Romeo & Juliet - The Complete Play with Annotations, Audio and Knowledge Organisers

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This time, he shouts his frustration at Fate’s decision to make him “Fortune’s fool”, again implying he has little a utonomy over his life Shakespeare shows Lord Capulet referring to the importance of Juliet’s marriage when he calls her the “hopeful lady of my earth” Romeo uses two similes to describe Juliet’s extraordinary beauty. The first simile is deployed in the lines In the Prologue , the c horus describes a feud , where “civil blood makes civil hands unclean”, connoting the impurity of violence

Lord Capulet tells Paris to wait two more summers, until Juliet is “ripe to be a bride”, suggesting her duty to become a mother and bear fruit (have children) Act 3, scene 5 Romeo and Juliet separate at the first light of day. Almost immediately her mother comes to announce that Juliet must marry Paris. When Juliet refuses, her father becomes enraged and vows to put her out on the streets. The Nurse recommends that Juliet forget the banished Romeo and regard Paris as a more desirable husband. Juliet is secretly outraged at the Nurse’s advice and decides to seek Friar Lawrence’s help. Next, we learn that Lord Capulet has given his servant a list of guests whom he has to see and ensure that they are invited to the Capulets’ party that evening. But the servant cannot read the names in the list and hence asks two strangers in the street to read. The two strangers are none other than Romeo and Benvolio. Romeo reads out the names of the guests and incidentally learns that fair Rosaline, with whom he is madly in love, is also one of the guests in the party. Romeo and Benvolio decide to ‘crash’ the party. As planned, Romeo and Benvolio gain entry into the party along with a retinue of masked entertainers and torchbearers.According to Juliet, when Romeo is set up as a star in the sky, he will make the face of heaven so fine that the world would be in love with night.

The Prince enters, accompanied by many citizens, and the Montagues and Capulets. Benvolio tells the Prince the story of the brawl, emphasizing Romeo’s attempt to keep the peace, but Lady Capulet, Tybalt’s aunt, cries that Benvolio is lying to protect the Montagues. She demands Romeo’s life. Prince Escalus chooses instead to exile Romeo from Verona. He declares that if Romeo is found within the city, he will be killed. Thus, the whole stretch of this soliloquy is an extended metaphor expressing the emotional intensity of a lover who has fallen in love at first sight. In the next two lines, in the phrases ‘my rude hand’ and ‘my heart we find the use of ‘synecdoche’. The word ‘rude’ is tactile imagery. In the last line, the word ‘Beauty’, is a metaphor for Juliet. Finally, in the sentence ‘Did my heart love till now?’ we find Romeo’s realization that his love for Rosaline was only infatuation – a sensual feeling for a lady and devoid of all emotions, whereas now he is in the throes of real love. Known to the Elizabethans as ague, Malaria was a common malady spread by the mosquitoes in the marshy Thames. The swampy theatre district of Southwark was always at risk. King James I had it; so too did Shakespeareï¿&fraq12;s friend, Michael Drayton. Read on... Romeo and Juliet are known for its theme of love. However, as the play’s ending suggests, it is a tragic tale of woe and conflict, a tale about a love that was forbidden because of a family grudge. In the first scene, male servants of the two families begin a petty fight for sheer amusement, suggesting the prevalence of male conflict in Elizabethan lifeJuliet’s nurse represents this bond as she is Juliet’s first source of advice and comfort rather than her mother Shakespeare could be criticising conflict based on religious differences, and instead promoting peace