Romeo & Juliet: Character Quotations (AQA GCSE English Literature)

Key word or phrase to memorise: “steerage of my course” and “Direct my sail!”

What the quotation means: As Romeo enters the Capulet ball he has a vision about his early death, but he dismisses it, telling whoever controls his future that he is willing to go wherever “He” takes him

Theme: Fate and Religion

• Shakespeare raises questions about fate and free will through his tragic hero:

  • Romeo’s fatal flaw is his reckless dismissal of danger

  • Here, his metaphor implies he is a passenger on a ship into the future

  • Personification of fate (“He”) implies an omnipotent presence

  • He willingly submits, asking ‘him’ to  “Direct” his future 

• Tension is built as Romeo disregards a premonition, heightened by dramatic irony (the Prologue warns of his doomed love)

• In Act 3, Scene 1, Romeo’s attitude towards fate changes significantly:

  • After killing Tybalt, Romeo calls himself “Fortune’s fool”

  • He believes that fate has turned against him, and he is upset by the direction it has taken him

Key word or phrase to memorise: “love’s light wings” and “stony limits”

What the quotation means: Romeo tells Juliet that he was able to climb over the wall into the Capulet garden because he ‘flew’ with love’s wings, and adds that walls or barriers are not able to stop love

Theme: Love and Gender

• Shakespeare illustrates the Romeo’s belief in the power of love:

  • Here, the pun of “stony limits” implies his disregard for the conflict between his and Juliet’s families

  • He likens climbing the Capulet wall to overcoming the feud keeping him from Juliet 

• The alliterative “love’s light wings” is typical of Romeo’s hyperbolic imagery about love: 

  • The metaphor implies Romeo’s desire to elude all barriers

  • Shakespeare presents his impulsive naivete as his hamartia

Key word or phrase to memorise: “world’s exile is death”

What the quotation means: A distressed Romeo says that the Friar does not understand that for a young boy in love, exile should be renamed “death”, and that banishment from Verona equates to death

Theme: Conflict and Violence

• Shakespeare raises questions about the damaging consequences of conflict:

  • Romeo’s distress is conveyed in his rambling and panicked dialogue

  • The repetition of “banish’d” and “death” suggests Romeo’s frustration at his powerlessness

• Shakespeare foreshadows the tragedy that results from Romeo’s exile:

  • Romeo hints that being isolated from the “world” will lead to his death

Key word or phrase to memorise: “love a loathed enemy”

What the quotation means: At the Capulet Ball, after she and Romeo share a kiss, Juliet learns that he is a Montague and, in an aside, she says that her first love is unnatural and ominous (“prodigious”) as she loves a hated enemy

Theme: Fate and Religion

• Shakespeare’s Juliet often refers to ominous warnings about the future:

  • When she meets Romeo she is more aware of the danger than Romeo is

  • Here she suggests she is fated to have a terrible, unnatural love

  • The modal verb “must” implies that her love for is destined, and she has no say in the matter  

• The connection between love and hate is conveyed in Juliet’s alliterative oxymoron:

  • It is because the lovers are “loathed” enemies that they are doomed 

  • “Love” and “loathed” mean opposite things but sound very similar — a quality that implies that Juliet is already beginning to forget that she must loathe Romeo

Key word or phrase to memorise: “Proud can I never be of what I hate” 

What the quotation means: Juliet tries to be respectful in her challenge to her father, saying that she can never feel pride for marrying someone that she hates, but that she is “thankful” for “hate” as it comes from “love”

Theme: Honour and Family

• Shakespeare presents Juliet as an intelligent, free-thinking young girl:

  • In this dramatic scene, her refusal to carry out her duties meets with opposition from her parents

  • Her unchanging stance despite her father’s fury shows her strong will

• Juliet’s dialogue often refers to themes about conflict related to family honour: 

  • The emotive “Proud”, “hate” and “love” conveys the close connection between the three ideas

  • She is portrayed, however, as respectful, despite her defiance

  • Although she is respectful, Shakespeare’s audience would have seen her refusal to obey her father as an unusual act of female rebellion

Key word or phrase to memorise: “God join’d my heart and Romeo’s” 

What the quotation means: In his cell Juliet tells Friar Laurence that her love for Romeo is holy, and that as he married them (by joining their hands) he must help her escape marriage to Paris

Theme: Love and Gender

• Juliet’s loyalty to Romeo is illustrated in the tense scene when she seeks the Friar’s help: 

  • Alliteration of the physical words (“heart” and “hands”) emphasises their bond, and his involvement

• Shakespeare presents the love between Romeo and Juliet as pure and sacrificial:

  • Juliet alludes to their love as blessed by God

  • In the final scene, their deaths bring peace to Verona, and their father’s take one another’s hands as a sign of forgiveness 

Key word or phrase to memorise: “heartless hinds” and “death”

What the quotation means: Tybalt asks the Capulet servants why they have drawn their swords on the cowardly (“heartless”) Montague peasants (“hinds”), and then immediately invites Benvolio to fight

Theme: Conflict and Violence

• Shakespeare presents Tybalt as a fiercely loyal and aggressive Capulet:

  • He is the antagonist of the play and a foil to Romeo (who prefers peace)

  • His sophisticated language presents him as a worthy opponent to Romeo

• Tybalt’s sudden, meaningless aggression portrays him as hateful:

  • In the opening scene, he insults “all” Montagues and unjustifiably threatens to kill the peaceful Benvolio

  • The alliteration of “heartless hinds” sounds especially aggressive, with the repeated “h” sound giving the impression that these words are shouted

Key word or phrase to memorise: “villain” and “scorn” 

What the quotation means: When Tybalt hears Romeo at the ball he tells Lord Capulet that their enemy (a “villain”) has come to their house with intent to mock and disrespect the family (to “scorn” in “spite”)

Theme:  Honour and Family

• Through Tybalt, Shakespeare implies connections between honour and prejudice:

  • Tybalt’s hatred is conveyed in the term he uses for Romeo: “villain”

  • Tybalt’s sensitive pride is implied by his repeated use of “scorn”

• Shakespeare foreshadows conflict between Romeo and Tybalt in this scene:

  • Tybalt’s seething, bitter indignance is conveyed in the sibilance of “spite”, “scorn” and “solemnity”

Key word or phrase to memorise: “here comes my man” 

What the quotation means: In the climax of the play, Tybalt’s singular hatred for Romeo becomes evident when he dismisses Mercutio’s taunts in favour of confronting Romeo, who he sees approaching 

Theme: Conflict and Violence

• Shakespeare illustrates the significance of Tybalt’s need to avenge his family:

  • Despite Mercutio’s invitation to fight and his friendship with Romeo, Tybalt wishes him “peace” (although he may be being disingenuous here!)

  • The short, emphatic phrase, “here comes my man” implies Tybalt’s focus on Romeo

• Tybalt’s calm demeanour hides his repressed anger, which builds tension:

  • The scene builds to a dramatic climax as Tybalt and Romeo fight 

Key word or phrase to memorise: “Cupid’s wings” and “soar with them”

What the quotation means:  Mercutio jokes with Romeo, telling him that if he is feeling heavily burdened by love he should use his “Cupid’s wings” to allow him to fly high and cross any boundary

Theme: Love and Gender

• Romeo and Juliet explores aspects of masculinity and male friendship:

  • Mercutio often teases Romeo about his obsession with love and his time away from his friends 

  • Here, his metaphor is sarcastic and  mocks Romeo for being a “lover”

• Shakespeare presents the close relationship between Romeo and Mercutio:

  • They share sophisticated wit 

  • This metaphor, said in jest, is mirrored by Romeo in the orchard

Key word or phrase to memorise: “already dead” and “shot through the ear with a love-song”

What the quotation means:  Mercutio tells Benvolio his concerns about Romeo’s ability to stand up against Tybalt, but suggests that he is as good as dead anyway, having been “stabbed” and “shot” by love 

Theme: Love and Gender

• Shakespeare highlights Romeo and Mercutio’s contrasting attitudes to love:

  • Romeo is affected deeply by love in contrast to the flippant Mercutio

  • Mercutio’s metaphorical language implies that love is violent 

  • He cynically implies that Romeo has been swayed by words of love

• Shakespeare builds tension with Mercutio’s dark and oxymoronic imagery:

  • Mercutio’s joke, that Romeo is already dead, reminds audiences of Romeo’s doomed fate

Key word or phrase to memorise: “‘twill serve”

What the quotation means:  Mercutio, having been stabbed by Tybalt, is dying in Romeo’s arms. Even as he dies, though, he still displays wit and bravado

Theme: Loyalty 

• Mercutio’s character provides light relief to juxtapose dark themes:

  • Even while dying he is glib, using similes to describe his wound

  • The comparison between his wound and a “well” or “church-door” builds sympathy for him, suggesting burial and a funeral

• Shakespeare uses Mercutio to create pathos in a dramatic climax:

  • His comment “‘twill serve” ominously implies the significance of his death

  • His death signals a turning point and is a catalyst for Romeo’s violence