Romeo and Juliet Quotes

Sir Paris, I will make a desperate tender
Of my child’s love: I think she will be ruled
In all respects by me; nay, more, I doubt it not.

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 3, Scene 4. Lord Capulet, addressing his chosen son-in-law Paris, speaks about daughter Juliet as if she were a hired servant. Obviously used to people doing what he says, he is convinced that she will do what he bids and marry Paris. There is dramatic irony here, since the audience knows that Juliet is already married to Romeo and cannot marry Paris.

Wilt thou be gone? it is not yet near day:
It was the nightingale, and not the lark,
That pierced the fearful hollow of thine ear.

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 3, Scene 5. After their night of love, Romeo prepares to leave Juliet’s room just before dawn. In the scene’s opening words Juliet tries to convince Romeo that he didn’t hear the lark but the nightingale. She doesn’t want him to leave and is trying to persuade him to stay a little longer. The lark is the herald of the morning, signaling Romeo must go, while the nightingale is the bird of night. Romeo has been banished from Verona over killing Tybalt and is fearful of being caught in the city. Their love is only safe under the cloak of darkness and the couple are fearful of the coming day. In the passage Juliet gives human qualities to the hollow of an ear, a good example of personification.

Look, love, what envious streaks
Do lace the severing clouds in yonder east:
Night’s candles are burnt out, and jocund day
Stands tiptoe on the misty mountain-tops.
I must be gone and live, or stay and die.

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 3, Scene 5. A beautiful dream mood is created here, but also an ominous and foreboding one. The banished Romeo is preparing to leave his young wife Juliet after a night of passion. A dream mood is created in lines two and three, as day is personified as "jocund" with the ability to stand "tiptoe," while "night’s candles" is a metaphorical representation for the stars and moon. But the happy mood is shattered by the first and last lines, which speak of envy and dying, foreshadowing the death of Romeo later in the play.

Yon light is not day-light, I know it, I:
It is some meteor that the sun exhales,
To be to thee this night a torch-bearer,
And light thee on thy way to Mantua.

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 3, Scene 5. After Romeo cautions that daylight is coming and he must be on his way, Juliet’s response is full of powerful light and dark imagery. The lovers are bidding goodbye to one another after their wedding night. Juliet comes up with the fanciful idea that the light is not daylight, but the sun exhaling a meteor to light Romeo’s way to Mantua, where he must go into exile. She personifies the word meteor as the bearer of a torch to guide him through the dark night. Her deep love and longing for Romeo shines through, as she find it hard to part with her new husband.

Let me be ta’en, let me be put to death;
I am content, so thou wilt have it so.
…I have more care to stay than will to go:
Come, death, and welcome! Juliet wills it so.
How is ‘t, my soul? let’s talk; it is not day.

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 3, Scene 5. As Romeo and Juliet face their moment of final separation following their wedding night, Romeo offers to stay with his beloved Juliet and die. They are both aware that the Prince has banished him from Verona and to be caught there is a death sentence. There is dramatic irony and foreshadowing in Romeo’s words, since the audience is aware that both of them will tragically die later in the play.

JULIET: O God, I have an ill-divining soul!
Methinks I see thee, now thou art below,
As one dead in the bottom of a tomb.
Either my eyesight fails, or thou look’st pale.
ROMEO: And trust me, love, in my eye so do you:
Dry sorrow drinks our blood.

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 3, Scene 5. In their final scene together alive, Juliet foresees a tragic fate for Romeo, as she has a vision of him lying dead in a tomb. She reveals her sense of foreboding as Romeo departs and descends the ladder from her balcony. This is foreshadowing of how Romeo will visit Juliet’s tomb after she takes a potion that makes her appear dead and poisons himself. The heavy foreshadowing and dramatic tension are further heightened when they comment on how pale they both look, with Romeo personifying sorrow as having the human ability to drink their blood. The young lovers are both trapped by their tragic fates.

O fortune, fortune! all men call thee fickle:
If thou art fickle, what dost thou with him.
That is renown’d for faith? Be fickle, fortune;
For then, I hope, thou wilt not keep him long,
But send him back.

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 3, Scene 5. As Juliet says goodbye to her new husband Romeo after the lovers’ one and only night together, she appeals to fortune to send Romeo back to her. It is the last time they see each other alive. Fortune is personified here in this passage highlighting the theme of fate vs free will.

Indeed, I never shall be satisfied
With Romeo, till I behold him – dead –
Is my poor heart for a kinsman vex’d.

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 3, Scene 5. Juliet uses verbal irony here in speaking to Lady Capulet. Not wishing to lie to her mother, she appears to be saying that she wants to see Romeo dead. But if you examine the punctuation, what she is actually saying is that she will never be satisfied until she sees Romeo again, and her heart is dead over Tybalt’s death.

Well, well, thou hast a careful father, child;
One who, to put thee from thy heaviness,
Hath sorted out a sudden day of joy,
That thou expect’st not nor I look’d not for.

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 3, Scene 5. Lady Capulet tells Juliet that her "careful" father has arranged a "day of joy" that will get her out of her depression. Lady Capulet is being unintentionally ironic and out of touch with reality regarding her daughter’s real feelings. The wedding to Paris planned by her not-so-careful father will bring misery and not "joy" to his daughter. Unknownst to her parents Juliet is already secretly married to Romeo and loves only him.

Marry, my child, early next Thursday morn,
The gallant, young and noble gentleman,
The County Paris, at Saint Peter’s Church,
Shall happily make thee there a joyful bride.

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 3, Scene 5. Lady Capulet announces to her daughter Juliet that Lord Capulet has arranged for her to marry Paris on the following Thursday. Her words that Juliet will be a "joyful bride" are ironic, although that is not her intention. The theme of appearance vs reality is also illustrated here. Lady Capulet is not aware that Juliet is already married to Romeo and being Paris’s bride would be anything but joyful for her.

He shall not make me there a joyful bride.
I wonder at this haste; that I must wed
Ere he, that should be husband, comes to woo.
I pray you, tell my lord and father, madam,
I will not marry yet; and, when I do, I swear,
It shall be Romeo, whom you know I hate,
Rather than Paris.

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 3, Scene 5. Juliet reveals her love for Romeo in this speech to Lady Capulet. She says that she will not marry Paris and would rather marry Romeo, the man from the hated Montague family who killed her cousin. She is being ironic when she tells her mother that Romeo is the man "whom you know I hate," since she strongly does not hate Romeo and has secretly married him. Juliet’s mother thinks what she is saying is that she so dislikes her parents’ plan for her to marry Paris she would rather marry Romeo. Lady Capulet is not aware that she has actually married him. The double meaning in Juliet’s words emphasizes the theme of appearance vs reality, a theme found throughout the play.

In one little body
Thou counterfeit’st a bark, a sea, a wind;
For still thy eyes, which I may call the sea,
Do ebb and flow with tears; the bark thy body is,
Sailing in this salt flood; the winds, thy sighs;
Who, raging with thy tears, and they with them,
Without a sudden calm, will overset
Thy tempest-tossed body.

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 3, Scene 5. When Capulet finds his daughter Juliet weeping he mistakingly thinks that she is mourning Tybalt’s death and appears to be sympathetic. Using an extended and elaborate metaphor, he compares her body to a ship on a storm-tossed sea, her eyes to a sea flowing with tears, and her sighs to the raging winds. What Juliet’s father doesn’t realize is that she is weeping over Romeo being banished from Verona after she secretly married him.

Thank me no thankings, nor, proud me no prouds,
But fettle your fine joints ‘gainst Thursday next,
To go with Paris to Saint Peter’s Church,
Or I will drag thee on a hurdle thither.
Out, you green-sickness carrion! out, you baggage!
You tallow-face!

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 3, Scene 5. An impatient Capulet shows his disgust and anger at his daughter Juliet for her refusal to marry Paris. Hurling insults, he uses an unpleasant metaphor comparing his teenage daughter to a rotting carcass. He threatens to drag her to church to get married.

Hang thee, young baggage! disobedient wretch!
I tell thee what: get thee to church o’ Thursday,
Or never after look me in the face:
Speak not, reply not, do not answer me;
My fingers itch.

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 3, Scene 5. Capulet directs vicious insults at Juliet after she refuses to marry Paris, a match that he has arranged for her. He believes that her refusal displays a lack of appreciation and gratitude towards him. Verbally abusive, he threatens to disown her if she disobeys him. He becomes so angry that he wants to hit her – "My fingers itch."
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