Notes

ROMEO AND JULIET STUDY NOTES:

prologue;
Two households, both alike in dignity,
In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life;
Whose misadventured piteous overthrows
Do with their death bury their parents' strife.
The fearful passage of their death-mark'd love,
And the continuance of their parents' rage,
Which, but their children's end, nought could remove,
Is now the two hours' traffic of our stage;
The which if you with patient ears attend,
What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.

KEY THEMES:
3 Conflict- Two families with ancient grudge
3 Love-Romeo and Juliet
3 Fate-Romeo and Juliet
3 Death-Romeo ,Juliet,Mercutio,Tybalt,Paris
3 Opposites- Love versus hate, Youth versus old age, Peace versus conflict, Life versus death.


CHARACTERS IN THE PLAY:
Prince Escalus: ruler of Verona $ fair,merciful,firm,honest,impartial,dignified,self-possessed
Mercutio: Prince Escalus cousin; Romeo friend $witty,defensive,loyal,violent,rash,provocative,threatining
Count Paris: Prince Escalus's Cousin; admirer of Juliet $ loving, sensitive, noble,tactful,honourable,devoted
HOUSE OF CAPULET------
Juliet $ devoted,realistic.loving,dutiful.rational,genuine.
Lord Capulet $ abusive,cruel,impulsive,practical,authoritarian,inconsistent,devoted
Lady Capulet $ dismissive,formal,practical,superficial,pragmatic
Tybalt $ Fiery,quarrelsome,argumentative,defiant,vengeful,hot-tempered
Nurse to Juliet $ humorous,loving,talkative,maternal,fickle,critical
servants:
Sampson
Gregory
Peter
HOUSE OF MONTAGUE-----
Romeo $ melancholy,spontaneous,reckless,impetuous,impulsive,loving
Lord Montague
Lady Montague
Benvolio $ truthful,loyal,trustworthy,sensitive,peacemaker,encourraging
Friar Laurence $ deep,wise,paternal,reckless,optimistic,dependable,quick thinking
Friar John
servants:
Abraham
Balthasar: Romeo's servant

>Friar Laurence's message doesn't reach Romeo in Mantua because Friar John can't get to Mantua because of a plague outbreak.
>A little over four days time elapses in the play
>After the deaths of Mercutio and Tybalt, Benvolio acts as a Chorus
>Friar agree to marry Romeo and Juliet because He hopes that the marriage will help end the feud between the Montagues and the Capulets.
>The only characters who know of Romeo and Juliet's wedding is The Nurse and Friar Laurence.
>At the beginning of the play Juliet is 13.
>Mercutio's nickname for Tybalt is the prince of cats
> the disturbance that prompts the Prince to threaten the feuding Capulets and Montagues is the servants of the feuding families engage in a brawl.
>Mercutio explains the reason why people dream by describing the actions of Queen Mab

KEY TERMS:
@Sonnet: Is a 14 line poem e.g the prologue, typically ten syllables in each line, the rhyming scheme for Romeo and Juliet is ABAB/CDCD/EFEF/GG
The structure of the sonnet; divide the 14 lines into three groups of four lines called quatrains and one group of two lines called a couplet.

@Tragedy: Is a play that deals with unfortunate events and usually features with the death of the main character.

@Anthesis: When two opposite things are used in a sentence to form a contrast,e.g Juliet's line 'my grave is like to be my wedding bed '(act 1 scene 5)

@Aside: Is a remark that the audience is supposed to hear but the characters on stage are not supposed to hear.

@Dramatic irony: Is when the audience or characters on stage have information or knowledge that the other characters on stage do not,e.g Romeo and Juliet's marriage.

@Hyperbole: Is using exaggerated or over the top language to create a dramatic effect,e.g Act 2 Scene 2, Romeo says 'her eyes in heaven would through the airy region stream so bright that the birds would sing and think it were not night.

@Imagery: Imagery uses words and phrases to create pictures in your mind. The imagery comes from metaphors, personification, oxymorons.Imagery can tell us more bout a character, create a mood, reinforce a theme.

@Lists: Group of words used by a character to achieve a certain drama or effect,e.g when Juliet lists all the things she would rather do than marry Paris in Act 4 scene 1.

@Metaphor: Is a figure of speech used to make a comparison, usually saying one thing is another, which is not literally true,e.g
Juliet offers a metaphor in Act 2 scene 2 as she compares their new love to a young flower "This bud of love, by summer's ripening breath,
May prove a beauteous flower when next we meet"

@Oxymoron: Is a figure of speech which uses opposites to achieve a certain effect,e.g. when Romeo says "Loving hate, cold fire" In act 1 scene 1

@Personification: Is when we give non-human things human characteristics,e.g. When Romeo says "Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon,
Who is already sick and pale with grief That thou her maid art far fairer than she" In act 2 scene 2

@Simile: A figure of speech used to compare two things, using the words like or as or than,e.g when Romeo says "Is love a tender thing? it is too rough,
Too rude, too boisterous, and it pricks like thorn" In act 1 scene 4

@Soliloquy is a speech spoken by a character on stage alone and it gives us the insight to the characters thoughts and feelings at that particular time,e.g balcony scene, Juliet's soliloquy.

@Monologue: Is a lengthy speech spoken by one character.

@Plot: The sequence of events in a story

@Potagonist: The main character

@Theme: A recurring topic, the message in a literacy work.


QUOTES;
#"Part, fools.Put up your swords.You know not what you do"-BENVOLIO-tells you, he is a peacemaker.

#"What drawn and talk of peace? I hate the word as I hate all Montagues and thee" -TYBALT-tells you, he is an aggressive character that likes to fight and has a passion of hate for Montague.

#"If you ever disturb our streets again, your lives shall pay the forfeit of the peace "-PRINCE ESCALUS-he is tired of the ancient grudge between the two families and threatens them for disturbing everyone.

#''Love is a smoke made with a fume of sighs''-ROMEO-meaning that he is heartbroken and love is saying love is a distraction made with trouble, this gives us an insight of Romeo's open minded feelings.

#"She'll not be hit with Cupid's arrow"-ROMEO-this tells us that Rosaline rejected ROMEO.

#"Examine other beauties"-BENVOLIO-he tells Romeo to move on from Rosaline

#''Compare her face with some that I shall show,And I will make thee think thy swan a crow''-BENVOLIO-he is giving Romeo advice, shows they have a good bond, he says The woman who you think is as beautiful as a swan is going to look as ugly as a crow to you.

#''Madame, I am here .what is your will?''-JULIET-shows that she is obedient and dutiful

#''I'll look to like, if looking liking move, But no more deep will I endart mine eye that your consent gives strength to make it fly"-JULIET-shows how much she respects her mum and lets her mum make her decisions, Juliet doesn't have a say.

#''I fear to early for my mind misgives some consequences hanging in the stars"-ROMEO-this foreshadows Romeo's death.

#"O Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou Romeo?Deny thy father and refuse thy name.Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love, And I’ll no longer be a Capulet"-JULIET-is saying she will do anything for Romeo.

#''What’s Montague? It is nor hand, nor foot, Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part Belonging to a man. O, be some other name!"-JULIET-is saying Montague is just a name.

#"What’s in a name? That which we call a rose, By any other word, would smell as sweet."-JULIET

#''Neither, fair maid, if either thee dislike''-ROMEO-he will leave everything for Juliet.

#"O, swear not by the moon, th' inconstant moon"-JULIET-she tells Romeo not to swear by the moon because it's always changing.

#''A plague o'both your houses! I am sped"-MERCUTIO-he blames Capulet and Montague houses for his death.

#"Then window let day in and let life out "-JULIET- she uses word play to say how Romeo is her life and her everything this foreshadows on how she can't live without Romeo.