A Raisin in the Sun Study Guide

Brief Biography of Lorraine Hansberry

Hansberry was raised in an African-American middle-class family with activist foundations. The
granddaughter of a slave and the niece of a prominent African-American professor, Hansberry grew up
with a keen awareness of African-American history and the ongoing struggle for civil rights. In 1938
Hansberry’s family moved to an all-white neighborhood in Chicago and suffered violent attacks from
neighbors, who had signed a restrictive covenant to exclude black families from the community.
Hansberry’s family fought the covenant all the way to the Supreme Court, which ruled in favor of the
Hansberrys in 1940. Hansberry attended the University of Wisconsin for several years before dropping
out and moving to New York in 1950 to pursue writing and social activism. Hansberry’s best-known work,
A Raisin in the Sun, premiered in 1959, making her the first African-American female playwright to have a
play produced on Broadway. Hansberry died of pancreatic cancer at 34, in 1965.

Historical Context of A Raisin in the Sun

In the 1920s and 30s the discriminatory “Jim Crow” laws in the South prompted many African Americans
to relocate to Northern cities, a movement called the Great Migration. Nonetheless, while the North did
not have laws demanding policies of segregation be followed, discrimination persisted also in the North,
leading to segregated housing, education, and employment. In 1949 the United States Congress passed
the National Housing Act to address substandard housing and to provide adequate and more integrated
housing options for minorities. In 1954 the Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. Board of Education that
school segregation was unconstitutional.

Other Books Related to A Raisin in the Sun

Richard Wright’s novel Native Son (1940) describes the life of Bigger Thomas, a poor African-American
man who lives in Chicago’s South Side in the 1930s. Wright’s autobiography Black Boy (1945) discusses
the author’s experience of racial discrimination and poverty in twentieth-century Chicago. James
Baldwin’s Notes of a Native Son (1955) and Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man (1952) explore urban African-
American life, the question of assimilation, and the realities of Northern racism.

Key Facts about A Raisin in the Sun

Full Title: A Raisin in the Sun

When Written: 1950s

Where Written: New York City

When Published: The play premiered on Broadway on March 11, 1959. Random House published the play
in 1959.

Literary Period: Social Realism

Genre: Dramatic stage play

Setting: Chicago’s South Side, sometime between 1945 and 1959

Climax: Walter Lee loses the family’s insurance payment in an investment scheme.

Antagonist: Karl Lindner and the Clybourne Park Improvement Association; racial prejudice and economic
hardship

Extra Credit for A Raisin in the Sun

A Raisin in the Spotlight A Raisin in the Sun inspired several adaptations, including a Tony Award-winning
musical. Partly written by the Lorraine Hansberry’s ex-husband Robert Nemiroff, after her death, Raisin
added song and dance to the Youngers’ story, winning the 1973 Tony Award for Best Musical. More
loosely based on the original story, the play Clybourne Park tells the story of the white family that sells its
house to the Youngers. With its first act set in 1959 and its second act set in 2009, Clybourne Park tracks
the development of the neighborhood and its residents over fifty years.

Mother to Son Hansberry originally titled the play, The Crystal Stair, a name that, like A Raisin in the Sun,
comes from a Langston Hughes poem. The poem, called “Mother to Son,” speaks to the hardships that
many African-American families have faced: “Well, son, I’ll tell you: / Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair
/ . . . But all the time / I’se been a-climbin’ on.”

Summary
A Raisin in the Sun examines the effects of racial prejudice on the fulfillment of an African-American
family’s dreams. The play centers on the Youngers, a working-class family that lives in Chicago’s South
Side during the mid-twentieth century. Shortly before the play begins, the head of the Younger family, Big
Walter, dies, leaving the family to inherit a $10,000 life insurance payment. The family eagerly awaits the
arrival of the insurance check, which has the potential to make the family’s long deferred dreams into
reality. However, the members of the Younger family have conflicting ideas—conflicting dreams—
regarding the best use for the money, which causes tension.

At the beginning of the play Mama, Big Walter’s widow, expresses uncertainty regarding the best use for
the money. Mama tells her daughter-in-law, Ruth, that she and her late husband shared the dream of
owning a house, but that poverty and racism prevented them from fulfilling this dream during Big
Walter’s lifetime. Mama’s daughter, Beneatha, aspires to attend medical school and become a doctor, a
considerable challenge for an African-American woman at that time. Beneatha’s older brother, Walter
Lee, belittles his sister’s dream, instead suggesting that she simply get married. Walter wants to use the
insurance payment as an investment in a liquor store, an idea that Mama and his wife Ruth both dislike.
Ruth, worried about her troubled marriage and the family’s cramped living situation, shares Mama’s hope
for a house, although she is willing to support her husband’s dream because, as she tells Mama, “He
needs this chance.” Walter finds his job as a white man’s chauffeur demeaning and he sees the liquor
store investment as the only path towards a better future.

On the same day that the check arrives, Ruth finds out that she is pregnant, which makes her question
whether the family can afford to raise another child. Knowing that Ruth is considering an abortion, Mama
begs Walter to convince his wife to keep the baby. Walter is unable to say anything and leaves the
apartment. As Mama watches her family “falling apart,” she makes the decision to place a down payment
on a home in the white neighborhood of Clybourne Park, hoping that her choice to “do something bigger”
will bring the family together.

Mama’s decision to purchase a house only sends Walter deeper into despair as he sees the opportunity
to fulfill his dream disappear. On the other hand, the new house fills Ruth with joy and hope for her
family, helping her to imagine the possibility of a happy future for her unborn child. Several weeks later,
Walter continues to grow more despondent and skips work three days in a row. As Mama realizes that “I
been doing to you what the rest of the world been doing to you,” she decides to transfer control of the
household and the rest of the insurance money to Walter, asking only that he set aside a portion for
Beneatha’s schooling. Mama’s decision reinvigorates Walter.

A week later, the family is happily preparing for its move when Karl Lindner arrives and tells them of
Clybourne Park’s offer to buy their new home as a way to dissuade the family from moving to the
neighborhood. The family confidently refuses the offer. Moments later, Walter’s friend Bobo enters and
tells Walter that Willy Harris has disappeared with the liquor store investment. Without heeding Mama’s
advice, Walter had invested the entirety of the insurance money in the liquor store, and the loss leaves
the family on the brink of financial ruin.

An hour later, the Nigerian student Joseph Asagai visits Beneatha and finds her distraught over the lost
money. Asagai asks Beneatha to marry him and “come home” to Africa with him, a sudden proposal that
Beneatha says she will need to consider. Soon after, Walter informs the family that he will accept
Lindner’s offer, which greatly disappoints them. However, as Walter and his son, Travis, face Lindner,
Walter reclaims his dignity and refuses Lindner’s offer. Excited but well aware of the dangers that await
them, the Youngers leave their apartment and head to their new home.

Summary Analysis
Act 1 scene 1
The curtain rises to reveal the Younger family’s The weary and careworn appearance of the
living room in its modest home in Chicago’s Youngers’ living room draws attention to the
Southside. It is seven-thirty and still “morning family’s working-class status. The room’s “tired”
dark” inside the clean but cramped apartment. furnishings, once chosen with care and pride,
The “primary feature” of the room is its highlight the family’s long dissolved dreams for its
atmosphere of having accommodated “the living cramped home. Nonetheless, the meticulously
of too many people for too many years.” Although cleaned room and furnishings still manifest the
its furnishings were once chosen “with love and dignity of the Younger family.
even hope,” an aura of “weariness has . . . won in
this room.” As evidence of the apartment’s Active Themes
overcrowding, a young boy, Travis, sleeps on a Dreams, Dignity and Pride, Money
“make-down bed” at center stage.
An alarm clock rings and Ruth enters. She crosses As the first of the Youngers to wake up in the
to the small window in the cramped kitchen area morning, Ruth assumes the duties of a traditional
and raises the shade that covers the room’s sole mother, preparing meals for her family and
source of natural light. A “dusky” light shines helping her son get ready for school. The shared
“feebly” into the apartment, and while Ruth
begins preparing breakfast, she calls to her son
Travis to wake up. After her calls are ignored,
Ruth goes over to Travis and finally shakes him
out of bed, sending him off to the hallway
bathroom before one of the neighbor’s can
occupy it.
Ruth’s husband Walter Lee enters from the
bedroom, and almost immediately he mentions
the “check” that the family is expecting the next
day. Ruth answers impatiently that it’s too early to
start discussing money, which sparks tension with
her husband. While Ruth prepares breakfast, the
couple continues bickering over yesterday’s late-
night gathering that Walter held for his friends in
his son’s makeshift “bedroom.” Walter dismisses
his wife’s complaints by saying that “colored
[women] . . . [is] some eeeevil people at eight
o’clock in the morning.”
Travis returns from the bathroom and signals for
his father to get inside before one of the
neighbors beats him to it. Travis begins eating his
breakfast and, like Walter, also asks his mother
about the check that is scheduled to arrive
tomorrow. Travis reminds his mother that he is
supposed to bring 50 cents to school this
morning, to which Ruth answers that she “ain’t
got no fifty cents” today. Travis persists in asking
for the money and, exasperated, Ruth refuses and
tells her son to be quiet. Angered by his mother’s
resistance, Travis heads for the door, but before
he can leave for school, Ruth gently teases him
and asks for a good-bye kiss. Travis’ frustration
fades, and mother and son embrace and
reconcile.
Walter reenters and, hearing the tail end of the
argument between his wife and son, gives Travis a
dollar to take to school, which greatly angers
Ruth. Walter’s defiance of Ruth’s decision
provokes further conflict between husband and
wife. In particular, Ruth criticizes Walter’s friend
Willy Harris and his business schemes, the latest
being a liquor store that Harris has asked Walter
to invest in. Walter asks Ruth to try to persuade
his mother, Lena, to use part of the coming check
to invest in the store. Ruth resists the idea and
tells Walter to “eat your eggs.” In response,
Walter erupts, accusing his wife of hampering his
hallway bathroom offers another example of the
Youngers’ modest financial situation.
Active Themes
Gender and Feminism, Money
Walter’s immediate reference to the coming
“check” emphasizes the family’s preoccupation
with money. Ruth’s complaints about her son’s
makeshift bedroom also relate directly to the
family’s strained finances. Walter’s comment on
“colored” women speaks to his own insecurities
regarding his shaky sense of manhood and also
hints at the ways that hardship can make people
blame each other.
Active Themes
Race, Discrimination, and Assimilation, Gender
and Feminism, Money
Travis’ mention of the anticipated check shows
that the family’s financial concerns extend to its
youngest member. Travis finds his mother’s
refusal to give him the 50 cents that he needs for
school extremely frustrating and embarrassing,
since it means that he will have to reveal his
family’s economic struggles to his teacher and
classmates. Nonetheless, familial love reconciles
mother and son after financial strain divides
them.
Active Themes
Dignity and Pride, Money
Unable to stomach the loss of pride that would
come with the denial of his son’s request, Walter
shortsightedly gives Travis more money than the
family can spare. Fixated on the dream of
providing a stable financial future for his family,
Walter begs his wife to support him in his
ambition to open a liquor store. When Ruth
expresses doubts about the security of such an
investment, Walter lashes out with criticism of
African-American women in general, redirecting
his own anxieties towards his wife and blaming
her for his failings as a male provider.
dreams. Ruth “wearily” explains her indifference
by telling Walter that he simply “never say
nothing new.” Walter retorts, saying that “colored
women . . . don’t understand about building their
men up.”
Walter’s sister Beneatha enters from the stage-
left bedroom in the midst of Walter and Ruth’s
quarrel. As Ruth irons a massive pile of clothes,
Walter badgers his sister about her decision to
study medicine and the high cost of her schooling.
Beneatha counters sharply and impatiently, and
when Walter brings up the coming check,
Beneatha quickly and decisively reminds Walter,
“That money belongs to Mama.” Walter “bitterly”
snaps back, pointing to Beneatha’s own hope that
Mama will devote a portion of the check to her
tuition. Walter tells Beneatha to “stop acting
holy” and acknowledge the “sacrifices” that he
and the rest of the family have made so that
Beneatha can go to school. Beneatha, in a semi-
mocking tone of gratitude, drops to her knees and
cries, “Forgive me for ever wanting to be anything
at all!”
Walter goes on to suggest that his sister abandon
her dream of becoming a doctor in favor of being
“a nurse like other women,” or simply getting
married. Beneatha responds by telling Walter,
“Thee is mad, boy.” Following his argument with
Beneatha, Walter “slams out of the house” on his
way to work. However, a few moments later,
Walter reenters, fumbling with his hat, and tells
Ruth that he needs “some money for carfare,”
having given his last cent to Travis earlier. Ruth
gives the money to her husband and in a “teasing,
but tenderly” manner says, “Here, take a taxi!”
Mama enters from her bedroom and asks
Beneatha and Ruth about the argument with
Walter that she just overheard. When Beneatha
exits to go to the bathroom, Ruth reveals that the
siblings’ argument had to do with “that money”
that’s arriving in tomorrow’s check. Ruth asks
Mama if she has decided what to do with the
money and encourages her to consider investing
in Walter’s liquor store venture, adding that
African Americans need to “start gambling” on
such ventures if they want to get ahead in life.
Active Themes
Dreams Theme Icon Dignity and Pride Theme Icon
Race, Discrimination, and Assimilation, Gender
and Feminism, Money.
Walter’s critique of his sister’s dream highlights
his traditional view of gender roles, which
Beneatha and her professional ambition
challenge. The issue of money, embodied by the
check, again serves as a point of conflict for the
family members. Walter laments the high cost of
Beneatha’s tuition, which would divert money
away from his dream of opening a liquor store.
Beneatha’s tongue-in-cheek apology for “ever
wanting to be anything at all” underlines her pride
in her dream and her dismissal of the expectation
that women should give up their own dreams and
instead just support men.
Active Themes
Dreams Theme Icon Dignity and Pride Theme Icon
Gender and Feminism, Money
Walter’s attempt to convince his sister to sideline
her dream reflects his uncompromising stance on
gender and his determination to secure Mama’s
money in order to fund his own dream. Walter’s
re-entrance to ask for carfare recalls his
imprudent decision to give Travis his money—
foreshadowing future poor decision-making
around money—and Ruth’s reaction shows that
she facilitates Walter’s irresponsibility with
money.
Active Themes
Dreams, Dignity and Pride, Gender and Feminism,
Money
In a drastic change from her earlier conversation
with Walter, Ruth tries to convince her mother-in-
law to use the money from the check in order to
fund Walter’s dream, hoping that the fulfillment
of her husband’s ambition will give him the
confidence boost needed to fix their marriage.
Mama’s response – “We ain’t no business people”
– takes on a racial dimension in contrast to Ruth’s
statement that African Americans need to start
taking chances in business in order to better their
standing in society.
Mama dismisses the idea, stating, “We ain’t no
business people.” Mama asks Ruth about her
sudden support for Walter’s investment scheme,
to which Ruth answers that “something is
happening” between the couple and that Walter
“needs this chance” to restore his self-esteem and
repair the rift in their marriage.
Studying Ruth’s tired face, Mama suggests that
Ruth call in sick to work today, an idea that Ruth
swiftly refuses, stating that the family “need[s] the
money.” With the mention of money, the
conversation promptly circles back to the
anticipated check, which Mama reveals is a
$10,000 insurance payment resulting from her
husband’s recent death. Mama declares that
some of the money must be set aside for
Beneatha’s schooling. As for the remaining
amount, Mama “tentatively” begins to tell Ruth of
her and her late husband Big Walter’s deferred
dream of buying a house. Mama suggests that she
might use part of the insurance money as a down
payment on a “little old two-story somewhere,
with a yard where Travis could play.”
In a “reflective mood,” Mama smiles and
reminisces about her marriage, stating that she
and Big Walter only intended to stay in their
current apartment for “no more than a year.”
Growing sad at her “dissolved dream,” Mama
recalls the loss of her baby Claude and the
difficulties of her marriage, including Big Walter’s
“wild” way with women. Mama states that, for all
his faults, her husband “sure loved his children,”
and he often said, “Seem like God didn’t see fit to
give the black man nothing but dreams – but He
did give us children to make them dreams seem
worth while.”
Beneatha returns from the bathroom and angers
Mama by “reciting the scriptures in vain” when
she exclaims “Christ’s sakes” in response to a
neighbor’s noisy vacuuming. Beneatha then
mentions her after-school guitar lesson that
evening, which provokes snide comments from
Mama and Ruth, who proceed to rattle off the
long list of Beneatha’s discarded – and expensive
– hobbies. Beneatha defends her experimentation
with different hobbies as part of her effort to
Active Themes
Dreams, Dignity and Pride, Race, Discrimination,
and Assimilation, Gender and Feminism, Money
Big Walter’s insurance policy represents the
interconnectedness of the play’s themes of
money, dignity, and dreams. The cost of acquiring
and maintaining the $10,000 policy during Big
Walter’s life would have placed a considerable
financial burden on the man, although the policy
now makes possible the fulfillment of at least
some of his family’s dreams. Through his death,
Big Walter continues to provide for his family and
helps to reinforce its sense of dignity and pride.
Active Themes
Dreams, Dignity and Pride, Money
Mama betrays herself as a member of an older
generation with different thoughts on marriage
when she reveals that she tolerated her late
husband’s womanizing. Mama’s remembrance of
Big Walter’s statement about the chronic
deferment of the “black man[‘s]” dreams draws
attention to the widespread racial inequalities and
prejudices in America that limited African
Americans’ employment, educational, and
housing opportunities.
Active Themes
Dreams, Race, Discrimination, and Assimilation,
Gender and Feminism
Although Beneatha defends and takes pride in her
quest for a form of personal “expression,” Mama
and Ruth can’t help but laugh at Beneatha’s
youthful effort to define her identity, which
represents an unimaginable luxury to these
women of earlier, pre-feminist generations. The
money devoted to Beneatha’s hobbies
underscores the family members’ financial tug-of-
war.
Active Themes
“express” herself, which prompts “raucous
laughter” from Mama and Ruth.
Mama then changes the subject to Beneatha’s
love life, asking whom she will go on a date with
tomorrow night. “With displeasure,” Beneatha
says it will be George Murchison, a “rich” young
man whom she condemns as “shallow.” Ruth
disagrees with Beneatha’s dismissal of George,
asking her, “What other qualities a man got to
have” in addition to his wealth? Beneatha resists
her sister-in-law’s advice, affirming that she first
and foremost intends to become a doctor and
only then will she consider whom to marry – that
is, “If I ever get married.”
After recovering from the shock of Beneatha’s
comment, Mama says that Beneatha will certainly
fulfill her dream of becoming a doctor, “God
willing.” Beneatha chafes at the mention of God,
responding that divine will “doesn’t have a thing
to do with it.” Beneatha continues, delivering a
speech in which she coolly declares, “God is just
one idea I don’t accept.” After absorbing the
speech, Mama slowly crosses to Beneatha and
“powerfully” slaps her, and then with “cool
emotion” makes her repeat, “In my mother’s
house there is still God.” Beneatha acquiesces and
Mama exits. To Ruth, Beneatha calls Mama “a
tyrant” before leaving for school.
Mama reenters and expresses her deep concern
for her children, telling Ruth, “There’s something
come down between me and them that don’t let
us understand each other.” Tending to her
struggling plant by the apartment’s tiny window,
she continues to think aloud and, with her back to
Ruth, fails to realize that her daughter-in-law is
growing faint. At last Mama turns to find that
Ruth has “slipped” to the floor in a faint.
Act 1, scene 2
The following Saturday morning Beneatha and
Mama clean the apartment thoroughly, a regular
occurrence in the Younger household. Travis asks takes in maintaining its home. The tantalizing
his grandmother if he can go outside to play on
the street, and Mama agrees, as long as he keeps expectant atmosphere. Similarly, the speculation
a “good lookout” for the postman, who is
supposed to deliver the insurance check that
Dignity and Pride, Gender and Feminism, Money
Ruth and Beneatha have a difference of opinion
when it comes to the relevance of wealth in
choosing a mate; however, Ruth’s own decision to
marry the working-class Walter shows that she
hasn’t necessarily heeded her own advice. In the
face of societal – and familial – pressure to marry,
Beneatha prioritizes her independence and
freedom over love or the financial security that
comes from marriage.
Active Themes
Dreams, Gender and Feminism, Money
Beneatha prides herself on the progress that she
has made towards achieving her dream of
becoming a doctor, which is why she resists
Mama’s suggestion that God has a role in the
fulfillment of her ambition. On the other hand,
Mama takes pride and finds strength in her
religious convictions, which she has tried to instill
in her children. Mama’s reprimand of Beneatha
signifies the pride that she takes in maintaining a
certain type of home for her family. The entire
exchange shows that Mama is still the leader of
this family.
Active Themes
Dreams, Dignity and Pride
Mama’s unending attention to her struggling
houseplant symbolizes the pride that she takes in
tending to her fractured family and maintaining its
sense of dignity and integrity, despite the rough
and suffocating conditions. Ruth’s unexplained
fainting ends the scene with a note of tension and
uncertainty.
Active Themes
Dignity and Pride
The Youngers’ Saturday morning ritual of cleaning
the apartment shows the pride that the family
arrival of the insurance check creates an
over Ruth’s pregnancy imbues the scene with a
sense of anxiety and tension.
morning. After Travis exits, Beneatha asks Mama
where Ruth is, and Mama says “with meaning”
that Ruth has gone to the doctor, implying that
Ruth is pregnant. The phone rings and interrupts
their conversation.
Beneatha answers the phone and has a brief
conversation with her classmate, Joseph Asagai,
who asks if he may visit Beneatha later that
morning. Beneatha agrees. Beneatha explains to
Mama that Asagai is a Nigerian student whom she
met on campus and she asks Mama to refrain
from asking “ignorant questions” about Africa
when he comes to the apartment. Mama retorts,
“Why should I know anything about Africa?”
Ruth enters “forlornly” and confirms Mama’s
suspicion that she is pregnant. While Mama is
overcome with “grandmotherly enthusiasm,”
Beneatha and Ruth worry about the financial
strain that a child will place on the family. When
Beneatha asks Ruth if she planned the pregnancy,
Ruth dismisses the question, and Beneatha snaps,
“Where is he [the unborn child] going to live, on
the roof?” Beneatha then tries to backpedal, half-
heartedly saying that the baby will be
“wonderful.”
Suddenly, there is a “commotion” in the street,
and Beneatha calls out of the window and orders
Travis to come upstairs. While waiting for Travis,
Mama asks Ruth about her visit to the doctor, and
Ruth’s use of the pronoun “she” to refer to the
doctor makes Mama “immediately suspicious.”
Travis enters and breathlessly describes how he
and his friends chased and killed a rat in the
street. Travis’ story brings his dispirited mother to
tears. Seeing Ruth crying, Beneatha sends Travis
back outside to play, “but not with any rats.” Just
then, Asagai rings the doorbell and enters, and
Mama takes a fragile Ruth to her bedroom to rest.
Asagai notices that Beneatha looks rattled and
asks if something is wrong, to which Beneatha
says, “Yes . . . we’ve all got acute ghetto-itis.”
Asagai gives Beneatha a gift of records and
traditional Nigerian robes. As Beneatha models
the robes, he compliments her appearance,
Active Themes
Dignity and Pride, Money
Beneatha’s request that her mother refrain from
asking ignorant questions about Africa
underscores the fact that many mid-century
African Americans knew little about African life
and culture. Furthermore, seeing themselves as
Americans, some African Americans questioned
why it was necessary to have extensive knowledge
of Africa.
Active Themes
Race, Discrimination, and Assimilation
Ruth’s pregnancy is immediately coupled with
economic concerns. Ruth bears the responsibility
not only for literally carrying the child, but also for
shouldering a significant part of the accompanying
financial burden. Ruth and Beneatha, part of a
younger generation of women, differ from Mama
in their reactions to the news.
Active Themes
Gender and Feminism, Money
Travis’ story highlights the harshness of life in the
segregated South Side of Chicago and reignites
Ruth’s fears that the family’s current home is an
unsuitable place for her son (or, now, her baby) to
grow up. Ruth’s maternal responsibilities force
her to consider broader social forces at play.
Mama, a traditionalist, senses from the fact that
Ruth saw a woman doctor that Ruth may be
thinking of doing something that perhaps a male,
traditional doctor would not support—get an
abortion.
Active Themes
Race, Discrimination, and Assimilation, Gender
and Feminism
Asagai’s comments about Beneatha’s hair make
her question whether she is an Africanist or an
assimilationist. Although Beneatha takes interest
in her African heritage, her straightened hair
projects a message of assimilation, of “managing”
her black attributes to make it easier to fit in,
teasingly adding that she looks good even with
“mutilated” hair. Beneatha is taken aback by this
comment and explains that she straightens her
hair because it is easier to manage that way.
Asagai implies that Beneatha’s straightened
hairstyle marks her as an “assimilationist,” which
Beneatha resolutely denies. Asagai then expresses
his romantic feelings for Beneatha, but about such
feelings she responds, “By itself – it won’t do.”
which Beneatha abhors. Beneatha’s hair is also
tied to her identity as a woman and traditional –
i.e., white – notions of feminine beauty.
Beneatha’s statement that the family suffers from
“ghetto-itis” draws attention to the perils of life in
a segregated “ghetto” neighborhood. Her
reaction that Asagai’s love is not enough is an
expression of her desire not just for love but for a
partner dedicated to her equality and freedom as
well.

Active Themes
Race, Discrimination, and Assimilation, Gender
and Feminism
Before Asagai can exit, Mama reenters and
Beneatha introduces her to Asagai. Honoring her
promise to Beneatha, Mama refrains from asking
Asagai ignorant questions and instead parrots
Beneatha’s earlier complaints about “American
Negroes” who “know nothing about Africa ‘cept
Tarzan.” Following her somewhat forced
“recitation,” Mama relaxes and extends an open
invitation to Asagai for “some decent home-
cooked meals.” Asagai is “moved” by her
hospitality.
Mama’s recitation shows that she, while perhaps
not as interested in her African heritage as
Beneatha, is willing to make an effort in order to
make her guest feel at home. Mama’s hospitality
is a reflection of the pride that she takes in her
family and its treatment of others.
Active Themes
Dignity and Pride Theme Icon Race,
Discrimination, and Assimilation Theme Icon
As he goes to exit, Asagai calls Beneatha by a
Yoruba nickname, “Alaiyo.” Mama and Beneatha
ask about the meaning of the nickname, and after
thinking for a moment Asagai answers that it
means, “One for Whom Bread – Food – Is Not
Enough.” Beneatha understands the significance
and thanks Asagai for the nickname. He exits.
With the nickname, Asagai acknowledges and
celebrates Beneatha’s aspirations and desire for
something more than just the basics, whether in
love or life, which she deeply appreciates.
Beneatha takes pride in her African nickname and
its ability to accurately represent her dedication
to her dreams.
Active Themes
Dreams Theme Icon Race, Discrimination, and
Assimilation Theme Icon
Beneatha gazes at herself in the mirror and
“clutches at her hair,” squinting her eyes “as if
trying to imagine something.” Suddenly, she grabs
her coat and heads for the door, telling a
confused Mama that she is going out, “To become
a queen of the Nile!”
To honor her African identity, Beneatha realizes
that she must allow her hair to display its natural,
unassimilated form. She embraces natural hair as
an alternative ideal of beauty, and sees herself as
embracing her African heritage.
Active Themes
Race, Discrimination, and Assimilation Theme Icon
Gender and Feminism Theme Icon
Ruth reenters from the bedroom and, soon after,
the doorbell rings, a sudden sound that signals
that the mailman has arrived with the insurance
check. Ruth sends Travis downstairs to get it.
Travis returns moments later and Mama opens
the envelope. As she sees the check, Mama’s face
“sobers to a mask of unhappiness.” Mama grows
thoughtful and thinks of her late husband.
Abruptly and “angrily,” Mama again asks Ruth
about her visit to the doctor. Ruth “avoids her
eyes” and evades her questions, confirming
Mama’s suspicion that Ruth is considering an
abortion.
Mama’s reaction to the check shows the negative
consequences of money, as the question of its use
weighs heavily on Mama, as well as the fact that
this money was “earned” through the death of
her husband, and as such can’t possibly be worth
what it “cost” to get it. The issue of abortion,
which Ruth considers and Mama implicitly rejects,
highlights the generational differences between
the women. The fact that Ruth considers an
abortion, an illegal practice at the time, shows the
lengths to which she would go to protect her
family from further financial strain.
Active Themes
Gender and Feminism Theme Icon Money Theme
Icon
Walter rushes into the apartment and
immediately asks to see the insurance check. He
launches into a discussion of his proposal to use
the money as an investment in a liquor store.
Mama stops Walter and suggests that he speak to
his wife privately, but he ignores her. Mama tells
Walter that she will not invest any of the
insurance money in the liquor store and this
refusal to even consider the proposal makes
Walter angry. As Mama tries to persuade Walter
and Ruth to have a “civil” conversation, Walter
and Ruth hurl insults at each other, with Walter
shouting that Ruth was his “biggest mistake” as
she exits and slams the bedroom door.
Mama’s refusal to support Walter’s dream
frustrates and emasculates him, eroding his sense
of his worth in being what he feels he should be: a
husband and father, a man, who can support his
family. The insurance check prompts intra-family
conflict, as arguments about money quickly
become larger struggles concerning personal
identity, personal dreams, and family dynamics.
Active Themes
Dreams Theme Icon Gender and Feminism Theme
Icon Money Theme Icon
Mama asks Walter what’s troubling him,
commenting that for the past few years
“something [has been] eating you up like a crazy
man.” She calls him out on his constant
combativeness and binge drinking, imploring him
to be kinder to his wife. Walter responds, “I want
so many things that they are driving me kind of
crazy.” Mama replies by saying that Walter should
value the “nice wife” and good job that he has, to
which Walter answers, “Mama, a job? I open and
close car doors all day long. . . . Mama, that ain’t
no kind of job . . . that ain’t nothing at all.” Walter
explains that he sees a future that is “full of
nothing” looming before him.
To a great extent, Walter’s dreams center on the
“many things” that he wants, highlighting the
centrality of material wealth in his formation of a
personal identity. Walter explains that his work as
a white man’s chauffeur is emasculating and limits
his hopes for a better future. Walter’s statements
show how racial discrimination regarding job
opportunities curbed many African Americans’
dreams for social advancement, and locked them
into the role, essentially, of servants.
Active Themes
Dreams Theme Icon Race, Discrimination, and
Assimilation Theme Icon Gender and Feminism
Theme Icon Money Theme Icon
Mama critiques Walter’s overriding emphasis on
the importance of money, to which he responds
that money “is life.” Mama disagrees, saying,
“Once upon a time freedom used to be life. . . . In
my time we was worried about not being lynched
and getting to the North if we could and how to
stay alive and still have a pinch of dignity too.”
Mama laments that her children have no pride in
the accomplishments of her generation.
Mama attempts to discredit Walter’s money-
centric worldview by reminding him of the life-or-
death struggles endured by earlier generations of
African Americans. In Mama’s mind, dignity and
freedom are virtues far more precious than
material wealth. Walter cannot accept Mama’s
views, which he finds naive.
Active Themes
Dignity and Pride Theme Icon Race,
Discrimination, and Assimilation Theme Icon
Money Theme Icon
Mama finally tells Walter that Ruth is pregnant
and considering an abortion. Walter is shocked
but insists that Ruth would never think of doing
such a thing. Mama disagrees, saying, “When the
world gets ugly enough – a woman will do
anything for her family. The part that’s already
living.” Ruth reenters and confirms Mama’s
statement. Mama begs her son to convince his
wife to keep the baby, pleading, “I’m waiting to
see you stand up and look like your daddy and say
we done give up one baby to poverty and that we
ain’t going to give up nary another one.” Walter
cannot bring himself to say anything and exits.
Mama calls Walter “a disgrace to your father’s
memory.”
Mama implores Walter to honor his father’s
memory and take pride in his own manhood by
convincing Ruth to not have an abortion.
However, Walter is unable to rise to the
challenge, dejected as he is by Mama’s refusal to
support his dreams. He finds it hard to act as a
man in the way his mother wants when she does
not treat him as a man in the same way she
treated his father. Also, Mama is asking Walter to
save his unborn child from a death inflicted by
“poverty,” but Walter’s obsession with material
wealth prevents him from taking such a stand
because the baby will only make that poverty
worse and make his dreams even less achievable.
Active Themes
Dignity and Pride Theme Icon Gender and
Feminism Theme Icon Money Theme Icon
Act 1, scene 3
Just before the masquerade, Lady Capulet asks
the Nurse to find Juliet. Juliet enters. Lady Capulet Nurse present establishes her as an ineffectual
dismisses the Nurse, then immediately calls her
back. The Nurse then tells a story about Juliet as a even as infants, are seen as sexual objects. Juliet's
baby, in which the Nurse's now dead husband
implicated an unknowing Juliet in a sexual joke.
Lady Capulet can't quiet the Nurse, but Juliet
finally does.
Lady Capulet asks Juliet what she thinks about
marriage. Juliet says she hasn't thought about it.
Lady Capulet responds that at Juliet's age she had
already given birth to Juliet. She reveals that Paris
seeks to marry Juliet and says that if Juliet marries
him she will "share all that he doth possess"
(1.3.95).
Juliet says she'll look at Paris to see if she could
love him, but won't look any more deeply than
her mother instructs.
Act 1, scene 4
Romeo, Benvolio, and their friend Mercutio (a
kinsmen of Prince Escalus), walk toward the
Capulet's ball. Romeo, still melancholy, says he
won't dance at the party. Mercutio makes fun of
Romeo, twisting all his comments about love into
sexual metaphors.
Romeo says he dreamed that going to the feast
was a bad idea.
Lady Capulet's fear of talking to Juliet without the
mother. The Nurse's story implies that women,
ability to quiet the Nurse shows her strength.
Active Themes
Individuals vs. Society, Servants
Juliet's innocence is visible in her lack of thought
about love. Lady Capulet sees marriage in material
terms. That Lady Capulet married at age 13 shows
societal standards.
Active Themes
Love, Individuals vs. Society
Juliet uses word play to make resistance sound
like obedience: she'll do what her mother asks,
but not a jot more.
Active Themes
Love, Individuals vs. Society, Language and Word
Play
Mercutio thinks little of love. He uses puns to
show love is nothing more than a pretty excuse to
chase sex. Mercutio's banter also shows how
friends exert social pressure.
Active Themes
Love, Individuals vs. Society, Language and Word
Play
Fate and foreshadowing.
Active Themes
Fate
Mercutio launches into a speech about dreams
and Queen Mab, the Queen of Fairies. The speech
begins as a kind of fairy-tale, with Queen Mab
bringing dreams in her carriage made from a
walnut. But the dreams become more and more
nightmarish, revealing men's greed, violence, and
sexual desire. Mercutio works himself into a
fervor. Romeo breaks in and calms him down.
Benvolio breaks in to say they'll be late if they
don't hurry. Romeo again says he has a bad
feeling. He senses that the events of the night will Active Themes
set fate in motion and result in his untimely death. Fate
But he shrugs it off and follows his friends.
Act 1, scene 5
At the masquerade, servants bustle, complain,
and save a little marzipan for themselves.
Romeo catches sight of Juliet. He doesn't know
who she is, but immediately forgets Rosaline. He
says that Juliet teaches the "torches to burn
bright!"(1.5.41). At the same time, Tybalt
recognizes Romeo and prepares to attack this
party-crashing Montague.
Capulet, furious that Tybalt would ruin the party,
stops him. Once Capulet is gone, Tybalt secretly
vows revenge, and exits.
Romeo approaches Juliet. Their entire first
conversation is an intertwined fourteen-line
sonnet, in which they develop a complicated
religious metaphor that Romeo guides into a first
kiss, and which Juliet guides toward a second.
Juliet comments that Romeo kisses "by the book"
(1.5.107).
The Nurse interrupts, calling Juliet to her mother.
Romeo learns from the Nurse that Juliet's a
Capulet. Moments later, Juliet says about Romeo,
as the Nurse goes to find out who he is, "If he be
married, my grave is like to be my wedding bed"
(1.5.131-132). The Nurse reports Romeo's a
Montague.
In the famous Queen Mab speech, Mercutio
reveals the dark desires that hide behind
mankind's pretty ideals, and his own revulsion at
this subterfuge. He also shows his wit with words
and a tendency to get carried furiously away.
Active Themes
Individuals vs. Society, Language and Word Play
Romeo gives himself to fate.
Servant's view of the party: work.
Active Themes
Servants
Romeo's first sight of Juliet is linked to Tybalt's
noticing Romeo. Love can't escape the society
surrounding it.
Active Themes
Love, Fate, Individuals vs. Society
Romeo and Juliet's meeting sets in motion
Tybalt's part in their fate.
Active Themes
Fate, Individuals vs. Society
The prologue and this first meeting between R
and J are both in sonnet form. The play links the
prologue's theme of fate with R and J's love from
the first instant through this stylistic echo.
Active Themes
Love, Language and Word Play
Just as they fall in love, R and J discover the main
social forces—their families—opposing them.
Juliet simultaneously foreshadows her fate: when
Romeo gets married, Juliet's grave does become
her wedding bed.
Active Themes
 Love, Fate, Individuals vs. Society
Act 2, prologue
In another sonnet, the Chorus describes the This prologue emphasizes how passion can move
obstacles facing the new love between Romeo people to struggle against social realities.
and Juliet, but also says that "passion lends them
power" (2.p.13). Active Themes
Love, Individuals vs. Society
Act 2, scene 1
Instead of leaving the party with Benvolio and Another social pressure that Romeo must face: his
Mercutio, Romeo jumps the wall into the Capulet friends. For the rest of the play, by the way,
garden to try to find Juliet. Benvolio and Mercutio Romeo's friends continue to think Romeo loves
call after him, and Mercutio laughingly mocks Rosaline.
Romeo's passion and love for Rosaline. Finally,
they give up and leave. Active Themes
Love, Individuals vs. Society
Act 2, scene 2
Just then, Romeo sees Juliet walk out onto a Light/dark imagery. Juliet is a sun, lighting up the
balcony. In a whisper he compares her to the sun, night.
and hides beneath her balcony.
Active Themes
Love
Juliet speaks: she asks why Romeo must be Juliet tries to use language, name-changing, to
Romeo. She asks him to forswear his name, to escape from the social world in order to love
give up being a Montague, then offers to give up freely.
being a Capulet if Romeo will love her.
Active Themes
Love, Individuals vs. Society
Romeo emerges from his hiding place, startling Romeo's passion for Juliet is so great it is almost
Juliet. She says that if Romeo is noticed he'll be violent, and makes him think nothing of death.
killed, but Romeo responds that he would rather
die than live without her love. Active Themes
Love, Fate, Individuals vs. Society
As the Nurse calls from Juliet's room, Juliet Even head over heels in love, Juliet, as a woman,
hurriedly asks Romeo, if his "love be honorable" must protect her honor. Society demands it.
(2.1.185), to send her word tomorrow whether he
will marry her. He tells her to send the Nurse to Active Themes
him at nine. They exchange more hurried words Love, Individuals vs. Society
of love, then exit.
Act 2, scene 3
As dawn breaks, Friar Laurence collects herbs The Friar's thoughts on the importance of
outside his cell. He muses on the fact that moderation prove fateful, given the destruction
everything on Earth, from herbs to virtues, has that R and J's passion causes.
some special good, but that any of those things, if
misapplied or used in excess, can cause disaster. Active Themes
Love, Fate
Romeo rushes into Friar Laurence's cell. Friar
Laurence immediately sees that Romeo did not
sleep that night, and is alarmed that Romeo might
have slept in sin with Rosaline. But Romeo says he
has forgotten Rosaline, and describes his love for
Juliet and his desire to marry her.
The Friar is suspicious of Romeo's sudden switch
from Rosaline to Juliet. Romeo responds that
Juliet, unlike Rosaline, returns his love. The Friar
comments that Rosaline knew Romeo's "love did
read by rote, that could not spell" (2.2.86).
But Friar Laurence also sees an opportunity to end
the feud between the Montagues and Capulets,
and agrees to marry Romeo and Juliet.
The Friar's comments on moderation contrast
with Romeo's youthful insistence on speed and
extreme emotion above all else.
Active Themes
Love
Another clue that before Juliet, Romeo's "love"
came from copying romantic poetry rather than
experience.
Active Themes
Love
Though he preaches moderation, Friar Laurence
gets caught up in his own big dreams of creating
peace.

Active Themes
Individuals vs. Society
Act 2, scene 4
Benvolio and Mercutio wonder what happened to Mercutio's mockery shows similarities between
Romeo the previous night. Benvolio mentions that Tybalt and Romeo: Romeo loves love, Tybalt loves
Tybalt has challenged Romeo to a dual. In a honor. Mercutio thinks they're both fools, though
display of verbal wit, Mercutio mocks Tybalt as a he likes Romeo and hates Tybalt.
"Prince of Cats" (2.3.17) who follows honor to a
ridiculous degree. But he admits Tybalt is a good Active Themes
swordsmen. Individuals vs. Society, Language and Word Play
Romeo appears. Mercutio mockingly compares This is a glimpse of who Romeo was before he
Rosaline to all the great heroines of classical became obsessed with love: a kid with a wit as
literature. Romeo and Mercutio then engage in an quick and wicked as Mercutio's. Mercutio believes
epic banter match, throwing back and forth their this bantering Romeo is the "true" Romeo.
wit and sexual double entendres. Finally, Mercutio
breaks off and says in great joy, "Now art thou Active Themes
sociable, now art thou Romeo" (2.3.77). Love Theme Icon Individuals vs. Society, Language
and Word Play
The Nurse appears, looking for Romeo. For fun, Here's an example of casual verbal abuse of
Mercutio compares the Nurse to a prostitute for a lower-classes by nobles, even if in good fun.
while, then goes off with Benvolio to get lunch.
Active Themes
Servants
The Nurse threatens some dire response if Romeo The Nurse is determined to protect both Juliet's
means to mislead Juliet. But Romeo says that if honor and her heart. Romeo shows he is
Juliet can get to Friar Laurence's cell that honorable.
afternoon, they will be married. He also plans with
the Nurse to set a rope ladder to Juliet's room, so Active Themes
he can climb to her room for their wedding night. Love, Individuals vs. Society
Act 2, scene 5
Juliet waits impatiently for the Nurse to return, Romeo, as a man, can go out into the world and
and maligns "old folks" as "unwieldy, slow, heavy, act. Juliet, as a woman, must wait at home.
and pale as lead" (2.4.14–15). Finally, the Nurse
arrives. At first, the Nurse pretends she's too tired Active Themes
to talk in order to extort a back rub from Juliet. Love, Individuals vs. Society
Then she relents and tells an ecstatic Juliet to get
to Friar Laurence's cell to be married.
Act 2, scene 6
Friar Laurence and Romeo wait for Juliet. Romeo Contrast between Romeo's passions and the
is so excited he says that no matter what sorrow Friar's moderation. And the Friar is right: Romeo's
might come; it cannot compare to his joy. The end is violent. But Romeo wouldn't have it any
Friar counsels moderation in everything, including other way.
love, saying "These violent delights have violent
ends" (2.5.9). Active Themes
Love, Fate
Juliet arrives, and Romeo asks her to describe her Juliet calls Romeo on his overly-poetic love. She
love for him. But Juliet refuses. She comments makes him see that love is bigger than just saying
that "They are but beggars that can count their the words.
worth" (2.5.32). She says her love is too large to
describe. Active Themes
Love, Language and Word Play
Act 3, scene 1
The following day is boiling hot. Benvolio tells Scene shifts from the privacy of Friar Laurence's
Mercutio they should get off the streets: the hot cell where Romeo and Juliet were married to a
weather is bound to cause hot tempers. Just then, public square where friends, honor, and family
Tybalt enters with some other Capulets. Tybalt ties hold sway.
and Mercutio quickly start insulting each other
and seem close to drawing swords. Benvolio tries Active Themes
to calm them. Fate, Individuals vs. Society, Language and Word
Play
Romeo appears. Tybalt calls Romeo a "villain," but Romeo tries to avoid or deny obligations of the
Romeo refuses to duel, saying that he loves social world with love...
Tybalt, and that the name Capulet is as dear as his
own. Active Themes
Love, Individuals vs. Society, Language and Word
Play
Mercutio, furious that Romeo refuses to stand up ...but Romeo's love becomes warped by the social
for himself, challenges Tybalt. They draw their world, and results in the death of his friend.
swords and begin to fight. Romeo steps between Mercutio's dying curse on the Capulets and
them to stop the fighting, but Tybalt stabs Montagues can be seen as both foreshadowing
Mercutio under Romeo's arm. Tybalt and the and fate.
Capulets rush off. Mercutio dies, cursing both
Montagues and Capulets: "A plague o' both your Active Themes
houses" (3.1.86). Love, Fate, Individuals vs. Society
Romeo says to himself that love for Juliet has Romeo realizes he can't live by love in the social
made him "effeminate." Tybalt returns. Romeo world of men. He avenges Mercutio's death, as
avenges Mercutio by fighting and killing Tybalt. As honor dictates he must.
the Watch and Prince Escalus approach, Romeo
flees.
Benvolio tells Prince Escalus what happened. The
Capulets demand that Romeo be executed, while
the Montagues argue that Tybalt was to blame.
Escalus banishes Romeo from Verona.
Act 3, scene 2
Juliet begs nightfall to hurry in its coming, and to
bring Romeo with it. She imagines that when she
dies Romeo will be immortalized as stars in
heaven.
The Nurse runs in crying and shouting "He's
dead!" (3.2.36). Juliet thinks Romeo has killed
himself, and threatens to kill herself.
The Nurse in her grief starts calling out Tybalt's
name. Juliet realizes there's been a mistake. The
Nurse tells her Romeo killed Tybalt and has been
banished. Juliet laments that Romeo could seem
such an angel and be such a devil. The Nurse
curses him. But Juliet cuts the Nurse off, and
chides herself for speaking ill of Romeo. Romeo is Active Themes
her husband, and her loyalty and love are with
him.
Juliet tells the Nurse to find Romeo and bid him
come that night to her room so that they can
consummate their marriage. The Nurse knows
Romeo is hiding at Friar Laurence's cell.
Act 3, scene 3
Romeo, hiding in Friar Laurence's cell, learns he
has been banished. He says banishment is worse
than death because it means life without Juliet.
Friar Laurence tells him to be patient and scolds
him for being ungrateful that his life has been
spared. Romeo says if the Friar felt what he feels, Love, Fate
the Friar would understand Romeo's despair.
Romeo throws himself to the floor.
There is a knock on the door. Romeo hides. Friar
Laurence lets in the Nurse. Romeo believes Juliet
must think him a murderer and tries to stab
himself. The Nurse stops him. Friar Laurence
Active Themes
Love, Individuals vs. Society
The law, though neutral, does not consider
private matters such as love, and so the law
becomes R and J's enemy.
Active Themes
Individuals vs. Society
Night and privacy are here linked with love.
Active Themes
Love, Individuals vs. Society
Juliet demonstrates her own willingness to die for
love.
Active Themes
Love, Fate
Juliet chooses Romeo over her family. In the
balcony scene she offered to give up her name.
Her decision here to support Romeo shows that
she now really has given it up. She supports her
husband, a Montague, over her cousin, a Capulet.
Love, Individuals vs. Society
Even as the social world seems to conspire against
them, night gives R and J the privacy they need to
love.
Active Themes
Love
Romeo's argument about love with Friar Laurence
boils down to youth and passion vs. age and
moderation.
Active Themes
Romeo continues to link his passionate love to
violence and suicide. It is, of course, another
instance of foreshadowing. But it makes the point
that Romeo's character drives his fate...
scolds him for his crying and counts all the ways
that Romeo is lucky. Active Themes
Love, Fate
The Friar tells Romeo to go spend the night with ...so no matter how reasonable the Friar's plan
Juliet and then before dawn to flee Verona for might be; it's bound to not work out.
Mantua. There he should wait until some time has
passed and the marriage can be made public Active Themes
knowledge and the prince begged to pardon him. Love, Fate
Act 3, scene 4
It is just before dawn. Capulet, Lady Capulet, and Juliet's apparent grief at Tybalt's death (which is
Paris have stayed up late, discussing Juliet and the really grief at Romeo's banishment) moves
tragedy of Tybalt's death. Paris turns to go, but Capulet to decide to marry her to Paris. Capulet is
Capulet suddenly calls him back. Capulet says he trying to make Juliet happy, but this is a decision
wants Paris and Juliet to marry, and thinks her he's making for her. As her father, he has that
heart "will be ruled in all respects by me" (3.4.14). right, and expects total obedience. Interesting
He suggests the marriage be held on Wednesday. that all this is happening at dawn—the moment
Then, realizing its Monday, he says Wednesday's when night shifts to day.
too soon and moves the Wedding back to
Thursday. Paris is overjoyed. Capulet instructs Active Themes
Lady Capulet to tell Juliet about her imminent Love, Fate, Individuals vs. Society
wedding.
Act 3, scene 5
The call of a bird wakes Romeo and Juliet just Earlier Romeo and Juliet tried to rename each
before dawn, but Juliet claims the bird is a other. Now they try to rename things in the world
nightingale rather than the lark greeting the day. to stop the day from dawning.
Romeo says he's willing to pretend it's night and
die, just to be with Juliet. Active Themes
Love, Individuals vs. Society, Language and Word
Play
Juliet stops pretending. She says it's day and Juliet is willing to die for love. Romeo wants to die
Romeo must go. for love.

The Nurse enters and warns that Lady Capulet is
approaching Juliet's room. Romeo hurries down
the rope ladder. To Juliet, standing on her
balcony, it looks as if Romeo is descending into a
tomb.
Lady Capulet enters, and soon begins to curse
Romeo as the "traitor murderer" (3.5.84) of
Tybalt. Juliet speaks so cunningly that it seems like
she's agreeing with her mother, but in reality she
is expressing her love for Romeo.
Active Themes
Love, Individuals vs. Society
Perfect example of the social world interfering in
Romeo and Juliet's love, leading to a
foreshadowing of their fate.
Active Themes
Fate
Juliet uses language to hide her meaning from her
mother. Word play can keep private thoughts safe
from the public world.
Active Themes
Love, Individuals vs. Society, Language and Word
Play
Lady Capulet reveals the plan for Juliet to marry
Paris on Thursday. Juliet refuses to marry Paris
just as Capulet enters. He is furious at her
ingratitude. Capulet says she'll marry Paris on
Thursday even if he has to drag her to the church.
And if she still refuses to marry, he will disown
her. Juliet begs her mother to step in, but Lady
Capulet follows Capulet out the door.
Yet Juliet can only hide from the public world; she
can't overcome it. As a daughter, she has no right
or ability to stand up to her father. Note how
furious Capulet gets at the mere suggestion of
disobedience.
Active Themes
Love, Individuals vs. Society

Juliet asks the Nurse for advice. The Nurse says Just as Friar Laurence can't understand Romeo's
that Romeo is banished and unlikely to return, so passion, the Nurse can't understand Juliet's. The
she should marry Paris. The Nurse tries to ease Nurse thinks one handsome man is as good as
the blow by saying that Paris is better looking than another. Juliet, in contrast, insists on the
Romeo anyway. Juliet privately vows never to uniqueness of her love with Romeo.
trust the Nurse again. She comes up with a lie in
order to go see Friar Laurence, telling the Nurse Active Themes
that because she displeased her father she needs Love, Individuals vs. Society
to go to confession.
Act 4, scene 1
Paris is talking with Friar Laurence, to prepare for Of course, Friar Laurence does know what Juliet
the wedding on Thursday. Friar Laurence says it's wants. He's lying—trying to affect the world
all happening too fast and that he's concerned through language without revealing what he
that Paris doesn't even know if Juliet wants to knows.
marry him.
Active Themes
Individuals vs. Society, Language and Word Play
Juliet arrives. Paris greets her as his wife. Paris is Bland Paris takes love for granted. Juliet masks
loving, but condescending, assuming that she the meaning of her words with word play.
loves him. Juliet is evasive and mocks Paris
without his realizing it. Friar Laurence steps in Active Themes
saying it is time for Juliet's confession. Love, Individuals vs. Society, Language and Word
Play
Once they're alone, Juliet draws a dagger and Love is here linked to violence, and suicide
threatens to kill herself unless the Friar can help brought up as a way to escape society.
her.
Active Themes
Love, Fate, Individuals vs. Society
Friar Laurence quickly comes up with a plan: he To save her love with Romeo, Juliet must make it
gives Juliet a potion that, for forty-two hours, will look like she killed herself, which foreshadows her
put her into a sleep so deep it will appear as if she actual suicide for love at the play's end.
has died. He tells her to agree to marry Paris Incidentally, death can be seen as the ultimate
Thursday, but to take the potion Wednesday night, the ultimate privacy; and it is privacy from
night. Instead of a wedding, the Capulets will hold the social world that Juliet needs in order to share
a funeral, and inter Juliet in their family tomb. her love with Romeo in peace.
Meanwhile, the friar will get word to Romeo, who
will come to the tomb in time to be there when Active Themes
Love, Fate, Individuals vs. Society
she wakes, and the two of them will together go
to Mantua.
Act 4, scene 2
At the Capulet's home, preparations for the Earlier, Juliet had been using language to make
wedding are in full swing. Juliet returns from Friar one thing sound like another. Now she's lying
Laurence's cell with a smile on her face. She outright to her parents.
"repent[s] of the sin of disobedient opposition" Active Themes
(4.2.17) and begs for her father to forgive her. Individuals vs. Society, Language and Word Play
Capulet is overjoyed. In fact, he's so happy that It is ironic, and fateful, that Juliet's fake joy
over his wife's objections he decides to move the convinces Capulet to move the wedding forward a
wedding up a day to Wednesday, which is day.
tomorrow. Juliet and Nurse go to Juliet's room to
pick out clothes for Juliet to wear. Active Themes
Fate
Act 4, scene 3
After selecting clothes for the wedding, Juliet asks Juliet needs privacy to take her stand against
the Nurse and Lady Capulet to let her spend the society.
night before her wedding alone.
Active Themes
Individuals vs. Society
Once they leave, she picks up the vial of potion The depth of Juliet's love for Romeo is visible in
that Friar Laurence gave her. Suddenly nervous, her willingness to drink the potion despite her
she thinks about what might go wrong with Friar profound fears.
Laurence's plan: what if the Friar means to
murder her to hide his participation in her Active Themes
marriage to Romeo? What if she wakes up in the Fate
vault before Romeo arrives, and goes insane
because she is surrounded by death and
skeletons?
Juliet sees a vision of Tybalt chasing Romeo, yet Juliet's vision symbolizes fate battling love. Juliet,
lifts the vial, toasts to Romeo, and drinks. steeled by love, stares down fate and drinks.
Active Themes
Love, Fate
Act 4, scene 4
As the Capulet household readies for the wedding The Friar's chiding of the Capulets for immoderate
the following morning, Capulet sends the Nurse to grief mirrors his advice to Romeo about
wake Juliet. But Juliet is dead. The Nurse, Lady immoderate passion. But now Friar Laurence is
Capulet, and Capulet cry out in grief. Just then, using his advice to lie. Even if he's doing it to help
Paris and Friar Laurence arrive with musicians. Juliet, it seems a pretty un-friarlike thing to do.
Paris joins in the mourning. But Friar Laurence
chides them. He says that Juliet is now happy in Active Themes
heaven, and says they must prepare the funeral. Individuals vs. Society, Language and Word Play
The Capulets, Paris, the Nurse, and Friar Laurence
all exit.
The sudden exit of the Capulets leaves the A noblewoman has apparently died on her
musicians all alone. Peter requests that they play wedding day, and musicians are wondering if it
a happy song to lessen his sadness, but they means they won't get lunch. The musicians, who
refuse because Peter has no money to pay them. work for their living, have to care about their own
This leads to a confrontation with a furious Peter, well-being.
but the musicians don't give in. After Peter leaves,
the musicians decide to stick around for a while to Active Themes
see if they can get a free lunch at the funeral Servants
reception.
Act 5, scene 1
Romeo, in Mantua, contemplates a happy dream Romeo's dream is the opposite of what happens.
he's had: Juliet found him dead, and brought him Rather than bring him back to life, in act 5, scene
back to life by kissing him. As Romeo muses on 3 Juliet kisses his lips to try to join him in death.
love, Balthasar, Romeo's servant, arrives with
news: Juliet is dead. Balthasar saw her laid to rest Active Themes
in the Capulet tomb. Love, Fate
Romeo shouts, "Then I defy you, stars" (5.1.24). Romeo seeks to deny fate by joining Juliet in
He orders Balthasar to get him paper and ink for a death, but is actually playing into fate's hands.
note, and to hire some horses. Balthasar asks Part of the genius of Romeo and Juliet is how its
Romeo to calm down and be patient—he says characters' personalities determine their fates.
that Romeo's "pale and wild" looks signify that Also, note how Romeo, like Juliet did before, has
Romeo is about to do something rash. Romeo now started to lie to protect his privacy.
assures Balthasar that he won't do anything crazy.
Balthasar exits to get the paper and the horses. Active Themes
Love, Fate, Individuals vs. Society, Language and
Word Play
Romeo addresses Juliet, telling her "I will lie with Romeo tells the apothecary to break the law
thee tonight" (5.1.34). He finds a poor because the law doesn't do anything to help the
apothecary, and asks the man to sell him poison. apothecary out of his poverty. But Romeo is also
The apothecary says Mantua has a death penalty unwittingly describing his own situation: the law
against anyone who sells poison. Romeo says the cares nothing about his love, and so he's breaking
apothecary should not pay any attention to the it. By buying poison, Romeo throws off the last of
law, since there is no law that protects the the social bonds constricting him.
apothecary from his poverty. The apothecary sells
Romeo poison, saying "My poverty but not my will Active Themes
consents" (5.1.75). Romeo takes the poison and Love, Fate, Individuals vs. Society, Servants
heads off to Verona and the Capulet tomb.
Act 5, scene 2
Friar John, who Friar Laurence had sent to tell Fate can be a bummer.
Romeo the plan about Juliet's fake death, returns.
He explains that he never made it to Mantua Active Themes
because an outbreak of the plague put him in Fate
quarantine. Friar Laurence writes another letter
to Romeo, then rushes off to free Juliet from the
Capulet tomb.
Act 5, scene 3
Outside the Capulet tomb, Paris mourns. He sends Though Paris is little more than a good-looking
his servant away to wait for him nearby, and tells bore, his love for Juliet is real.
the boy to whistle if anyone approaches. While
Active Themes
Paris strews the ground with flowers, the page
whistles. Paris hides.
Romeo enters bearing a torch, with Balthasar
following him. Romeo gives Balthasar a letter and
instructs him to give it to his father (Montague)
the next morning. He says he wants to see Juliet
one last time, and to take a ring from her as a
remembrance, and sends Balthasar away. But
Balthasar doesn't leave, and instead hides nearby.
Paris recognizes Romeo and thinks he has come to
desecrate Tybalt's or Juliet's grave, or both. He
draws his sword and confronts Romeo. Romeo
begs Paris not to try to stop him, but Paris refuses.
They fight. Paris's page runs to call the Watch.
Romeo kills Paris, but promises to grant Paris's
dying request to be laid to rest near Juliet.
Romeo opens the tomb and carries the body of
Paris inside. He sees Juliet, and is amazed that her
beauty is unaffected by death. He thinks it seems
almost as if death has fallen in love with her. He
kisses Juliet, drinks the poison, kisses her once
more, and dies.
Friar Laurence arrives at the churchyard and is
greeted by Balthasar, who tells him that Romeo
has returned to see Juliet. The Friar, sensing
disaster, rushes to the tomb and sees the blood
and weapons from Romeo's fight with Paris. Just
as he enters the tomb, Juliet stirs and wakes. Friar
Laurence hears the approaching Watch. He tells
her what happened, and begs Juliet to flee with
him. Juliet refuses. Friar Laurence runs.
Juliet sees the vial clutched in Romeo's dead hand
and realizes he killed himself by poison. She kisses
his lips, hoping to poison herself. But there is
none left. She hears the Watch approaching, pulls
Romeo's dagger from its sheath, stabs herself,
and dies.
The Watchmen enter and see the dead bodies.
They send men to rouse Prince Escalus, the
Capulets, and the Montagues, and search the
area. They find Balthasar and Friar Laurence.
Prince Escalus enters, followed first by the
Capulets, and then by Montague, who says his
wife has died of grief over Romeo's banishment.
Love
Romeo lies to Balthasar about his plans—once
again he uses deceiving language as a way to gain
privacy from the social world.
Active Themes
Love, Individuals vs. Society, Language and Word
Play
Paris throws flowers on his love's grave, while
Romeo has come to kill himself–Romeo vs. Paris
pits passionate love against a more "proper" love.
It's no surprise who wins their duel.
Active Themes
Love
Romeo fulfills both fate and love, and removes
himself from the social world—he kills himself to
be with Juliet. Note also that the dark tomb
provides a kind of permanent night.
Active Themes
Love, Fate, Individuals vs. Society
By fleeing, the Friar shows that his moderation,
while usually the wiser course than passion, is
often not as honorable, pure, or courageous as
passion can be.
Active Themes
Love
Juliet kills herself, fulfilling her fate, when she
hears the approaching watch–a symbolic playing
out of death as a form of privacy from
encroaching society.
Active Themes
Love, Fate, Individuals vs. Society
The social world discovers what has been going on
in the private world.
Active Themes
Individuals vs. Society
Romeo and Juliet's love is so passionate that it has
to be everything or nothing, and in a world of
families, friendships, and civil law, love can't be
Friar Laurence explains to them everything that everything. So their love demanded that they die.
happened. Balthasar hands over the letter from In other words, their love was their fate. And by
Romeo to his father, which corroborates Friar killing themselves, Romeo and Juliet change the
Laurence's story. The Prince turns to the world in a way their word play and lies couldn’t:
Montagues and Capulets and tells them that their —they end the feud that made their love
hate is so terrible that "heaven finds means to kill impossible. Fate may have ended their lives, but it
your joys with love" (5.2.292). Montague and also made their love powerful.
Capulet take each other's hands, promising to
bury their grudge and to erect golden statues of Active Themes
Juliet and Romeo. Prince Escalus, mourning his Love, Fate, Individuals vs. Society
own dead relatives, leads the group away.
Themes
Servants Love
For a play about the two noble teenagers Love in Romeo and Juliet is not some pretty,
struggling to preserve their forbidden love, idealized emotion. Yes, the love Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet sure has a lot of scenes focused share is beautiful and passionate. It is pure,
on servants and non-nobles. Shakespeare did this exhilarating, and transformative, and they are
by design. The recurring presence of servants in willing to give everything to it. But it is also
the play, from Peter, the Capulet servant who chaotic and destructive, bringing death to friends,
can't read, to the apothecary who's so poor he's family, and to themselves. Over and over in the
willing to sell poison, Shakespeare in Romeo and play, Romeo and Juliet's love is mentioned in
Juliet goes to great efforts to show that the poor connection with death and violence, and finds its
and downtrodden have lives of their own, and greatest expression in their suicide.
that to them Romeo and Juliet's love and death
mean absolutely nothing. After all, why would the The theme of love in Romeo and Juliet also
death of two noble teenagers mean anything to extends beyond the love that Romeo and Juliet
servants just trying to make it through the day feel for each other. All the characters in the play
and scrounge up something to eat for dinner? constantly talk about love. Mercutio thinks love is
little more than an excuse to pursue sexual
pleasure and that it makes a man weak and dumb.
Lady Capulet thinks love is based on material
things: Paris is handsome and wealthy; therefore,
Lady Capulet believes Juliet will love him. Lord
Capulet sees love as obedience and duty. Friar
Laurence knows that love may be passionate, but
argues that it's also a responsibility. Paris seems
to think that love is at his command, since he tells
Juliet that she loves him. In short, love is
everywhere in Romeo and Juliet, and everyone
sees it differently.
Fate Individuals vs. Society
From the opening prologue when the Chorus Because of their forbidden love, Romeo and Juliet
summarizes Romeo and Juliet and says that the are forced into conflict with the social world
"star-crossed lovers" will die, Romeo and Juliet around them: family, friends, political authority,
are trapped by fate. No matter what the lovers and even religion. The lovers try to avoid this
do, what plans they make, or how much they love conflict by hiding, by escaping from it. They prefer
each other, their struggles against fate only help the privacy of nighttime to the public world of
fulfill it. But defeating or escaping fate is not the day. They volunteer to give up their names, their
point. No one escapes fate. It is Romeo and
Juliet's determination to struggle against fate in
order to be together, whether in life or death,
that shows the fiery passion of their love, and
which makes that love eternal.
Fate is not just a force felt by the characters in
Romeo and Juliet. The audience also senses it
through Shakespeare's use of foreshadowing.
Time and again, both Romeo and Juliet
unknowingly reference their imminent deaths, as
when Juliet says after first meeting Romeo: "If he
be married / My grave is like to be my wedding
bed." She means that if Romeo is already married
she'll be miserable. But the audience knows that
Juliet's grave actually will be her wedding bed. In
Romeo and Juliet, fate is a force that neither the
characters nor the audience can escape, and so
every word and gesture gains in power, becomes
fateful.
Language and Word Play
Romeo and Juliet constantly play with language.
They pun, rhyme, and speak in double entendres.
All these word games may seem like mere fun,
and they are fun. The characters that pun and
play with language have fun doing it. But word
play in Romeo and Juliet has a deeper purpose:
rebellion. Romeo and Juliet play with language to
escape the world. They claim they are not a
Montague and a Capulet; they use words to try to
transform day, for a moment, into night; they hide
their love even while secretly admitting it. Other
characters play with language too. In particular,
Mercutio and the Nurse make constant sexual
puns implying that while everyone is running
around talking about high ideals like honor and
love, sex and other base desires are at the root of
human existence.
So language in Romeo and Juliet serves two
opposing purposes. It allows some characters to
escape the world into intense love, while it allows
other characters to reveal that the world of love,
honor, and high ideals are just masks people use
to cover their animal instincts.
social identities, in order to be together. They
begin to keep secrets and speak in puns so that
they can publicly say one thing while meaning
another. On the morning after their marriage,
they even go so far as to pretend that day is night
so they won't have to part.
But no one can stop day from dawning, and in the
end Romeo and Juliet can't escape the
responsibilities of the public world. Romeo tries to
stop being a Montague and avoid fighting Tybalt,
but fails. Juliet tries to stop being a Capulet and to
stand up to her father when he tries to marry her
off to Paris, but is abandoned by her mother and
the Nurse. Romeo is banished from Verona by
Prince Escalus, who embodies political law.
Finally, to preserve their love, Romeo and Juliet
are forced to the ultimate act of independence
and privacy: suicide.
KEY FACTS
o Full Title · The Most Excellent and
Lamentable Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet
o Author · William Shakespeare
o Type of Work · Play
o Genre · Tragic drama
o Language · English
o Time and Place Written · London, mid-
1590s
o Date of First Publication · 1597 (in the
First Quarto, which was likely an
unauthorized incomplete edition); 1599
(in the Second Quarto, which was
authorized)
o Publisher · Thomas Creede (in the Second
Quarto, using the title The Most Excellent
and Lamentable Tragedie, of Romeo and
Juliet)
o Climax · The deaths of Romeo and Juliet in
the Capulet tomb (5.3)
o Protagonists · Romeo; Juliet
o Antagonists · The feuding Montagues and
Capulets; Tybalt; the Prince and citizens of
Verona; fate
o Settings (Time) · Renaissance (fourteenth
or fifteenth century)
o Settings (Place) · Verona and Mantua
(cities in northern Italy)

Characters
ROMEO
The name Romeo, in popular culture, has become Having not quite reached her fourteenth birthday,
nearly synonymous with “lover.” Romeo, in
Romeo and Juliet, does indeed experience a love
o Point of View · Insofar as a play has a
point of view, that of Romeo and Juliet;
occasionally the play uses the point of
view of the Montague and Capulet
servants to illuminate the actions of their
masters.
o Falling Action · The end of Act 5, scene 3,
when the Prince and the parents discover
the bodies of Romeo and Juliet, and agree
to put aside their feud in the interest of
peace.
o Tense · Present
o Foreshadowing · The Chorus’s first speech
declaring that Romeo and Juliet are
doomed to die and “star-crossed.” The
lovers’ frequent thoughts of death: “My
grave is like to be my wedding bed”
(Juliet, 1.5.132). The lovers’ thoughts of
suicide, as when Romeo threatens to kill
himself after killing Tybalt. Friar
Lawrence’s warnings to behave
moderately if Romeo and Juliet wish to
avoid tragedy: “These violent delights
have violent ends . . . Therefore, love
moderately” (2.5.9–14). The lovers’
mutual impression that the other looks
pale and deathlike after their wedding
night (3.5). Juliet’s faked death by Friar
Lawrence’s potion. Romeo’s dream-vision
of Juliet kissing his lips while he is dead
(5.1). Romeo’s outbursts against fate: “O,
I am fortune’s fool!” (3.1.131) and “Then I
defy you, stars” (5.1.24).
o Tones · Passionate, romantic, intense,
rhapsodic, violent, prone to extremes of
emotion (ecstasy, rage, misery, etc.)
o Themes · The forcefulness of love; love as
a cause of violence; the individual versus
society; the inevitability of fate
o Motifs · Light/dark imagery; opposite
points of view
o Symbols · Poison; thumb-biting; Queen
Mab
JULIET
Juliet is of an age that stands on the border
between immaturity and maturity. At the play’s
of such purity and passion that he kills himself
when he believes that the object of his love, Juliet,
has died. The power of Romeo’s love, however,
often obscures a clear vision of Romeo’s
character, which is far more complex.
Even Romeo’s relation to love is not so simple. At
the beginning of the play, Romeo pines for
Rosaline, proclaiming her the paragon of women
and despairing at her indifference toward him.
Taken together, Romeo’s Rosaline-induced
histrionics seem rather juvenile. Romeo is a great
reader of love poetry, and the portrayal of his love
for Rosaline suggests he is trying to re-create the
feelings that he has read about. After first kissing
Juliet, she tells him “you kiss by th’ book,”
meaning that he kisses according to the rules, and
implying that while proficient, his kissing lacks
originality (1.5.107). In reference to Rosaline, it
seems, Romeo loves by the book. Rosaline, of
course, slips from Romeo’s mind at first sight of
Juliet. But Juliet is no mere replacement. The love
she shares with Romeo is far deeper, more
authentic and unique than the clichéd puppy love
Romeo felt for Rosaline. Romeo’s love matures
over the course of the play from the shallow
desire to be in love to a profound and intense
passion. One must ascribe Romeo’s development
at least in part to Juliet. Her level-headed
observations, such as the one about Romeo’s
kissing, seem just the thing to snap Romeo from
his superficial idea of love and to inspire him to
begin to speak some of the most beautiful and
intense love poetry ever written.
Yet Romeo’s deep capacity for love is merely a
part of his larger capacity for intense feeling of all
kinds. Put another way, it is possible to describe
Romeo as lacking the capacity for moderation.
Love compels him to sneak into the garden of his
enemy’s daughter, risking death simply to catch a
glimpse of her. Anger compels him to kill his wife’s
cousin in a reckless duel to avenge the death of
his friend. Despair compels him to suicide upon
hearing of Juliet’s death. Such extreme behavior
dominates Romeo’s character throughout the
play and contributes to the ultimate tragedy that
befalls the lovers. Had Romeo restrained himself
beginning however she seems merely an
obedient, sheltered, naïve child. Though many
girls her age—including her mother—get married,
Juliet has not given the subject any thought.
When Lady Capulet mentions Paris’s interest in
marrying Juliet, Juliet dutifully responds that she
will try to see if she can love him, a response that
seems childish in its obedience and in its
immature conception of love. Juliet seems to have
no friends her own age, and she is not
comfortable talking about sex (as seen in her
discomfort when the Nurse goes on and on about
a sexual joke at Juliet’s expense in Act 1, scene 3).
Juliet gives glimpses of her determination,
strength, and sober-mindedness, in her earliest
scenes, and offers a preview of the woman she
will become during the four-day span of Romeo
and Juliet. While Lady Capulet proves unable to
quiet the Nurse, Juliet succeeds with one word
(also in Act 1, scene 3). In addition, even in Juliet’s
dutiful acquiescence to try to love Paris, there is
some seed of steely determination. Juliet
promises to consider Paris as a possible husband
to the precise degree her mother desires. While
an outward show of obedience, such a statement
can also be read as a refusal through passivity.
Juliet will accede to her mother’s wishes, but she
will not go out of her way to fall in love with Paris.
Juliet’s first meeting with Romeo propels her full-
force toward adulthood. Though profoundly in
love with him, Juliet is able to see and criticize
Romeo’s rash decisions and his tendency to
romanticize things. After Romeo kills Tybalt and is
banished, Juliet does not follow him blindly. She
makes a logical and heartfelt decision that her
loyalty and love for Romeo must be her guiding
priorities. Essentially, Juliet cuts herself loose from
her prior social moorings—her nurse, her parents,
and her social position in Verona—in order to try
to reunite with Romeo. When she wakes in the
tomb to find Romeo dead, she does not kill herself
out of feminine weakness, but rather out of an
intensity of love, just as Romeo did. Juliet’s suicide
actually requires more nerve than Romeo’s: while
he swallows poison, she stabs herself through the
heart with a dagger.
from killing Tybalt, or waited even one day before
killing himself after hearing the news of Juliet’s
death, matters might have ended happily. Of
course, though, had Romeo not had such depths
of feeling, the love he shared with Juliet would
never have existed in the first place.
Among his friends, especially while bantering with
Mercutio, Romeo shows glimpses of his social
persona. He is intelligent, quick-witted, fond of
verbal jousting (particularly about sex), loyal, and
unafraid of danger.
FRIAR LAWRENCE
Friar Lawrence occupies a strange position in
Romeo and Juliet. He is a kindhearted cleric who
helps Romeo and Juliet throughout the play. He
performs their marriage and gives generally good
advice, especially in regard to the need for
moderation. He is the sole figure of religion in the
play. But Friar Lawrence is also the most scheming
and political of characters in the play: he marries
Romeo and Juliet as part of a plan to end the civil
strife in Verona; he spirits Romeo into Juliet’s
room and then out of Verona; he devises the plan
to reunite Romeo and Juliet through the
deceptive ruse of a sleeping potion that seems to
arise from almost mystic knowledge. This mystical
knowledge seems out of place for a Catholic friar;
why does he have such knowledge, and what
could such knowledge mean? The answers are not
clear. In addition, though Friar Lawrence’s plans
all seem well conceived and well intentioned, they
serve as the main mechanisms through which the
fated tragedy of the play occurs. Readers should
recognize that the Friar is not only subject to the
fate that dominates the play—in many ways he
brings that fate about.
NURSE
The Nurse’s main role in the play is that of a
secondary mother figure for Juliet. The Nurse
clearly enjoys a closer relationship with Juliet than
Lady Capulet does. This isn’t surprising, given the
amount of responsibility she had in caring for
Juliet since her birth. The Nurse’s affection for
Juliet stems from the fact that she had a daughter
named Susan who was the same age as Juliet, but
who died young. Thus, just as the Nurse is a
surrogate mother for Juliet, so too is Juliet a
Juliet’s development from a wide-eyed girl into a
self-assured, loyal, and capable woman is one of
Shakespeare’s early triumphs of characterization.
It also marks one of his most confident and
rounded treatments of a female character.
MERCUTIO
With a lightning-quick wit and a clever mind,
Mercutio is a scene stealer and one of the most
memorable characters in all of Shakespeare’s
works. Though he constantly puns, jokes, and
teases—sometimes in fun, sometimes with
bitterness—Mercutio is not a mere jester or
prankster. With his wild words, Mercutio
punctures the romantic sentiments and blind self-
love that exist within the play. He mocks Romeos
self-indulgence just as he ridicules Tybalt’s
hauteur and adherence to fashion. The critic
Stephen Greenblatt describes Mercutio as a force
within the play that functions to deflate the
possibility of romantic love and the power of
tragic fate. Unlike the other characters who blame
their deaths on fate, Mercutio dies cursing all
Montagues and Capulets. Mercutio believes that
specific people are responsible for his death
rather than some external impersonal force
SYMBOLS
Light/Dark and Day/Night
Romeo and Juliet is filled with imagery of light and
dark. But while light is traditionally connected
with "good" and dark with "evil," in Romeo and
Juliet the relationship is more complex. Romeo
and Juliet constantly see each other as forms of
light. In the balcony scene, Romeo describes Juliet
as the sun, while Juliet describes Romeo as stars.
But the relationship between light and dark is
surrogate daughter for the Nurse. The Nurse
demonstrates her affection for Juliet frequently.
For instance, when Juliet sets out for the Capulet
ball, the Nurse bids her farewell, saying: “Go girl;
seek happy nights to happy days” (I.iii.107). The
Nurse is one of the few characters in the play who
explicitly wish for Juliet’s happiness. In addition to
being emotionally supportive, the Nurse also
works actively to ensure Juliet’s good fortune, as
when she serves as the go-between that enables
Juliet’s secret courtship with Romeo. The Nurse
remains Juliet’s ally to the end, and suffers greatly
when she, along with the rest of the Capulet
household, believes Juliet dead.
The Nurse is also a comic figure. She’s extremely
talkative, and one of her commonest verbal tics is
that she constantly makes interjections and
interrupts herself. She also frequently makes
bawdy remarks. Often these two aspects come
together, as when the Nurse tells Lady Capulet:
“Now, by my maidenhead at twelve year old, / I
bade [Juliet] come” (I.iii.2–3). The Nurse only
needs to say she’s called for Juliet, but she
interjects a strange oath, in which she swears by
the “maidenhood” that she still had when she was
twelve years old, further implying that she lost her
virginity at thirteen. This non sequitur has nothing
at all to do with the conversation at hand. The
Nurse also often takes others’ words literally,
which results in humorous misunderstandings. For
instance, she fails to understand the rhetorical
sense of Lady Capulet’s declaration, “Thou
knowest my daughter’s of a pretty age” (I.iii.).
Whereas Lady Capulet simply means that Juliet is
at a marriageable age, the Nurse answers
earnestly, saying she knows Juliet’s exact age:
“Faith, I can tell her age unto an hour” (I.iii.).
These examples of humor come somewhat at the
Nurse’s expense, since they showcase her lower-
class upbringing.
complicated by the lover's need for the privacy of
darkness in order to be together. As Romeo says
when the sun dawns on the morning when he is
to be banished from Verona, "More light and
light, more dark and dark our woes!" So while
Romeo and Juliet see each other as light, in order
for their light to shine brightly it needs the
contrast of darkness, of night, to make it
powerful.
Poison
In his first appearance, in Act 2, scene 2, Friar
Lawrence remarks that every plant, herb, and
stone has its own special properties, and that
nothing exists in nature that cannot be put to
both good and bad uses. Thus, poison is not
intrinsically evil, but is instead a natural substance
made lethal by human hands. Friar Lawrence’s
words prove true over the course of the play. The
sleeping potion he gives Juliet is concocted to
cause the appearance of death, not death itself,
but through circumstances beyond the Friar’s
control, the potion does bring about a fatal result:
Romeo’s suicide. As this example shows, human
beings tend to cause death even without
intending to. Similarly, Romeo suggests that
society is to blame for the apothecary’s criminal
selling of poison, because while there are laws
profiting the Apothecary from selling poison,
there are no laws that would help the apothecary
make money. Poison symbolizes human society’s
tendency to poison good things and make them
fatal, just as the pointless Capulet-Montague feud
turns Romeo and Juliet’s love to poison. After all,
unlike many of the other tragedies, this play does
not have an evil villain, but rather people whose
good qualities are turned to poison by the world
in which they live.
Thumb-biting
In Act 1, scene 1, the buffoonish Samson begins a
brawl between the Montagues and Capulets by
flicking his thumbnail from behind his upper
teeth, an insulting gesture known as biting the
thumb. He engages in this juvenile and vulgar
display because he wants to get into a fight with
the Montagues but doesn’t want to be accused of
starting the fight by making an explicit insult.

GENRE
Romeo and Juliet is officially classified as a
tragedy, but in some respects the play deviates
from the tragic genre. Unlike other
Shakespearean tragedies such as Macbeth, King
Lear, and Julius Caesar, Romeo and Juliet is not
concerned with a noble character whose actions
have widespread consequence. Instead, the story
describes the love between two ordinary
teenagers. Another important way Romeo and
Juliet deviates from other Shakespearean
tragedies is that the main characters cannot be
said to make a fatal error that leads to their
Because of his timidity, he settles for being
annoying rather than challenging. The thumb-
biting, as an essentially meaningless gesture,
represents the foolishness of the entire
Capulet/Montague feud and the stupidity of
violence in general.
Queen Mab
In Act 1, scene 4, Mercutio delivers a dazzling
speech about the fairy Queen Mab, who rides
through the night on her tiny wagon bringing
dreams to sleepers. One of the most noteworthy
aspects of Queen Mab’s ride is that the dreams
she brings generally do not bring out the best
sides of the dreamers, but instead serve to
confirm them in whatever vices they are addicted
to—for example, greed, violence, or lust. Another
important aspect of Mercutio’s description of
Queen Mab is that it is complete nonsense, albeit
vivid and highly colorful. Nobody believes in a
fairy pulled about by “a small grey-coated gnat”
whipped with a cricket’s bone (1.4.65). Finally, it is
worth noting that the description of Mab and her
carriage goes to extravagant lengths to emphasize
how tiny and insubstantial she and her
accoutrements are. Queen Mab and her carriage
do not merely symbolize the dreams of sleepers,
they also symbolize the power of waking
fantasies, daydreams, and desires. Through the
Queen Mab imagery, Mercutio suggests that all
desires and fantasies are as nonsensical and
fragile as Mab, and that they are basically
corrupting. This point of view contrasts starkly
with that of Romeo and Juliet, who see their love
as real and ennobling.
STYLE
In Romeo and Juliet, the characters strive to
express the purity of their love, but the play
constantly links opposed terms to show that even
the most powerful experience is shadowed by its
own opposite. When Romeo tries to describe the
brightness of Juliet’s beauty, he instead describes
the darkness which makes her stand out: “she
hangs upon the cheek of night / As a rich jewel in
an Ethiop’s ear” (1.5). Juliet returns the
compliment by making a similar contrast: “thou
wilt lie upon the wings of night / Whiter than new
snow upon a raven’s back” (3.2). In Romeo and
demise. Romeo kills Tybalt not because of a flaw
within himself, but because of the violent feuding
spreading across Verona. He himself is not
responsible for the feud, an “ancient grudge” that
has been in place long before the play opens.
Romeo’s murder of Tybalt is impulsive, but the act
doesn’t reveal a deeper lack within his character.
Rather, the murder is externally motivated by his
circumstances. Similarly, in taking her own life,
Juliet acts rashly and unwisely, but her actions
can’t be described as a character-driven error so
much as a response to the desperate
circumstances she finds herself in.
Not only does Romeo and Juliet deviate in many
ways from the tragic genre, the first two acts of
the play are structured much more like a comedy.
Shakespeare’s comedies often feature lovers
being kept apart by misguided authority figures,
just as Romeo and Juliet’s love is thwarted by
their feuding parents. Suggestive wordplay is
another common trope of Shakespearean
comedy. Romeo and Juliet opens with Gregory
and Sampson making bawdy jokes about erections
and virginity. The spirit of naughty fun is sustained
by Romeo and Benvolio’s jokes in the next scene,
as well as the Nurse’s ribald talk in scene three.
Finally, Shakespeare’s comedies often involve
disguises, as when Romeo puts on a mask to
attend the Capulet ball. Only the play’s prologue,
which has warned that the lovers’ are “death-
marked,” prevents the audience from assuming
the play will follow comedic conventions and end
with the two main characters happily united in
marriage.
However, once Romeo kills Tybalt in Act Three
scene one, the mood shifts, and we can’t mistake
the play for anything but tragedy. In
Shakespeare’s comedies, characters’ actions have
little lasting consequence. Romeo’s murder of
Tybalt has tremendous impact not just for Romeo
and Juliet, but their communities. Tybalt’s murder
also raises the stakes of the feud between the
Montagues and Capulets, since Tybalt was Juliet’s
cousin. Once Romeo has Tybalt’s blood on his
hands, we know his story cannot end happily.
Although Romeo’s murder of Tybalt is not
Juliet, brightness can never be entirely free of
darkness, just as the heroes’ love can never be
entirely free of their families’ hatred. Every
moment of their relationship is shadowed by its
opposite. Their wedding night is also their last
moment together. The place where they finally
come together is not a first home but a tomb. In
the world of Romeo and Juliet, “all things change
them to the contrary” (4.5). Romeo and Juliet are
doomed to fail in their goal of achieving a pure
love not just by their social roles, but by the
nature of life itself.
Romeo and Juliet has the third-highest number of
rhymed lines amongst Shakespeare’s plays.
Because rhyming involves pairs of words, rhyme
points to the importance of pairs and couples.
Rhyme also places limits on how lines can end,
which resonates in a play about characters whose
own choices are limited by fate and social rules. In
the play, many of these rhymes appear in
fourteen-line rhyming poems called sonnets. Both
the prologue and the lovers’ first meeting are
written as sonnets. As Romeo and Juliet flirt and
banter about exchanging kisses, they trade
rhymes: When Romeo says “My lips, two blushing
pilgrims, ready stand / To smooth that rough
tough with a tender kiss,” Juliet answers, “Good
pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much, /
which mannerly devotion shows in this,” (1.4.) In
Shakespeare's time, most sonnets were about
idealized romantic love, so the sonnets in Romeo
and Juliet emphasize that this is a play about
romantic ideals. But by allowing Juliet to share the
poem with Romeo, rhyming her words to his,
Shakespeare updates the form, giving each
member of the relationship equal value. In this
way the style of the play both elevates the love
between the two characters, and modernizes a
traditional form of poetry.
Romeo and Juliet use the imagery of stars, moons
and suns to emphasize that their love is not
earthbound or ordinary, but the play always
reminds us that in fact the stars are not on the
lovers’ side. For Romeo, “Juliet is the sun” (2.2.).
Her eyes are “Two of the fairest stars in all the
heaven” (2.2.). Juliet imagines Romeo “cut […] out
motivated by a tragic flaw, the act is an error of
judgement nonetheless. Romeo then compounds
this error by killing Paris outside of Juliet’s tomb.
In all of Shakespeare’s tragedies, protagonists
who commit murder end up dead as a result of
their actions, and Romeo is no exception.
Shakespearean tragedies usually end with the
death of the protagonist, which restores harmony
to the community. In Romeo and Juliet, the two
protagonists’ deaths – what Capulet calls the
“poor sacrifices for our enmities” (5.3.) – provide
the catalyst for the warring families to set aside
their feud and repair the community.
in little stars” (3.2.). However, these heavenly
bodies have another, more sinister meaning. The
play’s tragic ending is astrologically fated— “star-
crossed” (1.1.)—from the beginning. As the play
progresses, the language of stars, moons and suns
refers less to the heroes’ love and more to their
tragic fate. In the play’s final speech, “The sun for
sorrow will not show his head” (5.3.). Romeo and
Juliet are so trapped by their fate that even the
language they use to celebrate their love points
toward the fact that they are doomed.
The language the lovers use contrasts sharply with
the language used by Mercutio and the play’s
other young men, including Romeo when he is
with them. However, the young men are also
undermined and trapped by their own language.
Mercutio and Romeo exchange jokes in a back-
and-forth struggle, each trying to turn the other’s
joke against him. Many of these jokes, and
Mercutio’s in particular, are sexual: “’Twould
anger him / To raise a spirit in his mistress’ circle”
(2.1.). This verbal aggression with sexual
overtones directly results in Mercutio’s death.
Mercutio is offended by Tybalt’s use of the word
“consort,” which he takes as a punning accusation
of homosexuality (3.1.). Mercutio responds with
an aggressive joke of his own, and the result is a
duel in which Mercutio dies. The humor and
wordplay which make Mercutio such a free-
spirited character also trap him into his tragic
fate.
Prose and Verse
Like all of Shakespeare’s tragedies, Romeo and
Juliet is written mostly in blank verse.
Shakespeare preferred to use verse when he was
tackling serious themes, like the themes in Romeo
and Juliet of doomed love, feuding, suicide, and
death. Because verse is more structured and rule-
bound than prose, verse also suits a play about
characters who are trapped by fate and social
rules. The other reason Shakespeare uses verse in
Romeo and Juliet is that he generally uses verse
for the speech of high-status characters. Most of
the characters in Romeo and Juliet are nobles, so
they address each other in verse. However, even

POINT OF VIEW
Like so much in Romeo and Juliet, the play’s point
of view is shared between the two lovers. In the
first half of the play, Romeo’s is the dominant
point of view. We spend most of our time with
him, and he is the character who does most to
advance the action. When we first meet Romeo,
he is despairing over the unrequited love of
Rosaline. Since we see his decision to attend the
Capulet party from his point of view, we know he
is going in hopes of seeing Rosaline. Similarly, we
first see Juliet at home with her mother and her
Nurse, discussing a potential marriage to Paris.
Like Romeo, she plans to attend the party to
check out a prospective mate. By introducing the
audience to each character before they meet
each other, the play lets us see who they are as
individuals, and how they are changed by love.
Romeo initially seems more in love with the idea
of love than Rosaline herself, while Juliet seems
hesitant to fall in love at all, saying marriage “is an
hour that I dream not of.” (1.3.)
In the second half of the play Juliet’s point of view
becomes the dominant one. Now Juliet is the one
low-status characters speak verse when the topic
is serious enough. The Apothecary speaks verse as
he sells Romeo poison, and the Nurse speaks
verse when she recounts Juliet’s childhood, with
its omens of Juliet’s tragic fate.
Prose in Romeo and Juliet usually marks either
comic speech or the speech of low-status
characters. The Nurse, Peter and the Musicians
usually speak in prose, because they are comic
and low-status characters. Mercutio and Romeo
mostly use verse, but they often use prose when
they are exchanging jokes. Prose can also mark
reckless speech, and Mercutio sometimes uses
prose when he is being especially provocative.
Benvolio begins Act Three, scene one speaking in
verse, because he is making the serious point that
it’s dangerous for him and Mercutio to be in a
place where “the Capels are abroad” (3.1.).
Mercutio argues back in prose, which shows us
that he is being reckless. As his encounter with
Tybalt escalates, Mercutio switches between
verse and prose.
TONE
The tone of Romeo and Juliet is sympathetic to
the plight of the young lovers. The equal weight
the play gives to sexual desire as everlasting love
suggests a realistic, benevolent attitude towards
their story. At the time the play was written,
onstage kissing was rare and controversial, but
Romeo and Juliet kiss often. Juliet’s sexual
openness would have been especially shocking for
contemporary audiences. She is only thirteen, but
we hear her longing for her wedding night: “learn
me how to lose a winning match / Played for a
pair of stainless maidenhoods” (3.2.). Yet her
character is presented sympathetically. The play’s
tone suggests sex is a natural, inevitable part of
life for characters regardless of age or gender.
Mercutio indulges in sexual wordplay in virtually
every one of his speeches. Nurse is sometimes not
even aware of the secondary sexual meaning of
her lines: “I’ll take him down, and ’a were lustier
than he is” (2.4.). The tone of frank acceptance of
the facts of life helps us to sympathize with the
lovers, who are compelled to break important
social rules by the force of their desire.
advancing the action, by hatching a plan to avoid
her wedding to Paris. In the later scenes of the
play we spend more time with Juliet than we do
with Romeo: he does not appear in Act Four at all.
Juliet also has more soliloquies than Romeo does,
so we have greater access to her inner thoughts
and feelings as the couple’s story turns from
romantic to tragic. Because we see so much of the
action through Juliet’s point of view, and hear so
many of her inner thoughts, we believe that her
love for Romeo is authentic, and she is willing to
do anything to sustain that love. By giving Juliet so
much volition in the later part of the play,
Shakespeare portrays Juliet as an equally powerful
and important character as Romeo. The shared
point of view of the play helps the audience
understand that the plot is driven by both
characters acting together in pursuit of a common
goal, rather than a male character pursuing a
female character who eventually acquiesces.
Several characters in Romeo and Juliet offer
counterpoints to the lovers’ point of view.
Mercutio’s wit and charisma invite the audience
to share his cynical view of love and romance.
While the lovers believe that their love is pure and
all-important, Mercutio believes that in reality
love boils down to sexual desire: “this drivelling
love is like a great natural that runs lolling up and
down to hide his bauble in a hole” (2.4). Because
we feel close to Mercutio’s point of view, we are
upset when he is killed, and sympathize with
Romeo’s desire to avenge Mercutio’s death. Friar
Lawrence’s point of view also offers some
perspective on the extreme passions of the play’s
other characters. His calm, well-reasoned and
balanced speeches show us how far the play’s
other characters have been swept away by
passion. His speeches are also long, measured,
and a little boring. While he speaks, we yearn to
return to the excitement of the lovers’
infatuation. Because Friar Lawrence is a religious
man, the contrast between his point of view and
the lovers’ suggests that passion is a temptation,
and one which we ourselves are vulnerable to.
The play’s tone is not just non-judgmental about
the characters’ sexual desires, but celebratory of
the central love story between Romeo and Juliet.
Although the characters may initially come across
as frivolous, suggesting we should view their love
with skepticism, the depth and validity of their
passion is soon established. While Juliet worries
about being perceived as “light,” or promiscuous,
for falling in love with Romeo so quickly, the tone
of the play suggests Romeo and Juliet’s love is
serious, and they are both admirable characters.
Tragedies traditionally feature noble figures such
as kings or generals, yet Shakespeare chose two
ordinary teens for the play, suggesting their story
is as worthy and important as that of more
celebrated individuals. Romeo’s friends and
Juliet’s family value the characters, furthering the
sense of them as worthy of our respect. And the
intensely poetic language of the balcony scene
and other love scenes elevate imply that the
lovers’ plight is of lasting import and should be
taken seriously.
While sex and love are presented as positive,
natural forces in Romeo and Juliet, the play’s tone
is highly critical of the violence that destroys the
characters’ love. Violence, not sex, leads to the
play’s tragic end. The play begins with Samson
boasting that he is violent when his feelings are
aroused: “I strike quickly being moved” (1.1.).
Moments later the play’s first duel breaks out.
Dueling is the main form of violence in Romeo and
Juliet: Mercutio, Tybalt and Paris will all die in
duels. These duels stem from the feud between
the Montagues and Capulets. We see that the
price of the violent disagreement between the
two families is needless death that causes great
pain and suffering in the community. The play
shows us the grief that follows violence and
death, and the tremendous remorse the
characters feel at the loss of life. While the play
ends with the suggestion that the violence and
death has been useful in resolving the feud
between the two families, the price of this
resolution is extremely high: the peace is
“glooming;” “the sun, for sorrow, will not show his
head.” (5.3.) The elegiac tone of the ending of the

FORESHADOWING
Foreshadowing is one of the main dramatic
techniques in Romeo and Juliet. The lovers’ tragic
end is both directly and subtly foreshadowed
from the very beginning of the play. This strong
foreshadowing emphasizes that the lovers’ fate is
inevitable, and that their sense of freedom is an
illusion. Foreshadowing also creates the sense
that the plot is hurtling unstoppably forward, just
as the passions of Romeo and Juliet, Montague
and Capulet, Tybalt and Mercutio escalate
uncontrollably.
The Deaths of Romeo and Juliet
The deaths of Romeo and Juliet are the most
heavily foreshadowed events in any of
Shakespeare’s plays. We learn that the lovers will
die in the Prologue: “A pair of star-crossed
lovers…Doth with their death bury their parents’
strife” (1. 1..). The Nurse remembers that Juliet’s
childhood was full of unlucky omens: there was an
earthquake the day Juliet was weaned, and when
she learned to walk she “broke her brow” (1.3.).
Romeo predicts that going to the Capulets’ ball
will have “some consequence” that will end in
“untimely death” (1.4.). Both lovers announce to
Friar Lawrence that they will commit suicide if
they cannot be together. Romeo says “Come,
death, and welcome. Juliet wills it so.” Juliet has a
vision of Romeo “As one dead in the bottom of a
tomb” (3.5). This heavy foreshadowing of the
lovers’ deaths emphasizes that they are trapped
by their fates. Foreshadowing also has the effect
of making Romeo and Juliet’s love seem more
precious. Because the audience can see that the
lovers will not have long together, we are more
moved by the happy moments they do have.
The Deaths of Mercutio and Tybalt
The escalating conflict between Montagues and
Capulets foreshadows that Mercutio and Tybalt
will die fighting. The play’s first scene (after the
Prologue) ends in a fight between Montagues and
Capulets. Tybalt is largely responsible for it. When
Tybalt sees Romeo at the Capulet ball, he swears
revenge (1.5.). The next time we see Mercutio he
play suggests the pain of violence outweighs any
potential benefits.
WHAT DOES THE ENDING MEAN?
At the end of Romeo and Juliet, Romeo returns to
Verona because he believes Juliet is dead. When
he arrives at her tomb she appears lifeless, and in
his grief he kills himself by drinking poison.
Moments later Juliet wakes, and, finding Romeo
dead, she plunges his sword into her breast. This
ending replays in miniature the structure of the
play as a whole. Throughout their story, the lovers
have been drawn together by their love for one
another, and yet they’ve simultaneously been
pulled apart by the hatred and violence that rages
between their families. At the play’s end, the love
they share and the violence that separates them
become one and the same. Though they shall be
buried together, laying forever in each other’s
arms, the lovers will also remain forever apart,
separated by death. Prince Escalus underscores
this unity of love and death when he chastises
Capulet and Montague: “See what a scourge is
laid upon your hate, / That Heaven finds means to
kill your joys with love!” (V.iii.292–93). The Prince
thus informs the men that they have killed their
own children, and the instrument of their murder
has been Romeo and Juliet’s love for each other.
In addition to unifying the play’s themes of love
and violence, the ending also brings an end to the
longstanding feud between the Capulet and
Montague families. However, peace between the
families may turn out only to be temporary. After
the Prince blames Capulet and Montague for their
children’s deaths, the two men pledge their desire
to resolve their conflict. Capulet begins by
addressing Montague as his “brother,” then asks
for his hand in friendship. Montague responds by
one-upping Capulet. He claims that he will
commission a statue of Juliet to be fashioned
from pure gold, and he concludes with a boast:
“whiles Verona by that name is known, / There
shall no figure at such rate be set / As that of true
and faithful Juliet” (V.iii.300–2). Capulet
immediately retorts: “As rich shall Romeo’s by his
lady’s lie, / Poor sacrifices of our enmity”
(V.iii.303–4). Reconciliation quickly becomes
corrupted by a contest of wealth, indicating that
is making fun of Tybalt’s skill as a duelist (2.4.).
When Benvolio suggests that he and Mercutio
should avoid the Capulets because “if we meet we
shall not scape a brawl” (3.1), Mercutio ignores
him. By this point, the audience knows that Tybalt
and Mercutio share the same pride in their
fighting ability. We can see that they’re both in
the mood for a fight. When Tybalt enters, the
deaths of both men start to seem inevitable.
ARE ROMEO AND JULIET REALLY IN LOVE?
Today, we say something is like Romeo and Juliet
to describe a love that surpasses all boundaries,
but a close reading of the play suggests the lovers’
feelings are more complicated than pure love. If
we look, we can find plenty of evidence that
Romeo and Juliet’s love for one another is, at least
initially, immature. Romeo begins the play
claiming to be passionately in love with another
woman, Rosaline. When he sees Juliet, he
abandons Rosaline before he has even spoken to
his new love, which suggests that his feelings for
both women are superficial. Juliet, meanwhile,
seems to be motivated by defying her parents.
She is unenthusiastic about her parents’ choice of
husband for her, and at the party where she is
supposed to meet Paris, she instead kisses Romeo
after exchanging just fourteen lines of dialogue
with him. When Romeo returns to see Juliet, she
is focused on marriage. For Juliet, part of the
appeal of marriage is that it will free her from her
parents: “I’ll no longer be a Capulet” (2.2.). She
compares Romeo to a tame falcon—a “tassel-
gentle” (2.2.)—which suggests that she believes
she can control him. Juliet’s love for Romeo seems
at least in part to be a desire to be freed from her
parents’ control by a husband who can’t control
her either.
More experienced characters argue that sexual
frustration, not enduring love, is the root cause of
Romeo and Juliet’s passion for one another.
Mercutio tells Romeo “this drivelling love is like a
great natural that runs lolling up and down to hide
his bauble in a hole” (2.4.). Every time Romeo
tries to demonstrate the seriousness of his love,
Mercutio undermines him with sexual jokes.
When Romeo risks returning to the Capulets’
house to see Juliet again, Mercutio calls after him
Romeo and Juliet’s tragedy will not bring full
reconciliation so much as what the Prince calls “A
glooming peace” (V.iii.305).
IMPORTANT QUOTATIONS EXPLAINED
Quote 1
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,
Who is already sick and pale with grief
That thou, her maid, art far more fair than she. . ..
The brightness of her cheek would shame those
stars
As daylight doth a lamp; her eye in heaven
Would through the airy region stream so bright
That birds would sing and think it were not night.
Romeo speaks these lines in the so-called balcony
scene, when, hiding in the Capulet orchard after
the feast, he sees Juliet leaning out of a high
window (2.1.44–64). Though it is late at night,
Juliet’s surpassing beauty makes Romeo imagine
that she is the sun, transforming the darkness into
daylight. Romeo likewise personifies the moon,
calling it “sick and pale with grief” at the fact that
Juliet, the sun, is far brighter and more beautiful.
Romeo then compares Juliet to the stars, claiming
that she eclipses the stars as daylight overpowers
a lamp—her eyes alone shine so bright that they
will convince the birds to sing at night as if it were
day.
This quote is important because in addition to
initiating one of the play’s most beautiful and
famous sequences of poetry, it is a prime example
of the light/dark motif that runs throughout the
play. Many scenes in Romeo and Juliet are set
either late at night or early in the morning, and
Shakespeare often uses the contrast between
night and day to explore opposing alternatives in
a given situation. Here, Romeo imagines Juliet
transforming darkness into light; later, after their
wedding night, Juliet convinces Romeo
that he is just sexually frustrated: “O that she
were / An open-arse, thou a poperin pear!” (2.1.).
The Nurse points out the sexual element of
Juliet’s love. When she returns from meeting
Romeo for the first time, the Nurse describes him
in physical terms: “for a hand and a foot and
body, though they be not to be talked on, yet they
are past compare” (2.5.). Later, when Romeo is
banished, the Nurse suggests that Juliet will be
happier with Paris, because he is better looking:
“An eagle, madam / Hath not so green, so quick,
so fair an eye / As Paris hath” (3.5.).
Yet, while the two characters may have initially
fell for each other due to a mixture of
convenience and lust, Romeo and Juliet’s
language shows their passion maturing into real
love. In the opening scenes, Romeo makes
Benvolio and Mercutio laugh with his clichés
about love. When he sees Juliet, the clichés drop
away, and he begins to describe his feelings in
original terms. When they are together, Romeo
and Juliet create a shared vocabulary. In their first
meeting, they compose a sonnet together using
the religious language of pilgrimage. They both
start using astrological language to describe their
love. As their relationship develops, they use less
rhyme, which has the effect of making their
language feel less artificial. These changes in the
lovers’ language show that they are growing
together. In their final scene before they part for
good, Romeo and Juliet are on the brink of talking
about something other than their thwarted love
(“Let’s talk” (3.5.)) before being prevented from
having their first real conversation by Romeo’s
banishment. The tragedy of Romeo and Juliet is
that the lovers never get the chance to see if their
love will grow into a mature, enduring
relationship.
momentarily that the daylight is actually night (so
that he doesn’t yet have to leave her room).
Quote 2
O Romeo, Romeo,
wherefore art thou Romeo?
Deny thy father and refuse thy name,
Or if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love,
And I’ll no longer be a Capulet.
Juliet speaks these lines, perhaps the most
famous in the play, in the balcony scene (2.1.74–
78). Leaning out of her upstairs window, unaware
that Romeo is below in the orchard, she asks why
Romeo must be Romeo—why he must be a
Montague, the son of her family’s greatest enemy
(“wherefore” means “why,” not “where”; Juliet is
not, as is often assumed, asking where Romeo is).
Still unaware of Romeo’s presence, she asks him
to deny his family for her love. She adds, however,
that if he will not, she will deny her family in order
to be with him if he merely tells her that he loves
her.
A major theme in Romeo and Juliet is the tension
between social and family identity (represented
by one’s name) and one’s inner identity. Juliet
believes that love stems from one’s inner identity,
and that the feud between the Montagues and
the Capulets is a product of the outer identity,
based only on names. She thinks of Romeo in
individual terms, and thus her love for him
overrides her family’s hatred for the Montague
name. She says that if Romeo were not called
“Romeo” or “Montague,” he would still be the
person she loves. “What’s in a name?” she asks.
“That which we call a rose / By any other word
would smell as sweet” (2.1.85–86).
Quote 3
O, then I see Queen Mab hath been with you. . . .
She is the fairies’ midwife, and she comes
In shape no bigger than an agate stone
On the forefinger of an alderman,
Drawn with a team of little atomi
Athwart men’s noses as they lie asleep.
Mercutio’s famous Queen Mab speech is
important for the stunning quality of its poetry
and for what it reveals about Mercutio’s

QUOTES ABOUT LOVE
Alas, that love, whose view is muffled still,
Should without eyes see pathways to his will (1.1.)
character, but it also has some interesting
thematic implications (1.4.53–59). Mercutio is
trying to convince Romeo to set aside his lovesick
melancholy over Rosaline and come along to the
Capulet feast. When Romeo says that he is
depressed because of a dream, Mercutio launches
on a lengthy, playful description of Queen Mab,
the fairy who supposedly brings dreams to
sleeping humans. The main point of the passage is
that the dreams Queen Mab brings are directly
related to the person who dreams them—lovers
dream of love, soldiers of war, etc. But in the
process of making this rather prosaic point
Mercutio falls into a sort of wild bitterness in
which he seems to see dreams as destructive and
delusional.
Quote 4
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life,
Whose misadventured piteous overthrows
Doth with their death bury their parents’ strife. . .
O, I am fortune’s fool! . . .
Then I defy you, stars.
This trio of quotes advances the theme of fate as
it plays out through the story: the first is spoken
by the Chorus (Prologue.5–8), the second by
Romeo after he kills Tybalt (3.1.131), and the third
by Romeo upon learning of Juliet’s death (5.1.24).
The Chorus’s remark that Romeo and Juliet are
“star-crossed” and fated to “take their li[ves]”
informs the audience that the lovers are destined
to die tragically. Romeo’s remark “O, I am
fortune’s fool!” illustrates the fact that Romeo
sees himself as subject to the whims of fate.
When he cries out “Then I defy you, stars,” after
learning of Juliet’s death, he declares himself
openly opposed to the destiny that so grieves
him. Sadly, in “defying” fate he actually brings it
about. Romeo’s suicide prompts Juliet to kill
herself, thereby ironically fulfilling the lovers’
tragic destiny.
QUOTES ABOUT SEX
I will push Montague’s men from the wall and
thrust his maids to the wall (1.1.)
Romeo begins the play in love with Rosaline, but
his language in these opening scenes shows us
that his first love is less mature than the love he
will develop for Juliet. This couplet combines two
ideas that were already clichés in Shakespeare’s
day: “love is blind” and “love will find a way.” The
clichéd expressions and obvious rhymes which
Romeo uses to express his love for Rosaline would
have been ridiculous to a contemporary audience,
and Benvolio and Mercutio repeatedly make fun
of them.
My only love sprung from my only hate,
Too early seen unknown, and known too late!
Prodigious birth of love is it to me
That I must love a loathed enemy. (1.5.)
Juliet speaks these lines after learning that Romeo
is a Montague. The language of Romeo and Juliet
insists that opposites can never be entirely
separated: the lovers will never be allowed to
forget that they are also enemies. Significantly,
that Juliet blames herself for seeing Romeo “too
early.” Everything in this play happens too early:
we learn what will happen at the end in the
opening lines, Juliet is married too young, and
Romeo kills himself moments before Juliet wakes.
In Romeo and Juliet, love is a force which can—
and does—move too fast.
With love’s light wings did I o’erperch these walls,
For stony limits cannot hold love out (2.2.)
Juliet wants to know how Romeo got into the
walled garden of the Capulet house: these lines
are his response. For Romeo, true love is a
liberating force. Love gives him not just wings, but
“light wings” and the power to overcome all
“stony limits.” Romeo answers Juliet’s serious and
practical question with a flight of romantic
fantasy. Throughout the play, Juliet is more
grounded in the real world than Romeo. For her,
the freedom that love brings is the freedom to
leave her parents’ house and to have sex.
My bounty is as boundless as the sea,
My love as deep; the more I give to thee,
The more I have, for both are infinite. (2.2.)
Samson’s boast introduces the theme of sex in
explicitly violent terms. He imagines attacking
Montague men and assaulting Montague women.
Sex is paired with violence throughout Romeo and
Juliet. Even the sexual union of the lovers
themselves is shadowed by the violence between
their families: on the same night that Romeo
comes to consummate his marriage to Juliet, he
kills her cousin Tybalt.
now art thou what thou art, by art as well as by
nature, for this drivelling love is like a great
natural that runs lolling up and down to hide his
bauble in a hole. (2.4.)
Mercutio is pleased that Romeo is exchanging
jokes with him instead of moping for his love. He
dismisses love as foolish: a “natural” is a fool, and
a “bauble” is the stick a professional fool carries.
The image of the fool trying to “hide his bauble in
a hole” also implies sexual intercourse. Mercutio’s
point is that at its root, love is really just sexual
desire. As far as Mercutio is concerned, all of
Romeo’s romantic longing is just “drivelling” and
“lolling” brought on by sexual frustration.
Mercutio’s cynical point of view challenges the
idealistic romance of the two lovers.
Come, gentle night, come, loving black-browed
night,
Give me my Romeo, and when I shall die,
Take him and cut him out in little stars (3.2.)
Juliet yearns for her wedding night. The repetition
of the word “come” shows us the strength of her
desire. There’s no ambiguity about what Juliet is
yearning for. “Die” was Elizabethan slang for
“orgasm.” The image that follows, of Romeo
“cut…out in little stars,” is a subtle metaphor for
the sexual ecstasy Juliet anticipates. At the same
time, the image suggests childhood play,
reminding us again that Juliet is very young. The
words “die” and “cut” also have violent
undertones. In this play, sex and violence are
never far apart.
Here Juliet describes her feelings for Romeo. Like
Romeo, Juliet experiences love as a kind of
freedom: her love is “boundless” and “infinite.”
Her experience of love is more openly erotic than
Romeo’s: her imagery has sexual undertones.
Juliet is always more in touch with the
practicalities of love—sex and marriage—than
Romeo, who is less realistic. Where Romeo draws
on the conventional imagery of Elizabethan love
poetry, Juliet’s language in these lines is original
and striking, which reflects her inexperience, and
makes her seem very sincere.

QUOTES ABOUT VIOLENCE QUOTES ABOUT YOUTH

My naked weapon is out. Quarrel, I will back thee.
(1.1.)
The action of Romeo and Juliet opens with
Samson boasting that he is a violent man. When
some Montague servants appear, he draws his
sword and asks his companion Gregory to start a
quarrel that might lead to a fight. This opening
establishes that Verona is a place where violence
can break out over nothing. Samson and Gregory
and their Montague opponents are all afraid of
breaking the law, which reminds us that the
punishment for fighting is every bit as violent as
the fighting itself. From the beginning of the play,
all the young men involved in the feud are
trapped between two threats of violence: the
violence of their enemies and the violence of the
Prince, who has threatened to execute anyone
who continues the feud. This helps create the
play’s sense of confinement.
He rests his minim rests, one, two and the third in
your bosom; the very butcher of a silk button, a
duellist, a duellist (2.4)
Mercutio makes fun of Tybalt’s fighting style. At
the time Shakespeare was writing, a new style of
fencing (sword fighting) had recently been
imported from Italy. Tybalt fences in this style,
which allows Shakespeare to add a bit of local
Italian color to his Verona. At the same time, in
these lines of Mercutio’s, Shakespeare pokes fun
at the new trend in England. Even though
Mercutio is mocking Tybalt, we sense an
My child is yet a stranger in the world;
She hath not seen the change of fourteen years.
(1,2.)
Capulet begins the play by denying Paris’s request
to marry Juliet, on the grounds that she is too
young. Juliet is thirteen, but the word “thirteen”
never appears in Romeo and Juliet. Instead we are
repeatedly told that she is not yet fourteen. The
fact that Juliet’s father is looking forward to a
birthday she will never reach emphasizes that
Juliet’s life is cut very short. Capulet’s description
of Juliet as “a stranger in the world” introduces us
to an important aspect of her character. Her
father means that she is inexperienced, which she
is, but Juliet is also a “stranger in the world”
because she prefers the transcendent experience
she shares with Romeo to the compromises and
practicalities of everyday life, even to the extent
of choosing to die rather than live in a world
without Romeo.
Come Lammas Eve at night shall she be fourteen.
Susan and she, God rest all Christian souls
Were of an age (1.3.)
The Nurse recalls that her own daughter, Susan,
was the same age as Juliet, as she reminds us that
Juliet is not yet fourteen. Susan died as a baby,
and the Nurse’s grief foreshadows the grief
Capulet and Lady Capulet will feel at the end of
the play, when they too lose their young
daughter. The Nurse identifies Juliet’s birthday as
Lammas Eve. Lammas Eve was celebrated at the
underlying admiration for Tybalt’s ability as a beginning of August, and we know that the play
fighter. It does not come as a surprise when takes place in summer, so Juliet is a month or two
Mercutio is tempted to test his own skill against from her birthday. This creates a dramatic irony:
Tybalt’s, with fatal results. the Nurse and the Capulets are counting down to
Juliet’s fourteenth birthday, while the audience is
They have made worms’ meat of me. (3.1.) counting down to her death.
Mercutio fights Tybalt and receives a fatal wound.
So tedious is this day
As he dies, he continues to talk with his usual
As is the night before some festival
cynical wit. He imagines himself after his death in
To an impatient child that hath new robes
strictly physical and very unromantic terms: as
And may not wear them (3.2.)
meat for worms. This marks a turning point in
Here Juliet expresses her impatience for her
play. Up until now, violence has only been
wedding night. By comparing herself to a child,
threatened, and for the characters and the
Juliet reminds us that she is almost a child herself.
audience alike it’s been more a source of
Her metaphor also points to an important aspect
excitement than grief. Now, one of the play’s
of Juliet’s character. Throughout the play, Juliet is
most appealing characters is dying. From this
impatient to grow up. As soon as she meets
point forward, the play’s violence will be brutal
Romeo she wants to marry him. She gets married
and unrelenting. Tybalt will die, then Paris, and
even though her father thinks she is at least two
finally Romeo and Juliet.
years too young, and she can hardly contain her
impatience for her wedding night. To the
audience, Juliet’s hurry to grow up is tragic,
because we know she will die only a few days
after her marriage.
QUOTES ABOUT FATE
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life
(Prologue)
The play’s opening lines tell us that Romeo and
Juliet will die, and that their tragic end is fated.
“Star-crossed” means “opposed by the stars.” In
Shakespeare’s day as in ours, some people
believed that the course of your life was
determined by the motion and position of the
stars. “Take their life” is a pun: it means that the
lovers were born from the “fatal loins” of their
parents, and it also means that the lovers will kill
themselves. Their births and deaths are described
in the same short phrase, which again suggests
that their deaths were fated from the moment
they were born.

I fear too early, for my mind misgives;

Some consequence, yet hanging in the stars,
Shall bitterly begin (1.4)
Before he goes to the masque where he will meet
Juliet, Romeo has a feeling that the consequences
of his decision to go will be “bitter.” He suspects
that this is his fate— “hanging in the stars”—and
his use of the word “stars” reminds the audience
that he is “star-crossed” (I.i.). Romeo’s fear that
he will arrive at the masque “too early” points to
an important theme of the play. Almost every
event in the play happens too early. Tybalt finds
Romeo too early, before the news of Romeo’s
marriage has been announced. Juliet’s marriage
to Paris is decided too early, before Romeo can
return from exile. The lovers die too young.