Romeo and Juliet Quotations and Analysis (WJEC Eduqas GCSE English Literature)

Romeo and Juliet Quotations and Analysis

Romeo and Juliet essay questions on the Eduqas GCSE English Literature specification usually focus on one of three things:

• A theme

• A character

• A relationship between two or more characters

Examiners are looking for responses that “track” themes and characters through the play, so it is a good idea to learn quotations according to theme or character. As the exam focuses on analysis, it is useful to revise quotations in terms of their dramatic effects. This means you should understand not just what the words mean but how they are spoken, what they imply, and how they convey ideas to the audience. We’ve included eight of the best Romeo and Juliet quotes on this page, and we’ve organised them by the following characters:

• Romeo quotes

• Juliet quotes

• Tybalt quotes

Romeo quotes

Key word or phrase: “hate” and “love”

What the quotation means

• Romeo complains about the fight between the Montagues and Capulets, suggesting that the hatred they feel towards each other in fact stems from a stronger feeling of love

Analysis

• Romeo’s absence at the fight is noteworthy, and Shakespeare draws attention to this as characters ask where he is:

  • This establishes Romeo as alone and isolated in his desire for peace

• This line portrays a frustrated yet intelligent Romeo, who considers how closely hate relates to love as he raises the play’s themes about binary opposites:

  • The oxymoron in Romeo’s line places the opposing ideas of “hate” and “love” together, and suggests he understands that love can bring conflict

  • Romeo’s characterisation (inclined to extreme emotions) is thus able to highlight the consequences of extreme love and hate 

• However, Romeo also implies that love is a stronger emotion than hate (a position he attempts to hold throughout the play), which presents him as a sympathetic tragic hero

Key word or phrase: “light” and “sun”

What the quotation means

• Romeo, alone in the Capulet’s dark garden, sees a light and, thinking it may come from Juliet’s room, describes this as if Juliet is the rising sun

Analysis

• This is a good example of the importance of staging when you analyse quotes: 

  • If you consider that Romeo is in a dark garden and sees a light in Juliet’s bedroom, it can be argued that this line is humorous

  • His metaphor, that Juliet is the rising sun, is witty as well as hyperbolic

  • It is also a clear indication that he dismisses the danger of his circumstances

• The scene should be tense, but Romeo’s romantic language eases the tension:

  • After an exclamation (perhaps conveying fright), he returns to romantic imagery  

  • This highlights the close connection between dark and light, and love and hate

• Additionally, Romeo’s use of natural imagery to describe Juliet, often comparing her to a bright light (or the sun as he does here), could connote to enlightenment:

  • Earlier, Romeo prefers a dark room, an “artificial night”, but his melancholy lifts when he meets Juliet 

  • Contrasting imagery implies the dichotomies of their love, and Romeo’s extreme character 

Key word or phrase: “baptiz’d”

What the quotation means

• Romeo assures Juliet that he is committed despite the family feud, and says that if she calls him “love” he will rename himself (“new baptiz’d”) and no longer be called Romeo

Analysis

• Here, Romeo highlights one of the play’s key ideas about love and prejudice: 

  • Each from opposing families, their names stand in the way of their relationship 

• In this scene, Romeo quite emphatically says he will “deny” his name

• Romeo refers to the religious act of baptism, in which one demonstrates commitment to a religion (it can also involve the giving of a name):

  • Romeo’s words are dismissive of family honour and religious traditions

  • In this way, Shakespeare’s Petrarchan lover defies the status quo 
    

Juliet quotes

Key word or phrase: “proud” and “hate”

What the quotation means

• Juliet tells her father, Lord Capulet, that while she is thankful he has tried to find her a “worthy” husband, she cannot be “proud” because she hates the idea of marrying Paris 

Analysis

• Here, Juliet’s emotive oxymoron (“proud” and “hate”) implies a dilemma:

  • Her duty as a daughter is in contrast to what she loves

• Through Juliet’s defiant stand, illustrated here, Shakespeare raises questions about societal expectations regarding marriage:

  • Remember, though, that while Elizabethan society was patriarchal, the concept of arranged marriage here refers to upper-class society (her father is a lord)

• In this dramatic scene, Juliet is pressured to explain why she is not grateful and happy:

  • Juliet’s strong will is presented through the emphatic adverb “never”

  • Juliet is portrayed as a victim of her father’s rage, which, in turn, isolates her

  • This tense scene raises questions about family conflict and gender

Key word or phrase: “night” and “sun”

What the quotation means

• Juliet imagines Romeo’s death in a fantasy about her new husband’s return after dark

• She imagines Romeo becoming the stars, which will make heaven so beautiful that the world will prefer the night, finding daylight too bright and the sun too harsh (“garish”)

Analysis

• Juliet says this in a soliloquy, alone in her room and impatient to be with Romeo

• Her words draw attention to their secret love, perhaps relating to their very real circumstances, and that their love can only survive in the dark at night:

  • The adjective “garish” to describe the sun is unusual, and could signify the harsh nature of the outside world as Romeo will be killed if he is found

• Her allusions mimic Romeo’s speech, perhaps implying the strength of their union 

• Shakespeare’s use of dramatic irony in this scene, which follows Romeo’s violent confrontation, make Juliet’s words more dramatic:

  • As well as the fact Romeo is currently at risk, the line foreshadows his death

  • This highlights ideas about the relationship between love and hate

Key word or phrase: “must” and “shall”

What the quotation means

• Juliet remarks on the inevitability of the wedding between her and Paris

• She says that the future (what “shall be”) is already determined and has to happen 

Analysis

• Juliet’s line is emphatic and, as the friar says in reply, suggests certainty:

  • The modal verbs “must” and “shall” work together alongside the repeated “be” to convey Juliet’s acceptance of what she considers to be fateful circumstances

• However, Juliet’s certain future is not of her choosing:

  • Her short statement suggests her negative attitude to the wedding

  • She implies it is inevitable, as if predetermined by a force greater than her

  • Shakespeare portrays Juliet’s sense of powerlessness and lack of autonomy in her world and, later, how this compels her to take desperate measures 
    

Tybalt quotes

Key word or phrase: “sweet” and “gall”

What the quotation means

• Tybalt is forced to “withdraw” from conflict at the Capulet ball, but he adds in an aside that Romeo’s “intrusion”, now polite (“sweet”), will change to bitter resentment (“gall”)

Analysis

• Tybalt’s rhyming couplet is sinister and presents him, yet again, as hateful and bitter 

• His intelligence and sophistication, however, is conveyed through oxymoronic imagery

• The superlative “bitter’st”, linked with “gall” (a bitter liquid in the stomach), shows Tybalt’s extreme physical reaction to Romeo’s uninvited arrival at his family’s home

• His character represents the hatred and prejudice that comes from the feud

• Shakespeare criticises these concepts via Tybalt’s characterisation as a vengeful villain

Key word or phrase: “villain”

What the quotation means

• Tybalt attempts to provoke Romeo with an insult, calling him a “villain”, a colloquial term for a scoundrel or peasant (today we may translate this as “scum”)

Analysis

• Tybalt begins his insult with the emotive word “love” to set up his dramatic summary of his hatred for Romeo

• He explains that he hates Romeo because he is of low rank and acts without manners: 

  • This refers, perhaps, to Romeo’s uninvited arrival at the Capulet ball

  • It also signifies Tybalt’s sense of family honour, which, Shakespeare later illustrates, leads to the death of two young men

• One could also interpret Tybalt’s words in terms of his hatred for Romeo as a Montague, (although he appears particularly to hate Romeo), singling him out as “my man”:

  • This highlights his prejudice, and need for blind revenge

Sources

Shakespeare, William. Complete Works of William Shakespeare. Edited by Peter Alexander, HarperCollins, 1994. Accessed 26 March 2024