Romeo and Juliet Flower Quotes

What’s in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet.

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 2, Scene 2. In one of Shakespeare’s most frequently quoted passages, Juliet uses flower imagery to illustrate how absurd it is that two people in love are unable to be together because of their family names. Using the metaphor of a rose for Romeo, she says that if a rose was called another name it would still have the same sweet smell. She is suggesting that no matter what Romeo’s family name is she loves him for who he is. Before these words Juliet says: "What’s Montague? it is nor hand, nor foot, Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part Belonging to a man. O, be some other name!" Juliet is saying that while Romeo may be Montague, his physical body and identity are his own. Her reference to a man’s body parts indicates that she is thinking of Romeo in a sexual way. We also see the theme of appearance vs reality in this passage.

With baleful weeds and precious-juiced flowers.

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 2, Scene 3. The wise Friar Laurence makes his appearance with a soliloquy about the power of herbs and flowers to both heal and poison. He says that he must fill up his basket with poisonous herbs and flowers with precious juices. This is so that he can make up medicines that will help to heal people. The flowers and herbs represent the good and evil in the world, including the love between Romeo and Juliet and the poisonous feud between their warring families. Foreshadowed here are Juliet later drinking a sleeping potion to fake her own death, and Romeo taking poison.

Within the infant rind of this small flower
Poison hath residence and medicine power.

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 2, Scene 3. As Friar Laurence tends to his medicinal herbs, he speaks of the competing powers of good and evil contained within the tiny flowers. They can be used to produce poison or medicine. The plants are a metaphor for human nature. The passage is foreshadowing of the wrong decisions that the lovers Romeo and Juliet make leading to their deaths. This is the poison the friar speaks about. The passage also highlights the theme of appearance vs reality, a flower may appear pretty but if you eat it it can poison you.

MERCUTIO: That’s as much as to say, such a case as yours constrains a man to bow in the hams.
ROMEO: Meaning, to court’sy.
MERCUTIO: Thou hast most kindly hit it.
ROMEO: A most courteous exposition.
MERCUTIO: Nay, I am the very pink of courtesy.
ROMEO: Pink for flower.
MERCUTIO: Right.
ROMEO: Why, then is my pump well flowered.
MERCUTIO: Well said: follow me this jest now till thou hast worn out thy pump, that when the single sole of it is worn, the jest may remain after the wearing sole singular.
ROMEO: O single-soled jest, solely singular for the singleness.

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 2, Scene 4. This scene between Mercutio and Romeo is full of sexual puns and wordplay. Mercutio thinks that his friend has spent a passionate night with Rosaline and doesn’t miss the opportunity to tease him about it. On the surface the two friends may seem to be talking about courteous behavior and shoes decorated with flowers. But "bow in the hams" can suggest the movement of a man during sexual intercourse. "Pink…flower" can be taken as a reference to the female genitalia. And "pump," while meaning shoe, can also refer to the male penis, with "well flowered" meaning that Romeo has deflowered a young woman. Mercutio is a quick-witted character who is not shy about bawdy jokes, and on this occasion Romeo seems to be playing along and entering into the spirit too.

He is not the flower of courtesy, but I’ll warrant him as gentle as a lamb.

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 2, Scene 5. The Nurse has just returned from meeting Romeo and gives her judgement of him. Using a flower metaphor, she tells Juliet that Romeo is not the most polite man in the world. But in a simile she says that he makes up for it by having the gentleness of a lamb. Romeo’s more gentle and romantic side stands in contrast to the roughness and brashness of some of his kinsmen and friends, such as the bawdy Mercutio. The Nurse subsequently gives her approval to the relationship between Romeo and Juliet.

O serpent heart, hid with a flowering face!
Did ever dragon keep so fair a cave?
Beautiful tyrant! fiend angelical!
Dove-feather’d raven! wolvish-ravening lamb!
Despised substance of divinest show!
Just opposite to what thou justly seem’st,
A damned saint, an honourable villain!

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 3, Scene 2. A confused Juliet’s heart turns against Romeo after hearing from the Nurse that he has been banished for killing Tybalt – "Tybalt is gone, and Romeo banished; Romeo that kill’d him, he is banished." In a metaphor, Juliet laments that Romeo’s beautiful "flowering face" could conceal such a "serpent heart." She follows up with more vivid metaphors and oxymorons, to express her shock that Romeo could appear so saintly and yet be such a villain. She uses wonderful imagery depicting the contradictory nature of human behavior, how a beautiful appearance can conceal the monster inside.

The roses in thy lips and cheeks shall fade
To paly ashes, thy eyes’ windows fall,
Like death, when he shuts up the day of life.

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 4, Scene 1. The theme of appearance vs reality and symbol of poison are contained in this speech by Friar Laurence to Juliet. He is explaining the death-like state that will be induced when she drinks the Friar’s potion. Metaphors compare lips to roses, and cheeks to ashes. In a simile falling eyelids are likened to death. Death is also personified when "he shuts up" life.

Ha! let me see her: out, alas! she’s cold:
Her blood is settled, and her joints are stiff;
Life and these lips have long been separated:
Death lies on her like an untimely frost
Upon the sweetest flower of all the field.

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 4, Scene 5. Capulet is in disbelief that Juliet is dead. He uses a simile to compare her death to that of a beautiful flower killed by an early frost. Capulet’s language about his daughter has changed considerably since Act 3, Scene 5, when he angrily labeled her a "disobedient wrench!" Now to Capulet Juliet is metaphorically the most beautiful flower in the field. The passage is an example of dramatic irony since the audience knows that Juliet is not dead, but sleeping.

O son! the night before thy wedding-day
Hath Death lain with thy wife. There she lies,
Flower as she was, deflowered by him.

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 4, Scene 5. On discovering Juliet apparently dead in her bed, Capulet imagines "Death" as someone who stole into his daughter’s room on the night before her wedding and "deflowered" her. Juliet is metaphorically likened to a flower, while death is personified and given human attributes. While Capulet’s sexual imagery seems inappropriate, it actually foreshadows what will happen to Juliet when death finally sleeps with her. Capulet’s words are also ironic, since he is not aware that Juliet has already lost her virginity to Romeo after she secretly married him. This scene is very much concerned with the theme of appearance vs reality, Juliet’s family being unaware that she has taken a sleeping portion to fake her death to avoid marrying Paris.

Sweet flower, with flowers thy bridal bed I strew, –
O woe! thy canopy is dust and stones; –
Which with sweet water nightly I will dew,
Or, wanting that, with tears distill’d by moans.

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 5, Scene 3. Paris visits the Capulet tomb where Juliet is lying, presumed dead, and he uses metaphors to compare his bride-to-be Juliet to a "Sweet flower" and her grave to a "bridal bed." He places flowers on her grave and promises to sprinkle water and tears on it each night. While Juliet appears to be dead, appearances are deceiving. Juliet faked her death to avoid her father’s arranged marriage to Paris. Paris believes she is dead, but the audience is aware that she is not, an example of dramatic irony. The quote also demonstrates Paris’s love for Juliet.
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