because it foreshadows his final speech

•Friar’s words are prophetic because he draws parallels between destructive passion of Romeo & Juliet and the feud that will cause violent deaths

ACT III

ACT III Scene 1:

• hatred between Tybalt & Mercutio is rising

• resentment of Tybalt against Romeo erupts

• Benvolio’s peace efforts fail

Romeo’s Conflict:

benevolence(kindness) natural resentment towards Juliet’s family to Tybalt’s insults

 

Decision

Avenge Mercutio’s death

Why?

Honor & Loyalty

More important than Juliet’s sorrow

Mercurito: plague over both your houses (Foreshadowing)

Act III Scene 2: Juliet

• Soliloquy (long speech by 1 person) in garden

Act II her soliloquy is bright (sun) Act III her soliloquy is waiting for night to come

bad news is dark like the night dark news of death

• Romeo killed Tybalt 1st reaction childlike – denounces Romeo 2nd reaction womanlike – realizes the depth of her love for Romeo

• Juliet realizes her duty as a wife, just as Romeo realizes his duty a

man

Bond with Romeo is stronger than her bond with family

“Banishment” repeated

“Living Death”

Virgin forever “death, not Romeo will take her maidenhead” (virgin)

Act III Scene 3:

Romeo & Juliet both have older confidants (Friar / Nurse)

• Scene 2 – Juliet reacts to news of Romeo

• Scene 3 – Romeo reacts to news of Juliet

Friar: calm & philosophical, shows he’s older by his reaction to

banishment “gentler judgment” encourages Romeo to be

patient; world beyond Verona

Romeo, as before, rash & emotional; death better than banishment agonizing predicament contrasts with Friar, quiet life “meditation”

Act III Scene 4:

Sense of haste

Fate intervenes again

Capulet –

• No idea Juliet will object, always been obedient

• As he discusses her marriage downstairs, she’s upstairs consummating marriage • Surprise decision, on a whim, for marriage in 3 days – even more drama

Act III Scene 4 becomes all-powerful father – obedience without delay contrast with

Act I Scene 2 with Juliet consent

No clue why Capulet changes - fate at work

Act III Scene 5:

Romeo’s speeches have light – dark imagery

• Usually day light suggests freshness, beginnings & hope (not true here)

• Now morning light suggests separation, isolation & misery

Juliet says future forebodes evil for them, an accurate omen

Farewell between R & J is quiet and anxious

Big contrast to rest of scene (loud & furious)

Capulet – vehement about decision, baffled & furious at her refusal to marry Paris.

• Capulet thinks she’s just a daughter & young maiden

• Reader knows she’s a wife & young woman

• His temper, no surprise, based on past scenes, calls J “disobedient wretch” & will disown her

Both R & J have been threatened with exile

• R his country

• J her home

Act IV – Scene 1

Juliet’s meeting with Friar Lawrence is like the scene between Romeo and the Friar Both turn from their real fathers and their families to their father confessor

 Friar Lawrence:

•He hoped to end the feud by secretly marrying Romeo and Juliet •Now he hopes to reunite Juliet with Romeo by giving her the potion •Intentions are good •Yet his goodness, will result in the ultimate death of both of the lovers

Juliet Rather than marry Paris she would

•Leap into a new made grave (her own) •And hide me with a dead man in his shroud (Tybalt)

Act IV – Scene 2

Dramatic irony

•Capulets are getting ready for the wedding

•Juliet gets ready for her “death”

Capulet advances Juliet’s wedding day (from Thursday to Wednesday)

•Because his daughter seems so happy

•Fate appears again

Juliet will be “buried alive” twenty-four hours before the Friar’s scheduled time

Act IV-Scene 3

Summary

Tuesday night

•She fears that the drug may not take effect; in that case she will use the dagger.

•Has fear Friar has given her a poison so that his part in the plot will never be discovered

Juliet

•Not a “brave” soliloquy that Juliet utters

•She is frightened

Her youthful imagination conjures up fearsome Gothic imagesHer old body cold as death The possibility of being truly poisoned suffocating to death The festering corpse of Tybalt Loathsome smells and hideous, ghostly screams

•She is Romeo’s wife and he is the only person she can trust

•Left Friar Lawrence's cell, crying, “Love give me strength!”

•It is love for Romeo, that gives her the strength to finally take the drug

Act IV-Scene 4

This scene is dominated by life

•As Juliet’s body grows cold, as her breath slows, life quickens in the Capulet house while preparations are made for the wedding.

•We recall Lady Capulet’s angry wish that her daughter might be “married to her grave.”

•Friar Lawrence is typically that of a friar, or a priest

Juliet is not dead; she lives in heaven

Act V-Scene 1

Romeo

•His servant Balthasar arrives from Verona with news that Juliet is dead

•Resolves to return to Verona

(Irony)

•Scene begins with Romeo in exile, but not sad because he has dreamed of Juliet

•News of Juliet’s death is broken gently

Balthasar says, “her body sleeps.”

Romeo

•“Then I defy you, stars!”

•Before he attended the Capulet’ ball, “consequence, yet hanging in the stars”;

•Fate

Brought them together, and now it has separated Juliet from him, not merely by exile, but by death

Too great a punishment

He will challenge fate and the stars that seek to separate them

He will join Juliet in death

Act V-Scene 2

•Friar John, whom Friar Lawrence sent to Mantua with a letter to Romeo explaining that Juliet is not really dead.

•Destinies of the lovers depended on the element of chance; fate denied it to them.

•Friar then hastens toward the Capulet burial vault.

•Return to Friar Lawrence with the news that he was quarantined in Verona because of the suspicion of plague.

•He was therefore unable to deliver the letter.

Act V-Scene 3

Capulet’ tomb

Paris

•Is mourning the death of his bride

•Page warns him that someone is coming – he hides to watch

•Romeo and Balthasar arrive with tools to open the tomb

•Sees Romeo opening tomb

Challenges him – thinking that he is going to desecrate the bodies of his enemies

Paris is killed

Final Scene

•Set at night

Romeo

•Fate would separate him from Juliet first through banishment then by death

•Moans that Juliet’s beauty appears to be still living He sees the crimson in her cheeks Clue that Juliet is returning to consciousness

•Kisses these lips and is pained that they seem so alive

•Juliet is about to revive If he were not so hasty and impetuous, he and Juliet would be together again

-and alive, not dead

Romeo

•Promises Juliet to remain beside her forever

•Without hesitation he drinks the poison, kisses her, and falls by her side

Friar

•Comes in a moment too late he comes in

•He finds the bodies

Juliet

•Awakens

•Refuses to leave, and the Friar flees; her last friend has left her

•She snatches Romeo’s dagger and stabs herself, falling dead beside him

Prince enters

•Montague tells of his wife’s sudden death because of her grief over Rome’s banishment

•Friar Lawrence courageously tell his story

•Turning upon Montague and the Capulets, he blames their hate and his own leniency in dealing with it.

•Capulet and Montague make their peace and each promises to honor the other’s loss with a golden statue.

Friar Lawrence’s attempts to bring peace were thwarted by fate and coincidence; death was the result, but peace was born from that death.