Romeo and Juliet
Act 2, Scenes 1 and 2
The chorus recaps what has transpired: Romeo has fallen out of love with Rosaline ("Now old desire doth in his death-bed lie" - which is personification, giving human qualities to concepts or inanimate objects) / "And young affection gapes to be his heir; / That fair for which love groaned for and would die, / With tender Juliet match'd, is now not fair." And now both Romeo and Juliet are in love but cannot love freely ("But to his foe supposed he must complain, / And she steal love's sweet bait from fearful hooks." Juliet has less freedom than Romeo ("And she as much in love, her means much less") but love gives them power, time the means to overcome their hardships.
The setting: In front of the Capulets’ orchard after the party (about 3 a.m.).
Romeo enters first and says can he leave when his heart is here in Juliet's orchard? Then earth turn thy center inside out.
Benvolio and Mercutio are looking for Romeo whom they saw leap over the orchard wall.
Conjure: to bring forth as a magician or a sorcerer (witch) would raise a spirit.
Lovers were supposed to sigh and cry,”Ah me!” Lovers were also supposed to be moody, write really bad poetry, and cry a lot over their love. Mercutio is making fun of Romeo’s tendency to be all “emo” over love.
Mercutio references Venus, the goddess of love and her purblind son, Cupid, and an old obscure myth about King Cophetua and a beggar-maid.
When Mercutio calls Romeo's name, and Romeo does not answer, Mercutio replies that the "ape is dead" - the ape, of course, is Romeo. He then says that he must conjure him by Rosaline's bright eye - and other body parts.
And he is right, for the first line Romeo utters is "He jests at scars that never felt a wound", which means that he is laughing at something he has never experienced - love!
(Mercutio and Benvolio are quite out of the loop when it comes to being up to date about Romeo's love life - they think he is still in love with Rosaline. The boys do not know about Juliet yet.)
Scene 2; Scene 2
Before he met Juliet, what adjectives did Romeo use to describe himself?
Grievous, heavy hearted, dark, heavy, dark humor
When he spies Juliet on the balcony, he begins to use imagery of light and lightness:
“But soft, what light through yonder window breaks? // It is the East and Juliet is the sun. / Arise fair sun and kill the envious moon! /
If Juliet is the sun, then who is the moon?
The moon is waning, inconstant, constantly changing.
Homework:
Go through Act 2, Scene 2 and find all examples of personification, simile, metaphor, and allusion. Pay particular attention to all references to light and darkness.
Metaphor:
But soft, What light through yonder window breaks? It is the East and Juliet is the sun.
Personification:
Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon,
That thou her maid art far more fair than she.
Be not her maid since she is envious.
Her vestal livery is but sick and green,
And none but fools do wear it. Cast it off!
What is he urging Juliet, the sun, to do? Who or what is the moon? Remember in classical Greek mythology Artemis (or Diana in Roman mythology) was the goddess of the moon, the hunt, and chastity (virginity). Romeo is urging Juliet not to be a follower of the moon (as he accuses Rosaline of being).
Metaphor/Personification:
The brightness of her cheek would shame those stars.
Simile: (like or as)
As daylight doth the lamp.
With love’s light wings did I o’erperch these walls /
For thou art / As glorious to this night, being o’er my head, / As is a winged messenger….
Personification:
Arise fair sun and kill the envious moon
Who is already sick and pale with grief
For stony limits cannot hold love out; / And what love can do, that dares love attempt…
I have night’s cloak to hide from thy eyes
Two of the fairest stars in all of heaven
Having some business
Allusion: a reference to the bible, to literature or to classical Greek or Roman mythology.
Else would I tear the cave where Echo lies
And make her airy tongue more hoarse than mine
/ With repetition of “My Romeo!”
They say at lovers’ perjuries Jove laughs
Perjuries: lies
Jove = Zeus
Couplet:
Two lines which rhyme together
Simile:
Love goes toward love as schoolboys from their books;
But love from love, toward school with heavy looks.
Bird imagery:
Falconer is a person who trains falcons for hunting.
Tassel gentle: young untrained male falcon
Lure: seduce him back
And yet no farther than a wanton’s bird
That lets it hop a little from his hand
Vocabulary:
Wanton: a willful child or a morally loose person
Simile:
Like a poor prisoner in his twisted gyves
And with a silken thread pluck it back again
So loving jealous of his liberty.
Vocabulary:
gyves: ropes
Juliet is a smart and cautious girl who realizes it would be she who would bear the brunt of the responsibility if she became pregnant.
I have no joy of this contract tonight
It is too rash, too unadvised, too sudden,
To like the lightning, which doth cease to be
Ere one can say it lightens.
She is saying that this is moving too fast for her; it is too much like the lightning which is over before one can say, "Oh, look! It's lightning!"
Oh, that she had listened to her own words......
ROMEO and JULIET
Act 2, Scene 3:
Page 827
Setting: takes place in the Friar’s garden where he is collecting flowers and herbs for medicine.
The Friar is making comparisons between plants and humans. Some plants, like humans, that are not used for their rightful purposes, can turn deadly, and some plants, which are usually deadly, can be quite beneficial if used moderately and with intelligent application. Some plants and humans which have a preponderance of evil will be destroyed by that evil; but quite often both good and evil reside in humans and plants, and that which is stronger will triumph over the other. (“Within the rind of this weak flower / Poison hath residence and medicine part.”)
The Friar points to a plant that when smelled can stimulate the user, but if ingested or swallowed, can kill.
It takes place just at dawn. Romeo has not been to bed. He has gone directly from Juliet’s balcony to the Friar to plan the wedding.
Soliloquy: a speech which is delivered by an actor alone on stage revealing her/his inner thoughts.
Paradox: something that is contradictory yet upon closer examination proves to be true.
“What is her burying grave, that is her womb…”
An oxymoron is a combination of two contradictory words (bitter sweet; old news) that expresses a new idea.
Paradox: something that is contradictory and seemingly untrue or impossible, yet upon closer examination proves to be true. It is usually a phrase. Example: A boy who is a genius yet is in a special ed class.
Vocabulary:
Ere: before (pronounced like air)
Womb: uterus (where babies come from)
Tomb: a grave
Chide: to scold
Friar’s speech:
Find examples of personification.
Find examples of metaphor.
Find examples of similes.
Find examples of allusion.
Find examples of paradox.
Personification: giving inanimate objects human qualities.
Allusion: reference to classical mythology, to the Bible or to other pieces of literature.
Check’ring: checkering; gray and white
Flecked: to be spotted with; to have flecks (small spots or dots)
Drunkard: a drunk
Reel: to stagger around in a circle
Titan’s Burning wheels: the wheels on the chariot that is driven by the Sun God.
Osier: Wicker basket
*Notice that upfill is a reversal of the usual order. We would say fill up, but to preserve the unstress/stress iambic pentameter he has reversed the order from fill up to upfill.
Paradox:
The earth that’s Nature’s mother is her tomb. / What is her burying grave, that is her womb.
That which is our final burying place, also paradoxically, is the place that gives us birth. We are nurtured by the plants that grow in the earth and when we die, our bodies will lie in the earth, return to the earth and nurture the plants which will nurture future generations.
Shakespeare continues the mother earth metaphor by: “And from her womb children of divers kind / We sucking on her natural bosom find…”
Vocabulary:
Divers: diverse; many different kinds.
Naught: nothing
Aught: nothing
Vile: hateful, loathsome, abhorrent
Vice: evil
Lines 17 – 22:
Nothing is so bad that Mother Nature does not give it some good properties or qualities; for example: cocaine when used by doctors can have good uses.
Sometimes a plant, which usually has good properties, can be lethal if over indulged in or used incorrectly.
Virtue itself turns vice, being misapplied /
And vice sometimes by nature dignified.
Write the phrase; identify what the phrase is (metaphor, personification, etc.), explain what the phrase is saying.
Act 2, Scene 4
Setting: street of Verona; midmorning after last night’s party.
Mercutio and Benvolio are walking down the street talking and joking about Tybalt thinking he’s all that about his fencing skills. While this scene is going on, Romeo is at the Friar's discussing his upcoming wedding to Juliet. No one but Romeo, Juliet and the Friar know about their relationship.
Break into groups; translate into contemporary language, find and identify figurative language.
Scene 4:
First group:
Lines 1 – 35
Second group:
Lines 36 – 95
Third group:
Lines 96 – 135
Fourth group:
Lines 136 – 160
Fifth group:
Lines 161 – 200
Important plot point: Tybalt (which is a common name for house cats) has challenged Romeo to a duel. Why? Because Romeo crashed a Capulet party, which Tybalt takes as a huge insult. After his uncle threatened him not to make a scene, "He shall be endured...." Tyablt mutters to himself in an aside, "Patience perforce with willful choler meeting / Makes my flesh tremble in their different greeting. // I shall withdraw; but this intrusion shall / Now seeming sweet convert to bitter gall." Forced to be patient when one is feeling anger (choler) makes me tremble with these two forced and conflicting emotions. I will withdraw and not start a fight, but although I will behave as if I am not angry, and am fine with Romeo's behavior, my behavior will later change to bitter anger. Gall was one of the humors the body produced and was associated with anger.
Mercutio makes a lot of jokes about Romeo’s love sickness over Rosalind.
Wench: a wanton flirtatious girl;
Pin of his heart: center of his heart
Who is the blind bow-boy?
Romeo has been shot by the blind bow-boy’s arrow all the way to the butt shaft (the end of the arrow where the feathers are).
Mercutio, who is more of a street fighter, says that Tybalt is a fancy-shmancy school trained fencer – overly precious in his training. He fights like other people sing songs – strictly according to meter and to rhythm. That’s obviously not the way to fight.
Minim rests: shortest pause in music.
One, two, three – and the third thrust in your chest. Tybalt is a killer of buttons on a man’s shirt.
Mercutio, who is more of a street fighter, has little respect for Tybalt as a fighter.
When Romeo arrives, Mercutio again begins to mercilessly tease him about his bad love poetry ("Now is he for the numbers / That Pertrarch flowed in...")
Petrarch was an Italian poet who originated the first Italian sonnets, which is a fourteen line poem with abbaabbacdcdef rhyme scheme. Petrach wrote hundreds of love poems to a woman named Laura who probably did not exist. Mercutio makes references to Helen and Cleopatra, who are great beauties of history and the inspiration of great love poems, as more jokes at Romeo and Rosaline's expense.
However, Romeo is in a GREAT mood, which surprises and pleases Mercutio who was expecting him to be dragging himself around like a sick cat. The two begin joking and again, the joking quickly turns VERY naughty - which I will not explain here.
Happy that his friend has returned to his former high joking self, Mercutio says to him, "Why, is not this better now than groaning of love? // Now are thou sociable, now art thou Romeo; now art / Thou what thou art, by art as well as by nature: / For this driveling love is like a great natural (ape), / That runs lolling up and down to hide his bauble (cheap jewel) in a hole."
Then the Nurse arrives looking like a huge barge in full sail, accompanied by her escort, Peter, whom she by turns abuses with her affection and her demands. Mercutio, ever the jokester, cannot resist and turns his teasing to her, calling her a boat, old, ugly, etc. He is quite cruel. And then he begins to sing a little song for her:
An old hare hoar,
And an old hare hoar,
Is very good meat in lent
But a hare that is hoar
Is too much for a score,
When it hoars ere it be spent.
Vocabulary:
Hare: a rabbit which was thought to be a sexually promiscuous little animal.
Hoar: old
Lent: Forty day period before Easter during which all good Catholics sacrifice something they prize to emulate Christ who made the ultimate sacrifice.
Ere: before
During the 1500's, people would eat Lenten pie, which was made of rabbit. They did not have refrigeration back then, and would eat a little bit of the pie and then put it back on the shelf. In a very short period of time the rabbit pie would grow old and moldy, much like the Nurse, which is what Mercutio is implying.
Mercutio makes a hasty exit with Benvolio before the Nurse can hit him. The Nurse is sputtering with rage and turns on poor, dimwitted Peter, demanding to know why "thou must stand by / Too, and suffer (allow) every knave (fool) to use me at his pleasure?" Peter rather stupidly replies, "I saw no man use you to his pleasure; if I had, my weapon / Should quickly have been out..."
When Romeo arrives, Mercutio again begins to mercilessly tease him about his bad love poetry ("Now is he for the numbers / That Pertrarch flowed in...")
Petrarch was an Italian poet who originated the first Italian sonnets, which is a fourteen line poem with abbaabbacdcdef rhyme scheme. Petrach wrote hundreds of love poems to a woman named Laura who probably did not exist. Mercutio makes references to Helen and Cleopatra, who are great beauties of history and the inspiration of great love poems, as more jokes at Romeo and Rosaline's expense.
However, Romeo is in a GREAT mood, which surprises and pleases Mercutio who was expecting him to be dragging himself around like a sick cat. The two begin joking and again, the joking quickly turns VERY naughty - which I will not explain here.
Happy that his friend has returned to his former high joking self, Mercutio says to him, "Why, is not this better now than groaning of love? // Now are thou sociable, now art thou Romeo; now art / Thou what thou art, by art as well as by nature: / For this driveling love is like a great natural (ape), / That runs lolling up and down to hide his bauble (cheap jewel) in a hole."
Then the Nurse arrives looking like a huge barge in full sail, accompanied by her escort, Peter, whom she by turns abuses with her affection and her demands. Mercutio, ever the jokester, cannot resist and turns his teasing to her, calling her a boat, old, ugly, etc. He is quite cruel. And then he begins to sing a little song for her:
And an old hare hoar,
Is very good meat in lent
But a hare that is hoar
Is too much for a score,
When it hoars ere it be spent.
Vocabulary:
Hare: a rabbit which was thought to be a sexually promiscuous little animal.
Hoar: old
Lent: Forty day period before Easter during which all good Catholics sacrifice something they prize to emulate Christ who made the ultimate sacrifice.
Ere: before
During the 1500's, people would eat Lenten pie, which was made of rabbit. They did not have refrigeration back then, and would eat a little bit of the pie and then put it back on the shelf. In a very short period of time the rabbit pie would grow old and moldy, much like the Nurse, which is what Mercutio is implying.
Mercutio makes a hasty exit with Benvolio before the Nurse can hit him. The Nurse is sputtering with rage and turns on poor, dimwitted Peter, demanding to know why "thou must stand by / Too, and suffer (allow) every knave (fool) to use me at his pleasure?" Peter rather stupidly replies, "I saw no man use you to his pleasure; if I had, my weapon / Should quickly have been out..."
But the Nurse, who is so vexed (angry) "that every part about / Me quivers..." quickly turns to the reason she has come - Romeo - and to warn him not to play with Juliet or break her heart for it would be very weak dealing!
Romeo cannot get a work in edgewise. The Nurse keeps interrupting him and when she says, "I will tell her as much. / Lord, lord, she will be a joyful woman...." Romeo inquires, "What wilt thou tell her, Nurse? Thou does not mark me." Which means, "What are you going to say to her, Nurse? You're not listening to me!"
Romeo manages to edge in a word about the plans for tonight!
"Bid her devise
Some means to come to shrift this afternoon;
And there she shall at Friar Laurence' cell
Be shrived and married. Here is for thy pains."
Vocabulary:
Shrift: Confession
Shrived: the act of being confessed or spiritually cleansed.
The plan is to tell her parents she is going to the Friar's for confession and there, she will actually be married. He then attempts to give the Nurse some money.
Romeo's instructions continue:
"And stay, good nurse, behind the abbey wall:
Within this hour my man shall be with thee
And bring thee cords made like a tackled stair;
Which to the high top-gallant of my joy
Must be my convoy in the secret night."
Abbey: the monastery
My man: my servant
Cords: rope and tackle ladder
Top-gallant: the look-out's perch at the very top of the mast on a ship
Convoy: means to convey or transport.
Can you identify the adjective clause? It follows the relative pronoun, which. What does the adjective clause modify? And what will transport Romeo to that high top-gallant of my joy?
The cords made like a tackled stair!
The "high top-gallant of my joy" conveys a sense of giddiness and unbridled freedom; imagine a young boy with the fresh salt wind in his hair riding the crest of the sea atop the crow's nest of a ship - or better yet, imagine Rose and Jack at the prow of the Titanic discovering love and life.
The Nurse wonders if Romeo's man can be trusted - "Is your man secret?...Two may keep counsel, putting one away?" Which means two can keep a secret if one of them is dead.
Romeo reassures her, but the Nurse has more to say! She always does! She begins to prattle on about Paris, one who would fain (gladly) like to "...lay knife aboard", which means he would like to "board the ship" of Juliet's vessel. The Nurse blathers on to Romeo about Paris being the better man and when she says that to Juliet, she turns as pale as a dish clout (cloth) in the "versal world" - the Nurse is illiterate and means universe but instead says "versal world." Barreling along like a train heading for a wreck, the Nurse then goes totally off course by noting that rosemary and Romeo and the sound that a dog makes (Ruff!) all begin with the letter "R" and that Juliet has written the prettiest sententious (sentence) of it, but by that point, Romeo manages to excavate himself from the Nurse's verbal wreckage and exits.
ROMEO and JULIET
Act 2, Scene 5
Setting: Juliet is anxiously waiting in her bedroom for news from Romeo to be delivered by the Nurse. She frets why the Nurse is taking so long and muses that old people are slow and haven’t the romantic rush and energy that young people have.
Vocabulary:
Perchance: perhaps
Hie: go to in a hurry
Heralds: messengers
Go through Juliet’s speech to find examples of the following: metaphors, similes, personification and allusion. Write the phrase employing the figurative language; identify which figurative language is being used; and explain the meaning.
Pinioned: joints on a wing
Nimble pinioned: fleet of wings
Bandy her: to volley her back and forth like a tennis ball.
Jaunce: exhausting trip
Stay the circumstances; wait for the details
Personification:
Love’s herald should be thoughts
Metaphor:
Which ten times faster glide than the sun’s beams / Driving back shadows over low’ring hills.
Personification and Allusion:
Therefore do nimble-pinioned doves draw Love, / And therefore hath the wind-swift Cupid wings.
Simile:
She would be as swift in motion as a ball;
Metaphor:
My words would bandy her like a ball.
Simile:
Unwieldy, slow, heavy, and pale as lead.
Juliet is comparing the Nurse to lead.
At last the Nurse arrives and deliberately drags out telling her the news, complaining about her back, how exhausted she is, etc., until, just at the moment we think she is going to tell her, the Nurse does a 180 and asks, "Where is your mother?"
At last the Nurse arrives and deliberately drags out telling her the news, complaining about her back, how exhausted she is, etc., until, just at the moment we think she is going to tell her, the Nurse does a 180 and asks, "Where is your mother?"
Do you think the Nurse is deliberately teasing Juliet and driving her crazy by withholding the information she so wants to hear? What is the Nurse doing to make you think she is teasing Juliet? What does this scene reveal about the relationship between the Nurse and Juliet?
Eventually, the Nurse tells Juliet to give as an alibi that she is going to the church to be shrived (confession) and there, she will be married to Romeo.
ACT 2, SCENE 6
The Wedding of Romeo and Juliet
The setting: the cathedral; Romeo and the Friar are waiting for Juliet.
For homework tonight, go over Act 2, Scene 6 and find examples of metaphors, similes, personification, allusion and foreshadowing.
Write down the quotations, identify them and explain their meaning. What does the Friar really think about Romeo and Juliet’s love.
PERSONIFICATION:
THE FRIAR:
SO SMILE THE HEAVENS UPON THIS HOLY ACT /
THAT AFTERHOURS WITH SORROW CHIDE US NOT !
CHIDE: TO SCOLD
Meaning: The friar is expressing the hope that the marriage will turn out well, and that there won’t be serious and negative consequences as a result of what we’re doing now.
PERSONIFICATION:
ROMEO:
BUT COME WHAT SORROW CAN,
IT CANNOT COUNTERVAIL THE EXCHANGE OF JOY
Meaning: Romeo is saying that sorrow does have the power to overcome his joy with Juliet.
PERSONIFICATION AND FORESHADOWING:
ROMEO:
THEN LOVE-DEVOURING DEATH DO WHAT HE DARE –
Meaning: Romeo is saying let death do what it dares, it cannot destroy my love and happiness.
SIMILE AND FORESHADOWING:
THE FRIAR SAYS:
THESE VIOLENT DELIGHTS HAVE VIOLENT ENDS /
AND IN THEIR TRIUMPH DIE, LIKE FIRE AND POWDER.
WHICH,
(PERSONIFICATION)
AS THEY KISS, CONSUME.
The Friar is cautioning that things that start off too violently, with too much passion are like gun powder - they have a tendency to end violently.
THE SWEETEST HONEY / IS LOATHSOME IN HIS OWN DELICIOUSNESS / AND IN THE TASTE CONFOUNDS THE APPETITE means that too much of a good thing (candy, love, etc.) can actually make you sick of it. The very sweetness of the candy, which at first intoxicates you with its deliciousness, will – if overindulged in – make you sick to your stomach.
THEREFORE LOVE MODERATELY; LONG LOVE DOTH SO; / TOO SWIFT ARRIVES AS TARDY AS TOO SLOW.
Meaning: Moderate love lasts a long time; love that arrives too quickly is as bad as love that comes too late because the person is without love for a long time.
THE FRIAR:
O, SO LIGHT A FOOT / WILL NE’ER WEAR OUT THE EVERLASTING FLINT. //
Vocabulary:
Flint: the stone which the floor of the abbey is made from.
He is saying that Juliet is so young, slender and fair her delicate foot will never wear out the stones, implying the hope that their love will be eternal.
A LOVER MAY BESTRIDE THE GOSSAMERS / THAT IDLE IN THE WANTON SUMMER AIR, / /AND YET NOT FALL; SO LIGHT IS VANITY.
Vocabulary:
Flint: the stone which the floor of the abbey is made from.
He is saying that Juliet is so young, slender and fair her delicate foot will never wear out the stones, implying the hope that their love will be eternal.
A LOVER MAY BESTRIDE THE GOSSAMERS / THAT IDLE IN THE WANTON SUMMER AIR, / /AND YET NOT FALL; SO LIGHT IS VANITY.
Meaning:
The Friar is expressing through imagery (“bestride the gossamers that idle in the wanton summer air) and metaphor the rather cynical view that human love is fleeing and shallow.
Vocabulary:
Bestride: to walk across
Gossamers: thin, delicate spider silk or cobwebs
Idle: to float lazily
Wanton: wild, uncontrolled
Vanity: fleeting human love.
Vocabulary:
Bestride: to walk across
Gossamers: thin, delicate spider silk or cobwebs
Idle: to float lazily
Wanton: wild, uncontrolled
Vanity: fleeting human love.
Ghostly confessor: the Friar
PERSONIFICATION:
ROMEO:
“….LET RICH MUSIC’S TONGUE /
UNFOLD THE IMAGINED HAPPINESS
THAT BOTH / RECEIVE IN EITHER BY THE DEAR ENCOUNTER.
Meaning: Speaking our love to each other brings great happiness to us both.
Personification:
JULIET:
CONCEIT, MORE RICH IN MATTER THAN IN WORDS, / BRAGS OF HIS SUBSTANCE, NOT OF ORNAMENT.
Meaning: True understanding has greater substance than mere show or form; understanding brags of its worth, not of its showiness or ornamentation. Actions speak louder than words.
Alliteration: the repetition of a recurring sound (usually consonant sounds) at the beginning of two or more words in a line of poetry.
Let's see if the Friar's hopes come true.
Let's see if the Friar's hopes come true.
