Romeo and Juliet Paris Quotes

Immoderately she weeps for Tybalt’s death,
And therefore have I little talk’d of love;
For Venus smiles not in a house of tears.

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 4, Scene 1. Paris is saying that he is having a hard time courting Juliet, because she is preoccupied with crying over Tybalt’s death. The passage contains an allusion to Venus, the goddess of love who doesn’t smile on a grieving family. Little does Paris know that most of Juliet’s tears are for her banished secret husband Romeo – however, the audience does, making this dramatic irony.

Her father counts it dangerous
That she doth give her sorrow so much sway,
And in his wisdom hastes our marriage,
To stop the inundation of her tears;
Which, too much minded by herself alone,
May be put from her by society.

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 4, Scene 1. Paris explains to Friar Laurence why he and Juliet must marry quickly. Her father Lord Capulet sees the marriage as a means of snapping Juliet our of her grief over her cousin Tybalt’s death. This passage is an example of dramatic irony. The audience knows that Juliet’s tears are not for Tybalt, but are the result of her separation from the exiled Romeo whom she has secretly married.

PARIS: Come you to make confession to this father?
JULIET: To answer that, I should confess to you.
PARIS: Do not deny to him that you love me.
JULIET: I will confess to you that I love him.
PARIS: So will ye, I am sure, that you love me.
JULIET: If I do so, it will be of more price,
Being spoke behind your back, than to your face.

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 4, Scene 1. While telling no outright lie, Juliet speaks in double meanings and ambiguous language when she encounters Paris in Friar Laurence’s cell. Paris gets no straight answers from Juliet, expecially on the matter of who it is she loves. She is protecting her secret love for and marriage to Romeo. Paris is led to believe by Juliet and Laurence that she is there to receive confession and leaves after the above exchange – "God shield I should disturb devotion." The reality is that Juliet is not visiting the Friar for confession but to enlist his help in getting out of a marriage to Paris.

Beguiled, divorced, wronged, spited, slain!
Most detestable death, by thee beguil’d,
By cruel cruel thee quite overthrown!
O love! O life! not life, but love in death!

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 4, Scene 5. A distraught Paris looks at what he believes to be Juliet’s corpse on the bed and says that he will love her in death. He angrily reviles and personifies death, protesting that it cruelly tricked Juliet and deprived him of his one love. Unknownst to Paris, Juliet has taken a sleeping potion to avoid marrying him. This entire scene is filled with dramatic irony and also situational irony for the Capulets and Paris, who thought they would be celebrating a wedding and not a funeral.

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.

Stop thy unhallow’d toil, vile Montague!
Can vengeance be pursued further than death?
Condemned villain, I do apprehend thee.

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 5, Scene 3. Paris mistakingly thinks that Romeo is at Juliet and Tybalt’s graves in order to desecrate them. As Romeo has already killed Tybalt, Paris believes that he has "come to do some villanous shame To the dead bodies." Paris questions how anyone could be so evil that they would take revenge on the dead. Here we have one of the many examples of dramatic irony in the play, since the audience knows that Romeo is there to kill himself and join Juliet in death.
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