Romeo And Juliet Key Quotations wjec-eduqas Shakespeare

Key Quotations

The best way to revise quotations is to group them by character, or theme. Below you will find definitions and analysis of the best quotations, arranged by the following themes:

• Love

• Conflict

• Honour

• Fate

Love

Romeo and Juliet is 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. 

Paired quotations

“Here’s much to do with hate, but more with love” – Romeo Montague, Act I, Scene I

“O brawling love, o loving hate” – Romeo Montague, Act I, Scene I

Meaning and context

• In the first scene when Benvolio informs Romeo there has been a fight, Romeo tells Benvolio he believes the feud is fuelled by hatred stemming from love

• Shortly after discussing the feud, Romeo confides in Benvolio about his deep thoughts that love is painful and difficult

Analysis

• Audiences are introduced to Romeo as a character who understands the connections between love and hate

• This scene, focusing on Romeo’s heartbreak, juxtaposes the preceding fight scene, showing love and hate side by side

• Romeo uses an oxymoron (“loving hate”) to show his contrasting feelings, beautifully describing his inner conflict and the strength of his feelings 

• The parallels drawn by Romeo at the start of the play foreshadow the violence of the love between Romeo and Juliet

“Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight! For I ne’er saw true beauty till this night” – Romeo Montague, Act I, Scene V

Meaning and context

• When Romeo sees Juliet at the masked Capulet ball he believes her to be the most beautiful girl he has seen 

• He suggests any previous love, such as his love for Rosaline which the audience has just seen him troubled over, was not true love

Analysis

• Here, Shakespeare shows Romeo as a character obsessed with courtly love 

• Audiences have just seen Romeo profess a broken heart over Rosaline’s unrequited love  and will judge him for his change of heart

• Shakespeare presents Romeo’s fatal flaw, his fickle impulsiveness

• Friar Laurence and Juliet both criticise Romeo for his inconstant and rash actions which lead to his (and Juliet’s) downfall

• Shakespeare suggests that courtly love was superficial and fleeting 

• Shakespeare comments here, and in much of his writing, on pure love being constant love

“Under love’s heavy burden do I sink” – Romeo Montague, Act I, Scene IV

Meaning and context

• Romeo tells Mercutio he is unable to go to the Capulet Ball as he is heartbroken 

• As seen earlier in the scene, Romeo believes love to be a heavy burden to carry

Analysis

• Romeo alludes to the dark moods the audience has seen he is prone to in Act I, Scene I 

• Romeo uses metaphor to show the pain associated with love: he likens his heartbreak to a pressure weighing him down

• Shakespeare shows Romeo as sensitive and prone to depression, subverting gender stereotypes and commenting on pressures for young men

“If love be rough with you, be rough with love. Prick love for pricking, and you beat love down” – Mercutio, Act I, Scene V

Meaning and context

• Here, Mercutio is trying to lighten Romeo’s mood before the Capulet ball

• He advises Romeo to beat love’s pain by being casual with it, by fighting back 

Analysis

• Here, Mercutio advises Romeo to be less sensitive about love, using the metaphor of a thorny rose

• Shakespeare uses Mercutio’s dialogue to provide comedic and light relief from the intensity of other scenes 

• Shakespeare often uses puns in Mercutio’s bawdy, humorous dialogue to play on the double meanings of words 

• Here, Mercutio uses the double meaning of the word ‘prick’ to connote thorns and sex, suggesting Romeo uses sex to overcome painful love

• Later, Mercutio delivers a soliloquy about Queen Mab; the speech suggests daydreams and fantasies about love are a waste of time

• Mercutio advises Romeo repeatedly to avoid dreams of idealised love 

• Audiences see characters’ contrasting attitudes to love in this conversation between the love-sick Romeo and the flippant Mercutio

“O, swear not by the moon, th’ inconstant moon” – Juliet Capulet, Act II, Scene II

Meaning and context

• Juliet replies to Romeo’s sudden declarations of love in the Capulet garden, asking Romeo to be constant and committed to his love

• Juliet is connecting Romeo’s sudden promises to the changing moon

Analysis

• Shakespeare uses celestial imagery here and throughout the play when Juliet refers to Romeo

• Her request that Romeo swears his love by something more constant suggests the changing nature of the stars and planets

• Juliet is presented as rational and sensible, not leaving her fate to the stars and planets

• This imagery challenges <