Shakespeare, Year 10: love, conflict and fate (Romeo and Juliet option)

That her love has come out of the hatred between the families

HintThink of the two words at either end of the line.

The whyThe line puts love and hate side by side, which is the pattern of the whole play. It also shows that love will not be a simple escape from the feud.

sonnet

HintThey finish a poem together, line by line.

The whyTheir lines rhyme and share the sonnet's structure, as if their love has a shape from the first moment. The pilgrim and saint images were fashionable love language of the time.

As a passing infatuation that Romeo will get over

HintHe treats it as a minor ailment.

The whyRomeo's love for Rosaline is shown as fashionable and self-pitying. By contrast his love for Juliet is quick and sincere, so the play draws a line between infatuation and real love.

She has died of grief because Romeo was banished

HintA parent's love is shown too, and the cost of it.

The whyMontague tells the Prince in Act 5 Scene 3. It shows that the feud kills the old as well as the young.

That Juliet is still alive

HintThe audience knows something he does not.

The whyThe speech is full of tenderness, and it is painful because the audience knows it is based on a mistake. A few moments later Juliet wakes.

None: it simply calls it an ancient grudge

HintThe play never explains how it began.

The whyThe feud is shown as old and unreasoning. That is part of its power: a hatred nobody can explain cannot be argued away.

Death

HintHe is losing patience after three brawls.

The whyHe says that those who disturb the streets again will pay the forfeit of the peace with their lives. Later he spares Romeo only because Tybalt had killed Mercutio first.

He has secretly married Tybalt's cousin, so he now thinks of Tybalt as family

HintA secret he cannot tell makes his refusal look like cowardice.

The whyMercutio takes Romeo's calm for shame and fights for him. Romeo is torn between the honour of his friend and love for his new family.

He threatens to disown her and turn her out of the house

HintHis love turns to anger very quickly.

The whyCapulet tells her to “hang, beg, starve, die in the streets”. The father who earlier said she must agree to her marriage now treats her as his property, which shows the patriarchal side of Verona.

He says Romeo is a well-behaved young man and he does not want a brawl at his party

HintEven the head of the house is not wholly caught up in the feud.

The whyCapulet is more reasonable than his nephew: he says all Verona speaks well of Romeo. His fury at Tybalt shows how the feud is passed down, and how it is inflamed by the younger man.

That the stars (fate) have set them against each other and they are doomed

HintThink of destiny rather than of fame.

The whyFrom the start the audience is told that the lovers' end is already fixed. Whether they were really fated or only unlucky and hasty is left to the viewer to decide.

It foreshadows the trouble that going to the feast will bring, ending in his death

HintA speech of unease before the happiest night of his life.

The whyRomeo goes anyway. The speech is placed just before the meeting that will lead to his death, so the audience listens with dread.

To go slowly, because those who rush stumble

HintThe man who cannot wait is warned by a man who thinks.

The whyThe Friar is wise, but he too is pulled along by the pace. The play punishes haste again and again. His own words are “Wisely and slow; they stumble that run fast.”

Thursday

HintIt is only a few days away; Wednesday was thought too soon.

The whyCapulet decides in a few lines, without asking Juliet, and Lady Capulet is sent to tell her. Everything is hurried, and the short time pushes Juliet towards the Friar's plan.

Romeo dead at the bottom of a tomb

HintShe is looking down at him from above.

The whyThe image of the tomb foretells the last scene. Romeo answers that to his eyes she looks pale too, and they part in sorrow.