Romeo and Juliet Lit Guide

His friends convince him to attend the Caplet Ball (they go incognito so they aren't discovered by the Capsules) that night in an attempt to cheer him up and possibly find a new girl to love. * At the party Romeo meets Juliet where they fall in love instantly once they see each other. When the party is over, Romeo goes to Gullet's balcony outside of her room to converse with her. They express how great their love for each other is and talk about how they could make their love work with their family's rivalry. They next day Romeo goes to speak with Friar Lawrence in order to request for him to marry him and Juliet. He agrees with little argument and Romeo and Juliet are married. * Later that day Romeos friend Mercuric has a confrontation with Table, a member of the Caplet family and they fight.

Mercuric is killed in the fight, and Romeo seeks his vengeance on Table. When Romeo catches up to Table, he kills him. Not long after, the Prince gets word of the fight and decides to banish Romeo from Verona rather than kill him as he acted out the deeds that the Princes men would have done to Table. When Juliet hears word of Romeos banishing, she becomes very upset and in an attempt to cheer her up, her parents schedule a wedding for her and Paris, a highly sought after young man in Verona. This aggravates her more and when she tells her parents she doesn't want to marry him, they threaten to kick her out. * Juliet goes to Friar Lawrence to ask him for help in getting out of this mess.

He helps her devise a plan that consists of her drinking a potion that fakes her death to get out of the marriage, and when she wakes up, she can be with Romeo worry free. So the night before the marriage, he drinks the potion and her Nurse finds her 'dead' on her bed. So then the marriage is turned into a funeral for Juliet. * Romeos servant, Blather, hears that Juliet is dead and tells Romeo. Since Romeo never got word of the plan, he thinks she is truly dead and is devastated. He goes to her tomb and on the way buys poison. When he arrives, he sees Paris and kills him since he would not stand aside and Romeo finds Gullet's body. He mourns her death and drinks the poison so he could be with her again in the afterlife. * Not long after, Juliet wakes up and finds that Romeo drank the poison.

This causes her to kill herself with Romeos dagger so she can then be with him. Friar Lawrence tells the two lovers timeliest what has come tot their children and they both mourn as the feud between the families ends. D. Characterization a) Main Characters * Romeo- Male Protagonist, Round, Dynamic * Juliet- Female Protagonist, Round, Dynamic * Friar Lawrence- Round, Static * Mercuric- Flat, Static * Nurse- Flat, Static * Table- Antagonist, Round, Static * Fate (non-character)- Antagonist b) Foil Character Pairs * Romeo and Mercuric * Juliet and The Nurse * Table and Benevolence E. TOPIC * Love * Family Rivalry * Fate * Miscommunication Death F.

Theme a) Love can drive people to do many rash things * Romeos love for his friend Mercuric caused him to kill Table in order to avenge his death * Juliet states that she would rather kill herself than marry Paris because she is already in love with Romeo * Romeo kills himself when he finds out that Juliet is 'dead' and when Juliet awakens and finds Romeo dead, she kills herself to be with him b) Children can be the victims of their parents opinions * Romeo and Juliet would never have had to hide their love for each other if not for their parents hatred for each other's families * Romeo would never have been aniseed if not for the Prince being angry with their two families for fighting for so long * In the end, the death of the two lovers can be traced back to the family-feud c) Fate cannot be cheated * Romeo was not meant to be with Rosalie whom he thought was his true love, but he found Juliet instead * When Juliet was set to marry Paris by her parents, they attempted to cheat her fate of her marrying Romeo * When Juliet faked her death, she could not escape her fate of dying the way she did so she could be with Romeo in the afterlife G.

Figurative Elements * Metaphor: 'Juliet is the sun'- Romeo Montague (Act 2, Scene 2, Line 3) * Oxymoron: 'Why then, O brawling love, O loving hate, O anything, from nothing first create, O heavy lightness! Serious vanity! Mis-shapes chaos of well-seeming forms, Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health, Still-waking sleep, that is not what it is! This love feel l, that feel no love in this' - Romeo Montague (Act 1, Scene 1, Lines 173-178) * Personification: 'The grey eyed morn smiles on the frowning night'- Friar Lawrence (Act 2, Scene 3, Line 1) * Simile: 'Scaring the ladies like a scorekeeper' - Benevolence (Act 1, Scene 4 a) Symbols H Symbols/Motets * Poison- Poison symbolizes death in the play.

Even when the poison given to Juliet to appear as she was dead, it caused Romeos death as he wanted to be with Juliet since he thought she was dead. Friar Lawrence also stated at the beginning of the play that all herbs have their own uses, which can be used for evil as well as good, which is ironic since they haven't any good uses in the play. * Flowers- In the play, I noticed that many people were compared to flowers. Juliet compares the fact that names don't matter to a rose, and Romeo describes his love for her as a 'bud of love' and that it will someday be a 'beauteous flower'. It seems to me as though flowers loud represent love in the play as they are brought up as Just that. * Queen MBA- Queen MBA symbolizes the unimportance of dreams, Just as Mercuric described them to be.

When Romeo speaks of Rosalie in his dreams Mercuric says it was a waste of time to dwell on it, and he was right, as Rosalie was not the girl for him in his future. B) Motifs * Night- The night in this play represents love. It seems as though all the major love scenes in the play happen at night * Opposite Opinions over a Subject- There are constant instances where people in the play have two different opinions in the story which can represent conflict in the play. Some examples of this are Mercuric disagreeing with Romeo on his outlook of dreams, and his outlook on love. * Youth and Age- During the play, the different outlooks on life and modernization are represented by youth and age.

When Lady Caplet first tells Juliet she should start thinking about marriage it almost seems like she is regarding it to be a business-type ordeal, which may have been the way it was when Lady Caplet married. But since then, when Juliet does find true love, it is by her own choice, which shows that love and marriage are changing as time goes forth . Atmosphere a) Setting- The city of Verona, Sunday- Thursday 1303. Significant places include Mantra, Gullet's balcony, Friar Lawrence church, and the Caplet Tomb b) Point of View- The point of view is taken from each character that is talking at the time along with some areas of 1st person (prologue). 'O Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou Romeo? Juliet Caplet (Act 2, Scene 2, Line 33) c) Mood- There are many different moods found within Romeo and Juliet. The relationship between Romeo and Juliet is passionate and warm while the feuding of the Montague and Capsules is harsh violent and cruel. The mood found towards the end of the story while Romeo and Juliet are in the midst of dying is despairing and tragic. D) Tone- The tone of the story is very romantic, tragic, and violent. I believe that Shakespeare was trying to inflict all these qualities at once to give the reader conflicted thinking. Ill. Quotes a) 'O Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou Romeo? What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet'.

When Juliet Caplet says this, seen is on near balcony tater the Caplet pa She says this because seen is conflicted over her love for Romeo since he is a member of the family that is despised by her win family. In my opinion, this quote means that a background of a person should not stop love, even if it is the family that they come from. The literary device contained within this quote is personification. When she expresses this quote, she is giving a rose the human quality of a name. She uses personification to relate to how the smell of a rose is the same no matter what you call it, Just as love for someone is the same no matter what their name or background is.

This quote relates to the universal theme 'Love can overcome anything' because Romeo and Gullet's love for ACH other overcomes the fact that their families despise each other. This quote reminds me of how prejudice the world around us can be. The lesson we can all learn from this is that if we all Just had a love for each other, then no one would experience this prejudice. My skeletally quote is 'Romeo! Why is your name Romeo? What does a name have to do with love anyway•ay? A rose would smell the same no matter what name we give it'. B) O Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou Romeo? What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet' c) Quote Citation: Act II, Scene 2, Line 33



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