WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE: THE AUTHOR AND HIS TIMES

There have always been lovers, and we've always loved hearing stories
about them.  Although it's about 400 years old, Romeo and Juliet is
one of the most popular stories ever told.  It's got all the right
ingredients:  teenagers sharing forbidden love, their witty friends
and troublesome parents, fights, parties, murders, and nights of
love.

Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet tells us a lot about human nature.  It
also tells us about the society and times in which it was written;
and about the passionate, spirited, witty young man who wrote it.

The story was popular in England before Shakespeare made it into a
play in 1596.  The central problem in Romeo and Juliet is a deadly
feud between two powerful families.  The English had been involved in
a deadly feud for years.  This one wasn't between powerful families,
but within England's royal family.

Elizabeth I was Queen when Shakespeare wrote this play.  Her father,
Henry VIII, had left the Roman Catholic Church to found the Church of
England, usually considered to be a Protestant denomination.  When he
died, his oldest daughter Mary, who was a Catholic, eventually became
Queen.  She persecuted and killed members of the Church of England
with the same zeal that Henry had used against Catholics.  When Mary
died, her Protestant sister Elizabeth became Queen.  This violent tug
of war left its mark on the country.  The English had seen how
feuding in one family had divided a country and caused thousands of
deaths.  Even though Elizabeth tried to be nonviolent and tolerant of
Catholics, her Catholic cousin Mary, Queen of Scots, tried to start a
civil war and take the throne.  Elizabeth had Mary beheaded only nine
years before Shakespeare wrote Romeo and Juliet.

Even today in Ireland, Juliet and Romeo could be Catholic and
Protestant rather than Capulet and Montague.  For the English of
Shakespeare's day, the play was that immediate.

Both the Protestants and Catholics of that time had a very strong
feeling that God ordered the universe in a specific way.  When
something evil, like the feud among the Capulets and Montagues, broke
the laws of this order, that evil had to be checked.  In Romeo and
Juliet, two innocent lives must be sacrificed to restore order.

London, like Verona in the story, was a thriving, busy city.  Because
it was crowded and walled in, violence could spread quickly.  Public
fights were considered a serious offense.  Londoners would have
judged the Capulets' and Montagues' street fights very harshly.

Politics aside, London was a good place to live in the 1590s.  Europe
was in the middle of the Renaissance, which refers to the "rebirth"
of learning.  Some of this exciting spirit had reached London,
England's capital and cultural center.  Here, Elizabeth had her royal
court; here, musicians, actors, poets, and painters came to learn and
work.  Many young artists left their small towns for the cultural
Mecca of London, and William Shakespeare was one of them.

Who was this country boy who turned the moral fable of Romeo and
Juliet into a hot-blooded story of passion, love, hate, comedy,
revenge, and murder?

No biographies of Shakespeare were written during his lifetime.  But
what we can't learn about him from public records in his hometown of
Stratford-on-Avon, we can fill in by reading his plays and poems.

There are many reasons the story of Romeo and Juliet could have
appealed to the 32-year-old Shakespeare.  He was apparently familiar
with feelings of passion and forbidden love.  When he was only 19, he
quickly married Anne Hathaway, who was three months pregnant.  Anne
was eight years older than he, uneducated, and the daughter of a poor
farmer who lived outside Stratford.  She was probably not the match
that John Shakespeare would have chosen for William, who was his
oldest son.

In Romeo and Juliet, Lord Capulet is quite a social climber, and so
was Shakespeare's father.  John Shakespeare was born to a family of
tenant farmers, but he wanted to be rich.  He married the daughter of
his family's wealthy landlord, and moved into the small city of
Stratford to start a business.  In the play, Lord Capulet is
determined that Juliet will marry Paris, a wealthy young man from a
higher social class.

William went to school in Stratford, where he studied literature and
learned Latin.  But he probably learned how to speak like someone
from the upper class from his mother, Mary.  The main characters in
Romeo and Juliet (and many of his other plays) have the proper speech
of the gentry.  Mary Shakespeare came from a Catholic family of
landowners.  Although it was illegal to be Catholic, it seems she
taught William to respect her religion.  Shakespeare was the only
playwright of his day to treat Catholic characters, like Friar
Lawrence, with respect.

After William and Anne's marriage, the young couple probably moved in
with his parents and five younger brothers and sisters.  Their
daughter Susanna was born six months later, and two years later they
had twins named Hamnet and Judith.

Soon after this, William left Stratford under mysterious
circumstances.  There is a legend that he was forced to flee
Stratford (much as Romeo fled Verona) because he was caught poaching
on a private estate.

Whatever the case, he left his family and went to live in London.  He
became a well-known actor and playwright.  By the time he wrote Romeo
and Juliet, he had already written six very successful plays--and he
was only at the beginning of his career!

In those days, poets were more respected than playwrights, and so
Shakespeare decided to take time out and make a name for himself as a
poet.  He was a success.  His two long Romantic poems, The Rape of
Lucrece and Venus and Adonis, became bestsellers.  He then
experimented with other popular poetic forms, such as sonnets.  Soon
after this, he wrote Romeo and Juliet.  The storyline is similar to
the stories of the Romantic poems he had just written.  And he wrote
sonnets and other kinds of poems right into the dialogue of the play!

We don't know if William and Anne had a happy marriage, but we do
know that Shakespeare loved his children.  It's interesting to note
that he made Juliet 13 years old--the same age at the time as his
daughter Susanna.  Shakespeare could also understand the Capulets'
and Montagues' grief over their childrens' deaths.  Shakespeare's
only son, Hamnet, died the year he wrote the play.

Romeo and Juliet was a hit from the beginning.  That very year,
Shakespeare was rich enough to buy his money-conscious father a
family coat of arms.  His father, who once thought William was a
rebellious young man, now called him "the best of the family." Legend
has it that he told his customers that William got from him the
earthy humor that he put into Mercutio and the Nurse.  Wherever
Shakespeare's talent came from, it makes Romeo and Juliet moving and
unforgettable.

ROMEO AND JULIET: THE PLOT

It's a hot July Sunday in Verona, and we find the servants of the
Capulets out looking for trouble.  What better way to start
something, they figure, than to insult the servants of their masters'
old enemies the Montagues?  The plan works, and before long servants,
friends, relatives--and, finally, Lord Capulet and Lord Montague
themselves--are at each other's throats.  Verona's Prince Escalus has
to personally break up the fight, and he isn't happy about it.  He
heavily fines both families and warns them that if they fight in the
streets again, they'll face the death penalty.

Lord and Lady Montague are glad their son Romeo wasn't involved in
the brawl, but they're worried about him anyway.  They ask Benvolio,
Romeo's cousin and best friend, why Romeo has been off by himself so
much lately, and Benvolio soon finds out:  Romeo is in love.  But the
object of Romeo's affections, a gorgeous girl named Rosaline,
couldn't care less, and Romeo is nursing his grief.  To cheer him up,
Benvolio suggests that they disguise themselves and secretly attend
the Capulets' ball that night.  Rosaline will be there, and Benvolio
promises to find Romeo a girl who will make Rosaline seem like a crow
in comparison.  Romeo has a sudden, mysterious feeling of danger, but
agrees to go along with Benvolio and their witty friend Mercutio.

Meanwhile, excitement is high at the Capulets' house.  Not only are
they preparing for a big party, but Count Paris--a relative to the
Prince, and Verona's most eligible bachelor--has come to ask Lord
Capulet if he can marry his only daughter, Juliet.  Capulet claims
that Juliet is too young to be married yet, but he's obviously
thrilled.  Thirteen-year-old Juliet is beautiful and full of life.
She's never been in love, and she promises to do her best to like
Paris when she meets him at the dance.

But that night, Juliet meets Romeo, and suddenly Paris and Rosaline
are forgotten.  The two see each other across the room, meet, and by
the time they kiss, they are madly in love.  But all is not well.
Tybalt, Juliet's quick-tempered cousin, recognizes Romeo.  Tybalt
thinks this Montague's gatecrashing is a terrible insult, and he vows
revenge.

Only after the evening is over do Romeo and Juliet separately
discover the identity of their new loves.

After the party, Romeo hides from his noisy friends and unexpectedly
finds himself in an orchard beneath Juliet's window.  In the romantic
and sexy balcony scene, Romeo and Juliet joyfully swear their love
for each other, and decide to marry in secret.

Friar Lawrence, a Franciscan monk and father figure to Romeo, is very
worried about the suddenness of their passion.  He finally agrees to
marry them, hoping that their wedding will eventually end the bloody
fighting between their families.

The couples' secret world of love is soon shattered.  Fresh from the
wedding, Romeo finds Mercutio and Benvolio with Tybalt, who has come
looking for revenge.  Tybalt calls Romeo a villain and dares him to
fight, but Romeo refuses.  He calls Tybalt "cousin" and swears he
loves the name Capulet as much as his own.  Everyone is amazed at
Romeo's refusal, and the hot-blooded Mercutio takes Tybalt's
challenge instead.  When Romeo rushes between them to stop the fight,
Tybalt kills Mercutio.

Romeo is filled with guilt and outrage at his friend's death, and he
runs, furious, to catch Tybalt.  It's a battle of life and death, and
Romeo wins.  But as soon as Tybalt is dead, Romeo realizes the
rashness of his act.  "I am fortune's fool!" he cries as his friends
hurry him off the streets into hiding.

Juliet is excitedly getting ready for her wedding night when her
nurse brings her the bad news:  her cousin Tybalt is dead, and Prince
Escalus has banished Romeo from Verona.  The girl is overcome by
grief--for Tybalt, but mostly for her new husband.  The Nurse finally
tells her that Romeo is hiding in the Friar's cell.  Some of Juliet's
joy returns as they arrange for one stolen night of love before Romeo
has to flee Verona.

Unfortunately, things go from bad to worse.  Lord Capulet feels
terrible about his family's grief over Tybalt--and Juliet seems to be
more upset than anyone else.  He quickly arranges something he thinks
will make everyone feel better--Juliet's marriage, that very week, to
Paris.  Even as Lady Capulet comes to bring that news to Juliet on
Tuesday morning, Juliet and Romeo are saying their heartbroken
farewells.

What can Juliet do?  Her desperate refusals to marry Paris infuriate
her parents.  Her father threatens to disown her if she doesn't obey.
Even her nurse, who knows the situation, suggests it might be best to
marry the Count.  With nowhere else to turn, Juliet runs to Friar
Lawrence.

Their only hope is a risky plan.  The friar gives Juliet a drug that
will stop her breath and make her seem dead for 42 hours.  During
this time he will send for Romeo in Mantua, and Romeo and the Friar
will be in the tomb when she wakes up.  Romeo will take her away with
him, and the friar will try to calm everyone down, and announce their
marriage so they can come back to live in Verona.  Juliet eagerly
takes the drink.

The next morning, when the Nurse comes to prepare Juliet for her
wedding, she finds the seemingly lifeless girl.  The Capulets' day of
joy turns to sorrow, as their only daughter's wedding turns into her
funeral instead.

Friar Lawrence has sent a message to Romeo, but unfortunately, the
message-bearer is quarantined by the plague.  Romeo's servant,
Balthasar, is the first to reach Romeo, and he tells him the sad news
that Juliet is dead.  Romeo, beside himself with grief, buys poison
and rides full-speed toward the Capulets' tomb.  He arrives to find
Paris mourning for Juliet, and when Paris refuses to let Romeo pass,
the two men fight, and Romeo kills Paris.  The Count's last request
is to be buried with Juliet, and Romeo grants his wish.  Inside the
tomb, Romeo begs forgiveness of the newly dead Tybalt, but his
attention is at once arrested by Juliet.  He can't believe how
beautiful she still is, and he vows to stay with his new bride
eternally.  He swallows the poison, and quickly dies.

Friar Lawrence hurries to the tomb to be there when Juliet wakes up.
When he arrives, he finds Paris and Romeo dead.  Juliet awakens just
as Paris' servant is bringing the watchmen.  She sees her dead lover,
and refuses to leave the tomb, although Friar Lawrence panics and
runs away.  Juliet hears people coming, so she acts quickly:  she
grabs Romeo's dagger and stabs herself.

The tragic deaths of their two children unite the Capulets and
Montagues in grief.  The prince admonishes that "heaven finds means
to kill your joys with love." In death, rather than in life, the two
lovers have brought peace to their families.

Romeo and Juliet is more than a story about love and tragic fate;
it's a story about people.  Shakespeare's characters are like all of
us:  they have strengths and weaknesses, a temper and a sense of
humor.  The plot doesn't just happen to them, it happens because of
them.  How each character thinks, and how he or she chooses to act
determines what happens.

In Romeo and Juliet, there are two kinds of characters, maturing
characters and static characters.

These characters cause events to happen because they grow and change
through the course of the play.  Instead of being set in their ways,
they think things through and react differently to different
situations.

Characters in this category understand the seriousness of Romeo and
Juliet's situation, and are affected by it.

They don't change.  These people force the play to end the way it
does, simply by being themselves and acting the way we expect them to
act.

ROMEO AND JULIET: JULIET

In Juliet, we watch something fascinating:  a girl blossoming into a
woman in the space of five days.

Before we watch this progression, let's look at some aspects of
Juliet's character that stay the same.

1. SHE IS YOUNG

In the Italian version of this story, Juliet was 18; in Brooke's poem
(the first English version) she was 16.  Why does Shakespeare make
her so young--"not yet fourteen"?  In Shakespeare's day, it was legal
for girls to marry at 12, but such early marriages were very rare.

Two possible reasons are:  Shakespeare's daughter Susanna was about
13 when he wrote the play; and the English thought that Italian girls
matured early.  It is also possible that Shakespeare simply changed
her age for dramatic reasons.

In any case, Juliet's age is a key to her character.  She's innocent
and full of hope.  (This is not to say that she is naive.  She
couldn't live around her nurse without understanding sex, or live
with her parents without seeing some of the realities and problems of
marriage.) Because she's so young, we feel intense sympathy for her.

2. SHE IS BEAUTIFUL

Both Romeo and Paris fall in love with Juliet on sight alone.  Before
they're even introduced, Paris asks to marry her, and Romeo is
"bewitched by the charm of looks." Her beauty inspires some of
Romeo's most famous poetry:

O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!
It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night
As a rich jewel in an Ethiop's ear
Beauty too rich for use, for earth too dear!
(I, v, 46-49)

Even in the tomb, he is amazed that "Death, that hath sucked the
honey of thy breath / Hath had no power yet upon thy beauty." (V,
iii, 92-95)

3. SHE IS PRACTICAL

In this couple, Romeo is the romantic one, and Juliet is the
practical one.  We can see this contrast in the balcony scene.  Romeo
is content to speak poetic words of love, while Juliet sets up the
marriage and the time and means of communication.  She prefers short
statements to flowery promises, and her practical nature leads her to
worry about the suddenness of their passion:

Although I joy in thee,

I have no joy in this contract tonight.
It is too rash, too unadvised, too sudden.
(II, ii, 116-18)

ROMEO AND JULIET: JULIET'S GROWTH

We first see Juliet like a child, surrounded by her nurse and her
mother.  She doesn't say much, and obediently, she says she'll try to
like the man her parents wish her to marry.  She hasn't seriously
thought about her life as an adult:  she says marriage is "an honor I
dream not of."

But that night, she meets Romeo and falls in love, and everything
changes.  She begins to think and act for herself.  By the end of the
evening, she has taken her future into her own hands, and has become
engaged.

We see at this point that she is practical but idealistic.  She knows
there are problems in the world, but she is confident that love can
overcome them.

For Juliet, marriage and sexual awakening are the bridge between
childhood and adulthood.  Before her wedding night she sees herself
standing between the experienced matron (married woman) she is to
become and the impatient child she still feels like.  Juliet takes
her adult role as a wife seriously.  Even though she's still living
at home, she gives her loyalty to Romeo over her family, even after
he's killed her cousin.

At the beginning of the play, Juliet still minds her nurse, but by
the end of the play she's outgrown her.  Her nurse can't understand
the seriousness of Juliet's predicament, and the young woman must
make adult decisions by herself.

The best mark of Juliet's maturity is that she's strong enough to be
true to herself and to Romeo, even though everyone is against it, and
the cost is very high.  She is no longer an obedient little girl, but
a young woman who has taken charge of her own life.  She feels she
even holds the final card:  "if all else fail, myself have power to
die." (III, v, 343-45)

By the end of the play, she has come full circle from innocence to
experience.  Before she drinks the friar's potion, we see she
understands that the evil in the world can hurt her.  She realizes
that the friar could have given her poison so that no one will find
out he's married them; she realizes she could wake up in the tomb and
suffocate, or she could go crazy.

Still, she chooses to have faith.  She believes that the friar means
her no harm, and she ultimately believes that her love for Romeo is
strong enough to withstand death.

ROMEO AND JULIET: ROMEO

The same way that Juliet grows up, Romeo finds himself.  Before we
look at how he changes, let's look at the parts of his personality
that remain constant.

1. HE IS LIKABLE

Everyone likes Romeo.  Mercutio and Benvolio both want his attention,
the Nurse thinks he's honest, courteous, kind, and handsome.  His
mother loves him so much that she dies of grief when he's banished;
and even Lord Capulet calls him "a virtuous and well-governed youth"
and refuses to let Tybalt bother him.  Friar Lawrence loves Romeo so
much that he'll do almost anything to secure his happiness.  (The
obvious exception to Romeo's admirers is Tybalt, and Romeo himself
tells Tybalt, "Villain I am none...  see thou knowest me not." [III,
i, 65-66])

2. HE IS PASSIONATE

Romeo has the blessing and the curse of feeling things deeply.  At
the beginning of the play, he is despairing over his unrequited love
for Rosaline.  He is able to give himself completely to his love for
Juliet, and his only trouble comes when he gives in to "fire-eyed
fury" after Mercutio is killed.

3. HE IS A GENTLEMAN

He's virtuous, honest, charming, and well-mannered.  He charms Juliet
by reverently kissing her hand and calling her a saint; his manners
win over the Nurse when she's upset by Mercutio.  He is a gentleman
to the end; he grants his rival's request to be buried with Juliet.

ROMEO AND JULIET: ROMEO'S GROWTH

Language is very important to Romeo.  He talks while he thinks,
verbally exploring the world.  Because of this, we can use Romeo's
growing skill with words to chart his progress throughout the play.

When we first see Romeo, he's in love with love.  He has chosen a
girl who'll never return his affection, and he spends more time
groaning about how depressed he is than he does praising Rosaline.
When he talks, he uses lots of cliches, and repeats himself.  Of
Rosaline, he says, "She is too fair, too wise, wisely too fair / To
merit bliss by making me despair."

His mooning leaves him unable to act.  Instead, he spends time
wandering through trees or locked up in his room.  This isn't like
him, and his family is worried.  He even says, rather proudly,

Tut! I have lost myself, I am not here;
This is not Romeo, he's some other where.
(I, i, 200-1)

Then he meets Juliet and discovers his true self.  Their love is so
right that Romeo's speech is transformed to poetry.  The first time
they talk together, their conversation effortlessly forms a sonnet.

This new love makes him sure of himself straight through his wedding,
and makes him strong enough to fight with Tybalt.  Was it mature and
honorable for him to avenge Tybalt's death, or was it rash and
foolish?  It can be argued both ways, and you'll need to look at the
evidence to see which view you agree with.

In either case, by the time Romeo gets to Friar Lawrence's cell, he
has lost himself, his maturity, and his ability to act.  He thinks he
has also lost Juliet by killing her cousin.  Again, his speech
becomes repetitive.  He's beyond comfort.  This is much the way he
was at the beginning of the play.

But when he hears that Juliet still loves him and wants him to come
to her that night, he springs back to action.  After his wedding
night, he is more mature and more himself than before.  We see that
he's accepted his banishment and is willing to act on it; his words
of love to Juliet as he leaves are breathtakingly beautiful.  He's
become a man of action, and he doesn't hesitate to act for the rest
of the play.

It's a sad irony that Romeo is most himself in the tomb.  At the time
of his death, his words and his actions fit together perfectly.  He
tells us what has brought him to this point; he tells us what he's
going to do and why his love for Juliet has transformed him from a
boy who talks in cliches, to a man with a powerful command of speech.
It's tragic that when his love is deepest, there will be no earthly
use for it; when his speech is most mature, he will soon be silenced.
He has found himself, only to kill himself.  In his death, we watch
the world lose a noble man.

ROMEO AND JULIET: FRIAR LAWRENCE (LAURENCE)

Some readers would call Friar Lawrence a maturing character, others would not.

There are several ways to look at Friar Lawrence, some more
flattering than others.  We'll look at three of these, but first
let's look at the basic facts about him.

1. HE IS CATHOLIC

Remember that when Shakespeare wrote Romeo and Juliet, England was a
Protestant country.  Many other writers of the time made fun of
Catholics in their plays, but Friar Lawrence is treated respectfully,
and has virtues and faults like everyone else.  He's a member of the
Franciscan order, which was started by St.  Francis of Assisi.

2. HE MEANS WELL

Throughout the play, many people come to him for advice, and he does
his best to help them.  He often reminds Romeo of the Church's
teachings, and he tries to use his position to end the feud.

3. HE IS AN OUTDOORSMAN

St.  Francis loved nature, and so does Friar Lawrence.  He gives an
eloquent description of the dawn, and he knows the plants and flowers
well enough to make medicines.

Now let's look at three different views of Friar Lawrence's actions
in the play.

One view holds that he is a foolish old man who sends the lovers to
their deaths.  Some readers feel that he lives shut away in an abbey
and doesn't understand other people's passions.  Romeo accuses him of
this in Act III:  "Thou canst not speak of what thou dost not feel!"
(III, iii, 64)

Since he can't understand their passions, the best he can do is offer
shallow words and philosophy instead of wisdom.  Some feel his words
of caution before Romeo and Juliet's wedding are empty, as is his
comfort to Romeo after Tybalt's death.

He isn't wise, but bumbling, and his allowing the marriage, and
giving Juliet the risky potion are partly what kills the lovers.

Worse, he's a coward.  If he hadn't been afraid to tell someone (like
the Prince) about the marriage, the story could have ended
differently.  And if he hadn't panicked and run away from the tomb,
he could have saved Juliet's life.

A second view holds that he is a good and wise man who is foiled by
fate.  The Friar's first speech about the paradoxes of life seems to
prove that he has a deep understanding of life.  He gives Romeo wise
counsel every step of the way; he tells him to take the relationship
slowly and to try to moderate his passion.  As long as Romeo has
Friar Lawrence to guide him, he can overcome any circumstances; it's
only when Romeo has no one to quiet his passions that he kills
himself.

A third view holds that he is a good man, but has failings.  Some
readers feel that he really tries to do his best, and most of the
time it works.  He tries to settle the feud, to keep Romeo and Juliet
living holy lives, and to solve the difficult problems that come up.

His love for Romeo can be seen as a strength or as a fault.  You can
interpret his actions as trying to keep Romeo happy:  he marries him
to Juliet, he hides him (illegally) in his cell, he puts his career
on the line to try and have the marriage recognized; he gives Juliet
a risky drug in the hope that he can get her back to Romeo.  In this
case, it's no wonder the Friar panics at the tomb:  very few of us
could think straight if we'd just found the body of the person we
loved most.

Although the Friar marries Romeo, he advises him to be careful;
although he uses empty philosophy to comfort him, he's able to form a
plan to rouse Romeo to action.  He only gives Juliet the potion
because she's desperate and threatens suicide; and although he flees
from the tomb, he's willing to tell the whole story, even if it
condemns him.

In the second and third views, Friar Lawrence understands the lovers'
problems and it changes him through the course of the play.  If you
agree with either of these views, you can call Friar Lawrence a
"maturing character."

As you read the play, see what evidence you can find for each of these views.

ROMEO AND JULIET: PRINCE ESCALUS

Some readers call Prince Escalus a maturing character because he
understands the seriousness of the feud and tries to do something
about it.

Prince Escalus, the ruler of Verona, represents law and order.  We
see him three times during the play:  at the opening, when the fight
breaks out; in the middle, after Tybalt and Mercutio are killed; and
at the end, after Romeo, Juliet, and Paris are dead.  By entering
after each climax, he helps define the structure of the play.  All
through the play, he talks like a prince.  He gives orders and
expects them to be obeyed.

In his first speech, he shows anger at the senseless fighting that
has been threatening Verona's peace.  It's happened three times
lately.  Besides fining both families, he lays down a strict new law:
anyone caught fighting in Verona's streets will face death.

The second time he comes in is after Mercutio, one of his relatives,
has been killed.  This causes the Prince to view the feud in a
personal way:

"I have an interest in your hate's proceedings
My blood for your rude brawls doth lie a-bleeding."
(III, i, 190-91)

Again he fines the families and banishes Romeo from Verona.  While he
is wise and understands the seriousness of the feud, unfortunately,
he doesn't know the details of Romeo and Juliet's plight.

By his last entrance, the Capulets, the Montagues, and he have each
suffered another death in the family.  He contains his grief and
unearths the story; he takes his share of the blame for not having
been more strict.  He acknowledges that his is not the final
authority, that heaven has had the final judgment in this case.

ROMEO AND JULIET: JULIET'S NURSE

Who can help laughing at Juliet's Nurse?  She says outrageous things,
repeats herself constantly, and she loves a dirty joke.  When she
tries to act high-class and use big words, she winds up using the
wrong word.  There's no other character like her:  the minute she
opens her mouth, we know who's talking.

She serves several important functions in the play:  she is Juliet's
confidant, she is a message-carrier for the lovers; and her
earthiness is a contrast to Juliet's idealism.

The Nurse is a comic character who becomes tragic because she isn't
able to grow.  Let's look at her comic characteristics, and how they
become tragic.

1.  She understands things in physical terms.  To her, love means
sex.  For example, when Lady Capulet tells Juliet that she'll be "no
less" if she marries Paris, the Nurse cries that she'll be more:  men
make women pregnant.

Because she sees things in physical terms, she can't understand the
depth of the lovers' emotional and spiritual bond.  One partner is as
good as another to her:  what does it matter if Juliet has Romeo or
Paris?

2.  She says exactly what she thinks, whether or not it's
appropriate.  When Romeo, then a stranger, asks her who Juliet is,
she tells him, "I tell you, he that can lay hold of her / shall have
the chinks (money)." (I, v, 118-19)

Saying what she means without thinking hurts Juliet very much.  The
last thing she needs to hear at the end of Act IV is that the Nurse
thinks Romeo is a "dishcloth."

3.  She garbles messages.  This is funny when we know the message,
and it's good news.

The garbled message about the wedding is funny; the garbled message
about who's dead is tragically painful to Juliet.

4.  She loves to plot.  This is endearing because she goes out of her
way to help the lovers meet and get rope ladders.

She enjoyed plotting Juliet's marriage, but she doesn't take
responsibility for her actions.  If that plot doesn't work out, she
thinks, start over and try another one.  But actions have
consequences, and Juliet is abandoned by her Nurse when she needs her
most.

ROMEO AND JULIET: MERCUTIO

Almost all of us know someone like Mercutio:  witty, sarcastic,
always the center of attention at parties, always ready with a
put-down or a racy joke.

In some ways, he's like Juliet's Nurse:  he also sees love as
primarily sexual.  He's Romeo's friend and confidant, as the Nurse is
Juliet's; he, too, underestimates the depth of Romeo's love and
passion.

In other ways, he's the opposite of the Nurse.  He's upper-class, and
a relative of the Prince.  He's also very intelligent When he meets
the Nurse and they match wits, Mercutio makes her look like a fool.

He is clever, intelligent, and well-educated.  He is a master of
words; he can make a pun or weave a spell with ease.

He has an infectious wit.  He has an enormous amount of energy, and
can make everyone laugh, including Romeo.

He is fiery and excitable.  He whips himself into a frenzy with the
Queen Mab speech, and he's already worked himself into a fighting
mood by the time he meets up with Tybalt in Act III.

He's also quick to condemn others for faults he shares.  He gives his
Queen Mab speech to Romeo to chide him for being "beside himself,"
and he is beside himself by the end of the speech.  He accuses
Benvolio of being hot-tempered; and finally curses the Montagues and
Capulets for a fight he brought on himself.

On the one hand, he's a loyal friend to Romeo.  Even when he thinks
Romeo is acting crazy, he's always trying to find him and "cure" him.
It's interesting to watch how much cynical Mercutio is attracted by
idealistic Romeo.

On the other hand, he doesn't understand Romeo's feelings, and he
doesn't try to.  He is taunting and sarcastic to Romeo, to the Nurse,
and finally to Tybalt.

Still, for all his faults, we can't help liking him as much as Romeo
does.  We, too, feel a sense of outrage when he's killed and
understand why Romeo avenges his death.  Mercutio is one of
Shakespeare's most talked-about characters.

Some readers feel that Mercutio is the most interesting character in
the play, and that Shakespeare had to kill him off so that he
wouldn't eclipse Romeo.  Others point out that Mercutio acts as a
satellite to Romeo.  He's never on stage unless he's with Romeo, or
trying to find him.

Also, some readers feel that Mercutio's sense of honor forces him to
fight Tybalt in Romeo's place; others feel that his own temper and
hot-headedness do him in.

Readers have disagreed over how much he understands about life.  Some
argue that his Queen Mab speech shows that he's thought a lot and
understands other's feelings; others feel that he isn't capable of
understanding Romeo's feelings at all.

ROMEO AND JULIET: LORD AND LADY MONTAGUE (ROMEO'S PARENTS)

Romeo and Juliet come from very different families.

The Montagues are close-knit and loving.  Romeo's parents, Lord and
Lady Montague, care a lot about Romeo, and do everything they can to
find out what's bothering him.

Romeo's parents know Romeo's friends.  At the beginning of the play,
they ask Benvolio to find out why Romeo's depressed; and in Act II,
Scene iv, Mercutio and Benvolio are going to have supper at the
Montague's house, and they hope Romeo will come along.

Lady Montague's only fault is her obsessive love of Romeo.  She dies
of grief when he's banished, before news comes that he's dead.

Lord Montague's only fault is his willingness to fight in the feud.
The only time that he isn't reasonable and loving is in the first
scene when he charges onto the stage, calling, "Thou Villain
Capulet!"

Unfortunately, this fault is ultimately responsible for his son's death.

ROMEO AND JULIET: LORD AND LADY CAPULET (JULIET'S PARENTS)

Lord Capulet enjoys playing the role of the gracious patriarch.  He's
wealthy and he likes to be well thought of.  He's on his best
behavior in front of company; he jokes with Paris and calls him
"son." At the Capulets' feast he flirts and jokes, and goes so far as
to protect Romeo from Tybalt.

But like a spoiled child, he wants everything to go his way, and he's
furious when someone doesn't obey him.  When Tybalt argues with him,
he calls him a "saucy boy" and a "princox." When Juliet refuses to
marry Paris, he has a tantrum and threatens to throw her out on the
street to starve.

He has a strained relationship with his wife.  He doesn't say much to
her, except to order her around; she responds by making bitter
remarks about him.

Lady Capulet is a bitter, guarded woman.  She was married early, and
the match was obviously arranged.  Her husband seems to be much older
than she is, and she uses this to make life difficult for him.  The
first time we see her, her husband is calling for a sword to join a
fight, and she follows behind, answering, "A crutch, a crutch!  Why
call you for a sword?"

Because she's an unhappy woman who guards her feelings, she doesn't
know how to relate to Juliet, who has been raised by her Nurse.  We
can see why she'd think Paris a good match for Juliet.  He's not only
wealthy, but young and attractive:  everything in a husband she might
have wished for herself but doesn't have.

Through the play we see her become increasingly sympathetic to
Juliet.  Could it be that she remembers her own tears before her
wedding?  She begs her husband not to move the wedding closer, and
she protects Juliet from Lord Capulet's fury.  Still, when Juliet
needs her most, she chooses to withdraw from the situation, telling
Juliet, "Do as thou wilt, for I have done with thee." (III, v, 205)

Still, both Capulets are genuinely grieved when they believe that
Juliet is dead.  Lady Capulet cries that Juliet was the only thing
she had to love; and Lord Capulet now has no heir, nothing in which
to hope.

ROMEO AND JULIET: TYBALT

Tybalt, a Capulet, is trouble from the beginning.  He's so
hot-tempered and full of hate that even his family thinks he's a
"saucy boy." He can be seen as the embodiment of the feud.  During
the play, he fights Benvolio, Lord Capulet, Mercutio, and Romeo.

In temperament, he is a contrast to Benvolio.  In the first scene,
when Benvolio talks of peace, Tybalt leaps in with "I hate the word
as I hate hell, all Montagues, and thee."

In nature and personality, he is contrasted to Mercutio.  Mercutio is
witty, cultured, and educated, and he isn't about to take an insult
from someone like Tybalt, whose only means of expression is a sword.
Mercutio's extreme dislike of Tybalt is another reason he must take
up Tybalt's challenge of Romeo.

ROMEO AND JULIET: BENVOLIO

Benvolio, a Montague, is the kind of person we'd all like to have for
a friend.  When Romeo wants to be left alone, he leaves him alone;
when he wants to talk, Benvolio is there to listen with a sympathetic
ear.  And when Romeo is in trouble for killing Tybalt, it's Benvolio
who gets him off the street and into hiding.

Benvolio is known as a clear-thinking, reliable, and peace-loving
young man.  He tries to stop fighting whenever it starts; and he's
called on twice to explain what's happened.  When Romeo's parents
want to find out what's bothering their son, they ask Benvolio to
find out, and he does.

Still, he's more than a one-dimensional character.  At the beginning
of the play, he, like Romeo, has "a troubled mind," that leads him to
take a walk before sunrise.  He, too, teases the Nurse; and he
stretches the truth a little when he tells the Prince that Tybalt
started the fight, implying that he killed Mercutio without
provocation.  These faults make us like him even more.

ROMEO AND JULIET: PARIS

Count Paris is the terzo incomodo, the unwelcome third party in the
love triangle with Romeo and Juliet.

Shakespeare makes sure that he compares favorably with Romeo.  He is
young, handsome, wealthy, and, socially, his family is a step above
Romeo's--Paris is related to Prince Escalus.  Paris, too, is tired of
the feud and sincerely in love with Juliet.  He never tries to steal
Juliet from Romeo; he proposes before Juliet meets Romeo, and he dies
without knowing he has a rival.

Unlike Romeo, he goes through the proper channels to get Juliet to
marry him.  He formally asks Juliet's father for her hand, and he
approves.  In contrast, Romeo's love for Juliet is forbidden, and
he's secretive about his plans.  Paris' language, wooden and
straight-laced, is also in contrast to Romeo's.

Paris becomes a threat to the lovers only because he doesn't know
about their relationship.  As an honorable young man, he would never
have gone after Juliet if he'd known she were married.  If he'd known
about the marriage, he never would have challenged Romeo at the
Capulets' tomb.

Paris, like Romeo and Juliet, is a victim of "sour misfortune." He,
too, is given a place of respect and importance in the tomb with
Romeo and Juliet.

ROMEO AND JULIET: SETTING

Romeo and Juliet takes place in Verona, Italy, in the 1500s.
Although the setting was already named in other Romeo and Juliet
stories, Shakespeare draws lots of parallels between Verona and the
London of his time.  Both cities were walled, which made them seem
hot and crowded during the summer months.  Violence could spread
quickly in this atmosphere, and so civil disturbances were treated
harshly.  Elizabethan Londoners would have thought that the Prince
was too merciful to the brawlers.

In cities like London and Verona, the plague spread quickly, so
quarantines were commonplace.  Also, in Shakespeare's London, Queen
Elizabeth's word was law; Londoners would expect no less of Prince
Escalus.

ROMEO AND JULIET: THEMES

There are many themes in Romeo and Juliet; we'll look at the major
ones here.  You'll notice that some themes contradict each
other--it's up to you to decide which ones are true, and to find
evidence to support your position.

1. LOVE

Love is explored in different ways in the play. Here are some of them:

Love vs. Hate

The play contrasts Romeo and Juliet's love against their families'
hate as illustrated by the feud.  In the Prologue, we're told that
their love is stronger than the hatred of the feud, but it's a bitter
struggle.  Hatred is strong enough to separate the lovers, kill
Mercutio, Tybalt, and Paris, banish Romeo, and finally force Romeo
and Juliet to commit suicide.  But love is even stronger:  nothing
can kill the love between Romeo and Juliet, and this finally
triumphs.

False Love vs. True Love

At the beginning of the play, Romeo's lost in a false love for
Rosaline.  He doesn't know her or have any relationship with her, so
he's created artificial feelings about her.  The Nurse and Mercutio
also have false or incomplete ideas about true love.  They both link
it exclusively to sex.

Romeo and Juliet's love is a pure, true love.  They love each other
emotionally, spiritually, and sexually.  They are committed to each
other in marriage, and are willing to die rather than be unfaithful
to one another.

Romantic Love

This play is a wonderful example of Courtly Love or Romantic Love.
Until the end of the 14th century, the idea of marrying for love was
almost unheard of.  Marriages were arranged for social, economic, and
political reasons.  Romantic Love came into being in the French
courts, and it had very strict rules:  the woman with whom the man
chose to be in love had to be unobtainable (if she was married to
someone else, that was good:  if she died, that was even better), and
both of the romantic lovers must be chaste.  The whole idea was to be
pure and pine away for someone.

This is exactly what Romeo is doing for Rosaline at the beginning of
the story.  Even though Romeo and Juliet share their love and they
sleep together once, there are Romantic obstacles in their way.  They
are from enemy families; Juliet will be forced to marry someone else.
Finally, each of them dies pining for a love that is absolutely
unobtainable because his or her partner is dead.

Could Romeo and Juliet have become a happy, middle-aged married
couple?  Nobody in Shakespeare's audience would have wondered.  The
whole point is that their love is Romantic, and therefore cannot be
fulfilled.

2. WHAT CAUSES THE LOVERS TO DIE?

The deaths of Romeo and Juliet can be explained in several ways.

Fate

In the Prologue, we're told that the lovers are "star-crossed," which
implies that fate has it in for them.  The number of fateful
coincidences and accidents in the play are too numerous to miss:
Romeo finds out about the Capulets' party from an illiterate servant;
he winds up in the Capulets' orchard; Mercutio is killed under his
arm--the list goes on and on.  Every plan that the lovers make is
thwarted.  They're destined to die, and nothing can stop it.

Providence

Some readers feel that there's a power beyond fate that has a role in
the outcome of the story.  Since the play takes place in a Christian
context, this power can be thought of as God, or Providence.  Romeo,
Juliet, and Friar Lawrence all call on this higher power to help
them; Friar Lawrence calls the deaths "a work of heaven." We can
believe that some benevolent power is working to change the
Montagues' and Capulets' hatred to love--and it succeeds.

Passion

The Catholic church (and to some extent, the Protestant) in
Shakespeare's day believed that love of God was pure, selfless, and
good.  Love that gratified selfish desires was bad.  Over and over,
Friar Lawrence warns that "these violent delights have violent ends,"
and he's proven correct.

Character

Some readers feel that Romeo's impetuousness (to passionately love
Juliet, and recklessly kill Tybalt, Paris and himself), Tybalt's
hate, Capulet's blindness, and Juliet's dishonesty work together to
bring the lovers' downfall.

3. A SENSE OF ORDER VS. CIVIL DISTURBANCES

The feuding and public fighting in Verona's streets is such a serious
offense that Romeo and Juliet's lives must be sacrificed to restore
order and pay for this injustice.

4. ISOLATION

In comedy, characters tend to form bonds; in tragedy, they become
isolated.  The most obvious example in this play is Juliet:  she is
abandoned by her parents, her Nurse, the Friar, and finally by Romeo.

5. INNOCENCE AND EXPERIENCE

This theme is followed in two ways:  we see the impetuous actions of
the innocent lovers contrasted to the helpless wisdom of their
parents and advisors; and we see Romeo and Juliet grow from innocence
to experience.

6. LANGUAGE

Most of us talk similarly and use the same vocabulary most of the
time.  But in Romeo and Juliet, each character's language tells us
what social class they're in, whom they're talking to, what mood
they're in, and if their feelings are genuine.  As a character
matures, his or her words are more expressive, better chosen.

ROMEO AND JULIET: STYLE

Romeo and Juliet is unique because it merges three distinct styles.

The first two acts are comedy:  characters meet, fall in love, have
funny friends and bawdy servants.  These acts follow an Italian style
called a commedia dell'arte, which usually had two virtuous lovers,
old fathers who kept them apart, and servants who made racy comments
about sex.

But the Prologue sets up a tragedy, and the last three acts bring it
about.  Suddenly, a feud that seemed silly is deadly, and Mercutio
and Tybalt are killed.  The lovers become isolated, and come to
understand the cruelty of the world and how it preys on them.  Human
failure and tragic accidents work against them, and they must die.

Romeo and Juliet is also Romantic.  Not only does it deal with
Romantic Love, as mentioned above under Themes, but it includes many
different types of Romantic poetry.  Just before he wrote this play,
Shakespeare had written two long narrative Romantic poems, as well as
some Romantic sonnets, and these poetic styles turn up over and over
again in the play.

ROMEO AND JULIET: SOURCE

The legend of Romeo and Juliet had been popular for more than 100
years by the time Shakespeare wrote his play.  The seed for the story
had appeared as far back as 1476 in the Italian book, Il Novellino,
by Masuccio Salernitano.  This told of secret lovers, a killing,
banishment, a helpful friar, and a marriage rival.

In 1530, Luigi da Porta retold the story.  He named Verona as the
setting, and gave the characters Italian names.  Da Porta also added
the lovers' suicide.

Other versions appeared in France and Italy, but an important step
was taken in 1562 when Arthur Brooke (or Broke) made it into a long
narrative poem, in English, called The Tragicall History of Romeus
and Juliet.  This is the poem from which Shakespeare worked.
Compared to Shakespeare's play, Brooke's language was monotonous and
dry.  He includes a Preface that tells the "pious reader" to note
what comes of unholy passion and secret love, of disobeying the law
and parents' advice.  Although the Preface is stern, Brooke takes a
sympathetic view of the lovers.  In his poem, they are older, less
innocent, more willful and glad to disobey their parents.

Here are descriptions of Romeo and Juliet from Brooke's poem.

ROMEO

One Romeus, who was of race a Montague,
Upon whose tender chin, as yet, no manlike beard there grew,
Whose beauty and whose shape so far the rest did stain,
That from the chief of Veron youth he greatest fame did gain
At length he saw a maid, right fair of shape
Which Theseus or Paris would have chosen to their rape,
Whom erst he never saw, of all she pleas'd him most.
Within himself he said to her, 'Thou justly mayst thee boast
Of perfect shape's renown and Beauty's sounding praise,
Whose like nor hath, nor shall be seen, nor liveth in our days.'
And whilst he fix'd on her his partial pierced eye
His former love, for which of late he was ready to die,
Is now as quite forgot, as it had never been.

JULIET

Whilst Juliet (for so this gentle damsel hight)
From side to side on everyone did cast about her sight
At last her floating eyes were anchored fast on him,
Who for her sake did banish health and freedom from each limb.
He in her sight did seem to pass the rest as far
As Phoebus' shining beams do pass the brightness of a star.

ROMEO AND JULIET: OVERALL STRUCTURE

Romeo and Juliet has five acts.  As we have seen before, the first
two acts follow the rules of a comedy, and the last two follow the
conventions of tragedy.  Besides this, shape is given to the play by
the Prologue and the three appearances of the Prince.

The Prologue, which reminds us somewhat of ancient tragedies, tells
us the sorry fate of the characters we're about to meet.

The Prince appears at the beginning of the play when the feud is
introduced.  He's angry at the disturbance and the threat of
violence, but nothing deadly has happened yet.  The Prince appears at
the next climax, after the deaths that change the course of the play.
He adds to the climactic events by banishing Romeo.  The third time
he appears is at the end.  Prince Escalus sums up the Prologue, says
that everyone is punished, and that there's never been a sadder
story.

ROMEO AND JULIET: SCENES

Shakespeare is a master storyteller.  Scenes happen very quickly in
this play, alternating from tragic to comic, hurried to lazy, scenes
between the lovers to scenes about those who unwittingly cause their
downfall.

Shakespeare also compares characters by having them appear in scenes
soon after each other.  Often scenes with the Nurse follow scenes
with Mercutio; scenes with Paris are frequently next to scenes with
Romeo.

ROMEO AND JULIET: PUBLIC PEOPLE AND PRIVATE PEOPLE

Another way Shakespeare makes the play interesting is to show us how
characters act in public and then how they act in private.  For
example, in the first scene, we see the Montagues when they come to
fight the Capulets; then we see them talking in private after
everyone else has left.  The funniest example of this is in Act I,
Scene v, when Lord Capulet goes from his public image to his private
temper in the same speech.

This makes us ready for Act III, when the public feud crashes in on
the private lives of Romeo and Juliet.

ROMEO AND JULIET: CONDENSED TIME

Shakespeare's biggest change was to shrink the timeframe from months
to a period of five days.  He emphasizes this by showing us all five
dawns:  On Sunday morning, Romeo walks in a grove of trees at dawn
and later meets Benvolio; Monday's dawn finds him reluctantly leaving
Juliet in the orchard.  The next morning, he leaves his new wife to
flee to Mantua; Wednesday morning, Juliet is discovered dead.  The
play ends on Thursday morning, when the Prince and the families find
the dead bodies in the tomb.

This condensed time makes the play highly dramatic.  Events are very
rushed.  Things happen so fast that characters must make snap
decisions.  There is no time for explanations, and there are no
second chances.

ROMEO AND JULIET: ELIZABETHAN ENGLISH

All languages change.  Differences in pronunciation and word choice
are apparent even between parents and children.  If language
differences can appear in one generation, it is only to be expected
that the English used by Shakespeare four hundred years ago will
diverge markedly from the English that is used today.  The following
information on Shakespeare's language will help a modern reader to a
fuller understanding of Romeo and Juliet.

ROMEO AND JULIET: MOBILITY OF WORD CLASSES

Adjectives, nouns, and verbs were less rigidly confined to particular
classes in Shakespeare's day.  Adjectives were often used as nouns.
In the Prologue to Act II, the chorus uses 'sweet' as a noun:

Tempering extremities with extreme sweet.

And verbs could be used as nouns as when 'jaunce', which meant
'trudge along', was used to mean 'a long hard walk':

Fie, how my bones ache. What a jaunce have I!
(II, v, 26)

Adjectives could also be used as adverbs. 'Scant' is used for 'scantly' in:

And she shall scant show well that now seems best
(I, ii, 101)

and 'merry' is used for 'merrily' in:

Rest you merry
(I, ii, 83)

and occasionally as verbs as in:

Ah, poor my lord, what tongue shall smooth thy name
(III, ii, 98)

where 'smooth' means 'speak well of'.

ROMEO AND JULIET: CHANGES IN WORD MEANING

The meanings of words undergo changes, a process that can be
illustrated by the fact that 'chip' extended its meaning from a small
piece of wood to a small piece of silicon.  Many of the words in
Shakespeare still exist today but their meanings have changed.  The
change may be small, as with 'gossip' which meant 'good-natured,
convivial woman':

Speak to my gossip Venus one fair word
(II, i, 11)

or more fundamental, so that 'hoodwinked' meant 'blindfolded' (I, iv,
4), 'crowkeeper' meant 'scarecrow' (I, iv, 6), 'film' meant
'gossamer' (I, iv, 66), 'breaches' meant 'defensive walls' (I, iv,
84), and 'owes' meant owns:

So Romeo would, were he not Romeo called
Retain that dear perfection which he owes
(II, ii, 45-46)

ROMEO AND JULIET: VOCABULARY LOSS

Words not only change their meanings, but are frequently discarded
from the language.  In the past, 'leman' meant 'sweetheart' and
'sooth' meant 'truth'.  The following words used in Romeo and Juliet
are no longer current in English but their meanings can usually be
gauged from the context in which they occur.

BILLS (I, i, 70): weapons

PROOF (I, i, 208): strong armor

UNATTAINTED (I, ii, 87): not affected

TEEN (I, iii, 13): sorrow

ATOMI (I, iv, 57): small creatures

TRENCHER (I, v, 2): large plate

NYAS (II, ii, 167): young hawk

GYVES (II, ii, 179): fetters, chains

MICKLE (II, iii, 11): great

DISTEMPERATURE (II, iii, 36): mental disturbance

HIDINGS (II, iv, 43): prostitutes

CHEVERIL (II, iv, 83): soft leather

ELL (II, iv, 84): 3 feet 9 inches (45 inches)

COIL (II, v, 66): fuss, bother

PILCHER (III, i, 79): leather garment

AMERCE (III, i, 192): penalize

SEELING (III, ii, 46): blinding

LATED (III, iii, 6): belated

TRENCHED (III, iv, 26): cut

FLAWS (III, iv, 62): sudden gusts

OWE (III, iv, 112): own

BARK (III, v, 131): small boat

MAMMET (III, v, 184): puppet

CHAPLESS (IV, i, 83): without the lower jaw

ORISONS (IV, iii, 3): prayers

LOGGERHEAD (IV, iv, 20): fool, blockhead

WEEDS (V, i, 39): clothes

CAITIFF (V, i, 52): miserable, wretched

ROMEO AND JULIET: VERBS

Shakespearean verb forms differ from modern usage in three main ways:

1.  Questions and negatives could be formed without using 'do/did' as
when Mercutio asks:

Came he not home tonight?
(II, iv, 1)

where today we would say:  'Did he not come home tonight?' or where
Benvolio tells Romeo:

Stand not amazed...
(III, i, 136)

where modern usage demands:  'Don't stand there looking surprised.'
Shakespeare had the option of using forms a.  and b.  whereas
contemporary usage permits only the a.  forms:

a.                                 b.

Is Romeo coming?                    Comes Romeo?

Did Romeo come?                     Came Romeo?

You do not look well                You look not well

You did not look well               You looked not well

2.  A number of past participles and past tense forms are used that
would be ungrammatical today.  Among these are:  'drive' for 'drove':

A troubled mind drive me to walk abroad
(I, i, 118)

'create' for 'created':

O anything of nothing first create!
(I, i, 175)

'took' for 'taken':

Very well took i' faith
(II, iv, 124)

'forbid' for 'forbidden':

The Prince expressly hath
Forbid this bandying...
(III, i, 87-88)

'becomed' for 'becoming':

And gave him what becomed love I might
(IV, ii, 26)

and 'writ' for 'wrote':

Meantime I writ to Romeo
(V, iii, 245)

3. Archaic verb forms sometimes occur with 'thou' and with 'he/she/it':

...thou wilt quarrel with a man that hath a hair more...
(III, i, 17)

I see thou knowest me not
(III, i, 64)

Come, he hath hid himself among these trees
(II, i, 30)

ROMEO AND JULIET: PRONOUNS

Shakespeare and his contemporaries had one extra pronoun "thou" which
could be used in addressing a person who was one's equal or social
inferior.  'You' was obligatory if more than one person was
addressed:

What ho! You men, you beasts!
That quench the fire of your pernicious rage
With purple fountains issuing from your veins...
(I, i, 81ff)

But it could also be used to indicate respect as when Juliet speaks
to her mother:

Madam, I am here, what is your will?
(I, iii, 6)

Frequently, a person in power used 'thou' to a child or a subordinate
but was addressed 'you' in return, as when Lady Capulet and the Nurse
speak:

Lady Capulet. Thou knowest my daughter's of a pretty age.
(I, iii, 10)

Nurse. My lord and you were then at Mantua.
(I, iii, 28)

but if 'thou' was used inappropriately it could cause grave offense.
Tybalt uses this form to provoke Romeo:

Romeo, the love I bear thee can afford
No better term than this: thou art a villain
(III, i, 59-60)

and later, when Romeo wishes to avenge Mercutio's death, he too uses
'thou' to Tybalt:

Now, Tybalt, take the 'villain' back again
That late thou gav'st me.
(III, i, 127-28)

ROMEO AND JULIET: PREPOSITIONS

Prepositions were less standardized in Elizabethan English than they
are today and so we find several uses in Romeo and Juliet that would
have to be modified in contemporary speech.  Among these are:  'of'
for 'in' in:

Fantasy
Which is as thin of substance as the air
(I, iv, 99)

'in' for 'into' in:

...if you should lead her in a fool's paradise
(II, iv, 163)

'by' for 'because of':

So the remembrance of my former love
Is by a newer object quite forgotten
(II, iv, 194)

and 'against' for 'for' in:

Prepare her, wife, against this wedding day.
(III, iv, 32)

ROMEO AND JULIET: MULTIPLE NEGATION

Contemporary English requires only one negative per statement and
regards such utterances as:  "I haven't none" as nonstandard.
Shakespeare often used two or more negatives for emphasis, as when
Mercutio describes his wound:

No, 'tis not so deep as a well, nor so wide as a
church door, but 'tis enough...
(III, i, 97)

and when Romeo tries to convince Juliet that it is still early:

Nor that is not the lark whose notes do beat
(III, v, 21)

ROMEO AND JULIET: PROLOGUE

The Prologue is in the form of a sonnet, a type of poem that was
popular in Elizabethan times.  A sonnet has very strict rules:  it
must have 14 lines, have five accented syllables and five unaccented
ones per line, and a consistent pattern of rhyming.

NOTE:  Throughout the play, we will see that Shakespeare uses
different types of poetry to make special moments stand out.

The Prologue does three important things:  1) it tells us what events
will happen in the play; 2) it makes us curious about why and how
these events will happen; and 3) it introduces us to themes that will
become important.

1. THE EVENTS

Two dignified families have been quarreling for a long time.  From
these families come two children who are destined to become lovers
and to kill themselves.  This is the only way the quarrel can end,
we're told, and this is the story we're about to see.

It seems odd, doesn't it, that Shakespeare gives away the ending to
the story before he even starts telling it!  But in Shakespeare's
time-much like today--the story of Romeo and Juliet was already
famous.  People might not have been able to tell you the whole story,
but they could probably have said:  "Romeo and Juliet?  It's a story
about two kids who kill themselves."

Also, fate plays a big part in the lovers' doom.  It was normal in a
tragic story to tell the fate of the hero at the beginning, and then
tell the story of how this comes about.

NOTE:  In Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare uses the fact that we know
the plot to make us his fellow conspirators.  He makes the story
revolve around characters who do what they think is best, unaware of
their tragic fate.  They don't know the real circumstances--only we
do.  This sets up comedy:  for example, Romeo thinks that his crush
on Rosaline is the end of the world.  This seems funny to us, because
we know his crush isn't important--the story isn't about Romeo and
Rosaline, it's about Romeo and Juliet.  It also sets up tragedy:  for
example, it's great news to Lord Capulet that Juliet and Paris will
be married.  But it's terrible news to us, because we know that she's
already married to Romeo.  Over and over throughout the play we
think, "if only they knew!"

2. THE PROLOGUE MAKES US CURIOUS

The Prologue leaves out more information than it gives us.  Who are
these lovers?  What makes them "star-crossed"?  Why do they kill
themselves?  Why is this the only way to end the feud?  These
questions make us want to read on!

3. THEMES

Romeo and Juliet is a play about paradoxes.  In other words, we find
out that things seeming to be opposites are actually linked to each
other.  In the Prologue, Shakespeare talks about "fatal loins." We
are conceived and born in the loins; "fatal" is something that kills
you.  How can the same thing cause your life and your death?  The
play resolves this paradox.  Besides life and death, the Prologue
tells us that the play is about youth and age, love and hate,
fighting and peace.  And since Shakespeare mentions these paradoxes
so early, we will be wise to watch for other paradoxes that will be
used as themes.

NOTE:  Notice how the lovers are called "star-crossed." Astrology was
a popular science then, and some people believed that your fate was
revealed by the positions of stars and planets.  Star-crossed could
simply mean that the stars will make Romeo and Juliet's paths cross
and their lives intertwine.  Or it can mean that the stars have it in
for them; they're doomed from the start.  One theme is the
exploration of this very question:  what makes the play end the way
it does?  Do the lovers die because they're star-crossed by Fate and
cursed by bad luck?  Or is there a power above Fate (usually called
Providence) that is making this all work for the good--to end the
feud?  Or are the lovers free to act for themselves, to decide to
take their own lives?  We'll see that there is evidence to support
each possible answer--it is up to you to choose the answer you think
is best at the end of the play.

ROMEO AND JULIET: LINES 1-65

The Prologue has warned us about the terrible, senseless feud between
the Montagues and the Capulets and that it will cause the death of
innocent lovers.  The play opens in a public place in Verona where a
fight is about to break out.  We're ready to see evil, bloodthirsty
men, but we're in for a surprise.  Instead of seeing Lord Montague or
Lord Capulet, we see their hired servants, who aren't even part of
the family.  And instead of acting like evil men, they act like
clowns!

The first people on stage are the Capulets' servants, Sampson and
Gregory.  They're out on this lazy Sunday morning, acting a lot like
bored kids.  They talk big about what they'll do to the Montagues,
make racy comments, use awful puns, and insult each other as often as
they insult the Montagues.  They're in a good mood and we can't help
but laugh at how truly terrible their jokes are.

NOTE:  We're caught off guard.  We're expecting a tragedy, and
instead we've got comedy.  Could this be another paradox?  Could
Shakespeare be saying that the silly, harmless events in the first
two acts can actually cause the serious, deadly outcome of the final
three?  Can't all of us think of a time that we've done something we
never meant to do, and all we could say was, "I was only kidding!"?

Soon servants of the Montagues join the Capulets', and the scene gets
funnier.  In a way, they're like two street gangs.  But in this
scene, they aren't angry or vicious, they just want some action.  The
two sides are glad to see each other, because they're all in the mood
for something to happen.  There doesn't seem to be any ill will
between them; in fact, their only argument is over who's going to
start the fight.  Like children, they want to fight, but they don't
want to get in trouble for having started it.

ROMEO AND JULIET: LINES 66-106

Imagine that the streets are suddenly full of people shouting and
swords clashing.  Once the fight has started, we begin to meet some
of the important characters.  They come on one or two at a time, and
we can tell something about their personalities right away by how
they react to the feud.

BENVOLIO A young cousin of the Montagues, Benvolio is a man of peace.
He is the first one to find the servants brawling, and he seems to be
able to read our thoughts.  Look what he says:

Part, fools!
Put up your swords. You know not what you do.
(I, i, 66)

He sees them as fools, like we do; and he also sees that the fighting
is more than harmless fun.  From the very beginning, Benvolio tries
to keep the peace, and from the very beginning he fails.  His is the
voice of reason, and he doesn't stand a chance against Tybalt, the
next person who arrives.

TYBALT Tybalt is the opposite of Benvolio in more ways than one.
He's a cousin of the Capulets and a troublemaker:  quick-tempered,
violent, and irrational.  He says it himself in his second speech to
Benvolio:

What, drawn, and talk of peace? I hate the word
As I hate hell, all Montagues, and thee.
(I, i, 72-73)

LORD AND LADY CAPULET The Capulets seem to have as much trouble
getting along with each other as they have getting along with the
Montagues.  We first see Lord Capulet running in to join the fight,
calling for a sword.  His wife is right behind him, telling him in
public that a crutch would be more appropriate.  We can't help but
wonder how their antagonistic relationship affects their daughter.

LORD AND LADY MONTAGUE The Montagues enter just after the Capulets.
Lady Montague urges her husband not to join the fighting, but her
anger is directed at the feud rather than at her husband.  We'll
learn more about them shortly.

PRINCE ESCALUS Prince Escalus also sees the feud as a serious threat,
and he's angry about it.  But he acts rationally.  He states the
charges:  the Montagues and Capulets have broken the law by fighting
three times in the recent past.  He publicly announces that in the
future anyone who fights will face the death penalty.  Clearly, this
is a man who wants to end the deadly fight.  But will he act strongly
enough, and soon enough?

From an action-packed scene full of people, we go to one family's
private conversation.

Everyone leaves except Lord and Lady Montague and their nephew
Benvolio.  Benvolio is asked how the fight started; this is not the
only time he'll have to report on the trouble Tybalt causes.

ROMEO AND JULIET: LINES 119-58

Suddenly, Lady Montague says, "O, where is Romeo?  Saw you him
today?" and the whole tone changes at once.  Lord and Lady Montague
and Benvolio love Romeo so much that the mention of his name even
changes how they talk.  Benvolio's terse and repetitive description
of the fight becomes poetry.

Came more and more and fought on part and part,
Till the Prince came, who parted either part.
(I, ii, 117-18)

becomes

Madam, an hour before the worshipped sun
Peered forth the golden window of the East,
A troubled mind drave me to walk abroad,
Where underneath the grove of sycamore...
So early walking did I see your son.
(I, i, 121-26)

Instead of meeting Romeo in the middle of angry words and fighting,
we will meet him amidst the poetry of his loving family and friends.

We also find out that Romeo's parents are worried about him.  He's
been spending his nights out walking, and his days locked in his
room.  His father adds that Romeo "Shuts up his windows, locks fair
daylight out / And makes himself an artificial night."

NOTE:  This is the first mention of how Romeo is connected to day and
night.  Soon Juliet and true love will become his daylight and his
sun.  But Romeo doesn't know true love yet, so he shuts out daylight
and creates "artificial night." Be on the lookout for more images of
light and dark.

Lord Montague has tried everything he can think of to find out what's
bothering Romeo, and now he asks for Benvolio's help.  Keep his words
of concern in mind later, when we see how the Capulets respond to
Juliet's problems.  Benvolio sees Romeo coming, and asks his aunt and
uncle to leave so the two cousins can talk alone.

ROMEO AND JULIET: LINES 162-240

Finally, we see the two best friends alone.  Romeo comes to his
senses long enough to greet Benvolio and notice that there's been
fighting.  The feud doesn't interest Romeo, he's got something else
on his mind, and Benvolio is determined to find out what it is.  What
happens next is a situation we can all identify with.  One friend has
a secret, and the other wants to know what it is.  Benvolio gets
Romeo to admit that he's in love:  the next trick is to find out with
whom.  But Romeo isn't telling.

We can't help but smile at Romeo in this scene.  He's in love with
love.  He's chosen a girl he can never have, and he's having a great
time feeling sorry for himself.  He calls love a "madness" that has
overtaken him and claims "I have lost myself, I am not here / This is
not Romeo, he's some other where." (I, i, 200-1)

Have you ever felt so overcome with emotion that you weren't acting
like your normal self?  We'll see this happen to Romeo several times
during the play.  Also, notice that when he's in this state, Romeo's
speech is childish and repetitive:

She is too fair, too wise, wisely too fair
To merit bliss by making me despair.
(I, i, 224-25)

It's no wonder that Benvolio wants the old Romeo back.  Like a true
friend, he tries to solve the problem.  He promises to find another
girl to make Romeo forget his grief.

ROMEO AND JULIET: LINES 1-34

In the last scene, we heard about Romeo before we met him; now we
hear about Juliet.

Lord Capulet is in a good mood, and we soon find out why:  Count
Paris, the Prince's relative and Verona's most eligible bachelor,
wants to marry Juliet.  Paris is an honorable man, and he goes
through the accepted procedure for acquiring a wife--he asks her
father for her hand in marriage.

Here we see Lord Capulet's public personality.  He seems like a
gracious patriarch and father-figure.  He claims Juliet is too young
to be married, but encourages Paris to win her heart.  He wastes no
time in getting the two young people together; he invites Paris to a
party so he can start dating Juliet that very night.

From this short scene we learn quite a bit about Juliet.  At
thirteen, she's already very attractive.  She's the Capulets' only
child; Lord Capulet calls her "the hopeful lady of my earth." Here is
another image of light and dark.  He describes her and the other
young girls who'll be at the party as "stars that make dark heaven
light." But we'll have to wait a while longer to meet her.

ROMEO AND JULIET: LINES 35-104

Capulet gives his servant a list of other people to invite to the
party.  There's only one problem:  the servant can't read.  He
doesn't mention this as Capulet and Paris leave; he's still trying to
decipher the list when he runs into Romeo and Benvolio.

After joking around (when the servant is called "Clown" we expect no
less), Romeo finally reads the guest list to him.  The list includes
Tybalt, Romeo's friend Mercutio, and the young woman Romeo's in love
with:  the lovely Rosaline.  When Romeo and Benvolio ask where this
party will be, the servant replies

My master is the
great rich Capulet, and if you be not of
the house of Montague, I pray you come
(I, ii, 81-82)

Of course, they are Montagues, but Benvolio decides they should go
anyway, as he has a scheme to help Romeo forget Rosaline.  But Romeo
isn't convinced.  He wants to go just to look at Rosaline.

NOTE:  Romeo's chance meeting with Capulet's illiterate servant and
his invitation to the ball is the first fateful accident that guides
the action of the play.  Be on the lookout for other chance
happenings.

ROMEO AND JULIET: ACT I, SCENE III

Now we go from the men on the street to the women in the Capulets'
house.  It's almost party time, and Lady Capulet is looking for her
daughter.  The tension is building.  A lot has happened and we
haven't even seen Juliet yet.  What does she look like?  How does she
talk?  Why does everyone fall in love with her?  We finally get to
meet Juliet--but not all of our questions are answered.  She doesn't
say much in this scene.  She's an obedient child, literally, "seen
but not heard." Later, when she isn't surrounded by grown-ups, we'll
really get to know Juliet.

The person we do get to know is the Nurse.  Lady Capulet has
something important to tell Juliet, but it's the Nurse who talks
through the entire scene.  At the beginning, Lady Capulet asks her
where Juliet is, and she replies:

Now, by my maidenhead at twelve year old,
I bade her come.
(I, iii, 2)

That's roughly equivalent to "By my virginity when I was twelve, I
swear I've called her!" We see right away that the Nurse likes to
make funny sexual remarks, but who would say such a thing to the Lady
of the house?  The Nurse gets away with it, and she's going to get
away with a lot more.

Lady Capulet wants to talk to Juliet privately, and she sends
everyone away.  But she soon remembers that the Nurse is Juliet's
second mother (she even nursed Juliet when she was a baby) and Lady
Capulet calls her back.

The Nurse is a funny old woman.  She talks incessantly, uses words
that she doesn't understand, and repeats herself constantly.  But she
is devoted to Juliet.

When she does finally get a word in, Lady Capulet comes right to the
point and asks Juliet, "How stands your dispositions to be married?"
Juliet demurely replies, "it is an honor I dream not of," before the
Nurse starts talking again.  But now Lady Capulet takes over.  She
has two good reasons that Juliet should consider marriage:  she
herself was married at Juliet's age, and Paris is a good catch.  Lady
Capulet reminds Juliet that Paris is young, handsome, well thought
of, and rich.

The Nurse agrees completely, but her reasons for marriage have to do
with sex.  She tells Juliet

Go, girl, seek happy nights to happy days.
(I, iii, 106)

NOTE:  Imagine how you would feel if you had to marry someone your
parents picked for you.  For Juliet, however, this was the custom of
her times.  She wasn't expected to marry for love.

ROMEO AND JULIET: ACT I, SCENE IV

As soon as the innocent Juliet has promised to try to like Paris,
we're back with Romeo.

He's on his way to the Capulets' party with his friends, and he and
Benvolio are trying to decide if they should give the customary
speech that "masked" or uninvited guests usually give.  Benvolio says
no, that's old-fashioned.  He just wants to get in, dance, and leave.

Then, just as the Nurse stole the last scene from Juliet, Romeo's
friend Mercutio steals this one from Romeo.  Mercutio, like Paris, is
related to the Prince, and he doesn't have to worry about
gate-crashing the Capulets' party because he's been invited.

Mercutio is witty and sarcastic, and quickly becomes the center of
attention.  Unlike Benvolio, he isn't about to put up with Romeo's
romantic mooning, and Romeo's lovesickness becomes the butt of most
of his jokes.  When Romeo is suddenly seized by a feeling of dread,
he tries to tell Mercutio, but Mercutio turns it into a joke:

Romeo. I dreamt a dream tonight.
Mercutio. And so did I.
Romeo. Well, what was yours?
Mercutio. That dreamers often lie.
Romeo. In bed asleep, while they do dream things true.
Mercutio. O, then I see Queen Mab hath been with you.
(I, iv, 49-53)

Then Mercutio launches into his witty speech about Queen Mab, the
fairies' midwife who "delivers" dreams.  This speech is very
imaginative.  Mercutio goes from one topic to another almost as if
he's dreaming.  By the middle of the speech, Mercutio is really
rolling.  He talks about elves and fairies and prayers.  But the
clever images take on an angry edge, and Mercutio starts to lose
control of himself.  It's ironic that Romeo, whom Mercutio has
accused of being out of his senses, is the one to calm Mercutio down.

Meaning to make fun of superstitions and supernatural powers,
Mercutio ends up reminding us that there are mysterious forces at
work.  Benvolio breaks the mood by claiming Mercutio's
long-windedness will make them late, but Romeo remains behind because
he has a premonition of danger.  He says:

My mind misgives
Some consequence yet hanging in the stars
Shall bitterly begin his fearful date
With this night's revels and expire the term
Of a despised life, closed in my breast,
By some vile forfeit of untimely death.
But he that hath the steerage of my course,
Direct my sail! On, lusty gentlemen!
(I, iv, 107-13)

NOTE:  All of us have had unexplainable feelings of dread or
uneasiness about something we're about to do.  But Romeo's feeling is
very strong, and very specific.  He's had a dream that's made him
feel that the forces unleashed this night will cause his death.
Romeo has several dreams in the play, some proving more accurate than
others.  But both he and Juliet have reoccurring premonitions--a
feeling of knowing what's going to happen--and these are always
right.  But now, no one else will even listen to Romeo's dream, let
alone take it seriously.  So he tries to push it aside, and goes on
to the party.

This speech has been used as evidence for three different
explanations of why Romeo and Juliet meet their tragic ends.

1) Romeo says he feels "some consequence yet hanging in the
stars"--is fate waiting for him to walk into its trap?

2) Trying to shake off his feelings of doom, he says, "But he that
hath the steerage of my course, direct my sail." Some readers feel
this is an appeal to Providence--the Protestants in Elizabethan times
would assume that God has the steerage of his course.  Is Providence
really in charge here?  Does this tragedy have to happen for the good
of the two families?

3) Romeo concludes by saying, "Oh, lusty gentleman!" Whether he meant
"lusty" in the sexual sense, or just the robust, passionate sense,
Elizabethans could read this as a reason for Romeo's downfall.  To
them, selfless love, or love of God, was holy, and selfish love, that
gratified personal passions, sinful.  According to this view, Romeo's
already in trouble, for he's nothing if not passionate.  His lusty
cohorts, likewise, could be in for a bad time.

ROMEO AND JULIET: ACT I, SCENE V

We go from Romeo and his dark thoughts to a playful group of servants.

NOTE:  Watch how often this happens during the play; serious scenes
follow silly ones, and poetic scenes are followed by quick dialogue.

Also, notice how many short scenes have come before the party scene.
So many people have been getting ready for it that we're ready for
something important to happen--and it does.

Now we're back in the Capulets' house, and Lord Capulet is in his
element, happily welcoming all his guests.  He's thrilled to see the
young men in masks--it reminds him of his bachelor days when he did
the same thing.

Then we have to sit back and imagine what we'd see if we were at the
party:  a beautiful hall in a wealthy man's house, plenty of food,
musicians playing, and lovely women dancing with dashing men.
Benvolio joins right in.  Rosaline is there somewhere, but Romeo
doesn't have time for her:  he's already seen Juliet.

Juliet must be breathtakingly beautiful:  both Paris and Romeo are
enchanted by her looks before they even meet her.  But something more
is going on here:  Romeo is so entranced that he's forgotten that he
ever had a crush on anyone else.  The silly, repetitious praises he
made for Rosaline become wonderful, mature poetry as he exclaims
about Juliet:

O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!
It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night
As a rich jewel in an Ethiop's ear
Beauty too rich for use, for earth too dear!
(I, v, 46-50)

Romeo is talking to himself as he says this, which was an accepted
custom on the Elizabethan stage.  But, unexpectedly, someone
overhears him; and, unfortunately, that someone is Tybalt.

Tybalt is furious.  He recognizes Romeo and wants to kill him on the
spot, but Lord Capulet stops him.  Capulet calls Romeo "a virtuous
and well-governed youth" while calling Tybalt "a saucy boy" and "a
princox." For the first time we see Capulet unleash his anger on
someone who doesn't instantly obey him.  In the same speech, he goes
back and forth between speaking jovially to his guests and calling
Tybalt ugly names.  True, Tybalt deserves it; but we'll later see
Capulet act the same way towards someone who doesn't.

ROMEO AND JULIET: LINES 95-145

Romeo finally meets Juliet.  They're not formally introduced; they
don't know each other's names.  Romeo reverently calls her "dear
saint," and likens her hand to a shrine, and his lips to two pilgrims
who've come to the shrine to be forgiven their sins.  Who could
resist a romantic line like that?  Not Juliet.  She's instantly
smitten with this mysterious young man, but she gives him a run for
his money.  He asks if saints have lips as well as hands, and she
says yes, but lips are used for prayer.  When he does finally kiss
her lips to absolve his "sin", she asks if her lips now have the sin,
and makes him kiss her again to take it back.  It's ironic that from
the beginning Romeo claims that kissing Juliet pardons his sins, when
some feel that their passion is the sin that leads to their downfall.

NOTE:  Romeo and Juliet fit together so well from the beginning that
their gentle battle of wits (interspersed with joyful kisses) forms a
sonnet--lines 95 to 108.  Shakespeare seems to be telling us that the
moment was so beautiful it had to be preserved as a poem.

The young lovers are interrupted by the Nurse, who tells Juliet that
her mother wishes to see her.  Romeo asks the Nurse who Juliet's
mother is, and when he finds out, he exclaims:

Is she a Capulet?
O dear account! My life is my foe's debt!
(I, v, 119-20)

As the party breaks up, Juliet casually asks the Nurse to identify
several young men, including Romeo.  When the Nurse goes off to find
out who he is, Juliet whispers to herself, "If he is married, my
grave is like to be my wedding bed." We know that the opposite of
this will be true; it is the first of many ironic foreshadowings.

NOTE:  This is the first time that marriage is linked to death.  Keep
an eye out for this idea to reoccur.

When Juliet learns his identity, her cry echos Romeo's:
My only love, sprung from my only hate!
Too early seen unknown, and known too late!
(I, v, 140-141)

ROMEO AND JULIET: ACT II, PROLOGUE

The Chorus (which, in Shakespeare's day, was only one person) appears
as in Act I to comment on the action.  Again, Shakespeare uses a
sonnet.

Romeo's love for Rosaline is dead, we're told.  He now loves Juliet.
Romeo and Juliet don't really know each other yet, but they have both
been "bewitched by the charm of looks."

At the end of the sonnet, we're told that neither fate, nor
Providence, but passion lends the lovers power to meet.  How can good
come from "sinful" passion?  The wise Friar Lawrence will explain
this later in the act.

ROMEO AND JULIET: ACT II, SCENE I

The party's over and Romeo's out on the street.  He's dazed after
meeting Juliet, and reluctant to go home.  When he hears Benvolio and
Mercutio coming, he ducks out of sight.

Benvolio and Mercutio, still in a party mood, are looking for their
friend.  Benvolio calls for Romeo by name, but Mercutio is more
inventive.  He calls, "Romeo!  Humors!  Madman!  Passion!  Lover!"
and says that if Romeo will only mutter lovers' cliches he'll know
it's him.

Mercutio assumes that Romeo is still pining away for Rosaline.  In
fact, Mercutio says the best he can do is to conjure up the ghost of
the old Romeo.

Benvolio finally decides they should just
Go then, for 'tis in vain
To seek him here that means not to be found.
(II, i, 41-42)

ROMEO AND JULIET: LINES 1-49

Romeo's hiding in an orchard but he's heard Mercutio's sarcastic
remarks.  "He jests at scars that never felt a wound!" Romeo
complains.

But then Romeo realizes where he is, and the whole scene turns
around.  By coincidence he's in the Capulets' orchard, and
Juliet--who's also too excited to sleep--has come to her window.

Romeo can't believe his good luck.  Still hidden in the orchard, he
gazes up at the girl the same way he would gaze at the heavens.  He
turns his wonder and joy into poetry.  Juliet again represents light
to him--she is the sun, and her eyes are brighter than two stars.
But although his love poetry about Juliet is much more creative and
mature than his verses about Rosaline, Romeo still keeps his
distance.  Instead of speaking to her, he muses,

See how she leans her cheek upon her hand!
O, that I were a glove upon that hand
That I might touch that cheek.
(II, ii, 23-25)

Then, to Romeo's delight, Juliet begins to speak.  This is the second
time that someone who's been talking to him or herself has been
overheard.  And, for the second time, it changes the course of the
play.

The lovestruck Juliet is talking to herself about Romeo.  But instead
of comparing him to stars and gods (as Romeo compared her) she gets
down to the practical matter of wondering why he has to be a
Montague.  "Tis but thy name that's my enemy," she says.  What do
names matter anyway?  "That which we call a rose by any other name
would smell as sweet." She ends by proclaiming

Romeo, doff thy name;
And for that name, which is no part of thee
Take all myself.
(II, ii, 47-49)

ROMEO AND JULIET: LINES 49-185

Juliet's offer is too much for Romeo to ignore.  He rushes out of
hiding, saying:

I take thee at thy word!
Call me but love, and I'll be new baptized;
Henceforth I never will be Romeo.
(II, ii, 49-51)

Juliet is shocked that there's a man in the orchard--wouldn't you be?
She's even more shocked that he's been eavesdropping.  She doesn't
recognize him until he calls her "dear saint".

Their conversation immediately points up the differences in their
personalities.  Juliet asks short, practical questions, and Romeo
gives idealistic, flowery replies.

But their temperamental differences are complementary.  They are both
kind, noble people, and they're madly in love.

Juliet is embarrassed that Romeo overheard her frank statement of
love.  She offers to be shier, more coquettish, if he'd like; but
she'd rather not, she loves him too much to play silly games.  She
asks him if he loves her, and he starts to swear that he does; but
she stops him and asks him not to swear.  Before Romeo can come up
with a good answer to this, Juliet suddenly becomes afraid.

Although I joy in thee,
I have no joy in this contract tonight.
It is too rash, too unadvised, too sudden;
Too like the lightning, which does cease to be
Ere one can say it lightens.
(II, ii, 116-20)

How can we blame the lovers for the tragedy, when Juliet herself
wishes their love were less sudden, more conventional?  Every step of
the way, we see that Romeo and Juliet try their best to do the right
and honorable thing.

NOTE:  Here our sympathy lies with the lovers as they do their best
to fight fate.  But at the same time, Juliet's image of lightning is
the first of several times that their passion will be described as a
blinding light that will die instantly.

Juliet tries to say goodnight then, but Romeo asks her to stay.  He
wants more than the vow of love she spoke to herself; he wants her to
tell him that she loves him.

True to her word, Juliet isn't shy; she declares her love more
passionately than she did before.  She tells him,

My passion is as boundless as the sea
My love as deep; The more I give to thee,
The more I have, for both are infinite.
(II, ii, 133-35)

The Nurse calls to Juliet from inside, and the girl hurries in,
promising to return.  When she does return, she is again the
practical one.  She comes straight to the point:  if his love is
honorable and his purpose marriage, he should send word to her of
when and where they'll be married, "and all my fortunes at thy foot
I'll lay / and follow thee my lord throughout the earth." But if he
doesn't mean well, he should tell her right away and leave her to her
grief.  Romeo is as eager as she is to be married, and he promises
he'll have it arranged by nine o'clock that morning.

NOTE:  Juliet complains that "Tis twenty year till then." The lovers
have entered into their own reality.  In truth, time speeds by.  All
of this has happened in one day, and by the end of the next day, much
will have changed.  Be sure to watch the difference between actual
lengths of time, and how time feels to the lovers.

Then, like lovers of any time, they can't stand to say good night.
Finally they part, but only to make plans to consummate their love.

ROMEO AND JULIET: LINES 1-32

From the passion of the night, we go to the calm of early morning.
As the sun rises, we find Friar Lawrence is in his cell (room)
preparing to go out and gather "baleful weeds and precious-juiced
flowers." He's a man who knows herbs and medicines; by his
descriptions of the dawn and the dew, he's a man who loves nature.
But his view of it is realistic:  he knows that the same flower can
be used for medicine or poison.  After this scene, it will seem
natural that the Friar will try to use his knowledge of medicines and
potions to help the lovers.

Some readers feel that in this speech, Friar Lawrence states the
themes of the play.  He is aware of paradoxes:

The earth that's nature's mother is her tomb.
What is her burying grave, that is her womb
(II, iii, 9-10)

He also understands that everything--including people--have the
potential for good or for evil:

For naught so vile that on the earth doth live
But to the earth some special good doth give;
Nor ought so good but, strained from that fair use,
Revolts from true birth, stumbling on abuse.
Virtue itself turns vice, being misapplied,
And vice sometime by action dignified.
(II, iii, 17-22)

NOTE:  How does this apply to the lovers?  Are we to think that love,
a virtue, can become a sin?  Or passion, a sin, can be used for good?
Keep these questions in mind through the next few scenes.

ROMEO AND JULIET: LINES 31-94

Before the friar can leave his cell, Romeo calls a greeting.  The
friar is delighted to see him.  He calls Romeo "young son", and means
it in a deeper sense than the usual priest-parishioner relationship.
The two are very close.  Friar Lawrence knows more about Romeo than
do his parents.  When Romeo admits that he's been up all night, the
friar sighs, "God pardon sin!  Wast thou with Rosaline?"

But Romeo says he has only good news for the friar.  He tells him
he's forgotten Rosaline, and has been "feasting with mine enemy."
When the friar asks him not to speak in riddles, Romeo comes to the
point--he loves Juliet and wants the friar to marry them that very
day.  The friar's instant reaction is an emphatic no.

Holy Saint Francis! What a change is here!
Is Rosaline, that thou didst love so dear,
So soon forsaken? Young men's love then lies
Not truly in their hearts, but in their eyes.
(II, iii, 65-68)

By the end of the scene, Friar Lawrence hasn't yet promised to marry
them, but he admits that Romeo and Juliet's love could work to bury
their families' hatred.  Romeo pleads with him to hurriedly help them
make plans but Friar Lawrence answers:

Wisely and slow. They stumble that run fast.
(II, iii, 94)

This is another warning we know will go unheeded.

ROMEO AND JULIET: ACT II, SCENE IV

From the quiet church, we go back to the streets.  Mercutio and
Benvolio are out again, and still looking for Romeo.  Benvolio tells
Mercutio two choice bits of information:  that Romeo didn't come home
at all that night, and that Tybalt has sent Romeo a letter
challenging him to a duel.  Benvolio says he's sure that Romeo will
accept Tybalt's challenge.  Mercutio bets he won't--Romeo's as good
as dead already, "run through the ear with a love song." Tybalt is an
expert swordsman, he adds, and Romeo's in no state to take him on.

This is funny to us, because we know that Romeo doesn't care about
Rosaline anymore.  But we also feel the danger, because we know that
Tybalt's threat is nothing to take lightly.

NOTE:  Have you ever had two good friends who had nothing, besides
you, in common?  Benvolio and Mercutio are like that.  They're an odd
couple when Romeo isn't around.

Mercutio uses his own witty descriptions of Tybalt to launch into
more punning and wordplay.  Unlike Romeo, Benvolio is no match for
Mercutio's wit; in fact, he doesn't even try to be.  Mercutio's in
fine form; he makes fun of everything that comes to mind.  He's
obviously well-educated, and knows French.  He uses this to make fun
of people who, putting on airs, throw around French phrases.  This
would be funny to people in Shakespeare's audience, because English
people were as likely to show their snobbishness by speaking French
as Italian people (like Mercutio) were.

Romeo enters in the middle of one of Mercutio's tirades.  Pretending
not to notice him, Mercutio lists many of history's great lovers, and
claims that they all seem like prostitutes next to Rosaline.  But
Romeo's not only his old self again, he's his new self as well, and
more than Mercutio's match at wordgames.  Mercutio is so surprised at
the change in Romeo, that at one point he cries, "Come between us,
good Benvolio, my wits faints!" Again in the middle of a joke comes a
grim foreshadowing of what will come.

Mercutio is thrilled to have his old friend back. He exclaims

Why, is this not better than groaning for love?
Now art thou sociable, now art thou Romeo.
(II, iv, 92-94)

NOTE:  In this scene, we see how much the two friends care about each
other.  This friendship will be important to the action of the play.

ROMEO AND JULIET:  LINES 106-67

The young men soon turn from making fun of each other to making fun
of others.  Romeo spies an old servant-woman all dressed up and
trying to act ladylike.  She's wearing a very noticeable hat, too,
for as soon as Romeo sees her, he shouts, "A sail!  A sail!" He
doesn't recognize her as Juliet's nurse, and before he does, Mercutio
takes over.

The Nurse has some wit and an earthy humor, but she's no match for
Mercutio's intelligence.  The more she tries to act upper-class the
worse it gets.  Mercutio pretends to go along with her, then cracks
racy jokes at her expense.  The final insult is that Peter, the
Nurse's servant, thinks it's funny, too.

She finally says she's looking for Romeo.  Romeo sends Mercutio and
Benvolio away, promising to join them for supper.  The Nurse is still
furious with Mercutio, but Romeo assures her that he's only, "a
gentleman, nurse, who loves to hear himself talk."

ROMEO AND JULIET: LINES 168-222

Romeo finally calms the Nurse, but she remains defensive and
protective of Juliet.  She warns Romeo that he'd better not lead her
into a "fool's paradise."

As soon as Romeo begins to speak, the Nurse is won over.  Once he
tells her the plan, the Nurse is her old self.  After a good chat,
Romeo and the Nurse go their separate ways.

ROMEO AND JULIET: ACT II, SCENE V

While the Nurse is meeting with Romeo, Juliet waits at home.  She's
very impatient--and who wouldn't be?  Haven't you had an evening that
was so wonderful that the next morning, you wondered if the whole
thing was a dream?  This is how Juliet feels.  She won't know until
the Nurse returns if last night was too good to be true--or if this
is her wedding day.

Finally the Nurse returns.  She has the news Juliet's been waiting
for, but she isn't telling.  Instead, she teases Juliet, acting sad,
complaining of her aching bones and shortage of breath.  The more
Juliet pleads, the more the Nurse teases her.

We get the feeling that the Nurse has done this to Juliet before.  It
might have been a funny game when Juliet was little, but now that she
needs important information, the Nurse's prattle seems thoughtless
and cruel.

NOTE:  We begin to notice that the whole play revolves around
messages, and that the two lovers depend on the message-bearers.  If
Juliet has this much trouble with the Nurse this early, can we be
sure that later messages will reach their destinations?

Yet the Nurse really does care for Juliet.  She finally tells her the
happy news:  Juliet should go to the friar's cell, for "there stays a
husband to make you a wife." The Nurse will keep the lovers' secret
and get the rope-ladder (which Romeo will climb to Juliet's balcony)
so the couple can spend their wedding night together.

ROMEO AND JULIET: ACT II, SCENE VI

A little while later, Friar Lawrence and Romeo are waiting in the
Friar's cell.  Romeo says something that sounds odd, coming from a
bridegroom:

Do thou but close our hands with holy words,
Then love-devouring death do what he dare-
It is enough I may but call her mine.
(II, vi, 6-8)

He's still responding, perhaps subconsciously, to his earlier fear
that he's about to die.  Does he really mean that if they're married,
he's won, even over death?  If those are his terms for victory, have
the lovers "won" at the end of the play?

The Friar, doing his religious duty, restates the church's warning
about their passion:

These violent delights have violent ends
And in their triumph die, like fire and powder,
Which, as they kiss, consume.
(II, vi, 9-11)

Again, the lovers' passion is compared to a brilliant light that goes
out as soon as it's lit.

But when Juliet enters, the Friar can't help but admire her, almost
as much as Romeo does.

Romeo and Juliet are so thrilled just to be together that getting
married almost seems an added attraction.  But the Friar nonetheless
recognizes the depth of their passion.  He decides he'd better get
them married before he leaves them alone, so that their physical
relationship will be holy.

ROMEO AND JULIET: LINES 1-35

Act III opens with Benvolio and Mercutio out on the street again, but
their tone has changed.  Benvolio begs Mercutio, "let's retire...
For now, these hot days, is the mad blood stirring."

Mercutio blames Benvolio for being hot-headed and looking for a
fight.  The irony is that everything for which Mercutio blames
Benvolio is actually true of Mercutio.

Their banter is still funny, but it has dangerous overtones.
Mercutio says that if there were two hotheaded people out, soon there
would be none, for they'd kill each other.  Benvolio says that the
life expectancy of someone in Mercutio's fighting mood is an hour and
a quarter.  As insults between friends, these lines are funny.
Unfortunately, they're going to come true.

ROMEO AND JULIET: LINES 36-138

As if on cue, Tybalt enters, looking for Romeo.  Mercutio insults him
and goads him to fight; the only reason that Tybalt won't fight
Mercutio is that he's still obsessed with the "injury" that Romeo's
done to his family.

Just then, Romeo comes in, fresh from his wedding.  Tybalt is
thrilled; but try as he might, Tybalt can't get Romeo to fight.
Romeo doesn't pay any attention to his insults; instead he calls him
"cousin," and says he holds the name Capulet as dear as his own.  The
feud might have ended right there, and the lovers could have lived
happily ever after.  But Mercutio is there, and he's appalled at
Romeo's actions.  He calls "O, calm, dishonorable, vile submission!"
and takes up Tybalt's challenge himself.

We, like Romeo, want to part the two hot-tempered fighters.  But just
as Romeo runs between them, Tybalt stabs Mercutio, then runs off.
This is the turning point of the play:  the comedy has turned
irrevocably to tragedy.

Mercutio's friends don't realize how badly he's hurt.  True to form,
Mercutio's making puns.  But then he asks Romeo, "Why the devil came
you between us?  I was hurt under your arm." All that Romeo can
answer is, "I thought all for the best."

Romeo's good intentions aren't enough; Mercutio dies, cursing the
Montagues and Capulets.  Now Romeo has a reason to fight the
Capulets.  One of his best friends is dead, and he feels that it's
his fault.  All of us know, don't we, how bad we feel when we
inadvertently hurt one of our best friends.  Can you imagine how
terrible you'd feel if your best friend accidentally died because of
something you'd done?

Would the old Romeo have let this happen?  Romeo doesn't know; he's
overcome with guilt and grief.  He wonders if his love for Juliet has
made him effeminate, taken away his courage.  By the time Tybalt
returns, Romeo has forgotten his feelings of love, and has given in
to hate.  He yells, "fire-eyed fury be my conduct now!" and tells
Tybalt that one of them must join Mercutio.  It's a fight to the
death, but the furious Romeo manages to kill the sword-skilled
Tybalt.

Benvolio, as always thinking clearly, urges Romeo to flee, as
fighting in the streets carries the death penalty.  A crowd is
forming.  Only then, does Romeo realize the consequences of his rash
action, crying, "O, I am fortune's fool!" before he's hurried away.

ROMEO AND JULIET: LINES 139-99

The Prince comes to the scene, and so do the Montagues and Capulets.
Benvolio stays to give a fair, unbiased account of the fight.  Lady
Capulet is anguished over Tybalt's death; she claims Benvolio is
lying and demands that Romeo be killed.  Instead, the Prince banishes
Romeo from Verona, "else when he is found, that hour is his last."
The Prince is outraged that one of his relatives has been killed in
the Capulet-Montague feud.  He fines both families heavily.  He's let
them off too easily in the past, he says, and this fight proves that
"Mercy but murders, pardoning those that kill."

ROMEO AND JULIET: LINES 1-31

Juliet's in the Capulets' orchard.  Completely unaware of what's
happened, she's busy making plans for her wedding-night.  Losing her
virginity is a serious thing to Juliet, but she's more than ready to
sleep with Romeo.

NOTE:  Again, we see that Romeo represents light to her.  He is her
"day in night," and she fantasizes that when he dies, Romeo could be
cut up into stars and put in the sky.  Then everyone could be in love
with night.

Here, we get a glimpse of a young girl growing up.  She will soon be
a matron herself, but as yet, she is "an impatient child that hath
new robes / and may not wear them."

ROMEO AND JULIET: LINES 32-143

The Nurse arrives with news of the fight.  As she did earlier that
morning, she wrings her hands, and looks sad; again Juliet pleads for
the news.  This time, the Nurse garbles the message, leading Juliet
to believe first that Romeo has been killed, then that Romeo has
committed suicide; then that Romeo and Tybalt are both dead, and
finally that Romeo has killed Tybalt.

Juliet is stunned.  She can't believe Tybalt is dead, and she calls
Romeo "a damned saint and an honorable villain." But when the Nurse
cries, "Shame come to Romeo!" Juliet jumps to his defense.  She knew
of Tybalt's temper, and says "that villain cousin would have killed
my husband." Her loyalty is no longer with her family, but with her
husband.  She cries that Romeo's banishment is worse than 10,000
slain Tybalts:

"Romeo is banished"--to speak that word
Is father, mother, Tybalt, Romeo, Juliet,
All slain, all dead.
(III, ii, 123-24)

Juliet then says this means that she is married to the death; we know
that this is truer than she realizes.

The Nurse finally tells Juliet the news she should have told her at
the beginning:  Romeo is hiding in Friar Lawrence's cell, and can
come to her that night.  Juliet gives the Nurse one of her rings to
give to Romeo, and sends her off right away.

ROMEO AND JULIET: LINES 1-78

If we were watching a movie, we might see a fade-out on Juliet crying
"banished," and a fade-in on Romeo crying the same thing.  He's in
Friar Lawrence's cell, and the Friar has just told him of the
Prince's judgment.  The Friar is very relieved that Romeo isn't
condemned to death, and he's confident that eventually things will
work out.

But Romeo can see no future for himself:  to be separated from Juliet
is unthinkable to him.  In another foreshadowing, he asks for poison
or a knife with which to kill himself.

Friar Lawrence tries to calm Romeo with philosophy and common sense,
but Romeo cries, "Hang philosophy!" The Friar accuses Romeo of acting
like a madman; Romeo accuses the Friar of not understanding the
situation or his feelings.

But does that mean he shouldn't take any of Lawrence's advise?  By
the time there's a knocking at the door, Romeo even refuses to hide.
He'd rather be killed.

ROMEO AND JULIET: LINES 79-175

Fortunately, the intruder is Juliet's Nurse.  She tells the Friar
that Juliet is acting as childishly as Romeo.

She orders Romeo to stand up and act like a man, then tells him
Juliet's weeping, first calling for Tybalt, then for Romeo.  Romeo's
filled with guilt, thinking he's responsible for Juliet's suffering.
He grabs his dagger to kill himself, but the Nurse pulls it away.

This threat finally provokes Friar Lawrence to action.  Not only does
he love Romeo dearly, but the Church sees suicide as a mortal sin.
He commands Romeo to "hold thy desperate hand," and act like a man.
"Thy tears are womanish," he accuses, "thy wild acts denote the
unreasonable fury of a beast."

He tells Romeo to think of others beside himself, and to keep his
mood in check.  In yet another foreshadowing he asks:

Hast thou slain Tybalt? Will thou slay thyself?
And slay thy lady that in thy life lives
By doing damned hate upon thyself?
(III, iii, 116-18)

He also warns that Romeo's present mood is likely to cause a
catastrophe that can be easily avoided.  Knowing what we know, we
want to add our support to these warnings.

The friar goes a little overboard in saying that "a pack of blessings
light upon thy back," but he points out three reasons that Romeo
should be grateful:  1) "Juliet is alive;" 2) "Tybalt would kill
thee, but thou slewest Tybalt," and 3) "The law, threatened death,
becomes thy friend and turns it to exile."

Friar Lawrence then lays out the plan of action:  Romeo will spend
the night with Juliet, sneak out of Verona before dawn and go to
Mantua; then Friar Lawrence, after having their marriage recognized,
will call him back.

The thought of seeing Juliet revives Romeo completely.  Friar
Lawrence and Romeo say loving goodbyes to one other; unknown to them,
it's their final farewell.

ROMEO AND JULIET: ACT III, SCENE IV

A few hours later, we're back at the Capulets' house, where Lord and
Lady Capulet are saying good night to Count Paris.  Why are we back
with them?  What do they have to do with the lovers?

Paris has come to see Juliet, but her father explains that she's
grief-stricken at Tybalt's death.  Because Juliet's mourning, her
parents haven't been able to ask her how she feels about Paris.

Paris is a thoughtful young man, and he understands completely.  He
sends his best regards to Juliet and starts to leave.  We can't
really help but like Paris; he obviously loves Juliet very much.
He's a good man, he's just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Fate seems to be playing with him as much as it is with Romeo and
Juliet.

As Paris is leaving, Lord Capulet is suddenly convinced that Juliet
will obey his wishes in this matter.  To him, Juliet and Paris'
eventual marriage is certain, and he calls Paris "son;" He now
decides to assuage Juliet's grief by setting their wedding for that
very week.  It's still Monday (and what a day--it's included
marriage, death, and banishment!) so Wednesday is too soon--they'll
be married on Thursday.

Capulet asks Paris if this is all right--since the family is mourning
for Tybalt, it will be a small wedding.  (This would be a sacrifice
since someone of Paris' stature would expect to have a huge wedding
celebration.) Paris loves Juliet so much that he agrees instantly.

Suddenly, Paris is a very real threat to the lovers.  Juliet's second
wedding is only two days away.

ROMEO AND JULIET: LINES 1-64

While Lord Capulet is making arrangements for Juliet's marriage to
Paris, Juliet is secretly in her bedroom with Romeo.  In contrast to
the quick, businesslike scene with Paris, the two lovers revel in
each other's presence as if life and time were theirs to command.
They speak tenderly to each other, and their language is beautiful
and mature.  We can see that their love has never been deeper.

Romeo says it's near day and he has to leave for Mantua, but Juliet
begs him to stay.  Overcome with the joy of being with her, Romeo
throws caution to the wind.  Then Juliet realizes it really is near
day, and he really is in danger, and she begs him to go quickly.  It
seems that even nature is working against them:  light and day, which
used to be their friend, is now their enemy:

Juliet. O, now be gone! More light and light it grows.
Romeo. More light and light--more dark and dark our woes.
(III, v, 35-36)

NOTE:  In the prologue to Act II, time was their friend and helped
them meet in secret.  But now time, too, is keeping them apart.
Juliet says

I must hear from thee every day in the hour
For in a minute there are many days.
O, by this count I shall be much in years
Ere I again behold my Romeo!
(III, v, 44-47)

This also contrasts the lovers' sense of how time can stretch and
seem longer, to the condensed time that is catching up with them and
starting to crush them.  The two days they've known each other have
seemed long because so much has happened.  But from now on, time is
going to rush by, pushing them from one tragedy to another.

As Romeo finally drops to the ground from Juliet's window, she has a
terrible feeling of foreboding:  she thinks she sees Romeo, not on
the ground, but "as one dead in the bottom of a tomb." Romeo says
that his grief makes her look the same way to him.

As Romeo leaves, Juliet pleads to Fortune to send him back to her quickly.

ROMEO AND JULIET: LINES 65-126

The Nurse warns Juliet that her mother is coming, and Juliet's startled--it's well before dawn.

When Lady Capulet finds Juliet crying, she assumes Juliet's grief is
for Tybalt.  She tells her daughter that she's carrying it too far;
tears can't bring Tybalt back.  The real tragedy, she says, is that
Tybalt's murderer is still alive.  Lady Capulet's dearest wish is to
send someone to Mantua to poison Romeo.

Through their whole conversation, Juliet talks in double meanings.
To her mother it sounds like she mourns for Tybalt and hates Romeo;
but we know she means just the opposite.

Does her talk, with hidden meaning, show her new maturity and her
ability to hide her feelings?  Or does she speak childishly and
contribute to her own sense of loneliness?  In either case, we feel
strongly that the lovers are alone against the world.

NOTE:  Throughout the story, plot turnarounds have happened fairly
quickly.  Romeo turned quickly from loving Rosaline to loving Juliet;
the couple's wedding soon turned into horror at the deaths of
Mercutio and Tybalt.  Now events and turnarounds start happening so
fast that characters have to make instant decisions and think on
their feet.

Lady Capulet says she has happy news for Juliet:  she will marry
Paris on Thursday.  The mother seems genuinely happy for her
daughter:  Paris is gallant, young and noble--everything her own
husband is not.

NOTE:  Was there ever a time when your parents worked hard on a
surprise for you--but it was something you didn't want?  Do you
remember the anger and hurt on both sides?  This is part of what's
happening here with the Capulets--but the stakes are very high.

Juliet angrily refuses to marry Paris.  Why should she marry someone
who hasn't even wooed her?  She swears by the saints she won't marry
anyone, and if she does it will more likely be Romeo, whom her
parents hate, than Paris.  She ends with an emphatic "These are news
indeed!", roughly equivalent to:  "So what do you think about that!"

Lady Capulet knows better than to get caught between her daughter's
temper and her husband's.  She tells Juliet, "Here comes your father.
Tell him so yourself / and see how he will take it at your hands."

ROMEO AND JULIET: LINES 127-244

It's obvious that Juliet doesn't want to marry Paris.  But, instead
of trying to find out why and counsel her, her parents angrily disown
her.

When her father and her Nurse arrive at her bedroom, her father asks
Lady Capulet if she's given Juliet the news.  She answers with
another bit of foreshadowing:

Ay sir; but she will none, she gives you thanks.
I would the fool were married to her grave!
(III, v, 139-41)

Lord Capulet explodes with anger that Juliet should cross him this
way.  Lady Capulet tries to bring him to his senses, telling him he's
acting crazy; but in the end, only the Nurse stands up for Juliet.

Still nothing calms her father down.  He yells that his whole life
has been devoted to finding Juliet a worthy match; and now that he's
found the best one possible, she refuses, whining like a fool.  He
lays down a final ultimatum:  if she doesn't marry Paris on Thursday,
she can

Hang, beg, starve, die in the streets,
For, by my soul, I'll ne'er acknowledge thee.
(III, v, 194-95)

Juliet turns to her mother one last time:  "O sweet my mother, cast
me not away!  Delay this marriage for a month, a week." But it's no
use.  Her mother says, "Do as thou wilt, for I have done with thee."

Deserted by her parents, Juliet turns to her faithful Nurse for
advice.  The Nurse's advice is simple--forget Romeo and marry Paris.
Paris is so fine, she says, that Romeo's a dishcloth in comparison.

Juliet is shocked.  "Speakest thou from your heart?" she asks.
Juliet has a serious problem.  Legally, morally, and in her heart she
is already married.  Instead of offering a solution for her problem,
the Nurse suggests that she ignore it, pretend it hadn't happened,
and start again.

This is the worst betrayal of all.  Juliet still hides her feelings,
and tells the Nurse that she has comforted her "marvellous much." But
she cuts the final cord to her childhood.  Alone, Juliet says of her
Nurse, "Thou and my bosom henceforth shall be twain."

The girl has only one hope left--Friar Lawrence.  She resolves to go
to church to confess displeasing her father.  At this point, Juliet
has taken responsibility for her own fate.  "If all else fail, myself
have power to die," she pledges.

ROMEO AND JULIET: LINES 1-43

We find ourselves at Lawrence's cell before Juliet's arrival.  Of all
people, Paris is with the friar, having come to make plans for his
wedding.  Friar Lawrence tries to stall him, but we soon realize that
he isn't going to disclose the true situation, to Paris, or anyone
else.  Is this courageous or cowardly?  We'll wonder about the
friar's courage more in the coming scenes.

Juliet comes running in, and both she and Paris are surprised to see
each other.  It's plain to see that Paris really loves Juliet.  He
speaks tenderly to her, and is concerned that she's grieving.  When
he asks hopefully for a sign of love from her, we can't help but feel
sorry for him.

Juliet again talks in circles giving Paris answers that could mean
several things.  Although she hides her feelings, her tension shows,
She abruptly interrupts her talk with Paris to ask the Friar if he
can see her right away, or if she should come back.  The Friar sends
Paris away so that he might counsel Juliet privately.

ROMEO AND JULIET: LINES 44-126

Once they're alone in the friar's cell, Juliet drops her defenses and cries:

O shut the door, and when thou hast done so,
Come weep with me--past hope, past care, past help!
(IV, i, 44-45)

Lawrence tells her he knows of her dilemma, but "It strains me past the compass of my wits."

Juliet begs his help.  She says God joined her heart to Romeo's, and
the Friar joined their hands in marriage.  She'd rather kill herself,
she declares, than marry someone other than Romeo.

The Friar has to think fast, and the plan he comes up with is a
desperate one.  They have to stop the marriage, and to do so, they
must buy time.  Juliet is ready to agree to anything:  love and
desperation have made her strong.

The Friar lays out his plan.  Juliet should go home, ask forgiveness,
and agree to marry Paris.  The next night, before her wedding, she
should make sure she's alone.  Then she should drink a drug the Friar
will give her.  It will make her seem dead for forty-two hours.
She'll be placed in the tomb, and he'll send a letter to Romeo.  When
she wakes up, Romeo will be there to take her to Mantua, where they
can live as husband and wife.  The Friar will work to have Romeo
pardoned and their marriage recognized.

Thankfully, Juliet agrees to the plan.

ROMEO AND JULIET: ACT IV, SCENE II

Meanwhile, the Capulets are at home making plans for the wedding.
Even though Lord Capulet told Paris it would have to be a small
affair, he has the servants bustling, and twenty cooks are on the
way.

When Juliet returns, she falls at her father's feet to beg his
forgiveness.  Does she play her part well, or does she overact?  In
either case, her father makes another snap decision.  He moves the
wedding closer by one day, to the very next morning.

NOTE:  Time is really becoming an enemy to the lovers.  There isn't
time now for Romeo to receive the Friar's second message.

Surprisingly, Lady Capulet objects to this decision.  Her emotional
plea makes us wonder if she doesn't remember her own fears and
sadness about marriage.  Her excuse is if the wedding is moved
forward they'll be short of food.  But her husband isn't convinced.

Lady Capulet and the Nurse go to help Juliet pack and prepare for her
wedding.  Lord Capulet decides to go and tell Paris himself.  Now
that Juliet has agreed to the wedding, he says, "My heart is wondrous
light." He cares enough about Juliet that her refusal bothered him;
but he didn't care enough to listen to her objections and delay--or
even alter--his plans.

ROMEO AND JULIET: ACT IV, SCENE III

The women go to Juliet's bedroom.  Juliet sends the Nurse and her
mother away so she can pray.  Again we feel that Lady Capulet has a
genuine empathy for her daughter's feelings.

As soon as they've left, Juliet has second thoughts.  She wants to be
a child again; to call them back to comfort her, but she realizes,
"My dismal scene I needs must act alone." This painful part of
growing up is something all of us can relate to.

She takes out the drug, and by her speech we know how far she is from
the innocent young girl she was at the beginning of the play.  Then
the world was full of hope and promise for her; now she dearly sees
the power and threat of evil.  She wonders about the consequences of
taking the drug:

--what if the Friar, not wanting anyone to find out he'd married
them, gave her poison?

--what if she wakes up in the tomb by herself and suffocates?

--what if she wakes up in the tomb, and she's so terrified by the
bodies and the spirits that she goes crazy?  She might even dash her
brains out with some kinsman's bone.

Her courage and love prevail, however, and she downs the Friar's drug.

ROMEO AND JULIET: ACT IV, SCENE IV

It's three o'clock in the morning.  While Juliet lies seemingly dead
in her room, the rest of the house is busy.  Lord Capulet is checking
on all of the food preparations.  He's having a good time ordering
everyone around, but the Nurse orders him to go to bed.  She tells
him he'll be sick in the morning if he stays up all night.  Lord
Capulet laughs that he's stayed up for less important things and it's
never bothered him.  Lady Capulet throws in that they are all aware
that he used to be a ladies' man.

Capulet starts making jolly puns with the servants, and tells them
that Paris is bringing the musicians.  As he says that, they hear
music outside, and Capulet jumps to life.  Paris is coming!  He tells
the Nurse to run and wake Juliet.

ROMEO AND JULIET: LINES 1-95

The time has come for the bride to prepare for her wedding.  The
Nurse, excited and talking a mile a minute, hurries to Juliet's
bedroom to awaken her.  If we didn't know the truth, the Nurse's
happiness might be contagious.  She hasn't the slightest reservation
about preparing Juliet for a bigamous marriage.

She calls the girl by many pet names to wake her up.  When there's no
movement from Juliet, she calls her a "slugabed," but then jokingly
says it's a good idea for Juliet to get some sleep now, because Paris
surely has other plans for her nights.

When there's still no movement, she opens the curtains around the
bed, and discovers that Juliet is "dead."

Lady Capulet, Lord Capulet, Count Paris and Friar Lawrence rush to
Juliet's room, and each mourns her in his or her own way.

Lady Capulet shows how much Juliet really meant to her:

O me, o me, my child and only life!
Revive, look up, or I will die with thee!
(IV, v, 19-20)

Lord Capulet mourns for himself as well as his Juliet:

Death is my son-in-law, Death is my heir;
My daughter he hath wedded. I will die
And leave him all. Life, living, all is Death's.
(IV, v, 38-40)

Paris feels a terrible sense of loss:

Beguiled, divorced, wronged, spited, slain!
Most detestable Death, by thee beguiled,
By cruel, cruel thee quite overthrown.
(IV, v, 55-57)

Friar Lawrence is in a difficult position.  He knows she isn't dead,
and that she will hopefully be returned to them.  Since he can't
comfort them with this, he comforts them with their religious
beliefs.  They should be happy for her:

For 'twas your heaven she should be advanced;
And weep ye now, seeing she is advanced
Above the clouds, as high as heaven itself?
(IV, v, 73-75)

He shows some anger at Juliet's parents who have partly caused this trouble.

The Capulets' day of joy becomes a day of mourning.  Everything they
had prepared for the wedding will be used instead for the funeral.

ROMEO AND JULIET: LINES 96-147

Following Juliet's tragic "death," we have a comparatively light
passage.  Peter, the Nurse's servant, finds the musicians who had
come to play for the wedding.  He asks them to play a song called
"Heart's Ease" to comfort him because his heart is full of grief.

To cheer himself up, he teases the musicians with bad puns, and they
answer with silly jokes.  The scene is comic, but the underlying tone
is tragic.

ROMEO AND JULIET: ACT V, SCENE I

Romeo's in Mantua, and in a good mood.  Throughout the play, he's had
foreboding dreams that have come true.  But finally, he's had a happy
one, and he's sure that good news is on the way.  This dream is sadly
ironic to us:

I dreamt my lady came and found me dead . . .
And breathed such life with kisses in my lips
That I revived and was an emperor.
(V, i, 6, 8-9)

His servant Balthasar enters, having ridden at full speed from
Verona.  He tells Romeo that Juliet is dead.  He saw her buried in
Capulet's tomb and came right away to tell his master.

Romeo immediately cries, "Then I defy you, stars!" and leaps into
action.  Sadly, by defying the stars, he is still fortune's fool.  If
he had waited a day, an hour, even a few more minutes to go to
Capulet's tomb, he would have found his Juliet alive.  Balthasar puts
our thoughts into words and begs Romeo to have patience.  He's very
worried--Romeo's "looks are wild and pale and do import some
misadventure." But Romeo doesn't pay any attention.

ROMEO AND JULIET: LINES 35-86

Romeo sends Balthasar to get fresh horses for both of them.  Alone,
he states his purpose:  "Well, Juliet, I will lie with thee tonight."
This connects the ideas of death, sex, and marriage.

Romeo has decided to kill himself, but how?  Selling poison is
against the law, and punishable by death.  But Romeo remembers a very
poor apothecary (druggist) who looks desperate enough to secretly
sell him some.  He goes to find the man at once.

He asks for a poison that will kill him, "as violently as hasty
powder fired / doth hurry from the cannon's fatal womb." The image of
gunpowder has been linked to the lovers' passion up until now.  By
using it to refer to death, Romeo links the lovers' passion to their
death.

We see that this once hopeful young man has become tired of the
world.  He gives the apothecary the money, saying:

There is thy gold, worse poison to men's souls,
Doing more murders in this loathsome world
Than these poor compounds that thou mayest not sell.
(V, i, 80-82)

ROMEO AND JULIET: ACT V, SCENE II

From Mantua, we return to Friar Lawrence's cell, where his fellow
monk, Friar John, has hurried in to see him.  This scene has three
purposes:

1.  To tell us why Romeo didn't get the letter.  Lawrence had given
the letter about Juliet's pretended death to Friar John, who was
going to Mantua.  John had gone to find another monk to travel with
him, but the other monk had been working with plague victims and the
authorities quarantined both of them.  This explanation might seem
unlikely to us, but in Shakespeare's day, the plague was an
ever-present threat and quarantines weren't unusual.

2.  To give us the feeling that fate (or Providence) was working
against the lovers.  Look at the string of coincidences.  The letter
would have arrived safely:  if Friar Lawrence had asked someone else
to deliver it; if John hadn't decided to ask his friend to travel
with him; if his friend hadn't been tending the sick; if the
authorities hadn't arrived just as the monks were leaving; if the
marriage hadn't been moved ahead by a day.

3.  To show us that time is closing in.  There are only three hours
left until Juliet will awake.

NOTE:  Some readers find some internal inconsistencies in this play.
For example, earlier, Juliet tells the Nurse she's praised Romeo
thousands of times, when she's only known him a day.

Here, the Friar worries that Juliet will be angry with him because
Romeo doesn't know yet of their plans.  Even if the letter had gotten
through, they say, the marriage had originally been planned for a
later day, and Romeo wouldn't have known to come yet.

Other readers assume that Friar Lawrence simply means that Juliet
will be upset that Romeo hasn't heard about anything that's happened.
He runs to be there when she wakes up, so he can hide her in his cell
until Romeo comes.

ROMEO AND JULIET: LINES 1-73

Finally it's night, and we find ourselves in the graveyard by
Capulet's tomb.  Someone comes, but again we're caught off guard:  we
expect Romeo, but it's Paris.

This is final proof that Paris really did love Juliet.  He's brought
flowers and perfumed water to sprinkle on her body; he vows to come
secretly every night to mourn for her.  No sooner has he vowed this
then he hears a signal from his servant that someone's coming.

Paris hides, and Romeo enters the cemetery with Balthasar.  Romeo is
very upset, but has the presence to ask Balthasar three things:  1)
to give him the crowbar they've brought; 2) to give his father, Lord
Montague, a letter; and 3) not to disturb him when he enters the
tomb.  As rationally as possible, Romeo is putting his affairs in
order.  But he warns Balthasar:

But if thou, jealous, does return to pry
In what I farther shall intend to do,
By heaven, I will tear thee joint by joint,
And strew this hungry churchyard with thy limbs.
(V, iii, 33-36)

Balthasar is shocked and worried to hear Romeo talk like this, and he
promises he won't disturb him.  Once he's satisfied that no one will
bother him, Romeo takes time to be kind and considerate to Balthasar.
He tells him to "live, and be prosperous," gives him money, and calls
him "friend" instead of "servant."

Balthasar sees that Romeo is still desperate. He decides to stay and hide in the churchyard.

Romeo takes the crowbar and goes to force open the door to the
Capulets' tomb.  By this time, Paris has recognized him.  This is
Romeo, he thinks, who killed Tybalt, and it was grief for Tybalt that
killed Juliet.  Paris is furious:  he assumes that the criminal who
caused Juliet's death has returned to defile the Capulets' tomb.
Boldly, Paris rushes out of hiding to arrest Romeo for returning to
Verona.

Paris is determined that Romeo won't enter the tomb; Romeo is more
determined that he will.  But he doesn't want to hurt Paris, and he
begs him to leave.  But these two "gentle youths" have been forced
into a position where they are mortal enemies.  Paris is so enraged
that he demands a fight; Romeo is so determined to carry out his plan
that he lets nothing stand in his way.  They draw swords, and Romeo
kills Paris.  Paris' last words are simple and moving:

O, I am slain! If thou be merciful
Open the tomb, lay me with Juliet.
(V, iii, 72-73)

NOTE:  Again we feel time closing in:  as soon as the fight started,
Paris' servant ran off to call the watchmen.

ROMEO AND JULIET: LINES 75-120

It's so dark that Romeo didn't know who he was fighting.  Now, by
torchlight, he sees that it was Paris--Mercutio's relative.  Romeo
thinks he remembers Balthasar telling him that Paris was supposed to
marry Juliet, but he's so overwrought he's no longer sure.  Even now,
Romeo isn't selfish.  He gives his rival due honor:  he buries Paris
near Juliet, and curses Fate that frowned on Paris as well as on the
lovers.  He calls Paris, "one writ with me in sour misfortune's
book," and promises, "I'll bury thee in a triumphant grave."

Then Romeo sees Juliet, and forgets everything else.  As he looks at
her he speaks the final irony:

O, my love, my wife!
Death, that hath sucked the honey of thy breath,
Hath had no power yet upon thy beauty.
Thou art not conquered.
(V, iii, 92-94)

You're right! we want to tell him, Death hasn't conquered her!

Another sad thing about these tender words is that they're so
beautiful.  Romeo is inspired in Juliet's presence, but he's about to
remove himself from her forever.

Before he starts his final farewell, he sees Tybalt, also buried in
the family vault.  A gentleman until the end, Romeo begs forgiveness
of Tybalt, and promises that he'll kill himself to avenge Tybalt's
death.

But Romeo can't keep his eyes off Juliet.  Other characters in the
play have treated Death like a real person, and suddenly Romeo
wonders if Death is in love with Juliet, and keeping her beautiful
for himself.  He makes his final farewell--a last look, a last hug, a
last kiss.  He raises the poison and cries, "Here's to my love!" This
echoes Juliet when she drank the Friar's potion.  Neither is able to
do it for him or herself, but they have courage to do it for the
other.

The poison is strong, and he dies instantly.  Time has finally closed
in on them.  If he had waited only a few minutes, they could have
lived.

ROMEO AND JULIET: LINES 121-70

Too late, Friar Lawrence hurries to the tomb so he'll be there when
Juliet wakes up.  He's afraid that something's wrong:  someone else
is in the graveyard and there's a torch in Capulet's tomb.

The person he runs into is Balthasar.  He tells the Friar that Romeo,
"one that you love," is in the tomb, and has been for half an hour.
Balthasar remembers Romeo's threats and refuses to go to the tomb
with Lawrence.  He adds, "I dreamt my master and another fought / And
that my master slew him."

Even though the Friar is afraid, he runs to the tomb.  There, he
finds bloody swords, and the dead bodies of Romeo and Paris.  Before
he has time to gather his wits, Juliet wakes up and starts asking for
Romeo.

Friar Lawrence hears someone coming, and is overcome by guilt and
fear.  He feels he has to get out of there--after all, there are two
dead bodies, and he's partly responsible.  He tries to get Juliet to
flee with him:  he tells her that "a greater power than we can
contradict / hath thwarted our intents." (What power does he mean?
Would a priest say that the "higher power" was God?  Or fate?) When
that doesn't work, he tells her that Romeo and Paris are dead, but
he'll see to it that she is put in a nunnery.  When Juliet says she
won't come with him, he feels forced to flee by himself.

Juliet is thinking clearly.  She tells the friar to go, then she goes
to Romeo.  She sees that he's died of poison, and she kisses his
lips, hoping that there will be enough poison there to kill her.  She
discovers that his lips are still warm--she missed him by minutes.
The watchman is coming, so she acts fast:  she grabs Romeo's dagger,
and stabs herself through the heart.

NOTE:  Here we see Juliet left absolutely alone.  She is abandoned by
Friar Lawrence, her only friend; and, unwittingly, by Romeo.  Through
the scene, she talks to Romeo as if he were still present, and kills
herself as if it's the only way to join him again.

ROMEO AND JULIET: LINES 171-310

Paris' page arrives with the guards, and the Chief Watchman begins
the investigation.  After finding Paris and Romeo dead and Juliet
"bleeding, warm, and newly dead," he sends guards to arrest anyone in
the cemetery.  He sends others to get the Prince, the Montagues, and
the Capulets.  Meanwhile, the cemetery guards return with Balthasar
and Friar Lawrence.

Prince Escalus is the first to arrive, and he takes over the
investigation.  The Capulets arrive next, and are shocked to see
Juliet newly dead.  Lord Montague comes in, already mourning:  his
wife has died of grief over Romeo's banishment.  Now he has the added
anguish of his son's death.

The Prince seals the tomb until he can find out what's happened.
Three people come forward to piece together the story:

Friar Lawrence has the courage to tell all, even if the truth
condemns him.  He tells of the secret marriage, Juliet's potion, and
the letter of Romeo that went astray.  He says he found Juliet in the
tomb and told her to bear this "work of heaven" with patience, but
then he panicked and fled.  The Friar throws himself on the mercy of
the law, and the Prince pardons him.

Balthasar says that he told Romeo of Juliet's "death", and gives Lord
Montague Romeo's letter.  This confirms what Lawrence and Balthasar
have said.  The letter also explains how Romeo bought poison and came
to the vault to die with Juliet.

Paris' Page adds that his master had come to mourn for Juliet.  He
saw Romeo come, and Paris draw his sword.

So the whole story is made public.

Prince Escalus pronounces that heaven has already sentenced these
enemies:  "See what a scourge is laid upon your hate / That heaven
finds means to kill your joys with love." The Capulets have lost
Juliet and Tybalt; the Montagues, Romeo and Lady Montague.  The
Prince has also lost two relatives:  Mercutio (a good friend of the
Montagues) and Paris (who would have married into the Capulets).

In the midst of their grief, the two families are reunited.  Lord
Capulet takes Lord Montague's hand.  He says this friendship is
Juliet's marriage dowry.  Lord Montague says he'll build a gold
statue of Juliet, and Lord Capulet offers to build one of Romeo next
to it.

The Prince adds, "A glooming peace this morning with it brings / The
sun for sorrow will not show his head."

Peace has come out of desperate night, but it's not a joyous peace
that brings light.  Finally, through love, there is an end to the
feud, and order is restored.  Although some must be punished, some
will be pardoned.  There will finally be mercy again in Verona.


ROMEO AND JULIET: THE PLAY AS COMEDY AND TRAGEDY

Romeo and Juliet is in essence a comedy that turns out tragically.
That is, it begins with the materials for a comedy--the stupid
parental generation, the instant attraction of the young lovers, the
quick surface life of street fights, masked balls and comic servants.
But this material is blighted.  Its gaiety and good fortune are
drained away by the fact that the lovers are "star-crossed"...  Romeo
and Juliet are all ardour and constancy, their families are all
hatred and pride; no one's motives are mixed, there are no question
marks.  After the tragedy the survivors are shocked into dropping
their vendetta, and Montague and Capulet are united in grief.  Once
again, there are no question marks.  Nothing made them enemies except
the clash of their own wills, and nothing is needed to make them
brothers except a change of heart.

John Wain, The Living World of Shakespeare, 1964

ROMEO AND JULIET: ON JULIET:

The character is indeed one of perfect truth and sweetness.  It has
nothing forward, nothing coy, nothing affected or coquettish about
it; it is a pure effusion of nature.  It is as frank as it is modest,
for it has no thought that it wishes to conceal.  It reposes in
conscious innocence on the strength of its affections.  Its delicacy
does not consist in coldness and reserve, but in combining warmth of
imagination and tenderness of heart with the most voluptuous
sensibility.  Love is a gentle flame that rarefies and expands her
whole being.

William Hazlitt, Characters
of Shakespeare's Plays, 1817

ROMEO AND JULIET: ON ROMEO:

Romeo is Hamlet in love.  There is the same rich exuberance of
passion and sentiment in the one that there is of thought and
sentiment in the other.  Both are absent and self-involved, both live
out of themselves in a world of imagination.  Hamlet is abstracted
from everything Romeo is abstracted from everything but his love, and
lost in it.

William Hazlitt, Characters
of Shakespeare's Plays, 1817

ROMEO AND JULIET: THE LOVERS' PRIVATE WORLD

In their first kiss Romeo and Juliet withdraw into a private world of
intimacy, suspending the world's ordinary time and replacing it with
the rival time of the imagination.  Yet no sooner do they draw apart
than they find themselves bound to take heed of the alien public
world and its imperatives, of time calculated in days and hours, of
love reduced to appetite, happiness to jesting and farce, vitality to
violence.

Brian Gibbons, Introduction to
Romeo and Juliet, 1980

ROMEO AND JULIET: LIGHT AND DARK

The dominating image is light, every form and manifestation of it;
the sun, moon, stars, fire, lightning, the flash of gunpowder, and
the reflected light of beauty and love; while by contrast we have
night, darkness, clouds, rain, mist, and smoke.

Caroline F. E. Spurgeon, Shakespeare's
Imagery and What It Tells Us, 1935

ROMEO AND JULIET: UNAWARENESS

More than any other of Shakespeare's plays,--Romeo and Juliet is a
tragedy of unawareness.  Fate, or Heaven, as the Prince calls it, or
the "greater power" as the Friar calls it, working out its purpose
without the use of either a human villain or a supernatural agent
sent to intervene in mortal affairs, operates through the common
human condition of not knowing.  Participants in the action, some of
them in parts that are minor and seem insignificant, contribute one
by one the indispensable stitches which make the pattern, and
contribute them not knowing:  that is to say, they act when they do
not know the truth of the situation in which they act, this truth
being known, however, to us who are spectators.

Bertrand Evans, "The Brevity of Friar Laurence," 1950

ROMEO AND JULIET: CHARACTER AS FATE

It is, of course, in the end a tragedy of mischance.  Shakespeare was
bound by his story, was doubtless content to be; and how make it
otherwise?  Nevertheless, we discern his deeper dramatic sense, which
was to shape the maturer tragedies, already in revolt.  Accidents
make good incidents, but tragedy determined by them has no
significance.  So he sets out, we see, in the shaping of his
character to give all likelihood to the outcome.  It is by pure
ill-luck that Friar John's speed to Mantua is stayed while Balthasar
reaches Romeo with the news of Juliet's death; but it is Romeo's
headlong recklessness that leaves Friar Laurence no time to retrieve
the mistake...  character is also fate; it is, at any rate, the more
dramatic part of it, and the life of Shakespeare's art is to lie in
the manifesting of this.

Harley Granville-Barker, Prefaces to
Shakespeare, 1947.

ROMEO AND JULIET: BALANCE OF GOOD AND EVIL

But if we see the ending as purposeful, and as an evocation of the
paradoxical good that can spring from a lamented destruction, the
simple view of Fate will not satisfy.  Nor can we ignore what
Shakespeare characteristically stresses in all his tragic drama:  the
connection between the character of men and the disaster that may
befall them...  The personification of a hostile Fate or Fortune was
a fashionable convention...  however, Shakespeare was moving in
another direction.  His developing vision of a tragic universe was
not to be defined by hostile fatality, but by a paradoxical and all
too precarious balance of good and evil.

Douglas Cole, Modern Criticisms of
Romeo and Juliet, 1970

The point of the play--the wonder of the story--is not how such a
love can arise out of hatred and then triumph over it in death, but
that it does.

Elmer Edgar Stoll, Shakespeare's Young Lovers, 1937

                               THE END