| What does Juliet think of Romeo’s kiss by commenting, you kiss by the book” (p 59, line 122) | It suggests that all of Romeo’s moves (his pickup lines and even the way he kisses) are predictable, scripted and cliché. So, Juliet’s clearly smitten with Romeo but she also recognizes that Romeo isn’t exactly original. |
| Copy down lines that show Juliet’s reaction when she finds out who Romeo is. | My only love sprung from my only hate!; Too early seen unknown, and known too late!; Prodigious birth of love it is to me; That I must love a loathèd enemy. |
| In Romeo’s soliloquy, he compares Juliet to the sun. How does the moon compare with Juliet? (p. 6 9, lines 2-9) | As Romeo stands in the shadows, he looks to the balcony and compares Juliet to the sun. He then asks the sun to rise and kill the envious moon. Romeo had always compared Rosaline to the moon, and now, his love for Juliet has outshone the moon. Thus, as Romeo steps from the moonlit darkness into the light from Juliet’s balcony, he has left behind his melodramatic woes and moved toward a more genuine, mature understanding of love. |
| What effect does Juliet’s brightness have on the stars? Birds? (p. 69 – 70, lines 15 – 22) | Romeo asks himself what would happen if two stars traded places with Juliet’s eyes. He decides that the brightness of her cheek would outshine the stars. The brightness of her eyes & cheeks would shine so brightly that birds would believe it is the full sun of day. |
| What is Juliet complaining about in the speech that begins with “Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo? (p. 71, lines 35 – 38 ) | Juliet speaks these lines, perhaps the most famous in the play, in the balcony scene (2.1.74-78). Leaning out of her upstairs window, unaware that Romeo is below in the orchard, she asks why Romeo must be Romeo—why he must be a Montague, the son of her family’s greatest enemy (“wherefore” means “why,” not “where”; Juliet is not, as is often assumed, asking where Romeo is). Still unaware of Romeo’s presence, she asks him to deny his family for her love. She adds, however, that if he will not, she will deny her family in order to be with him if he merely tells her that he loves her. |
| How does Juliet apply the idea in the following lines to Romeo? “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet. 1 1 (p. 71, lines 4 6 – 4 7) | Juliet is not allowed to associate with Romeo because he is a Montague. If he had any other name it would be fine. She’s complaining that his name is meaningless. If the rose had any other name it would still be the same. So with Romeo; he would still be the same beautiful young man even if he had a different name. “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet” Juliet knows that the blood feud prevents her from loving a Montague. She ponders it. It’s only your name that’s the enemy. You are what you are, even though you may be a Montague. What’s ‘Montague’? It isn’t hand or foot or arm or face or any other part belonging to a man. Oh I wish you had a different name. What is so special about a name? A rose, even if it were called something else, would smell just as sweet. So Romeo would still have all the perfection that he has, even if he were not called Romeo. Romeo, take off your name and in exchange for that whole name, which is not really a part of what you are, you can have all of me. // A major theme in Romeo and Juliet is the tension between social and family identity (represented by one’s name) and one’s inner identity. Juliet believes that love stems from one’s inner identity, and that the feud between the Montagues and the Capulets is a product of the outer identity, based only on names. She thinks of Romeo in individual terms, and thus her love for him overrides her family’s hatred for the Montague name. She says that if Romeo were not called “Romeo” or “Montague,” he would still be the person she loves. “What’s in a name?” she asks. “That which we call a rose / By any other word would smell as sweet” |
| How does Romeo respond to this speech? | He responds: I take thee at thy word. Call me but love, and I’ll be new baptized. Henceforth I never will be Romeo./ to JULIET) I trust your words. Just call me your love, and I will take a new name. From now on I will never be Romeo again. Basically, it’s Romeo agreeing with Juliet that they should turn their backs on their families in favor of being with each other. |
| How does Juliet react when she finds that Romeo has been eavesdropping? (p. 7 3, lines 68-72) | She says: What man art thou that, thus be screened in night, So stumbles on my counsel? Who are you? She is asking Why do you hide in the darkness and listen to my private thoughts? |
| What does Romeo mean by the lines There lies more peril in thine eye/Than twenty of their swords? ( p . 7 3 , lines 79-80) | It would be much worse to have Juliet angry with him than to have the entire Capulet family against him. Alas, one angry look from you would be worse than twenty of your relatives with swords. Just look at me kindly, and I’m invincible against their hatred. |
| How does Romeo make use of Juliet’s reference to her kinsmen to declare his love? (p. 139 lines 83 -87) | When Juliet learns that Romeo has climbed the orchard walls to see her, she worries that her “kinsmen” will break Romeo’s legs for sneaking onto the property. With love’s light wings did I o’erperch these walls, /For stony limits cannot hold love out,/ And what love can do, that dares love attempt./ Therefore thy kinsmen are no stop to me./ which means that I flew over these walls with the light wings of love. Stone walls can’t keep love out. Whatever a man in love can possibly do, his love will make him try to do it. Therefore your relatives are no obstacle. |
| Juliet is embarrassed by her confession of love, which Romeo just overheard. How does she explain herself away? Why does she not withdraw or deny any of her statements? What would she do if Romeo thinks her too quickly won? How does she think she should have behaved? (p. 75, lines 94 – 115) | She feels embarrassed because he heard her say that she loved him. He would see her blush if it were not so dark [lines 86-87]. She goes on to say, “I should have been more strange, I must confess, / But that thou overheardst, ere I was ware, / My true love’s passion.” (As befitting a lady, she should not have let him know her true feelings so soon, but she had no idea that he could overhear her as she was declaring her love for him. Juliet’s candor might affect the progress of their relationship. Because she is so open with her feelings, she accelerates the rate at which their courtship progresses. |
| Why doesn’t she want Romeo to swear by the moon? (p. 75 lines 118-120) | The moon changes daily, diminishing and then increasing. Juliet wants something more constant or dependable. |
| Why does Juliet joy in Romeo, but finds no joy of this contract tonight? (p. 77 lines 1 2 7 – 1 3 3 ). | These lines are spoken in Act II, Scene 2 of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. The scene is usually referred to as the balcony scene as Romeo has gone into the Capulet orchard to catch another glimpse of Juliet, and the scene plays out with Romeo standing below the balcony speaking with Juliet. He just met Juliet at the party in Act I and has already fallen head over heels in love with the girl. Likewise, Juliet has fallen instantly in love with Romeo, but here she expresses her misgivings over the speed of their courtship. Because she is a Capulet and Romeo a Montague there are problems because their families are mortal enemies./ Unlike Romeo, Juliet is reticent to engage in something that would be forbidden by her parents and family. The relationship is “too sudden” and she realizes that it may lead to trouble. The audience is already well aware of the enmity between the two families as the play opens with a street brawl instigated by the servants of Juliet’s family and her cousin Tybalt. When Romeo appears below her balcony, she is instantly aware that his presence could mean his death because of the hatred her relatives have for the Montagues. |
| What satisfaction does Romeo want before he leaves? (p 77 lines 138 – 139) | he wants Juliet to openly proclaim that she loves him, so that he may do so to her, too. |
| Why would Juliet withdraw her vow? | Only to be generous and give it to you once more. But I’m wishing for something I already have. My generosity to you is as limitless as the sea, and my love is as deep. The more love I give you, the more I have. Both loves are infinite. |
| Why does Romeo think this whole thing to be a dream? lines p79 152-154) | After Juliet proclaims her love to him, he says: Oh, blessed, blessed night! Because it’s dark out, I’m afraid all this is just a dream, too sweet to be real. |
| Who suggests marriage? Why? What happens if the other party does not desire marriage? (P. 7 9, lines 155-169) | Juliet proposes the idea of marriage to Romeo on the very night that they meet. In Act 2, scene 2 (otherwise known as the balcony scene), Juliet becomes so obsessed over the idea that she must be sure that Romeo is truly in love with her that she tells him that if he really loves her and wants to be with her, then he must marry her when she says: / “Three words, dear Romeo, and good night indeed. / If that thy bent of love be honourable, / Thy purpose marriage, send me word to-morrow, / By one that I’ll procure to come to thee, / Where and what time thou wilt perform the rite;” (A. 2, s. 2, lines 148-152) |
| How does Juliet arrange to communicate with Romeo tomorrow? | In Act II, Scene 2 of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, the famous balcony scene, Romeo and Juliet pledge their love for each other. Although Juliet fears she has been too forward and that the speed of their relationship is too fast, Romeo presses the issue, declaring his devotion. Eventually Juliet brings up the idea of marriage, telling Romeo she will send someone to discover his plans the very next day:/ Three words, dear Romeo, and good night indeed. / If that thy bent of love be honorable, / Thy purpose marriage, send me word tomorrow, / By one that I’ll procure to come to thee, / Where and what time thou wilt perform the rite, / And all my fortunes at thy foot I’ll lay / And follow thee my lord throughout the world./ She sends the Nurse, her dedicated confidante, to talk to Romeo who has arranged for the couple to be married by Friar Lawrence that same day. |
| What feeling is Romeo expressing in the following lines? What does he mean? (p. 7 9, lines 1 7 3 – 1 7 4) “Love goes toward love as school boys from their books; But love froro love, towards school with heavy looks. | Romeo is saying Leaving you is a thousand times worse than being near you. A lover goes toward his beloved as enthusiastically as a schoolboy leaving his books, but when he leaves his girlfriend, he feels as miserable as the schoolboy on his way to school. |
| Why does Juliet want a falconer’s voice and later “would tear the cave where Echo lies? (p. 7 9, lines 1 7 5 – 1 8 1) | As soon as Romeo is back in the shadows of the garden, Juliet reappears. Apparently she has gotten rid of the Nurse, but she still needs to be quiet, and calls out, “Hist! Romeo, hist! O, for a falconer’s voice, / To lure this tassel-gentle back again!” (2.2.158-159). A “tassel-gentle” is a male falcon which can be owned only by a prince, and “hist” is a falconer’s call, but a falconer would use a loud voice, which Juliet can’t do. She’s calling “hist” in that hoarse whisper which we use when we want to be heard, but only by the right person. She says, “Bondage is hoarse, and may not speak aloud; / Else would I tear the cave where Echo lies, / And make her airy tongue more hoarse than mine, / With repetition of my Romeo’s name” (2.2.161-163). She is in “bondage” because she is in her father Capulet’s house; if she weren’t in bondage she would call so loud that her cry would tear through the walls of the nymph Echo’s cave and make Echo hoarse with calling Romeo’s name over and over. |
| What is the meaning of Romeo’s comment? (p. 8 1, lines 1 8 3 – 1 8 4) “How silver-sweet sound lovers’ tongues by night, Like softest music to attending ears!” In what way are these lines musical? (What poetic device is u.sed?) | Juliet tries again, calling out, “Romeo.” Hearing her hoarse whisper, Romeo thinks it is the sweetest sound he has ever heard. He says, “It is my soul that calls upon my name: / How silver-sweet sound lovers’ tongues by night, / Like softest music to attending [listening] ears!” (2.2.164-166). The use of alliteration |
Gr. 9 ELA – Romeo and Juliet Set 2
November 28, 2019