Plot and Events
This is the name of the feud between the Montagues and Capulets
the ancient grudge
Juliet's talkative, bawdy caregiver.
Nurse
The idea that the future is predetermined and unavoidable.
fate
A comparison using "like" or "as" is called this.
simile
The Italian city where the play is set.
Verona
Romeo wears this to crash the Capulet
mask
This fiery-tempered Capulet kinsman calls out Romeo at the party
Tybalt
Romeo and Juliet are described this way in the Prologue, linking their fate to the stars.
star-crossed lovers
It is the east, and Juliet is the sun
What is a metaphor
This era of English history and theatre produced Shakespeare's plays.
Elizabethan era
Romeo is banished for killing this character
Tybalt
Romeo is infatuated with this woman before meeting Juliet.
Rosaline
These two opposing themes are captured in "My only love sprung from my only hate."
Love and violence
"But soft, what light through yonder window breaks?" uses this technique to compare Juliet to a celestial body.
metaphor
This is the fixed, divinely ordained social hierarchy Elizabethans believed in.
Great Chain of Being
This character curses both households with "A plague o' both your houses" as he dies.
Mercutio
This character arranges Juliet's marriage to Paris
Lord Capulet
Romeo and Juliet defying their families' wishes to be together reflects this theme, common in coming-of-age stories
Individual vs collective
Romeo and Juliet's first meeting takes the form of this 14-line poem.
sonnet
This term describes a social system in which men, particularly fathers, hold primary authority over the family, including decisions about marriage.
patriarchy
This character discovers Juliet apparently dead on the morning of her wedding to Paris and raises the alarm.
Nurse
This character is delayed by quarantine while trying to deliver a crucial letter to Romeo in Mantua.
Friar John
Romeo experiences this type of conflict when torn between loyalty to Mercutio and his new marriage to Juliet, a Capulet.
internal conflict
Combining contradictory terms, like "loving hate," is called this.
oxymoron
This is why marriages, especially among the upper class, were typically arranged.
secure wealth, status, or a political/family alliance