cheats
dudewheresmyporshe
Dec 12, 2007
Act I
The Prologue
· Elizabethan Sonnet
· 14 lines
· 3 quatrains, 1 couplet
· Abab cdcd efef gg
· Gives all background
Act 1 Scene 1 – a street in Verona
· Puns – play on words
- Coals, colliers, choler, collars
Coals – will not be insulted
Collier – someone who sold coal, dishonest and dirty
Choler – anger
Homonym – words that sound the same
· Characterization of Sampson & Gregory
- Servants,
- L. 11 “Take the wall.”
Walking closer to the wall means your superior.
- L. 16 & 17 “thrust to the wall.”
Rape
- L. 24 “maidenhead.”
Virginity
- L. 27 “a pretty piece of flesh.”
- L. 30 “tool”; L. 32 “naked weapon”
· Colloquial expression
- L.40 “bite my thumb”
Like giving the middle finger
1-1 Benvolio and Tybalt
· Benvolio - Montague
- Peacemaker
- L. 61 “put up your swords”
Stop fighting
- L.66 “or manage it to part these men with me”
· Tybalt – Capulet
- Instigator
- L. 63 “drawn among these heartless hinds”
Weak, powerless, no male to protect them.
- L. 67 “I hate the word (peace)”
Likes bad things, likes drama, and hates everyone and everything.
Opposing personality traits foils.
1-1 Capulet & Montague
· Capulet
- Dressing gown
Means he has entered the town square in his pajamas. They woke him up; he was in a rush, in a hurry.
- Characteristic rashness
Capulet’s are rash, impulsive, jump to conclusions. Acts without thinking.
- L.73 “long sword”
Older and rash. Long sword is generally useless in a fight.
· Lady Capulet
- L. 74 “a crutch”
What are you asking for a sword for? You should be asking for a cane.
· Montague
- L. 77 “hold me not”
Let me fight.
1 – 1 Prince Escalus
· Ineffectual leader?
- No, he cannot stop the families fighting.
· L. 87 “three civil brawls”
- Fighting over nothing
· L. 89 “thrice disturb’d”
- Disturbed the quiet of the streets three times.
· L. 101 “on peace of death”
· L. 95 “your lives shall end forbidden peace”
1-1 Characterization of Romeo
· Benvolio L. 104 – 113 recaps the events.
· Romeo hides in the sycamore trees.
- Sick – amour
- Romeo is love sick.
· Montague
- L. 129 “with tears”
Blocking out all light, making him invisible.
- L. 131 “his deep sighs”
- L. 135 “away from light steals my heavy son”
- L. 138 “makes himself an artificial night”
My son runs away from the light.
· Humors
- Black choler (melancholy)
- Sanguine, choleric, phlegmatic
1 – 1 Enter Romeo
· Antithesis L. 173 – 180
- “brawling love” “loving hate” “heavy lightness” “cold fire” “sick health”
· Rosaline is a Capulet
- Doomed love (foreshadowing)
Hints or clues of things to come
· Imagery
- Archery L. 203 – 209
· Characterization of Rosaline
- L. 212 “nor ope her lap to saint – seducing gold”
She is a virgin, will not open her legs to anyone.
- L. 216 and in that sparing make huge waste”
A waste that she won’t have sex with him. The pun
She is wasting her chance to increase her waist.
Act 1 Scene 2
· Characterization of Juliet
- L. 9 “she hath not seen the change of fourteen years”
· Characterization of Capulet
- L. 13 “and too soon marr’d are those so early made”
- L. 14 “earth had swollow’d all my hopes but she”
Juliet is the only child that survived.
He loves her terribly.
Reference to Lady Capulet because she had children at such a young age and they all died, he doesn’t want that for his daughter.
- L. 16 – 17 “get her heart/ My will to her consent is but part”
Want Juliet to be in love to get married.
1 – 2 Verse v. Prose
· L. 34 – 37
Come go with me. Go sirrah, trudge about
Through fair Verona, find those persons out
Whose names are written there, and to them say
My house and welcome on their pleasure stay.
· L. 38 – 40
Find them out whose names are written here. It is written that the shoemaker should meddle with his yard, and the tailor with his last, the fisher with his pencil, and the painter with his nets…
1 – 2 Romeo and the servant
· The element of chance
- The servant chosen by Capulet was illiterate
- Meeting with Romeo is accident
- Romeo regrets his initial sarcastic answer and reads the list.
Finds out Rosaline will be at the party.
1 – 3 The Nurse and Juliet
· Wet – nurse
- In old times, woman would have a nurse to breast feed their children so that they could try and get pregnant again faster.
· Emphasis on Juliet’s age
· Comic relief
· L. 19-20 “well Susan is with God;/ she was too good for me”
- Irony & foreshadowing
For all intense and purposes her daughter is Juliet
It’s ironic because Juliet is going to be taken away from her too.
· Wormwood (1.26)
· L. 53 “a bump as big as a young cockerel’s stone.”
- Lady Capulet and nurse are a foil, opposite personality traits.
· L. 58 “and stint thou too, I pray thee nurse, say I.”
1-3 Juliet & Lady Capulet
· L. 66 “it is an honor that I dream not of”
- Slightly evasive or non – committal answer
· L. 72 “I was your mother much upon these years”
· L. 81 – 92 – Conceit of Paris as a book.
- Conceit: an extended metaphor with logic that covers that juxtapose interesting ideas in surprising way’s a conceit invites the reader into a more sophisticated understanding of an object of comparison.
· Metaphor – he is a mule.
· L. 95 “women grow by men.”
· L. 97 – 99 “ill look to like if looking liking move, / but no more deep will I endart gives strength to make it fly. / Mine eye, than your consent gives strength to make it fly.
1- 4 Pregaming
· Torchbearers & masquers
- Torchbearer = lamp.
- Masquers crashed the parties
- Was a compliment.
· Locker room humor: “shaft” “love’s heavy burden” “tender thing” “prick love for pricking” “beat love down” L. 19-28
· L. 49 – 51 arrangement of lines.
- (adj.) iambic pentameter
- (n) iamb unstressed stressed
· L. 50 “I dreamt a dream tonight”
- Linked to 1-3 L. 66 “it is an honor that I dream not of”
- Isolation of the hero
Romeo is set apart from his friends, not a happy dream. Dream remains somewhat enclosed.
1-4 Mercutio and Queen Mab
· Mercurial- having qualities of eloquence, ingenuity, or fevishness, attributed to the god Mercury; characterized by rapid and unpredictable changes in mood.
· Monologue begins as entertaining but quickly becomes dark and disturbing.
· Queen Mab
- Mahb
· Faeries midwife
- Delivers dreams.
· 3 distinct section to monologue
- L. 53-69
Being entertained and trying to cheer up Romeo
- L. 70-88
Talking about people’s deep and secret desires. Trying to seduce Romeo.
- L. 88-94
Gets angry. The seduction is not working. There is no reaction. Romeo does not realize.
1-4 aftermath of Mab
· L. 96 “thou talk’st of nothing”
· Mercutio plays it off, BUT
- L. 101 “even now the frozen bosom of the north”
The frozen spot where Romeo’s love should be.
· Romeo L. 107 “some consequence hanging in the stars/Shall bitterly begin his fearful date/ With this night’s revels, and expire the term/ of despised like clos’d in my breast.
1-5 a scene change
· No formal scene change
· Prose
- L. 12 “You are looked for and called for, asked for and sought for in the great chamber.”
· Clam scene
1-5 The Party – Capulet’s Intro
· L. 17 “walk a bout with you”
- To dance
· L. 28 “And quench the fire”
· Sirrah
- Form of a dress that implies that the person speaking to you is of a lower class. It’s a form of sir.
· L. 31 “You and I are past our dancing days”
- Significance: Capulet is much older than his wife.
1-5 Capulet & Tybalt
· The hand motif is introduced in line 50. Something with a hand or touching.
· Tyblat recognizes Romeo’s voice
· L. 55 “antic face”
· L. 65 Capulet “A bears him like a portly gentleman; / and, to say the truth, Verona brags of him/ to be a virtuous and well – govern’d youth. / I would not for the wealth of all the town/ Here in my house do him disparagement.
1-5 More Capulet and Tybalt
· L. 76 “Go to!”
· L. 80 “You’ll be the man”
· L. 82 “saucy boy”
· Capulet’s anger
- Foreshadowing
· L. 88 “patience perforce with willful choler meeting” – antithesis
- Opposites: patience, choler
- Tybalt considers himself patient, and considers Capulet choler, ironic.
1-5 A Sonnets
· The first words Romeo and Juliet speak to each other are a sonnet.
1-5 Hand Motifs
· Motif – recurring thematic element
· L. 41 “what lady is that, which doth enrich the hand”
· L. 50 “and, touching hers, make blesses my rude hand.”
· Motif of Pilgrimage
· L. 92 “my unworthiest hand”
· L. 94 “smooth that rough touch”
· L. 96 L: “wrong your hand”
· L. 97 J: “mannerly devotion”
- Mannerly pun on the hand
· L. 98 J: “saints have hands that pilgrim hands do touch.”
· L. 99 J: “palm to palm”
- Calls him pilgrim on line 101
· L. 102 R: “ let lips do what hands do”
- Something holy, something saint like happens to their relationship, hands and a pilgrim looking for something and finding it. Elevates their whole relationship. Feelings are pure and intense.
1-5 the Nurse Interrupts
· A new sonnet begins L. 106 – 109
· L. 109 “you kiss by the book”
- Traditionally, teasing him to get her to kiss him again.
· L. 117 “O dead account. My life is my foe’s debt”
· L. 133 – 134 “If he be married, / My grave is like to be my wedding bed.”
- Significant because they spend their wedding night together, she does not die a virgin.
- The fact that she marries Romeo is what kills her.
· L. 137 – 140 “my only love sprung from my only hate. / Too early seen unknown and known too late. / Prodigious birth it is to me/ that I must love a loathed enemy.”
- Antithesis
Act II
Act II Prologue
Sonnet
Reviews events
Does not advance the plot in any way.
Advance the plot – does nothing to move the plot forward.
Act II – Mercutio
L. 2 “turn back, dull earth, and find thy centre out.”
Dull earth is Romeo and centre is Juliet.
L. 5 “lept this orchard wall”
Romeo is hidden away
L. 7 “Romeo! Humours! Madam! Passion! Lover!”
Mocking synonyms for Romeo
Humours – four elements of the body. Romeo is choleric.
L. 16 “the ape is dead”
A carnival trick where a monkey would pretend to be dead. The congener would suddenly wake him back up.
He doesn’t know Romeo is in love with Juliet yet.
L. 17 “Rosaline’s”
L. 24 “to raise a spirit in his mistress circle.” (also “stand” “laid it” “conjur’d it down” “raise him up”)
L. 36 “medlars” (open-arse l.38)
Medlar is someone that females genitalia.
L. 38 “”poperin pear”
L. 39 & 40 “truckle bed” “field bed”
Little bed under a regular bed.
Last image Mercutio leaves Romeo is Mercutio in bed.
Field bed is an army bed-theme of love and war.
Act II-2
L. 1 “He jests at scars that never felt a wound.”
Irony – Mercutio is in love with Romeo
Foreshadowing – Mercutio loves Romeo
L. 33 “Wherefore”
Why is your name Romeo?
L. 67 – “for stony limits cannot hold love out”
Doomed from the beginning, love is the thing that kills them.
Stony limits foreshadowing for the tomb, so they will die.
L. 100 – 101 “but trust me gentleman, I’ll prove more true/than those that have more cunning to be strange.”
Juliet can tell the difference between true modesty, and false modesty.
L. 109-112 – “O swear not by the moon” “do not swear at all”
Juliet wants Romeo to tell her he loves her.
L. 27 – “th’ exchange of thy love’s faithful vow for mine.”
L. 132-135 “My bounty is as boundless as the sea./ My love as deep: the more I give to thee/ The more I have, for both are infinite.
II-2 The Nurse Interrupts
Parallels III-3 and III-5
Bird imagery – falcon, tassle-gentle, nyas (niesse), wanton’s bird.
Tassle gentle. Male bergrint falcon can be lured back to its owner with a special call.
A falcon was used for fowling and secrecy.
Shows the idea that Romeo and Juliet have to hide their relationship.
Nyas, a young hawk that is taken out of the nest. Juliet, in the balcony, “her nest”
L. 160-161 “bondage is hoarse…/Else I would tear the cave where Echo lies.”
Ovid
II-3 Friar Lawrence’s Cell
L. 1-18 – medicinical interest in herbs
L. 17-18 “virtue itself turn vice being misapplied/ and sometimes by actions dignified.”
Friar Lawrence knows what he is doing is wrong but he marries Juliet and Romeo to help unify the families. The ends justify the means. “The results justify the way you do something.”
L. 5 “tomb” L. 79 “bury love” “grave”
Shrift – confession
L. 83-85 “O, she [Rosaline] knew well/The love did read by rote that could not spell.”
He knows Romeo didn’t really love Rosaline, but now he wants to end the feud.
L. 87-88 “For this alliance may so prove/to turn your households’ rancor to pure love.”
II-4 Mercutio – words, words, words
Prose
The language of comedy or class, the language of wit.
Used for clowns, anyone who brings humor into the play, proclamations, letters, lower class characters, villains, and sometimes to show a characters climb into madness.
Shifting into prose shows the height of the play so you notice it more.
Bathos
A sudden shift from a higher verse to a lower forms
Mercutio is in a punning mood
L. 15 “pin” L. 16 “blind how-boy”
Blind bow-boy is cupid.
Pin is in the dead center of an archery target.
L. 20 “courageous captain of compliments”
Alliteration – repetition of consonants is the beginning of a word.
Talking about Tybalt.
Tybalt is more concerned with how he looks, than being a skilled fighter.
Effeteness- soft or delicate as if from a pampered existence (spoiled brat)
Conceit of music “pricksong” “proportion” “minim rest”
Talking about his sword fighting. But the conceit is music.
Prick song is a printed music sung with careful accuracy.
Proportion means rhythm.
Minim rest is the briefest possible rest in music.
L.20-23 “he fights as you sing prick song, keeps time, distance, and proportion. He rests in minim rests, one, two, and a third in your bosom.
Feint – fake attempts
Ironic because Mercutio understands how Tybalt fights.
II-4 Mercutio – more words
L. 24-25 “a gentleman of the very first house”
Sarcasm – means he belongs to the highest house in the town.
L. 25 “of the first and second cause”
Two reasons that men should take up a fight in a duel
- To maintain his or her honor
- Being accused of a crime being punishable by death
L. 25-26 “the immortal passado, the punto reverse, the hay!”
All fencing terms
Mercutio finds Tybalt to have only want to have fame
L. 29-35 – mocking.
L. 37 “without his roe”
Roe- fish sperm
Roe is part of Romeo’s name, so it is a joke saying Romeo is not a full man.
Roe can also be a dear, so Romeo is without his love, his dear
L. 40 “Petrarch…Laura
Making a joke about Romeo and Rosaline
L. 40-44 mocking great kives & beautiful, iconic women
II-4 Group Dynamics
Benvolio loves peace
Mercutio loves to argue.
Romeo is the one in the middle holding the group together.
Without Romeo, the group doesn’t work.
Three times where its only Benvolio and Mercutio are alone together.
3 times Mercutio & Benvolio are alone together
Act II-1 “I’ll go to my truckle bed.”
Act II-4 “Here comes Romeo! Here comes Romeo!”
Act III-1 “and yet thou wit tutor me from quarreling.”
- Something doesn’t work when Romeo is absent from the friendship. Benvolio and Mercutio irritate each other. They have no reason to hang out without Romeo.
- Mercutio has to die in the next scene because he knows that Romeo loves someone else and they Romeo will be wrapped up in his relationship with Juliet. Mercutio cannot endure the fact that Romeo won’t be there.
II-4 Enter Romeo
Mood much improved
Demonstrates the wit and playfulness that Mercutio loves him for
This is the real Romeo.
Immediately engages in a battle of wits, puns and language with Mercutio.
Puns are filled with sexual innuendo.
Typical guy talk, locker room talk
L. 69 “come between us good Benvolio”
Foreshadowing Romeo coming in between Mercutio and Tybalt and Mercutio’s death
II-4 More punning
L. 72 “run the wild goose-chase.”
Literally follow the leader on horses.
L. 78 “bite thee by the ear”
More of a fond caress
L.79 “Nay, good goose, bit not!”
Not mad, just playing with him.
L.83-84 “an inch narrow to an ell broad”
Stretching it out 45 inches – Romeo is able to make a little wit go a long way.
L. 85-99 increasing sexual innuendo interrupted by Benvolio
II-4 Enter the Nurse
Comic relief
L.100 “Here’s goodly gear! A sail! A sail!”
Romeo is making fun of the nurse. Calling her fat. (she’s as big as a boat)
Peter – a servant’s servant
Mercutio mocks the nurse
“good e’en” “prick of noon”
Romeo mocks the nurse
Willing suspension of disbelief – accept give up your disbelief. Cannot believe what happened.
“Romeo will be older when you have found him”
Malapropisms
Unintentional misuse of a word or phrase especially the use of a word sounding somewhat like the one intended, but ludicrously wrong in the context.
L. 126 “confidence” L. 127 “endite”
Mercutio’s conceit L.128-137
Baud – madam in a house of prostitution
Stale- prostitute
Hoar- whore –prostitute
Spent – used up
L.141 “Lady, lady, lady”
II-4 Mercutio exits
L.142 “saucy merchant”
He should be called a gentleman
Means this in a very disrespectful way
L.143 “ropery”
Means roguery, which means penis.
Characterization of Mercutio
L. 144-146 “...that loves to hear himself talk and will speak more in a minute than he will stand in a month.”
He is all talk to action
L. 154 “I saw no man use you at his pleasure”
Why does Romeo appear to not recognize the nurse immediately?
Willing suspension of disbelief
II-4 The plan
Shrift = confession
L. 177 – back to verse
L. 185 “bring thee cords”
L. 195 – Nurse back to prose
L. 205 “that’s the dog’s name is ‘R’ is for the-”
Arse
Act II Scene 5 – Juliet waits
3 hours are missing here
Nurse teases her
L. 66 coil
L. 75 “Must climb a bird’s nest son when it is dark
Bird imagery again Juliet being the bird and her balcony her nest
Act II Scene VI-Fr. Laurence’s Cell
L. 6-8 “do thou but close our hands with holy words,/ Then love-devouring death do what he dare:/ It is enough that I may but call her mine.
L. 9-11 “these violent delights have violent ends/ And in their triumph die, like fire and powder,/ which as they kiss consumes.”
Act III
Scene 1 – It’s hot out here
L. 2 The day is hot
Mercutio’s lines all prose
Three reason scene switches to prose
Something significant has changed
Lower class character
Comedy
L. 16-30
Cracking nuts, coughing, waking your dog, wearing the wrong clothes at inappropriate times
Mercutio is looking for a fight.
Without Romeo there, the triumvirate is incomplete and unstable.
III-1 Enter Tybalt
L. 36 “by my heel, I care not.”
He will not walk away from the fight
Mercutio is looking for a fight from the beginning
L. 44 “Mercutio, thou consortest with Romeo”
Consort means to hang out.
Mercutio deliberately misunderstands Tybalt thinking that Tybalt is calling them not gentlemen, hired musicians, lower class.
L. 45-48 musical conceit
Discord, hear, fiddlestick, dance
III-1 Enter Romeo
Where had Romeo come from?
L. 55 “here comes my man”
Mercutio deliberately misunderstands Tybalt thinking “my man” means Tybalt is calling Romeo his servant.
L. 56 “if he wear your livery”
To be called lily livered means white livered or a coward
What reason does Romeo have to love Tybalt?
It’s his family now
L. 62 “Doth much excused the appertaining rage to such a greeting”
L. 63 “villain I am none”
Lower class way lower class.
L. 65 “Boy”
Saying he is of lower class
If Romeo tells Tybalt that he and Juliet are married, then the play is over.
III-1 Mercutio and Tybalt Fight
L. 72 “alla stocatta carries it away”
In a regular fight, Mercutio would have no problem beating Tybalt.
Cat conceit
L. 73 “rat catcher”
L. 76 “King of Cats” “Nine lives”
L. 84 “your passado”
If Romeo had not intervened, then Mercutio would have been able to kill Tybalt
III-1 Mercutio Dies
How is Mercutio killed?
Romeo gets in the way and distracts Mercutio, and then Tybalt stabs him
They announce that a character is dead so the audience knows that the person died.
L. 92 “A plague o’ both your houses”
Montague and Capulet because he is neutral
L. 94 “a scratch, a scratch” – understatement
L. 97-99 – Mercutio tries to minimize his hurt
L. 101 “Zounds”
Is like saying Jesus Christ
L. 102 “to scratch man to death”
L. 103-104 “that fights by the book of arithmetic”
L. 109 “worm’s meat of me”
In order to teach the uneducated people the church taught them that they are worms meat and are worth nothing
III-1 Romeo & Tybalt fight
L. 127 “Now, Tybalt, take the “villain” back again”
Romeo says take back what you called me earlier
L. 131 “Either thou, or I, or both must go with him [Mercutio]
L. 132 “boy” “consort”
L. 138 “Oh, I am fortune’s fool”
There is nothing he could do about it. What the character chooses to do can affect the rest of the play.
III-1 Enter Prince Escalus
Starring Benvolio as “Basil Exposition”
Last time we see Benvolio
160-161 – Benvolio actually suppresses the fact that Mercutio provoked Tybalt
L. 178 “He is a kinsman to the Montague/ Affection makes him false”
L. 182-183 “I beg for justice… Romeo must not live”
Lady Capulet
L. 185 & 191 “Who now the price of his [Mercutio’s] dear blood doth owe” “My blood for your rude brawls doth like-a-bleeding.”
L. 189 “and for that offense/ immediately do we exile him hence”
Act III-2 Juliet waits again
What is Juliet waiting for?
Romeo to come for her wedding night
Dramatic irony
Where the audience knows what the character doesn’t know
L.12 “lose a winning match”
She will be given up to Romeo
L.13 “hood my unmann’d blood, bating in my cheeks.
Bird imagery, darkness of night (hood) will cover her face because she will be blushing
L.21-22 “and when I shall die, cut him out in little stars”
L.26-28 “O, I have bought the mansion of a love/ but not possess’d it, and though I am sold,/ not yet enjoyed
III-2 the Nurse’s Bad News
What does Juliet think the Nurse is talking about initially?
That Romeo is dead
L.79 “A damned saint, an honorable villain”
Antithesis
L.88 “aqua vitae”
Looking for brandy (water of life)
Juliet understands that her loyalty with her husband now
Nurse’s changing viewpoint on Romeo
L. 137 “And death, not Romeo take my maidenhead”
If she can’t have Romeo, she would rather die.
Why doesn’t Juliet just go with Romeo?
She will not openly defy her father
Act III Scene 3 Fr. Laurence’s Cell
L. 2-3 “Affliction is enamour’d of thy parts/ And thou are wedded to calamity.
Antithesis
Your screwed, it sucks to be you.
L. 12 “Ha! Banishment! Be merciful, say death!”
Why is Romeo acting like a big baby in this scene?
He would rather die than not be with Juliet.
Intensity of love linked to suicidal impulse
“Doth my name lodge? Tell me that I sack/ The hateful mansion”
© Is the main reason this is all happening is because of his name?
The only way to get rid of your name is to kill yourself
Act III Scene 4 – A Wedding on Thursday
Marriage was a commercial transaction
Brides and grooms = same social class
Daughters did not defy their fathers
Why does Capulet change his mind about the marriage so suddenly
If Capulet let’s Juliet marry Paris, then they would be closer to the Prince’s family.
Political move on Capulet’s part
L. 11-12 “make a desperate tender of my child’s love.” – irony
An offer for abid of a contract
L. 12-13 “I think she will be rul’d/ In all respects by me; nay, more, I doubt it not.
My daughter will do what I tell her to do
Showing how women have no rights and no say in their time
Act III Scene 5 – The Next Morning
L. 2 “It was the nightingale and not the lark”
Nightingale sings at night, lark sings in the morning
Don’t go it is not morning
Goes back to the balcony scene when he calls Juliet the sun
L. 11 “I must be gone and live, or stay and die”
If he is there at day break, the Prince will have him put to death
He is leaving – she entreats him to stay
L. 17 – 18 “Let me be ta’en, let me be put to deat/ I am content so that wilt have it so.”
He decides to stay, she sends him away
L. 55-56 “Methinks I see thee, now thou art so low,/ As one dead in the bottom of a tomb.”
Saying he looks like he is standing in his grave
The intensity of their love is always linked to death or suicide
Last time they ever see each other alive again
III-5 Enter Lady Capulet
Lady Capulet the realist
L. 72-73 “Some grief shows much of love,/ But much of grief shows still some want of wit.”
Crying because your sad because you lost somebody you love, you should not cry because that does not bring them back.
Dramatic irony – audience knows more than the characters know
Lady Capulet the bloodthirsty avenger
Juliet – verbal irony l. 89-102
Ironic because the next time she does see Romeo, he will be dead
Lady Capulet thinks she is saying how much she hates Romeo, when really Juliet is saying how much she really loves him
III-5 Juliet matures
Juliet is smarter than her mother
Breaks from the counsel of the nurse
The nurse is her childhood. She abandons the nurse, and upholds her loyalty to her husband.
Maturation is linked to sexual experience
She grows up past her mother, and breaks from the nurse.
L. 140 “I would the fool were married to her grave” – foreshadowing
She wants to kill her, not literally because Juliet said no to marrying Paris
Defies her father
Realizes the limitation of her power
Suicide is her only means to exert her power
III-5 Capulet’s response
Capulet is socked by his daughters disobedience
We see the old Capulet anger again
If Juliet will not marry Paris, Capulet will disown her
The nurse and Lady Capulet see that Capulet is out of line
Turns on the Nurse when she interrupts:
L. 170 “Lady Wisdom”
L. 174 “Utter your gravity o’er a gossip bowl”
Go sit with the little old ladies in the park and gossip with them, you are not part of this family
L. 175 “You are too hot”
Relax
L. 176-195 He recounts all they have done for Juliet and issues his final ultimatum
III-5 Juliet Decides
She turns to the Nurse for advice and comfort
The Nurse understand Juliet’s predicament
Why does the Nurse counsel Juliet to forget Romeo and marry Paris?
She doesn’t want to see Juliet thrown out in the streets
She is realistic about the situation L. 212-225
L. 228 “Amen”
So be it
The one thing she has left is the power to take her own life
Act IV
Act IV Scene 1 – Paris Visits Fr. Laurence
Fr. Laurence is concerned over the speed of Paris & Juliet’s impending marriage
L. 16 “I would I knew why it should be slow’d”
© He wishes he didn’t know why he couldn’t marry them so soon
Paris is slightly arrogant – assumes that Juliet will want to marry him
© The audience is never given access to Paris’s thoughts
© In V-3 he does seem to have truly loved Juliet
Act IV – 1 Fr. Laurence – A Big Fat Liar
Fr. Laurence is the most scheming and deceitful character in the play
© Secretly marries R + J
© Hides Romeo and helps his escape to Mantua
© Stages Juliet’s death
He is never presents in a negative light despite his machinations
Everything he does turns tragic but he seems to bear no responsibility for it (although he accepts personal responsibility and declares his actions in V-3)
IV-1 The Charnel House
As communities grew, old churchyards were often too small to cope with the rising demand for burial space.
From time to time, when room was needed for new graves, old graves were dug up and bones stacked in a charnel house or vault (a small building adjacent to a church)
IV-Scene 2 – A Repentant Child
Juliet returns repentant
Capulet is so happy he moves the wedding up to Wednesday – the nest morning
A sign of Capulet’s impulsivity
Irony – he leaves to tell Paris about the impending marriage and his “heart is wondrous
Act IV Scene 3 – Juliet drinks the Potion
Juliet is calm, mature and self possessed
She understands the dangers drinking the potion presents
She does not allow the Nurse into her plans
© She is breaking from the nurse
© So the nurse has a very natural reaction to everything
She takes her life in her own hands
© Foreshadowing death – seeing Tybalt, Romeo drinking the potion, goes against what is unexpected of women at this time.
Imagines the terrible things that could happen if it all goes wrong – irony!
© Except waking up to dead Romeo next to her
Act IV Scene 4 – Capulet and the Nurse
The lightheartedness of this scene is juxtaposed between Juliet drinking the poison and the discovery of her “death”
It makes the audience wince because of the dramatic irony – we know what is coming
It makes the tragedy more tragic
Act IV Scene 5 – The Discovery
The Nurse “interrupts” Juliet again
Personification of Death (L. 36)
Conceit of death as a bridegroom (L. 36-40)
Crushing guilt of all of the adults in the scene
Capulet and Lady Capulet’s grief humanizes them after their previous scene
© Personal grief
Fr. Laurence is one cool liar
© Everything is working out according to his plan
Act IV Scene 5 – The Musicians
Most productions cut this scene
Unnecessary comic relief
However, this scene gives us some perspective
© The tragedy of Juliet’s death and the subsequent greater tragedy of Act V are not everyone’s tragedy
© The musicians’ tragedy is that they are out of a job and a free lunch (which is as much as tragedy to them as Juliet’s death is to her family)
Act V
Act V Scene 1 – Mantua
Romeo’s dream L. 1-11
A sequence of near misses
© Capulet’s decision to move the wedding date
© Romeo doesn’t get Fr. L’s message
© Balthasar comes to tell him about Juliet’s death
L. 24 “The I defy you, stars!”
L. 34 “Well, Juliet, I will lie with thee tonight”
© He tries to avoid fate
© If he waits longer it would have gone to the plan
Nothing can stand in fate’s way
L. 90 Act 2 scene 4 “Wisely and slow they stumbled then run fast”
Act V-1 Romeo & the Apothecary
In the apothecary, we see paradoxical social issues at work
© He doesn’t want to sell the potion because society has banned it
© But this same society has made him poor
© He sells the potion because he is forced to by his poverty
© Romeo acknowledges this “I pay thy poverty and not thy will.” (L.76)
L. 59 “Forty ducats”
© A LOT of money
L. 80 & 83 “There is thy gold – worse poison to men’s souls” “I sell thee poison, thou hasn’t sole me none.”
© Money is the poison
Act V Scene 2 – the Letter!
AHHH! FATE!!!
Friar john never got to give Romeo the letter because he was suspected of being in a plague house and quarantined
Fr. Laurence has 3 hours to get to the tomb and rescue Juliet
He still thinks it’s going to be ok – he’ll hide Juliet in his cell and write to Romeo again – dramatic irony
Act V Scene 3 – Fate Takes Control
Thinking her dead, Romeo then drinks a poison that actually kills him
Seeing him dead, Juliet stabs herself through the heart with a dagger
Their parallel consumption of mysterious potions lends their deaths a peaceful symmetry, which is broken by Juliet’s dramatic dagger stroke.
The possibility of suicide as an inherent aspect of intense love
Passion cannot be stifled, and when combined with the vigor of youth, it expresses itself through the most convenient outlet.
Paris and Romeo
For all intents and purposes, it appears that Paris truly loves Juliet
Romeo adds one more sin before he dies- killing Paris – although he really doesn’t want to “Tempt not a desperate man!” L. 59
He doesn’t realize it’s Paris until he’s dead [willing dispersion of disbelief]
Romeo’s Monologue
Death personified
The act of the kiss spurs him to drink the potion
An act of love linked with an act of suicide Juliet Awakens
Fr. Laurence offers to take her away to a convent
She refuses to go, preferring death;; and Fr. Laurence leaves her there, many reasons as to why he leaves her;; he does go back and confess though
Again, kissing is associated with suicide ;; Shakespeare is really putting it out now
Juliet’s death is exceptionally violent;; and it’s by her own hands;; to stab ones heart it takes a lot of strength because you have to go through all the bones protecting it
“O happy dagger” L. 169 It reunites her with her love Romeo and Juliet are dead
L. 201 “O Wife, look how our daughter bleeds!” Capulet then realizes that she was never dead when they buried her
What happened to Lady Montague? L. 209-210 “my wife is dead tonight./ Grief of my son’s exile hath stopp’d her breath” they say she died of a broken heart from Romeo being banished Fr. Laurence Comes Clean • L. 225-6- “And here I stand, both to impeach and purge/ Myself condemned and myself excus’d” • In case you missed any of it, he retells the entire story L. 228-268 • And implicates the Nurse L. 265;; says the Nurse had something to do with it also The Feud Ends • Capulet reconciles with Montague;; Friar Laurence was right the twos marriage ended the feud • Montague vows to erect golden statues in gold to Juliet • Why does Prince Escalus get the closing speech? The reason he gets to make the closing speech because it signifies a return to order
The Prologue
· Elizabethan Sonnet
· 14 lines
· 3 quatrains, 1 couplet
· Abab cdcd efef gg
· Gives all background
Act 1 Scene 1 – a street in Verona
· Puns – play on words
- Coals, colliers, choler, collars
Coals – will not be insulted
Collier – someone who sold coal, dishonest and dirty
Choler – anger
Homonym – words that sound the same
· Characterization of Sampson & Gregory
- Servants,
- L. 11 “Take the wall.”
Walking closer to the wall means your superior.
- L. 16 & 17 “thrust to the wall.”
Rape
- L. 24 “maidenhead.”
Virginity
- L. 27 “a pretty piece of flesh.”
- L. 30 “tool”; L. 32 “naked weapon”
· Colloquial expression
- L.40 “bite my thumb”
Like giving the middle finger
1-1 Benvolio and Tybalt
· Benvolio - Montague
- Peacemaker
- L. 61 “put up your swords”
Stop fighting
- L.66 “or manage it to part these men with me”
· Tybalt – Capulet
- Instigator
- L. 63 “drawn among these heartless hinds”
Weak, powerless, no male to protect them.
- L. 67 “I hate the word (peace)”
Likes bad things, likes drama, and hates everyone and everything.
Opposing personality traits foils.
1-1 Capulet & Montague
· Capulet
- Dressing gown
Means he has entered the town square in his pajamas. They woke him up; he was in a rush, in a hurry.
- Characteristic rashness
Capulet’s are rash, impulsive, jump to conclusions. Acts without thinking.
- L.73 “long sword”
Older and rash. Long sword is generally useless in a fight.
· Lady Capulet
- L. 74 “a crutch”
What are you asking for a sword for? You should be asking for a cane.
· Montague
- L. 77 “hold me not”
Let me fight.
1 – 1 Prince Escalus
· Ineffectual leader?
- No, he cannot stop the families fighting.
· L. 87 “three civil brawls”
- Fighting over nothing
· L. 89 “thrice disturb’d”
- Disturbed the quiet of the streets three times.
· L. 101 “on peace of death”
· L. 95 “your lives shall end forbidden peace”
1-1 Characterization of Romeo
· Benvolio L. 104 – 113 recaps the events.
· Romeo hides in the sycamore trees.
- Sick – amour
- Romeo is love sick.
· Montague
- L. 129 “with tears”
Blocking out all light, making him invisible.
- L. 131 “his deep sighs”
- L. 135 “away from light steals my heavy son”
- L. 138 “makes himself an artificial night”
My son runs away from the light.
· Humors
- Black choler (melancholy)
- Sanguine, choleric, phlegmatic
1 – 1 Enter Romeo
· Antithesis L. 173 – 180
- “brawling love” “loving hate” “heavy lightness” “cold fire” “sick health”
· Rosaline is a Capulet
- Doomed love (foreshadowing)
Hints or clues of things to come
· Imagery
- Archery L. 203 – 209
· Characterization of Rosaline
- L. 212 “nor ope her lap to saint – seducing gold”
She is a virgin, will not open her legs to anyone.
- L. 216 and in that sparing make huge waste”
A waste that she won’t have sex with him. The pun
She is wasting her chance to increase her waist.
Act 1 Scene 2
· Characterization of Juliet
- L. 9 “she hath not seen the change of fourteen years”
· Characterization of Capulet
- L. 13 “and too soon marr’d are those so early made”
- L. 14 “earth had swollow’d all my hopes but she”
Juliet is the only child that survived.
He loves her terribly.
Reference to Lady Capulet because she had children at such a young age and they all died, he doesn’t want that for his daughter.
- L. 16 – 17 “get her heart/ My will to her consent is but part”
Want Juliet to be in love to get married.
1 – 2 Verse v. Prose
· L. 34 – 37
Come go with me. Go sirrah, trudge about
Through fair Verona, find those persons out
Whose names are written there, and to them say
My house and welcome on their pleasure stay.
· L. 38 – 40
Find them out whose names are written here. It is written that the shoemaker should meddle with his yard, and the tailor with his last, the fisher with his pencil, and the painter with his nets…
1 – 2 Romeo and the servant
· The element of chance
- The servant chosen by Capulet was illiterate
- Meeting with Romeo is accident
- Romeo regrets his initial sarcastic answer and reads the list.
Finds out Rosaline will be at the party.
1 – 3 The Nurse and Juliet
· Wet – nurse
- In old times, woman would have a nurse to breast feed their children so that they could try and get pregnant again faster.
· Emphasis on Juliet’s age
· Comic relief
· L. 19-20 “well Susan is with God;/ she was too good for me”
- Irony & foreshadowing
For all intense and purposes her daughter is Juliet
It’s ironic because Juliet is going to be taken away from her too.
· Wormwood (1.26)
· L. 53 “a bump as big as a young cockerel’s stone.”
- Lady Capulet and nurse are a foil, opposite personality traits.
· L. 58 “and stint thou too, I pray thee nurse, say I.”
1-3 Juliet & Lady Capulet
· L. 66 “it is an honor that I dream not of”
- Slightly evasive or non – committal answer
· L. 72 “I was your mother much upon these years”
· L. 81 – 92 – Conceit of Paris as a book.
- Conceit: an extended metaphor with logic that covers that juxtapose interesting ideas in surprising way’s a conceit invites the reader into a more sophisticated understanding of an object of comparison.
· Metaphor – he is a mule.
· L. 95 “women grow by men.”
· L. 97 – 99 “ill look to like if looking liking move, / but no more deep will I endart gives strength to make it fly. / Mine eye, than your consent gives strength to make it fly.
1- 4 Pregaming
· Torchbearers & masquers
- Torchbearer = lamp.
- Masquers crashed the parties
- Was a compliment.
· Locker room humor: “shaft” “love’s heavy burden” “tender thing” “prick love for pricking” “beat love down” L. 19-28
· L. 49 – 51 arrangement of lines.
- (adj.) iambic pentameter
- (n) iamb unstressed stressed
· L. 50 “I dreamt a dream tonight”
- Linked to 1-3 L. 66 “it is an honor that I dream not of”
- Isolation of the hero
Romeo is set apart from his friends, not a happy dream. Dream remains somewhat enclosed.
1-4 Mercutio and Queen Mab
· Mercurial- having qualities of eloquence, ingenuity, or fevishness, attributed to the god Mercury; characterized by rapid and unpredictable changes in mood.
· Monologue begins as entertaining but quickly becomes dark and disturbing.
· Queen Mab
- Mahb
· Faeries midwife
- Delivers dreams.
· 3 distinct section to monologue
- L. 53-69
Being entertained and trying to cheer up Romeo
- L. 70-88
Talking about people’s deep and secret desires. Trying to seduce Romeo.
- L. 88-94
Gets angry. The seduction is not working. There is no reaction. Romeo does not realize.
1-4 aftermath of Mab
· L. 96 “thou talk’st of nothing”
· Mercutio plays it off, BUT
- L. 101 “even now the frozen bosom of the north”
The frozen spot where Romeo’s love should be.
· Romeo L. 107 “some consequence hanging in the stars/Shall bitterly begin his fearful date/ With this night’s revels, and expire the term/ of despised like clos’d in my breast.
1-5 a scene change
· No formal scene change
· Prose
- L. 12 “You are looked for and called for, asked for and sought for in the great chamber.”
· Clam scene
1-5 The Party – Capulet’s Intro
· L. 17 “walk a bout with you”
- To dance
· L. 28 “And quench the fire”
· Sirrah
- Form of a dress that implies that the person speaking to you is of a lower class. It’s a form of sir.
· L. 31 “You and I are past our dancing days”
- Significance: Capulet is much older than his wife.
1-5 Capulet & Tybalt
· The hand motif is introduced in line 50. Something with a hand or touching.
· Tyblat recognizes Romeo’s voice
· L. 55 “antic face”
· L. 65 Capulet “A bears him like a portly gentleman; / and, to say the truth, Verona brags of him/ to be a virtuous and well – govern’d youth. / I would not for the wealth of all the town/ Here in my house do him disparagement.
1-5 More Capulet and Tybalt
· L. 76 “Go to!”
· L. 80 “You’ll be the man”
· L. 82 “saucy boy”
· Capulet’s anger
- Foreshadowing
· L. 88 “patience perforce with willful choler meeting” – antithesis
- Opposites: patience, choler
- Tybalt considers himself patient, and considers Capulet choler, ironic.
1-5 A Sonnets
· The first words Romeo and Juliet speak to each other are a sonnet.
1-5 Hand Motifs
· Motif – recurring thematic element
· L. 41 “what lady is that, which doth enrich the hand”
· L. 50 “and, touching hers, make blesses my rude hand.”
· Motif of Pilgrimage
· L. 92 “my unworthiest hand”
· L. 94 “smooth that rough touch”
· L. 96 L: “wrong your hand”
· L. 97 J: “mannerly devotion”
- Mannerly pun on the hand
· L. 98 J: “saints have hands that pilgrim hands do touch.”
· L. 99 J: “palm to palm”
- Calls him pilgrim on line 101
· L. 102 R: “ let lips do what hands do”
- Something holy, something saint like happens to their relationship, hands and a pilgrim looking for something and finding it. Elevates their whole relationship. Feelings are pure and intense.
1-5 the Nurse Interrupts
· A new sonnet begins L. 106 – 109
· L. 109 “you kiss by the book”
- Traditionally, teasing him to get her to kiss him again.
· L. 117 “O dead account. My life is my foe’s debt”
· L. 133 – 134 “If he be married, / My grave is like to be my wedding bed.”
- Significant because they spend their wedding night together, she does not die a virgin.
- The fact that she marries Romeo is what kills her.
· L. 137 – 140 “my only love sprung from my only hate. / Too early seen unknown and known too late. / Prodigious birth it is to me/ that I must love a loathed enemy.”
- Antithesis
Act II
Act II Prologue
Sonnet
Reviews events
Does not advance the plot in any way.
Advance the plot – does nothing to move the plot forward.
Act II – Mercutio
L. 2 “turn back, dull earth, and find thy centre out.”
Dull earth is Romeo and centre is Juliet.
L. 5 “lept this orchard wall”
Romeo is hidden away
L. 7 “Romeo! Humours! Madam! Passion! Lover!”
Mocking synonyms for Romeo
Humours – four elements of the body. Romeo is choleric.
L. 16 “the ape is dead”
A carnival trick where a monkey would pretend to be dead. The congener would suddenly wake him back up.
He doesn’t know Romeo is in love with Juliet yet.
L. 17 “Rosaline’s”
L. 24 “to raise a spirit in his mistress circle.” (also “stand” “laid it” “conjur’d it down” “raise him up”)
L. 36 “medlars” (open-arse l.38)
Medlar is someone that females genitalia.
L. 38 “”poperin pear”
L. 39 & 40 “truckle bed” “field bed”
Little bed under a regular bed.
Last image Mercutio leaves Romeo is Mercutio in bed.
Field bed is an army bed-theme of love and war.
Act II-2
L. 1 “He jests at scars that never felt a wound.”
Irony – Mercutio is in love with Romeo
Foreshadowing – Mercutio loves Romeo
L. 33 “Wherefore”
Why is your name Romeo?
L. 67 – “for stony limits cannot hold love out”
Doomed from the beginning, love is the thing that kills them.
Stony limits foreshadowing for the tomb, so they will die.
L. 100 – 101 “but trust me gentleman, I’ll prove more true/than those that have more cunning to be strange.”
Juliet can tell the difference between true modesty, and false modesty.
L. 109-112 – “O swear not by the moon” “do not swear at all”
Juliet wants Romeo to tell her he loves her.
L. 27 – “th’ exchange of thy love’s faithful vow for mine.”
L. 132-135 “My bounty is as boundless as the sea./ My love as deep: the more I give to thee/ The more I have, for both are infinite.
II-2 The Nurse Interrupts
Parallels III-3 and III-5
Bird imagery – falcon, tassle-gentle, nyas (niesse), wanton’s bird.
Tassle gentle. Male bergrint falcon can be lured back to its owner with a special call.
A falcon was used for fowling and secrecy.
Shows the idea that Romeo and Juliet have to hide their relationship.
Nyas, a young hawk that is taken out of the nest. Juliet, in the balcony, “her nest”
L. 160-161 “bondage is hoarse…/Else I would tear the cave where Echo lies.”
Ovid
II-3 Friar Lawrence’s Cell
L. 1-18 – medicinical interest in herbs
L. 17-18 “virtue itself turn vice being misapplied/ and sometimes by actions dignified.”
Friar Lawrence knows what he is doing is wrong but he marries Juliet and Romeo to help unify the families. The ends justify the means. “The results justify the way you do something.”
L. 5 “tomb” L. 79 “bury love” “grave”
Shrift – confession
L. 83-85 “O, she [Rosaline] knew well/The love did read by rote that could not spell.”
He knows Romeo didn’t really love Rosaline, but now he wants to end the feud.
L. 87-88 “For this alliance may so prove/to turn your households’ rancor to pure love.”
II-4 Mercutio – words, words, words
Prose
The language of comedy or class, the language of wit.
Used for clowns, anyone who brings humor into the play, proclamations, letters, lower class characters, villains, and sometimes to show a characters climb into madness.
Shifting into prose shows the height of the play so you notice it more.
Bathos
A sudden shift from a higher verse to a lower forms
Mercutio is in a punning mood
L. 15 “pin” L. 16 “blind how-boy”
Blind bow-boy is cupid.
Pin is in the dead center of an archery target.
L. 20 “courageous captain of compliments”
Alliteration – repetition of consonants is the beginning of a word.
Talking about Tybalt.
Tybalt is more concerned with how he looks, than being a skilled fighter.
Effeteness- soft or delicate as if from a pampered existence (spoiled brat)
Conceit of music “pricksong” “proportion” “minim rest”
Talking about his sword fighting. But the conceit is music.
Prick song is a printed music sung with careful accuracy.
Proportion means rhythm.
Minim rest is the briefest possible rest in music.
L.20-23 “he fights as you sing prick song, keeps time, distance, and proportion. He rests in minim rests, one, two, and a third in your bosom.
Feint – fake attempts
Ironic because Mercutio understands how Tybalt fights.
II-4 Mercutio – more words
L. 24-25 “a gentleman of the very first house”
Sarcasm – means he belongs to the highest house in the town.
L. 25 “of the first and second cause”
Two reasons that men should take up a fight in a duel
- To maintain his or her honor
- Being accused of a crime being punishable by death
L. 25-26 “the immortal passado, the punto reverse, the hay!”
All fencing terms
Mercutio finds Tybalt to have only want to have fame
L. 29-35 – mocking.
L. 37 “without his roe”
Roe- fish sperm
Roe is part of Romeo’s name, so it is a joke saying Romeo is not a full man.
Roe can also be a dear, so Romeo is without his love, his dear
L. 40 “Petrarch…Laura
Making a joke about Romeo and Rosaline
L. 40-44 mocking great kives & beautiful, iconic women
II-4 Group Dynamics
Benvolio loves peace
Mercutio loves to argue.
Romeo is the one in the middle holding the group together.
Without Romeo, the group doesn’t work.
Three times where its only Benvolio and Mercutio are alone together.
3 times Mercutio & Benvolio are alone together
Act II-1 “I’ll go to my truckle bed.”
Act II-4 “Here comes Romeo! Here comes Romeo!”
Act III-1 “and yet thou wit tutor me from quarreling.”
- Something doesn’t work when Romeo is absent from the friendship. Benvolio and Mercutio irritate each other. They have no reason to hang out without Romeo.
- Mercutio has to die in the next scene because he knows that Romeo loves someone else and they Romeo will be wrapped up in his relationship with Juliet. Mercutio cannot endure the fact that Romeo won’t be there.
II-4 Enter Romeo
Mood much improved
Demonstrates the wit and playfulness that Mercutio loves him for
This is the real Romeo.
Immediately engages in a battle of wits, puns and language with Mercutio.
Puns are filled with sexual innuendo.
Typical guy talk, locker room talk
L. 69 “come between us good Benvolio”
Foreshadowing Romeo coming in between Mercutio and Tybalt and Mercutio’s death
II-4 More punning
L. 72 “run the wild goose-chase.”
Literally follow the leader on horses.
L. 78 “bite thee by the ear”
More of a fond caress
L.79 “Nay, good goose, bit not!”
Not mad, just playing with him.
L.83-84 “an inch narrow to an ell broad”
Stretching it out 45 inches – Romeo is able to make a little wit go a long way.
L. 85-99 increasing sexual innuendo interrupted by Benvolio
II-4 Enter the Nurse
Comic relief
L.100 “Here’s goodly gear! A sail! A sail!”
Romeo is making fun of the nurse. Calling her fat. (she’s as big as a boat)
Peter – a servant’s servant
Mercutio mocks the nurse
“good e’en” “prick of noon”
Romeo mocks the nurse
Willing suspension of disbelief – accept give up your disbelief. Cannot believe what happened.
“Romeo will be older when you have found him”
Malapropisms
Unintentional misuse of a word or phrase especially the use of a word sounding somewhat like the one intended, but ludicrously wrong in the context.
L. 126 “confidence” L. 127 “endite”
Mercutio’s conceit L.128-137
Baud – madam in a house of prostitution
Stale- prostitute
Hoar- whore –prostitute
Spent – used up
L.141 “Lady, lady, lady”
II-4 Mercutio exits
L.142 “saucy merchant”
He should be called a gentleman
Means this in a very disrespectful way
L.143 “ropery”
Means roguery, which means penis.
Characterization of Mercutio
L. 144-146 “...that loves to hear himself talk and will speak more in a minute than he will stand in a month.”
He is all talk to action
L. 154 “I saw no man use you at his pleasure”
Why does Romeo appear to not recognize the nurse immediately?
Willing suspension of disbelief
II-4 The plan
Shrift = confession
L. 177 – back to verse
L. 185 “bring thee cords”
L. 195 – Nurse back to prose
L. 205 “that’s the dog’s name is ‘R’ is for the-”
Arse
Act II Scene 5 – Juliet waits
3 hours are missing here
Nurse teases her
L. 66 coil
L. 75 “Must climb a bird’s nest son when it is dark
Bird imagery again Juliet being the bird and her balcony her nest
Act II Scene VI-Fr. Laurence’s Cell
L. 6-8 “do thou but close our hands with holy words,/ Then love-devouring death do what he dare:/ It is enough that I may but call her mine.
L. 9-11 “these violent delights have violent ends/ And in their triumph die, like fire and powder,/ which as they kiss consumes.”
Act III
Scene 1 – It’s hot out here
L. 2 The day is hot
Mercutio’s lines all prose
Three reason scene switches to prose
Something significant has changed
Lower class character
Comedy
L. 16-30
Cracking nuts, coughing, waking your dog, wearing the wrong clothes at inappropriate times
Mercutio is looking for a fight.
Without Romeo there, the triumvirate is incomplete and unstable.
III-1 Enter Tybalt
L. 36 “by my heel, I care not.”
He will not walk away from the fight
Mercutio is looking for a fight from the beginning
L. 44 “Mercutio, thou consortest with Romeo”
Consort means to hang out.
Mercutio deliberately misunderstands Tybalt thinking that Tybalt is calling them not gentlemen, hired musicians, lower class.
L. 45-48 musical conceit
Discord, hear, fiddlestick, dance
III-1 Enter Romeo
Where had Romeo come from?
L. 55 “here comes my man”
Mercutio deliberately misunderstands Tybalt thinking “my man” means Tybalt is calling Romeo his servant.
L. 56 “if he wear your livery”
To be called lily livered means white livered or a coward
What reason does Romeo have to love Tybalt?
It’s his family now
L. 62 “Doth much excused the appertaining rage to such a greeting”
L. 63 “villain I am none”
Lower class way lower class.
L. 65 “Boy”
Saying he is of lower class
If Romeo tells Tybalt that he and Juliet are married, then the play is over.
III-1 Mercutio and Tybalt Fight
L. 72 “alla stocatta carries it away”
In a regular fight, Mercutio would have no problem beating Tybalt.
Cat conceit
L. 73 “rat catcher”
L. 76 “King of Cats” “Nine lives”
L. 84 “your passado”
If Romeo had not intervened, then Mercutio would have been able to kill Tybalt
III-1 Mercutio Dies
How is Mercutio killed?
Romeo gets in the way and distracts Mercutio, and then Tybalt stabs him
They announce that a character is dead so the audience knows that the person died.
L. 92 “A plague o’ both your houses”
Montague and Capulet because he is neutral
L. 94 “a scratch, a scratch” – understatement
L. 97-99 – Mercutio tries to minimize his hurt
L. 101 “Zounds”
Is like saying Jesus Christ
L. 102 “to scratch man to death”
L. 103-104 “that fights by the book of arithmetic”
L. 109 “worm’s meat of me”
In order to teach the uneducated people the church taught them that they are worms meat and are worth nothing
III-1 Romeo & Tybalt fight
L. 127 “Now, Tybalt, take the “villain” back again”
Romeo says take back what you called me earlier
L. 131 “Either thou, or I, or both must go with him [Mercutio]
L. 132 “boy” “consort”
L. 138 “Oh, I am fortune’s fool”
There is nothing he could do about it. What the character chooses to do can affect the rest of the play.
III-1 Enter Prince Escalus
Starring Benvolio as “Basil Exposition”
Last time we see Benvolio
160-161 – Benvolio actually suppresses the fact that Mercutio provoked Tybalt
L. 178 “He is a kinsman to the Montague/ Affection makes him false”
L. 182-183 “I beg for justice… Romeo must not live”
Lady Capulet
L. 185 & 191 “Who now the price of his [Mercutio’s] dear blood doth owe” “My blood for your rude brawls doth like-a-bleeding.”
L. 189 “and for that offense/ immediately do we exile him hence”
Act III-2 Juliet waits again
What is Juliet waiting for?
Romeo to come for her wedding night
Dramatic irony
Where the audience knows what the character doesn’t know
L.12 “lose a winning match”
She will be given up to Romeo
L.13 “hood my unmann’d blood, bating in my cheeks.
Bird imagery, darkness of night (hood) will cover her face because she will be blushing
L.21-22 “and when I shall die, cut him out in little stars”
L.26-28 “O, I have bought the mansion of a love/ but not possess’d it, and though I am sold,/ not yet enjoyed
III-2 the Nurse’s Bad News
What does Juliet think the Nurse is talking about initially?
That Romeo is dead
L.79 “A damned saint, an honorable villain”
Antithesis
L.88 “aqua vitae”
Looking for brandy (water of life)
Juliet understands that her loyalty with her husband now
Nurse’s changing viewpoint on Romeo
L. 137 “And death, not Romeo take my maidenhead”
If she can’t have Romeo, she would rather die.
Why doesn’t Juliet just go with Romeo?
She will not openly defy her father
Act III Scene 3 Fr. Laurence’s Cell
L. 2-3 “Affliction is enamour’d of thy parts/ And thou are wedded to calamity.
Antithesis
Your screwed, it sucks to be you.
L. 12 “Ha! Banishment! Be merciful, say death!”
Why is Romeo acting like a big baby in this scene?
He would rather die than not be with Juliet.
Intensity of love linked to suicidal impulse
“Doth my name lodge? Tell me that I sack/ The hateful mansion”
© Is the main reason this is all happening is because of his name?
The only way to get rid of your name is to kill yourself
Act III Scene 4 – A Wedding on Thursday
Marriage was a commercial transaction
Brides and grooms = same social class
Daughters did not defy their fathers
Why does Capulet change his mind about the marriage so suddenly
If Capulet let’s Juliet marry Paris, then they would be closer to the Prince’s family.
Political move on Capulet’s part
L. 11-12 “make a desperate tender of my child’s love.” – irony
An offer for abid of a contract
L. 12-13 “I think she will be rul’d/ In all respects by me; nay, more, I doubt it not.
My daughter will do what I tell her to do
Showing how women have no rights and no say in their time
Act III Scene 5 – The Next Morning
L. 2 “It was the nightingale and not the lark”
Nightingale sings at night, lark sings in the morning
Don’t go it is not morning
Goes back to the balcony scene when he calls Juliet the sun
L. 11 “I must be gone and live, or stay and die”
If he is there at day break, the Prince will have him put to death
He is leaving – she entreats him to stay
L. 17 – 18 “Let me be ta’en, let me be put to deat/ I am content so that wilt have it so.”
He decides to stay, she sends him away
L. 55-56 “Methinks I see thee, now thou art so low,/ As one dead in the bottom of a tomb.”
Saying he looks like he is standing in his grave
The intensity of their love is always linked to death or suicide
Last time they ever see each other alive again
III-5 Enter Lady Capulet
Lady Capulet the realist
L. 72-73 “Some grief shows much of love,/ But much of grief shows still some want of wit.”
Crying because your sad because you lost somebody you love, you should not cry because that does not bring them back.
Dramatic irony – audience knows more than the characters know
Lady Capulet the bloodthirsty avenger
Juliet – verbal irony l. 89-102
Ironic because the next time she does see Romeo, he will be dead
Lady Capulet thinks she is saying how much she hates Romeo, when really Juliet is saying how much she really loves him
III-5 Juliet matures
Juliet is smarter than her mother
Breaks from the counsel of the nurse
The nurse is her childhood. She abandons the nurse, and upholds her loyalty to her husband.
Maturation is linked to sexual experience
She grows up past her mother, and breaks from the nurse.
L. 140 “I would the fool were married to her grave” – foreshadowing
She wants to kill her, not literally because Juliet said no to marrying Paris
Defies her father
Realizes the limitation of her power
Suicide is her only means to exert her power
III-5 Capulet’s response
Capulet is socked by his daughters disobedience
We see the old Capulet anger again
If Juliet will not marry Paris, Capulet will disown her
The nurse and Lady Capulet see that Capulet is out of line
Turns on the Nurse when she interrupts:
L. 170 “Lady Wisdom”
L. 174 “Utter your gravity o’er a gossip bowl”
Go sit with the little old ladies in the park and gossip with them, you are not part of this family
L. 175 “You are too hot”
Relax
L. 176-195 He recounts all they have done for Juliet and issues his final ultimatum
III-5 Juliet Decides
She turns to the Nurse for advice and comfort
The Nurse understand Juliet’s predicament
Why does the Nurse counsel Juliet to forget Romeo and marry Paris?
She doesn’t want to see Juliet thrown out in the streets
She is realistic about the situation L. 212-225
L. 228 “Amen”
So be it
The one thing she has left is the power to take her own life
Act IV
Act IV Scene 1 – Paris Visits Fr. Laurence
Fr. Laurence is concerned over the speed of Paris & Juliet’s impending marriage
L. 16 “I would I knew why it should be slow’d”
© He wishes he didn’t know why he couldn’t marry them so soon
Paris is slightly arrogant – assumes that Juliet will want to marry him
© The audience is never given access to Paris’s thoughts
© In V-3 he does seem to have truly loved Juliet
Act IV – 1 Fr. Laurence – A Big Fat Liar
Fr. Laurence is the most scheming and deceitful character in the play
© Secretly marries R + J
© Hides Romeo and helps his escape to Mantua
© Stages Juliet’s death
He is never presents in a negative light despite his machinations
Everything he does turns tragic but he seems to bear no responsibility for it (although he accepts personal responsibility and declares his actions in V-3)
IV-1 The Charnel House
As communities grew, old churchyards were often too small to cope with the rising demand for burial space.
From time to time, when room was needed for new graves, old graves were dug up and bones stacked in a charnel house or vault (a small building adjacent to a church)
IV-Scene 2 – A Repentant Child
Juliet returns repentant
Capulet is so happy he moves the wedding up to Wednesday – the nest morning
A sign of Capulet’s impulsivity
Irony – he leaves to tell Paris about the impending marriage and his “heart is wondrous
Act IV Scene 3 – Juliet drinks the Potion
Juliet is calm, mature and self possessed
She understands the dangers drinking the potion presents
She does not allow the Nurse into her plans
© She is breaking from the nurse
© So the nurse has a very natural reaction to everything
She takes her life in her own hands
© Foreshadowing death – seeing Tybalt, Romeo drinking the potion, goes against what is unexpected of women at this time.
Imagines the terrible things that could happen if it all goes wrong – irony!
© Except waking up to dead Romeo next to her
Act IV Scene 4 – Capulet and the Nurse
The lightheartedness of this scene is juxtaposed between Juliet drinking the poison and the discovery of her “death”
It makes the audience wince because of the dramatic irony – we know what is coming
It makes the tragedy more tragic
Act IV Scene 5 – The Discovery
The Nurse “interrupts” Juliet again
Personification of Death (L. 36)
Conceit of death as a bridegroom (L. 36-40)
Crushing guilt of all of the adults in the scene
Capulet and Lady Capulet’s grief humanizes them after their previous scene
© Personal grief
Fr. Laurence is one cool liar
© Everything is working out according to his plan
Act IV Scene 5 – The Musicians
Most productions cut this scene
Unnecessary comic relief
However, this scene gives us some perspective
© The tragedy of Juliet’s death and the subsequent greater tragedy of Act V are not everyone’s tragedy
© The musicians’ tragedy is that they are out of a job and a free lunch (which is as much as tragedy to them as Juliet’s death is to her family)
Act V
Act V Scene 1 – Mantua
Romeo’s dream L. 1-11
A sequence of near misses
© Capulet’s decision to move the wedding date
© Romeo doesn’t get Fr. L’s message
© Balthasar comes to tell him about Juliet’s death
L. 24 “The I defy you, stars!”
L. 34 “Well, Juliet, I will lie with thee tonight”
© He tries to avoid fate
© If he waits longer it would have gone to the plan
Nothing can stand in fate’s way
L. 90 Act 2 scene 4 “Wisely and slow they stumbled then run fast”
Act V-1 Romeo & the Apothecary
In the apothecary, we see paradoxical social issues at work
© He doesn’t want to sell the potion because society has banned it
© But this same society has made him poor
© He sells the potion because he is forced to by his poverty
© Romeo acknowledges this “I pay thy poverty and not thy will.” (L.76)
L. 59 “Forty ducats”
© A LOT of money
L. 80 & 83 “There is thy gold – worse poison to men’s souls” “I sell thee poison, thou hasn’t sole me none.”
© Money is the poison
Act V Scene 2 – the Letter!
AHHH! FATE!!!
Friar john never got to give Romeo the letter because he was suspected of being in a plague house and quarantined
Fr. Laurence has 3 hours to get to the tomb and rescue Juliet
He still thinks it’s going to be ok – he’ll hide Juliet in his cell and write to Romeo again – dramatic irony
Act V Scene 3 – Fate Takes Control
Thinking her dead, Romeo then drinks a poison that actually kills him
Seeing him dead, Juliet stabs herself through the heart with a dagger
Their parallel consumption of mysterious potions lends their deaths a peaceful symmetry, which is broken by Juliet’s dramatic dagger stroke.
The possibility of suicide as an inherent aspect of intense love
Passion cannot be stifled, and when combined with the vigor of youth, it expresses itself through the most convenient outlet.
Paris and Romeo
For all intents and purposes, it appears that Paris truly loves Juliet
Romeo adds one more sin before he dies- killing Paris – although he really doesn’t want to “Tempt not a desperate man!” L. 59
He doesn’t realize it’s Paris until he’s dead [willing dispersion of disbelief]
Romeo’s Monologue
Death personified
The act of the kiss spurs him to drink the potion
An act of love linked with an act of suicide Juliet Awakens
Fr. Laurence offers to take her away to a convent
She refuses to go, preferring death;; and Fr. Laurence leaves her there, many reasons as to why he leaves her;; he does go back and confess though
Again, kissing is associated with suicide ;; Shakespeare is really putting it out now
Juliet’s death is exceptionally violent;; and it’s by her own hands;; to stab ones heart it takes a lot of strength because you have to go through all the bones protecting it
“O happy dagger” L. 169 It reunites her with her love Romeo and Juliet are dead
L. 201 “O Wife, look how our daughter bleeds!” Capulet then realizes that she was never dead when they buried her
What happened to Lady Montague? L. 209-210 “my wife is dead tonight./ Grief of my son’s exile hath stopp’d her breath” they say she died of a broken heart from Romeo being banished Fr. Laurence Comes Clean • L. 225-6- “And here I stand, both to impeach and purge/ Myself condemned and myself excus’d” • In case you missed any of it, he retells the entire story L. 228-268 • And implicates the Nurse L. 265;; says the Nurse had something to do with it also The Feud Ends • Capulet reconciles with Montague;; Friar Laurence was right the twos marriage ended the feud • Montague vows to erect golden statues in gold to Juliet • Why does Prince Escalus get the closing speech? The reason he gets to make the closing speech because it signifies a return to order
