Romeo & Juliet: Character Quotations (AQA GCSE English Literature)
Revision Note
GCSE English Literature exam questions usually focus on a theme, a character or a relationship between two or more characters. Examiners reward responses that track the development of characters or themes through the play.
When revising, try to consider quotes in terms of their narrative effects — how characters are presented, what attitudes or relationships are presented and why these ideas have been shown to the reader.
Romeo Quotes
Juliet Quotes
Tybalt Quotes
Mercutio Quotes
Exam Tip
One thing you can do to improve the quality of your response is to focus closely on the dramatic aspects of the scene in the extract, such as its setting. Examiners have commented on the quality of essays that discuss, for example, the significance of the balcony in the Capulet orchard and that it takes place at night. Another example would be the staging of the shared sonnet in the midst of the ball. Once you consider where the dialogue takes place you will be able to link your analysis to how this presents the character, and what broader issues are being conveyed.
Examiners like you to use references or quotes as support for your ideas. That’s why we’ve included a “key word or phrase” from every one of our longer quotations to help you memorise only the most important parts of each quotation.
Romeo
“But He, that hath the steerage of my course,
Direct my sail!” - Romeo, Act 1, Scene 5
![]() | 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 |
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“With love’s light wings did I o’er-perch these walls;
For stony limits cannot hold love out” - Romeo, Act 2, Scene 2
![]() | 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 |
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“Hence-banished is banish’d from the world,
And world’s exile is death: then banished,
Is death mis-term’d” - Romeo, Act 3, Scene 3
![]() | 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 |
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Juliet
“Prodigious birth of love it is to me,
That I must love a loathed enemy” - Juliet, Act 1, Scene 5
![]() | 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 |
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“Proud can I never be of what I hate;
But thankful even for hate, that is meant love” - Juliet, Act 3, Scene 5
![]() | 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 |
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“God join’d my heart and Romeo’s, thou our hands” - Juliet, Act 4, Scene 1
![]() | 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 |
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Tybalt
“What, art thou drawn among these heartless hinds?
Turn thee, Benvolio, look upon thy death” - Tybalt, Act 1, Scene 1
![]() | 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 |
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“A villain that is hither come in spite,
To scorn at our solemnity this night” - Tybalt, Act 1, Scene 5
![]() | 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 |
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“Well, peace be with you, sir: here comes my man” - Tybalt, Act 3, Scene 1
![]() | 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 |
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Mercutio
“You are a lover; borrow Cupid's wings,
And soar with them above a common bound” - Mercutio, Act 1, Scene 3
![]() | 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 |
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“Alas poor Romeo! he is already dead; stabbed with a white wench's black eye; shot through the ear with a love-song”- Mercutio, Act 3, Scene 1
![]() | 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 |
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“No, ‘tis not so deep as a well, nor so wide as a church-door; but ‘tis enough, ‘twill serve” - Mercutio, Act 3, Scene 1
![]() | 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 |
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Source
William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, OUP (2009)
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