Romeo & Juliet- themes

Fate

Major scenes

• Prologue (P)
• Paris asking for Juliet in marriage (Act 1 Scene 2)
• Montagues heading to the Party (Act 1 scene 4)
• First meeting of Romeo and Juleit (Act 1 Scene 5)
• Balcony scene (Act 2 Scene 2)
• Friar and Romeo- marriage (Act 2 Scene 3)
• Wedding (Act 2 Scene 6)
• Jleit drinking the poison (Act 4 scene 3)

Quotes

• "Star crossed lovers" (P)
• "Death mark'd love" (P)
• "hanging in the stars"(1,4)
• reference to each other as stars referring to star crossed lovers(2,2)
• "like fire and powder which as they kiss consume"(2,6)
• "faint cold fear thrills through my veins"(4,3)

Context for fate- In shakespeares time Elizabetheans beleived in cosmology and horoscopes so they related to Shakespeares references to stars sealing there future

Violence and Honour

Key scenes

• anything with tybalt
  • Capulet party (Act 1 Scene 5)
  • Capulet vs Montague [death of Tybalt and Mercutio] (Act 3 Scene 1)
• Prolouge (P)

Quotes

• "Fetch me my rapier, boy." (1,5)
• "Therefore turn and draw." (3,1)
• "civil blood makes civil hands unclean" (P)
• "the mad blood stirring" (3,1)

Context- Men defended there honour throught mediveal and Elizabethean times and there were two types of honour: vertical which could be increased or gained by men and horizontal which was more to do with family status and husbands and fathers