1. Romeo & Juliet Notes

2. ACT I

3. Act 1 Scene 1: Romeo (Montague)
young, inexperienced, in love with the concept of being in
love, potential for deeper love
emotional turmoil like Verona’s chaos
oxymoron – “O loving hate” R has extreme emotions; used
to shows immaturity

4. Act 1 Scene 2:
Capulet worried that Juliet (13) is too young (wait 2 years)
J is young tragic heroine
Paris – nobility - marriage would be politically smart
( increase wealth & social status)
Capulet plans ball allows Paris to woo J
Paris is foil to Romeo
Paris is interested in J for beauty & social status
Model suitor, courteous, complies with social traditions

5. Act 1 Scene 3:
Nurse – comic character, foil to J because of her coarse
outlook on life
Sees marriage as physical relationship
Lady Capulet – distant, cold, expects obedience; thinks J is
old enough
social status & money
J response –
“honor I dream not of” clever, evasive, shows her
emotional maturity
Rejects mother’s view on marriage (materialistic)
Nurse’s view: physical and kids
Attitude: anticipates her rebellion against parents

6. Act 1 Scene 4:
Romeo, Mercutio, Benvolio and other friends on their way to the masquerade.
Romeo gives speech about pending doom – doom, heavy tone, echoes prologue
Destiny – line 113 “some consequence yet hanging in the stars”
Foreshadowing – “untimely death” line

7. Act 1 Scene 5: R & J see each other for the first time
R speaks in sonnets (shows true love); refers to J as light
source (contradictory to later – meeting in secret & darkness)
Religious imagery – spiritual love (Juliet is “holy shrine”)
·        Tybalt – murmurs threat toward Romeo (foreshadowing) line 95
Nurse reveals identities of R & J
J expresses connections between love & hate; marriage &
death - impending tragedy

8. ACT II

9. Act 1I Scene 1:
Romeo
begins a separation from friends – continues throughout play
inability to reveal love of a Capulet heightens isolation
By leaping the wall surrounding Capulet orchard
– physically separates himself from Mercutio & Benvolio
Reflects the distance he feels from society, friends & family

10. Act 1I Scene 2: Juliet suggestion – plan to marry
Shakespeare uses light & dark imagery
Romeo:
compares Juliet to the sun
asks sun to rise and kill envious moon
always compared Rosaline to the moon
love for Juliet outshines the moon
scene takes place at nighttime
their love flourishes at night
allusion to forbidden nature of their relationship

11. Juliet:
soliloquy examines importance of words and names
compares Romeo to rose
reasons if rose were another name it would still
be a rose in essence
Romeo abandons name he would still be Romeo

12. Great conflict in play – the protagonists’ family names operate against their love
Juliet’s promise to Romeo to “follow thee my lord throughout the world” is full of dramatic irony and foreshadows the final scene of the play.

13. Act 2 Scene 3:
Friar:
Speaks about the healing & harming powers of plants
Foreshadows end of play
His intentions are good
wishes to end feud in Verona
plan precipitates tragic end of play
Friar acts as father figure to Romeo – only person to whom Romeo can confide secret

14. Act II Scene 4:
News of Tybalt’s challenge threatens to involve Romeo in the violence of the family feud
Romeo - well liked in community –peaceable reputation
Tybalt - proud and vengeful foe
Sense of anticipation increases in this scene through repeated references to time
Nurse’s delay in finding Romeo
Ceremony will take place at 2 PM
In less than 24 hours

15. Act II Scene 5:
Juliet’s soliloquy and exchanges with Nurse show contrast
Juliet’s youthful energy and enthusiasm
Nurse – old, decrepit and slow
Unlike other scenes – Juliet acts like a teenager
Nurse & Mercutio share sense of humor and view love as a purely physical relationship

16. Act II Scene 6:
Atmosphere of impending doom
Images of happiness and marriage are repeatedly paired with images of violence and death
Romeo believes not even death can counteract pleasures he feels in marrying Juliet
Speech reflects tragic nature of Romeo’s love
Romeo’s challenge to fate is prophetic because it foreshadows his final speech
Friar’s words are prophetic because he draws parallels between destructive passion of Romeo & Juliet and the feud that will cause violent deaths

17. ACT III

18. ACT III Scene 1:
hatred between Tybalt & Mercutio is rising
resentment of Tybalt against Romeo erupts
Benvolio’s peace efforts fail

19. benevolence(kindness) natural resentment
Romeo’s Conflict:
benevolence(kindness) natural resentment
towards Juliet’s family to Tybalt’s insults
Decision
Avenge Mercutio’s death
Why?
Honor & Loyalty
More important than Juliet’s sorrow
Mercurito: plague over both your houses (Foreshadowing)

20. Act III Scene 2: Juliet Soliloquy (long speech by 1 person) in garden
Act II her soliloquy is bright (sun)
Act III her soliloquy is waiting for night to come
bad news is dark like the night
dark news of death
Romeo killed Tybalt
1st reaction childlike – denounces Romeo
2nd reaction womanlike – realizes the depth of her love for Romeo
Juliet realizes her duty as a wife, just as Romeo realizes his duty a
man
Bond with Romeo is stronger than her bond with family

21. “Banishment” repeated
“Living Death”
Virgin forever “death, not Romeo will take her maidenhead” (virgin)

22. Act III Scene 3:
Romeo & Juliet both have older confidants (Friar / Nurse)
Scene 2 – Juliet reacts to news of Romeo
Scene 3 – Romeo reacts to news of Juliet
Friar: calm & philosophical, shows he’s older by his reaction to
banishment “gentler judgment” encourages Romeo to be
patient; world beyond Verona
Romeo, as before, rash & emotional; death better than banishment agonizing predicament contrasts with Friar, quiet life “meditation”

23. Act III Scene 4:
Sense of haste
Fate intervenes again
Capulet –
No idea Juliet will object, always been obedient
As he discusses her marriage downstairs, she’s upstairs consummating marriage
Surprise decision, on a whim, for marriage in 3 days – even more drama
Act III Scene 4 becomes all-powerful father – obedience without delay contrast with
Act I Scene 2 with Juliet consent
No clue why Capulet changes - fate at work

24. Act III Scene 5:
Romeo’s speeches have light – dark imagery
Usually day light suggests freshness, beginnings & hope (not true here)
Now morning light suggests separation, isolation & misery
Juliet says future forebodes evil for them, an accurate omen
Farewell between R & J is quiet and anxious
Big contrast to rest of scene (loud & furious)

25. Capulet – vehement about decision, baffled & furious at her refusal to marry Paris.
Capulet thinks she’s just a daughter & young maiden
Reader knows she’s a wife & young woman
His temper, no surprise, based on past scenes, calls J “disobedient wretch” & will disown her
Both R & J have been threatened with exile
R his country
J her home

26. Act IV – Scene 1
Juliet’s meeting with Friar Lawrence is like the scene between Romeo and the Friar
Both turn from their real fathers and their families to their father confessor
Friar Lawrence:
He hoped to end the feud by secretly marrying Romeo and Juliet
Now he hopes to reunite Juliet with Romeo by giving her the potion
Intentions are good
Yet his goodness, will result in the ultimate death of both of the lovers
Juliet
Rather than marry Paris she would
Leap into a new made grave (her own)
And hide me with a dead man in his shroud (Tybalt)

27. Act IV – Scene 2
Dramatic irony
Capulets are getting ready for the wedding
Juliet gets ready for her “death”
Capulet advances Juliet’s wedding day (from Thursday to Wednesday)
Because his daughter seems so happy
Fate appears again
ØJuliet will be “buried alive” twenty-four hours before the Friar’s scheduled time

28. Act IV-Scene 3
Summary
Tuesday night
She fears that the drug may not take effect; in that case she will use the dagger.
Has fear Friar has given her a poison so that his part in the plot will never be discovered

29. Juliet
Not a “brave” soliloquy that Juliet utters
She is frightened
ØHer youthful imagination conjures up fearsome Gothic images
Her old body cold as death
The possibility of being truly poisoned suffocating to death
The festering corpse of Tybalt
Loathsome smells and hideous, ghostly screams
She is Romeo’s wife and he is the only person she can trust
Left Friar Lawrence's cell, crying, “Love give me strength!”
It is love for Romeo, that gives her the strength to finally take the drug

30. Act IV-Scene 4
This scene is dominated by life
As Juliet’s body grows cold, as her breath slows, life quickens in the Capulet house while preparations are made for the wedding.
We recall Lady Capulet’s angry wish that her daughter might be “married to her grave.”
Friar Lawrence is typically that of a friar, or a priest
Juliet is not dead; she lives in heaven

31. Act V-Scene 1
Romeo
His servant Balthasar arrives from Verona with news that Juliet is dead
Resolves to return to Verona
(Irony)
Scene begins with Romeo in exile, but not sad because he has dreamed of Juliet
News of Juliet’s death is broken gently
Balthasar says, “her body sleeps.”

32. Romeo
“Then I defy you, stars!”
Before he attended the Capulet’ ball, “consequence, yet hanging in the stars”;
Fate
Brought them together, and now it has separated Juliet from him, not merely by exile, but by death
Too great a punishment
He will challenge fate and the stars that seek to separate them
He will join Juliet in death

33. Act V-Scene 2
Friar John, whom Friar Lawrence sent to Mantua with a letter to Romeo explaining that Juliet is not really dead.
Return to Friar Lawrence with the news that he was quarantined in Verona because of the suspicion of plague.
He was therefore unable to deliver the letter.
Friar then hastens toward the Capulet burial vault.
Destinies of the lovers depended on the element of chance; fate denied it to them.

34. Act V-Scene 3
Capulet’ tomb
Paris
Is mourning the death of his bride
Page warns him that someone is coming – he hides to watch
Romeo and Balthasar arrive with tools to open the tomb
Sees Romeo opening tomb
Challenges him – thinking that he is going to desecrate the bodies of his enemies
Paris is killed

35. Final Scene
Set at night
Romeo
Fate would separate him from Juliet
first through banishment
then by death
Moans that Juliet’s beauty appears to be still living
He sees the crimson in her cheeks
Clue that Juliet is returning to consciousness
Kisses these lips and is pained that they seem so alive
Juliet is about to revive
If he were not so hasty and impetuous, he and Juliet would be together again
-and alive, not dead

36. Romeo
Promises Juliet to remain beside her forever
Without hesitation he drinks the poison, kisses her, and falls by her side
Friar
Comes in a moment too late he comes in
He finds the bodies
Juliet
Awakens
Refuses to leave, and the Friar flees; her last friend has left her
She snatches Romeo’s dagger and stabs herself, falling dead beside him

37. Prince enters
Montague tells of his wife’s sudden death because of her grief over Rome’s banishment
Friar Lawrence courageously tell his story
Turning upon Montague and the Capulets, he blames their hate and his own leniency in dealing with it.
Capulet and Montague make their peace and each promises to honor the other’s loss with a golden statue.
Friar Lawrence’s attempts to bring peace were thwarted by fate and coincidence; death was the result, but peace was born from that death.