| “He jests at scars that never felt a wound” | Mercutio is making fun of me for loving, even though he has never felt the emotion before |
| “Can I go forward when my heart is here?Turn back, dull earth, and find thy center out.” | Metaphor: Romeo is the ‘dull earth’–Juliet is his center. |
| “But, soft! What light through yonder window breaks?” | Metaphor: Juliet is the ‘light’ |
| “Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon/Who is already sick and pale with grief/That thou her maid art far more fair than she. | Personification: giving the moon human emotions-envy |
| “That which we call a rose/By any other name would smell as sweet” | Analogy: The name of something does not affect its essence–associates Romeo with a rose, symbol of love and beauty |
| “With love’s light wings did I o’verperch 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.” | Metaphor: Romeo used love’s wings to jump the wall–and her family can’t stop him from getting to her! |
| “If they do see thee, they will murder thee””Although I joy in thee/I have no joy of this contract tonight./ It is too rash, too unadvised, too sudden/ too like the lightning” | Juliet shows herself to be more practical than the lovestruck Romeo–at least at first. |
| “For naught so vile that on the earth doth live/But to the earth some special good doth give;/Nor aught so good but, strained from that fair use,/ Revolts from true birth, stumbling on abuse. | All things have the potential for good or evil. |
| “Holy Saint Francis, what a change is here!/ Is Rosaline, that thou didn’t love so dear,/So soon forsaken? Young men’s love then lies/ Not truly in their hearts, but in their eyes.” | Friar Laurence is surprised by Romeo’s request to marry Juliet; advances theme of women only being valued for their beauty. |
| “Oh, she knew well/Thy love did read by rote and could not spell.” | Metaphor: Rosaline understood that Romeo only loved her for her beauty; that is, his love was only surface deep, like someone who only memorizes words instead of knowing how to spell. |
| “For this alliance may so happy prove, To turn your households’ rancor to pure love” | Friar Laurence agrees to marry Romeo and Juliet to stop their parents’ feuding. |
| “Alas, poor Romeo, he is already dead! Stabbed with a white wench’s black eye, shot through the ear with a love song…/And is he a man to encounter Tybalt?” | Mercutio is concerned about Romeo fighting Tybalt because Romeo is lovesick, which affects his fighting skills, and Tybalt is an excellent duelist. |
| “Jesu, what haste! Can you not stay a while?Do you not see I am out of breath?” | The Nurse is teasing Juliet; once again, she talks so much that she puts off telling someone important information. |
| “These violent delights have violent ends/ And in their triumph die, like fire and power/ Which as they kiss consume” | Foreshadowing: Friar Laurence is concerned that Romeo and Juliet’s relationship is too sudden and intense, and will explode like gunpowder. |
| Soliloquy | This is a speech spoken by a character who is alone on stage |
| Allusion | A reference to another work of literature, person, or event |
| Metaphor | A comparison without using like or as |
| synecdoche | a figure of speech in which a part is made to represent the whole or vice versa |
| Paradox | a paradox is a statement that is self contradictory because it often contains two statements that are both true, but in general, cannot both be true at the same time. |
| dramatic irony | Literary element when the characters don’t know what the readers know. |
Romeo and Juliet, Act 2 Conley
November 30, 2019