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Summary Act I, Scene ii Paris asks Capulet for his daughter Juliets hand in marriage. Capulet replies that she is still too young to be married, but nevertheless invites Paris to try to woo her at a banquet he is holding that night. He gives a servant a list of guests and tells him to take an invitation to each of them. The servant is illiterate, and so goes about trying to find someone to read the list for him.
He runs into Romeo and Benvolio, who are still discussing Romeos unrequited love. The servant gets Romeo to read the guest list for him, and then tells him about the banquet. Benvolio convinces Romeo to go along with him to the banquet to compare the other beautiful women there with the one he is pining for: Rosaline, a niece of Capulet. Act I, Scene iii Lady Capulet, Juliet, and the Nurse talk about the possibility of Juliet being married to Paris. Lady Capulet encourages Juliet to consider him as a potential husband when she sees him at the banquet. The Nurse is completely taken with the idea, but Juliet is not especially enthusiastic.
Commentary These two scenes introduce Paris as Capulets pick for Juliets husband and, more broadly, establish the theme of parental influence over a childs happiness. In the last scene, it was shown how the hatred Capulet and Montague bear for each other flows down to affect the rest of their households and results in violent conflict, but here the influence is more subtle and mundane. Paris is a nobleman and a worthy choice to be Juliets husband; there is no reason why she should not want to marry him. Capulet himself defers to her ability to choose for herself (My will to her consent is but a part), but his power to force her into a marriage if he feels it necessary is implicitly present. It is significant that Paris speaks to Juliets father before he ever shows her any indication of his feelings, and apparently before he even gets to know her particularly well. Lady Capulet, for her part, offers her entire support to her husbands plan for their daughter, and begins to put pressure on Juliet to think about Paris as a husband before Juliet begins to think about marriage at all on her own.
Juliet even says to Lady Capulet in scene 3 how important her influence is to her in this matter: Ill look to like, looking liking move; / But no more deep will I enact mine eye / Than your consent gives strength to make it fly. Thus parental influence in this tragedy becomes a tool of fate: Juliets arranged marriage with Paris, in addition to the Capulets feud with the Montague's, will eventually bring about the deaths of the two lovers, and both are laid in place before Romeo and Juliet even meet. Indeed, when Nurse recounts her husbands innuendo about Juliet falling on her back when she comes of age, she shows that Juliet has been viewed as a potential object of sexuality and marriage even since she was a toddler. In broad terms, her fate to someday be given away in marriage has been set since birth. Summary Act I, scene iv Romeo, Benvolio, and Mercutio stand outside the entrance to Capulets masquerade banquet.
Romeo complains again of the pains of love, and his friends try to cheer him up and encourage him to dance and be merry. Mercutio delivers a lengthy digression on Queen Mab, the fairy midwife who causes lovers to dream of love; Romeo prophesies his own death as a result of events which will take place at the banquet, but goes in with his friends regardless. Act I, scene v Romeo sees Juliet for the first time at the banquet, and is so overwhelmed with her beauty that he renounces his love for Rosaline. Tybalt recognizes his enemy's voice and calls for his sword, planning to do away with him right there on the dance floor, but Capulet restrains him, ordering him to ignore the intrusion in the interest of peace. Romeo goes to Juliet, touches her hand, flatters her, and they kiss twice. They are parted by the Nurse, who reveals to each the others identity.
They are both quite upset to discover that their new love is a child of their family's enemy. Commentary Puns abound once more when Romeo and Mercutio get together in scene 4. Particularly interesting is an implicit pun, as Romeo refuses to dance and insists on carrying a torch, just as he is proverbially carrying a torch for Rosaline (which is why he refuses to dance). Mercutio begins to show signs of his unpredictable nature in this scene with his sudden switch from macho puns and eagerness to get to the banquet to his childishly pretty (and lengthy) description of Queen Mab, the fairy dream-bearer. Through scene 5, Romeo continues to show himself as a hopeless romantic, given to undue excesses of emotion over beautiful girls. His language indicates that he thinks of love and commitment in terms of sight: Did my heart love till now?
forswear it, sight! For I neer saw true beauty till this night, as he says at his first glimpse of Juliet. This statement recalls scene 2, in which he spoke of the devout religion of mine eye and said that if his eyes were ever heretical enough to consider another girl more beautiful than his Rosaline, his tears would turn to fire and burn them at the stake. But as soon as he lays eyes on Juliet in this scene, his devotion to the apparently less beautiful Rosaline disappears. He continues to speak of love in religious terms, though, calling Juliets hand this holy shrine and his own lips two blushing pilgrims.
Juliet picks up his religious imagery and uses it to hold off his advances for a moment, but he soon finds a way to justify a kiss that unifies the goal of religion and Romeos own need for physical affection. Speaking of lips pressed together in a kiss as hands pressed together in prayer, he says, They pray, grant thou, lest faith turn to despair. After their first kiss, Romeo speaks of how his sin has been purged through contact with Juliets lips. This sin perhaps is his longing for love and affection, in which case Juliet admits her own new longing for him when she says, Then have my lips the sin that they have took. Romeo immediately asks for (and takes) his sin back again, thus finalizing perhaps the transference of his desire for Rosaline to Juliet. Juliet shows herself to be more cautious and crafty than Romeo in this scene when she covers up her questions to the nurse about him by asking about several young men at the same time, and then again by covering up her cry of despair at discovering he is a Montague by playing it off as a poem she learned from someone with whom she had just danced.
The hatred Tybalt shows for Romeo at the very banquet at which he meets Juliet is significant, as Tybalt later becomes a major cause of the lovers undoing. Another ominous tone is struck when Juliets says, If he be married, / My grave is like to be my wedding bed. The grammar of the sentence is ambiguous enough that even though Juliet means it to indicate a present condition, it could be interpreted as a future one, so that if Romeo ever gets married, Juliets grave will be her wedding bed. This conjunction of death and marriage (and, by implication, reproduction) occurs again and again throughout the play.
Summary Prologue The chorus gives an overview of what has happened so far, that Romeos unrequited love for Rosaline has given way to a new love for Juliet, a new love which, though Juliet returns it, carries its own drastic complications. Act II, Scene i Romeo decides he cannot leave Capulets house after finding his true love, so he climbs over the wall into Capulets orchard. On their way home from the banquet, Benvolio and Mercutio come looking for him. Benvolio realizes he must have climbed over the wall, and Mercutio jokingly attempts to conjure him up by invoking the name of Rosaline, with whom they still believe him to be in love.
They decide to let him be, and Mercutio wishes Romeo luck in his amorous adventures. Act II, Scene ii Romeo grumbles about Mercutio's teasing, and then sees Juliet appear at her window above him. To himself, without meaning Juliet to hear, he compares her to the sun and asks her to cast off the moons (Diana's) jealous requirement of virginity. He describes her beauty and wishes that she knew he loved her. Juliet, not knowing he is beneath her balcony, calls out Romeos name to the night, asking him why he must be a Montague and telling him she would give up her name for him. She says that names themselves are not important, only the things they stand for, and entreats him to be her love.
He answers her aloud, and says he will abandon his name if she dislikes it. She asks him how he got there, and he answers that love brought him; she tells him he must leave or her family will kill him, and he answers that he would rather die quickly than slowly for want of her love. Juliet apologizes for being so immodest in her declaration of love for him, but says it was only that she didnt know he was there; her forwardness was not a sign that her love is shallow. Romeo begins to swear by the moon that he loves her, but she stops him, saying that the moons variability is a bad omen for an oath of love.
She tells him to swear on himself, as he is the god she now worships, but then stops him and tells him not to swear at all, as the declaration would be too sudden and rash. She tells him that she will send someone to him the next day to find out if his intentions are honorable and he wishes to marry her. They bid each other goodnight, and Romeo goes off to see his priest. Commentary The prologue to the second act reinforces themes which have already appeared. One love has been replaced by another through the enchanting power of the charm of looks, and the enmity of parental influence stands in the way of the lovers happiness. However, this prologue functions less as the voice of fate than the first one, and more as a device to build suspense, as it lays out the problem of the two lovers and hints that there may be some way to overcome it: But passion lends them power, time means, to meet, / Tempting extremities with extreme sweet.
Mercutio lays on the sexual innuendos rather thickly in the first scene of the second act. He uses phrases that invoke sexual images such as raise up him, mistress circle, and letting it there stand / Till she had laid it and conjured it down, as well as metaphors of pears and medlars (a fruit somewhat like a crab apple), which stood in Shakespeare's time for the male and female reproductive organs, respectively. He does this both to tease Romeo and to wish him luck in his romantic escapades, the object of which he still thinks is Rosaline. Mercutio does not realize the depth of Romeos feelings, and may not be entirely capable of understanding them.
Interestingly, Mercutio bets his life that Romeo has already gone home to bed, when in fact he has gone over the wall to see Juliet. Later, Romeos love for Juliet and attempt to make peace with her cousin Tybalt will result in Mercutio's death. In scene 2, Romeo speaks his oft-quoted (and misquoted) line, But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks? / It is the east, and Juliet is the sun. He is standing in the dark garden, and Juliet brings the light. This recalls Act I, scene 1, in which Montague says, Away from the light steals home my heavy son, / And private in his chamber pens himself, / Shuts up his windows, locks far daylight out / And makes himself an artificial night.
Romeos longing for Rosaline caused him to shun the light of the sun; now he is seeing his new beloved as the sun herself. Romeo and Juliet again use religious terms to declare their love in this scene: Romeo replies to Juliets entreaty for him to change his name, Call me but love, and Ill be new baptized, and Juliet tells him to swear by thy gracious self, / Which is the god of my idolatry. Romeo says that Love goes toward love, as schoolboys from their books, meaning merely that the eagerness and pleasure involved in both instances is the same, but the conjunction of loves attraction with an image of repulsion and antipathy (the feelings schoolboys feel for their books) is significant, because it recalls the fact that Romeo and Juliets love exists within an atmosphere of hatred and conflict, which they alone seem to recognize as empty and unfounded. Summary Act II, Scene iii Friar Laurence is gathering medicinal plants when Romeo approaches and tells him of his love for Juliet.
He asks the friar to marry them that very day. The friar reminds Romeo that just yesterday he was there crying to him about Rosaline and chides him for being such an inconstant and superficial lover. Romeo argues that this love is superior to his last because Juliet returns his love, and the friar agrees to marry them in the interest of ending the feud between their families. Act II, Scene iv Mercutio and Benvolio are looking for Romeo, who did not return home all the previous night. Benvolio tells Mercutio that Tybalt sent a letter to Romeo challenging him to a duel, and Mercutio denounces Tybalt as an overly courteous fop with a quick temper. He admits, however, that Tybalt is a duelist of the first rank from the best schools of fencing.
Romeo appears, and Mercutio engages him in a bout of good-natured word-play. The Nurse enters with her servant, and Mercutio teases her for a moment before he and Benvolio go off for lunch at Montague's. The Nurse asks Romeo what his intentions are with her mistress, and he tells her to have Juliet come to confession at Friar Laurence's cell that afternoon to be married. He tells her to wait for his servant to bring her a rope ladder, by which he will climb up to Juliet on their wedding night.
The Nurse lingers for a moment talking about how adorable Juliet is and how she wouldnt even look at Paris, who also wants to marry her; then she goes off to carry out her mission. Act II, Scene v The Nurse returns to Juliet, and postpones her answer to Juliets eager questions about Romeo as long as she possibly can, complaining about her ailments and teasing Juliet about her choice of man. The Nurse finally describes her meeting with Romeo and lays out his plan, and Juliet runs off to Friar Laurence's cell to meet him. Act II, Scene vi Juliet arrives at Friar Laurence's cell, where she finds Romeo already waiting. Friar Laurence takes the lovers into the chapel to be married. Commentary Friar Laurence's monologue at the opening of scene 3 explores one of the central themes of the play, the duality of good and evil existing in all things.
The friar is speaking of medicinal plants, and claims that, though everything in nature has a useful purpose, it can also work ill if used improperly: For nought so vile that on the earth doth live / But to the earth some special good doth give, / Nor aught so good but strain from that fair use / Revolts from true birth, stumbling on abuse: / Virtue itself turns vice, being misapplied; / And vice sometimes by action dignified. The friars ruminations turn toward a broader application at the end of this passage, as he speaks of how good may be perverted to evil and evil may be purified by good. He also applies his maxim explicitly to people: Two such opposed kings encamp them still / In man as well as herbs, grace and rude will. When mans baser nature gets the better of him, the result is evil and death. This duality of good and evil appears several forms throughout the play, including life and death, and death and reproduction. This last shows up in this same monologue, when the friar says, The earth thats natures mother is her tomb; / What is her burying grave that is her womb.
The friar tries to put his theories to use when he agrees to marry Romeo and Juliet; he hopes that the good of their love will reverse the evil of the hatred between the feuding families. Unfortunately, he later causes the flip-side of his theory to come into play, when his sleeping potion, which he intends to preserve Romeo and Juliets marriage and love, results in both of their deaths. Scene 3 also contains an important image of love as reading: Thy love did read by rote and could not spell. This recalls Act I, scene 3, when Lady Capulet delivers her extended description of the book of love, as well as to Act I, scene 2, in which the illiterate servant suggests to Romeo that perhaps he has learned to read without book. Scene 4 has Mercutio again showing his mercurial temperament; he jumps abruptly from a bitter diatribe against foppish duelists to joviality at seeing Romeo approaching.
Mercutio once again revels in his puns and double entendre's, and Romeo displays his own quick wit and skill at wordplay, getting his friend back for some of his earlier teasing. At one point in this scene, Mercutio lists off a number of famous lady loves of literature and dismisses them as inferior to Romeos love (whom he still believes to be Rosaline). This recalls the convention of listing ones predecessors and boasting of having surpassed them in some way, a convention which appears periodically in epic and other types of poetry. Of particular significance here is the mention of Thisbe, the mythological lover of Pyramus, who bears a close resemblance to Juliet. In scene 5, the Nurse prolongs Juliets misery at not knowing Romeos answer even after she returns to her ladys chamber. In this case, her failure to communicate quickly is intended to be playful; in the next act, it will prove unintentionally but painfully misleading in a similar situation.
In scene 6, Romeo commits one of the major transgressions of tragedy by proudly defying fate: Then love-devouring death do what he dare; / It is enough I may but call her mine. The friar adds to the ominous foreboding before Juliet arrives for the wedding: These violent delights have violent ends / And in their triumph die, like fire and powder, / Which as they kiss consume. Summary Act III, Scene i Mercutio and Benvolio, dawdling in a public place, debate which of them is the more belligerent. Tybalt arrives with some of his men, looking for Romeo. Mercutio tries to provoke him, but when Romeo arrives, Tybalt storms over to challenge him. Romeo submits to his insults without a fight, saying they have reason to love each other which Tybalt does not yet know.
Mercutio steps in and answers Tybalt's insults himself. They draw their swords and fight, and when Romeo reaches out to stop them, Tybalt stabs Mercutio under Romeos arm. Tybalt runs off with his men, and Mercutio dies, cursing both Capulets and Montague's. Tybalt returns, and Romeo fights him in a rage over Mercutio's death. Romeo overcomes Tybalt and kills him, then is forced to flee a mob of citizens. The Prince enters with Capulet, Montague, and their wives, and questions Benvolio about the brawl.
Distraught over Tybalt's death, Lady Capulet calls for Romeos execution, but Montague argues that Tybalt was rightly killed for killing Mercutio. The Prince orders Capulet and Montague to pay a heavy fine for the death of Mercutio, and exiles Romeo from the city for his part in the killings. Act III, Scene ii Juliet stands at her window eagerly awaiting the night, when Romeo will arrive at her window. The Nurse comes and begins wailing, Hes dead, hes dead, hes dead!
Juliet takes this to mean Romeo is dead and begins to bewail her fate. The Nurse clarifies that it is Tybalt who is dead, and that Romeo has been banished from Verona for killing him. Juliet briefly laments what she takes to be a well-hidden wickedness in Romeo, but then recants and reproaches the nurse for speaking against her new husband. She mourns the loss of Romeo to banishment and resigns herself to die a virgin.
The Nurse tells her to go wait in her room and sets off to find Romeo at Friar Laurence's cell. Commentary 326
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