50 Important Quotes You Should Pay Attention to in Romeo and Juliet

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#11: Then I defy you, stars!

• Technique: Astrological allusion, symbolism
• Characters: Romeo M. 
• Act 5, Scene 1 

Analysis: 

The quote highlights the idea of Romeo defying fate and the forces of nature. By declaring “Then I defy you, stars!”, he is essentially rejecting the idea that his life is determined by the stars and the alignment of the planets. He believes that his love for Juliet is so strong that it transcends the laws of nature and fate. He is expressing his determination to be reunited with Juliet, despite the obstacles that may stand in his way.

The phrase “defy you, stars” is a metaphor for rejecting the idea that our lives are predetermined and controlled by forces beyond our control. Romeo is asserting his agency and his belief that he has the power to shape his own destiny.

In conclusion, this quote provides insight into Romeo’s character and his passionate love for Juliet. It highlights the theme of free will and the power of love to overcome obstacles and determine our fate. The metaphor of defying the stars is a powerful and romantic expression of this theme, and a testament to Romeo’s unwavering devotion to Juliet.

#12: O give me thy hand,

One write with me in sour misfortune’s book!

• Technique: Soliloquy, guilty tone
• Characters: Romeo M.
• Act 5, Scene 3

#13: A greater power than we can contradict

Hath thwarted our intents

• Technique: Biblical allusion, anthropomorphism 
• Characters: Friar Lawrence
• Act 5, Scene 3

#14: O, here

Will I set up my everlasting rest,

And shake the yoke of inauspicious stars

From this world-wearied flesh! 

• Technique: Celestial allusion, metaphor, dramatic irony
• Characters: Romeo M.
• Act 5, Scene 3

Quotes about Love

#15: Love is a smoke raised with the fume of sighs;

Being purged, a fire sparkling in lovers’ eyes;

Being vexed a sea nourish’d with loving tears: 

• Technique: Metaphor, natural imagery, figurative language
• Characters: Romeo
• Act 1, Scene 1

#16: Alas that love, so gentle in his view,

Should be so tyrannous and rough in proof!

• Technique:Personification, symbolism, contrast
• Characters: Benvolio
• Act 1, Scene 1

#17: Here’s much to do with hate, but more with love.

Why then, O brawling love, O loving hate… 

• Technique: Oxymoron, high modality
• Characters: Romeo M.
• Act 1, Scene 1

#18: This love feel I, that feel no love in this

• Technique: Chiasmus, emotive language
• Characters: Romeo
• Act 1, Scene 1

Analysis: 

He is expressing his confusion and frustration over his own emotions. He says that he feels love, but that he doesn’t feel any love within himself.

The quote highlights the idea that love can be a confusing and contradictory experience. Romeo is deeply in love with Juliet, but he is also aware of the challenges and obstacles that their love faces. He is feeling a sense of internal conflict and is struggling to understand his own emotions.

The quote also suggests that love can be a powerful and transformative experience that can change a person’s life. Romeo is undergoing a significant emotional journey as a result of his love for Juliet, and this quote reflects the complex and contradictory feelings that he is experiencing.

In conclusion, this quote provides insight into Romeo’s character and his feelings towards love and the challenges he faces in his relationship with Juliet. It highlights the theme of the confusion and uncertainty that can accompany love, and how it can be both powerful and difficult at the same time.

#19: Is love a tender thing? It is too rough,

Too rude, too boist’rous, and it pricks like a thorn 

• Technique: Simile, violent imagery, emphatic lines
• Characters: Romeo
• Act 1, Scene 4

#20: If love be rough with you, be rough with love

Prick love for pricking, and you beat love down. 

• Technique: Repetition, chiasmus, violent imagery 
• Characters: Mercutio
• Act 1, Scene 4

#21: I take thee at thy word:

Call me but love, and I’ll be new baptiz’d

Henceforth I will never be Romeo.

• Technique: Religious imagery, evocative language, symbolism
• Characters: Romeo M.
• Act 2, Scene 2

#22: It is the east, and Juliet is the sun. 

• Technique: Celestial imagery, metaphor, monologue
• Characters: Romeo M.
• Act 2, Scene 2

He is using a metaphor to describe his feelings for Juliet. He says that Juliet is like the sun, and that she is the source of light and warmth in his life.

The quote highlights the idea that Juliet has a transformative and positive impact on Romeo’s life. Before he meets Juliet, Romeo is feeling lost and directionless, but her presence in his life brings light and happiness into his world. He sees her as the source of all that is good and positive, and he is filled with admiration and adoration for her.

The metaphor of the sun also highlights the idea of renewal and new beginnings. The sun rises in the east, and it symbolises the start of a new day and the potential for new experiences and opportunities. Similarly, Juliet represents a new chapter in Romeo’s life and a fresh start.

In conclusion, this quote provides insight into Romeo’s character and his feelings towards Juliet. It highlights the theme of the transformative power of love, and how it can bring light and happiness into a person’s life. The metaphor of the sun also suggests the idea of renewal and new beginnings, and the potential for positive change that love can bring.

Romeo and Juliet Quotes about Death

#23: Whose misadventur’d piteous overthrows

Doth, with their death, bury their parents’ strife 

• Technique: Dramatic irony, foreshadowing
• Characters: Chorus
• Prologue

#24: Give me my Romeo, and when I shall die

Take him and cut him out in little stars,

And he will make the face of heaven so fine

That all the world will be in love with night

• Technique: Celestial imagery, soliloquy
• Characters: Juliet C.
• Act 3, Scene 2

#25: Death is my son-in-law; Death is my heir

• Technique: Dramatic irony, metaphor, anthropomorphism
• Characters: Juliet C.
• Act 4, Scene 5

#26: … I will stay with thee;

And never from this palace of dim night

Depart again…”

• Technique: Dramatic irony, emotive language, grieving tone
• Characters: Romeo M.
• Act 5, Scene 3

#27: The drugs are quick. Thus with a kiss I die. 

• Technique: Symbolism, contrast
• Characters: Romeo M.
• Act 5, Scene 3

Quotes from Friar Lawrence

#28 And flecked darkness like a drunkard reels 

• Technique: Symbolism, figurative language
• Characters: Friar Lawrence
• Act 2, Scene 2

#29: For naught so vile that on Earth doth live

But to Earth some special good doth give;

Nor aught so good but, strained from that fair use,

Revolts from true birth, stumbling on abuse 

• Technique: Soliloquy, antithesis
• Characters: Friar Lawrence
• Act 2, Scene 3

#30: And thou art wedded to calamity 

• Technique: Oxymoron, symbolism
• Characters: Friar Lawrence, Romeo 
• Act 3, Scene 3

#31: Ah, what an unkind hour

Is guilty of this lamentable chance!

• Technique: Anthropomorphism, metaphor, grieving tone
• Characters: Friar Lawrence
• Act 5, Scene 3

Romeo and Juliet Quotes about Conflict

#32: For this alliance may so happy prove

To turn your households’ rancour to pure love 

• Technique: High modality, hopeful tone
• Characters: Friar Lawrence
• Act 2, Scene 3

#33: I am hurt.

A plague o’both houses! I am sped.

Is he gone and hath nothing?

• Technique: Bubonic plague allusion, foreshadowing
• Characters: Mercutio
• Act 3, Scene 1

#34: O serpent heart, hid with a flow’ring face!

Did ever dragon keep so fair a cave?

Beautiful tyrant, fiend angelical!

• Technique: Oxymoron, symbolism, rhetorical question, emphatic verse
• Characters: Juliet C.
• Act 3, Scene 2

#35: O damned saint, an honourable villain!

• Technique: Oxymoron, symbolism, emphatic verse
• Characters: Juliet C.
• Act 3, Scene 2

#36: I dreamt my lady came and found me dead

And breathed such life with kisses in my lips

That I revived and was an emperor 

• Technique: Monologue, symbolism
• Characters: Romeo,
• Act 5, Scene 1

#37: As rich shall Romeo’s by his lady’s lie;

Poor sacrifices of our enmity 

• Technique: Grieving tone
• Characters: Capulet
• Act 5, Scene 3

Romeo and Juliet Quotes about Hate

#38: What, drawn and talk of peace? I hate the word

As I hate hell, all Montagues, and thee.

• Technique: Juxtaposition, characterisation of dramatic foil (Tybalt as a symbol of hate), biblical allusion
• Characters: Tybalt
• Act 1, Scene 1

#39: Why then, O brawling love! O loving hate!

O any thing, of nothing first create!

• Technique: Tricolon, contrast, personification, consonance, paradox
• Characters: Romeo
• Act 1, Scene 1

#40: My only love sprung from my only hate!

Too early seen unknown, and known too late!

• Technique: Dramatic irony, emotive language
• Characters: Juliet C.
• Act 1, Scene 5

#41: Virtue itself turns vice being misapplied

And vice sometime’s by action dignified

• Technique: Consonance, contrast, couplet, iambic pentameter
• Characters: Friar Lawrence
• Act 2, Scene 3

#42: 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.

• Technique: Soliloquy, rhetorical question, repetition 
• Characters: Juliet C. 
• Act 2, Scene 1

Analysis:

The quote highlights the idea of the conflict between love and family loyalty. Juliet is asking Romeo to deny his identity as a Montague and become a member of the Capulet family, so that they can be together without any opposition from their families. She suggests that if he is unwilling to do so, then he should simply swear his love for her, and she will give up her own identity as a Capulet.

The phrase “wherefore art thou Romeo?” is a play on words that asks both “where are you?” and “why are you who you are?” Juliet is longing for a world where their love can exist without being opposed by their family names.

In conclusion, this quote provides insight into Juliet’s character and her love for Romeo. It highlights the theme of the power of love to overcome obstacles and the struggle between love and family loyalty. The play on words in the phrase “wherefore art thou Romeo?” is a clever expression of this theme and a testament to Juliet’s strong feelings for Romeo.

The Dangers of Youth and Rebellion

#43: Alas that love, whose view is muffled still,

Should without eyes see pathways to his will!

• Technique: Personification, symbolism, foreshadowing 
• Characters: Romeo M.
• Act 1, Scene 1

#44: Alack, there lies more peril in thine eye

Than twenty of their swords! Look thou but sweet,

And I am proof against their enmity 

• Technique: Dramatic irony, high modality, confident tone
• Characters: Romeo M.
• Act 1, Scene 5

#45: Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight,

For I ne’er saw true beauty till this night 

• Technique: Rhetorical question, hyperbole, emotive language
• Characters: Romeo M.
• Act 1, Scene 5

#46: When King Cophetua loved the beggar maid.-

He heareth not, he stirreth not, he moveth not.

• Technique: Medieval allusion, metaphor
• Characters: Mercutio (about Romeo M.)
• Act 2, Scene 1

#47: By love, that first did prompt me to inquire.

He lent me counsel, and I lent him eyes. 

• Technique: Personification, emotive language 
• Characters: Romeo M. 
• Act 2, Scene 2

#48: With love’s light wings did I o’er-perch these walls

For stony limits cannot hold love out, 

• Technique: Symbolism, metaphor, religious allusion
• Characters: Romeo M. 
• Act 2, Scene 2

#49: It is too rash, too unadvised, too sudden,

Too like lightning, which doth cease to be

• Technique: Simile, symbolism, soliloquy
• Characters: Juliet C.
• Act 2, Scene 2

#50: Wisely and slow; they stumble that run fast 

• Technique: Foreshadowing, didacticism 
• Characters: Friar Lawrence 
• Act 2, Scene 3

#51: Like powder in a skilless soldier’s flask

• Technique: Simile, metaphor, foreshadowing
• Characters: Friar Lawrence (about Romeo M)
• Act 3, Scene 3

#52: O, bid me leap, rather than marry Paris

From battlements of yonder tower,

Or walk in thievish ways, or bid me lurk

Where serpents are. 

• Technique: Morbid imagery, emotive language 
• Characters: Juliet C.
• Act 4, Scene 1

#53: Where I have learn’d me to repent the sin

Of disobedient opposition

To you and your behest, and am enjoin’d

By holy Laurence to fall prostrate here

And beg your pardon 

• Technique: Dramatic irony, contrast
• Characters: Juliet C. 
• Act 4, Scene 2