Literary Devices
"But soft, what light through yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Juliet is the sun!"
“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose/By any other name would smell as sweet.”
Juliet
"Ask for me tomorrow and you shall find me a grave man."
Tybalt
Capulet
During the balcony scene, why does Juliet say she is worried about Romeo being in the garden?
She fears her kinsmen will murder him.
"A plague on both your houses!"
Metaphor
“They have made worms’ meat of me. I have it, and soundly too.”
Mercutio
"O, I am fortune's fool!
Mercutio
Montague (not related to Romeo, but is his friend)
Why does Romeo agree to go to the Capulets' ball?
He hopes to see Rosaline there.
"Tybalt, the reason that I have to love thee doth much excuse the appertaining rage to such a greeting."
Irony - Tybalt doesn't know that Romeo and Juliet have been married
"Beshrew your heart for sending me about to catch my death with jauncing up and down."
Nurse
"O, swear not by the moon, the inconstant moon, that monthly changes in her circled orb, lest that thy love prove likewise variable."
Juliet loves Romeo unconditionally (even though they have just met). She doesn't want him to swear by the moon because the moon constantly changes -- she wants to make sure his love is constant.
Nurse
Capulet (Juliet's nurse)
Who says, "parting is such sweet sorrow"
Juliet
"Good King of Cats, nothing but one of your nine lives."
Allusion
"Within the infant rind of this small flower poison hath residence, and medicine power; for this, being smelt, with that part cheers each part; being tasted, stays all senses with the heart."
Friar Laurence
"In man as well as herbs -grace and rude will; and where the worse is predominant, full soon the canker death eats up the plant."
Friar Laurence contemplates that men, like plants, have dual natures. People are complex and therefore can have both good and bad in them.
Romeo
Montague
What does Romeo mean when he says, "With love's light wings did I overperch these walls, for stony limits cannot hold love out, and what love can do that dares love attempt.
Romeo explains how he got inside the Capulets' walls. He declares that love gave him the strength to climb the wall and get into the orchard.
"My ears have yet not drunk a hundred words of thy tongue's uttering, yet I know the sound."
Personification
"And for that offence, immediately we do exile him hence.:
Prince
"The clock struck nine when I did send the nurse, in half an hour she promised to return."
Juliet is anxious for the nurse to return and bring word from Romeo. This quote demonstrates that Juliet is in a rush to begin her life with Romeo.
Juliet
Capulet
Why does Friar Laurence agree to marry Romeo and Juliet -- even though they have known each other for less than a day?
He thinks it will end the feud between the Montagues and the Capulets.